The Most Commonly Used Essay Formats
Following Correct Essay Formats Enhance the Essay Image
Essays are a part of a student’s everyday academic life. An essay is an excellent way to improve you researching skills and writing abilities. The objectives behind essay assignments are many folds. It aims to evaluate the student’s depth of knowledge in the subject, the researching skills, analysis skills and obviously the writing skills. Although there are many types of essays, ranging from analytical essays to design essays, all these must adhere to few basic essay formats. The quality of an academic essay is seriously undermined unless it conforms to the prescribed essay format.
The MLA Format (Modern Language Association)
MLA essay format is the most commonly used format. The text should be double spaced in this format and only approximately 250 words can be typed. The main difference here is that the writer’s name is followed by the page number. The first letter of each word of the title should be capitalized and the reference and citations will be on a separate page. The font style is Times New Roman in size 12. MLA format does not require a separate title page unless specifically stated. Therefore state your name, the course module, the tutor’s name and date in the upper left-hand corner of the first page. Double space and center the title which should be in title case and no underlining is required. Coursework such as sociology coursework or psychology coursework is written in this format. When citing titles of long works, you may use either italics or underlining consistently through the whole paper.
The APA Format (American Psychological Association)
This format is commonly used for research papers. APA essay format’s main point of differentiation from the MLA format is that the heading will consist of 2 to 3 words of the title and the page number will appear after five spaces. This is referred as the page header. Within the title page the title is stated as “Running head: XXXXXXXXXXXXX” There are four parts to this format, which is, the title page, abstract, body and reference. After the title, author’s name should appear as first name, middle initial(s), and last name. This is followed by the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the place in which the research was undertaken. All sides of the paper should have 1” margins and the font which is used will be Times Roman with a font size of 10 to 12. Reference line includes the usual details as author, publication name, year, edition, publisher and publishing location. The second line of reference entry is typed as a hanging indent with a tab space from the left margin.
Harvard Style
This format is also referred to as Author/date system. All material you are citing must comply with proper essay referencing in this system. If the date of a particular publication is not clear the letters “ca” are followed by an approximate of the date. If it is not possible to give a date “n.d” is written for no date. The font used for this format is the same as MLA and APA. The in-text citation contains the author’s name and the date of publication. The reference list is titled as ‘References’ and arranged alphabetically as per author’s surname. All sources are included in a single list, immaterial of whether books, journals or electronic sources. The entry includes full reference details as author’s name, date, title, and the publishing details. This format is the most recommended for writing business essays, marketing assignments and economic papers.
Chicago Format
This style presents two options for bibliographic information. These are the humanities style used for literature, history and art and author date system used in the social sciences and physical sciences. The humanities style is useful for art, literature or drama coursework papers and reference details are included in a notes section and a bibliography. Font type for this format is Times New Roman size 12. The reference entry is double spaced and second line is typed with a hanging indent. The
Just as writing a good essay, essay format is also an essential part of essay writing. It is vital that you seek your tutor’s advice before you write your essay if you are unsure about which format you should adhere to. A well written essay has more effect and a professional image if it is presented as per these established and recognized formatting systems.
If all these formats sound too confusing for you, visit customessays.com for sample essays written according to various formats by their professional essay writers. They are one of the pioneers in the writing assistance field and offer a wide variety of writing services to their clients.
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Tags: APA Essay, Business essay, Drama Coursework, Essay Format, Essay Reference, MLA Essay
