Formatting Your Brief Essays in Reading & Composition

Today in class we talked briefly about this. The first class received a quick run-through, but the second class didn't get much guidance.

For the short essays, we are not using MLA double-spaced format, which looks like this:

_________________________________________

EXAMPLE A

________________________________________________________________

We're going to use something that looks a little bit more like a magazine layout. Here is the same text formatted in the preferred manner:

___________________________________________

EXAMPLE B

_____________________________________________________________________

Here are the simple steps to take your essay from Example A to Example B.

1) Select (highlight) your entire text 

2) Change double-space to single-space

3) Select "Two columns" (often in the Layout or Insert menu)

4) Insert an image in the top left corner of the first column. This image can be your own art or photography or something appropriated from a popular culture site or meme. The image should be connected in some way to your piece of writing
5) Underneath the image, type the title of your essay in bold face

6) Write your name under the title, and the date under your name

Hints and Ideas:

Use a single font for all text, including the title. I prefer a serifed font like Garamond or Times New Roman, but you might prefer a sans-serif font like Helvetica or Arial. You can either skip a line between paragraphs, or you can indent the first line of a new paragraph (no skipped line if you use indentation). 

If you can get your whole essay on one side of this two-column document, that's great. If you have a lot to say, try shrinking the font down to 10 pt. If you need to go to a second page, that's perfectly fine.  I kind of think that 11pt or 12 pt is best. If you go above 12pt. your writing will start to look like a children's book or a text for someone with bad eyesight. 

I do understand that these directions might be confusing. Your grade for Thursday's essay will not suffer if you don't get it right. We can always make edits later. 

Send questions to me at csmith@dcad.edu.  THANKS!  -- Casey