Formatting the Essay

Heading

Another part of formatting most academic papers have is what’s known as a “Heading.” The purpose of the heading is to share identifying information about you, the author of this piece of writing, to your audience. The audience for most academic pieces of writing happens to be a specific person, instructor, teacher, or professor, so the information you are asked to include within it generally appeals to that audience. The four lines of information every heading should contain are:

• Author’s name (your name)
• Author’s instructor (the person who gave you this assignment)
• Author’s course (the course this assignment was given in)
• Due date (the date the assignment is due to be turned in)

To get an idea of the overall look and setup instruction for this important part of the formatting process, review the steps in the image below:

• Step 1: Click on the “Home” tab at the top left of your screen
• Step 2: Click on the “left justified” icon