The Most Commonly Used Essay Formats
Sunday, September 20th, 2009Essays 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.


