Formatting the Essay

Spacing

The next thing you’ll want to do is get your spacing right. Spacing refers to the amount of space there is between lines of text. You’ve likely noticed different sizes of spacing across different styles of writing you’ve read. For example, most books are published with very little space in between the lines of text:

This is an image of the first two paragraphs of the first chapter of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

This is because the formatting rules of novel-writing call for “single-spaced” text.

Academic writing, on the other hand, is different. The formatting rules for this style of writing calls for “double-spaced” text (as shown in the image below). To adjust the space settings on your own Word document, highlight the text and then follow these steps:

This is an image on how to format the body paragraphs of your paper on Microsoft Word. Step 1: Click on 'Home'. Step 2: Click on dropdown and select'2.0' for line spacing. This will make it double-spaced.

Step 1: Click on the “Home” tab at the top left of your screen
Step 2: Click on the “spacing” icon and select “2.0” from the dropdown menu