Setting Up the Paper

• Use one inch margins on all sides of the page.
  


• Put your name, the teacher’s name, the course title, and the date on separate lines against the left margin. Center the title. (Don’t underline your own title.) A title page is not necessary unless a teacher specifically requires it.
  
  Jacqueline Jones
  US History
  Ms. Sullivan
  January 12, 2002
     
  


• Put a page number in the upper right corner of the paper, a half inch below the top edge. The first page does not require a page number. It’s good to get into the habit of preceding the page number with your last name, e.g. Jones 5.
  


• Double-space the paper. Indent the first line of each new paragraph one tab (5 spaces).
  


• Do not use script  (script) fonts or bold (bold) fonts.
  


• Do use 12-point serif fonts. They are much easier to read.
  This is a serif font. (Times New Roman, Garamond, Bookman, etc.)
  This is not a serif font. (Ariel, Helvetica, Verdana, etc.)
  


• Use parenthetical documentation -- usually the author’s last name and a page number -- to indicate the specific information that you have borrowed from a source.
  


• Quotations that exceed four lines should be set off from the text by indenting each line of the quotation two tabs (10 spaces) from the left margin. Double-space the quotation. An indented quotation does not require quotation marks. Follow the last word of the quotation with parenthetical documentation.
  


• The Works Cited page is the last numbered page of the paper.