General Tips For Creating A Compare And Contrast Essay In The MLA Format

MLA formatting style is very specific. Beyond the guidelines for writing a Compare and Contrast essay, the formatting style will affect your presentation other than the content. Failure to follow this style consistently attracts hefty penalties and will affect your performance. Here are tips to revise your essay & ensure that it meets the highest expected standards.

Document Setting

The entire document should be produced with 1 inch margin throughout. This requirement can be fulfilled by altering your default word processor settings. This ensures that the entire document maintains this formatting style. The whole document should also be double spaced. Do not include extra spaces between paragraphs. The recommended font is Times New Romans which should be twelve points.

Page Header

All pages should be numbered consecutively and placed in the upper right hand corner. They should be flushed with the right margin and be half an inch from the top. Some instructors may require the numbers to be omitted from the first page. Follow the demands by your instructor in such a case. The details to be included in the header are your last name and page number.

Citations

Cited works with long titles are denoted using italics. Italics can also be used to emphasize a point when it is absolutely necessary. If your work needs end notes, they should be included on a separate page after that of Works Cited. When citing a website, indicate the title of the article and the date of access. Inform the reader that the citation is from a website by including the word ‘web’ in your citation. Ensure that the citations are detailed and informative. It should be easier for any reader to track the source including the volume, year of publication, author and title of the book.

Formatting

Unless your instructor demands a title page, it is not necessary. In case your essay is divided into sections, they should be labeled using Arabic numbers that is followed by a period. The headings should be grammatically similar in that, they are either short or long. In case you use multiple level layering, include these details on the table of content to direct the reader.

MLA formatting style is very specific when citing books, journals, websites and other sources. You must provide all details necessary to guide the reader to your information source. The format should be used consistently throughout the essay.