Dr. King’s “House Style” Guidelines

1. Save the document with a title that clearly identifies the work: e.g., lastname.assignmenttitle.month.year (or something similar) e.g., (king.formattingguidelines.7.21.docx). (You should name your files so that you can identify them months or years later without opening them.)

2. Last name and page # in upper-right corner (e.g., King 4). Put it in the header.

3. Four-line heading, left justified, double-spaced (upper left corner): Your name, Dr. King, ENGL 3300/2301/1301 (whichever course you’re in), Due Date (e.g., 4 Apr 2019). Do NOT put this four-line heading in the header. It should appear on the first page only. This is exactly like MLA style.

4. 1” Margins (usually the default)

5. 11 point font (Arial, Cambria, Calibri, Times New Roman, Georgia, or something equivalent)

6. Title should be centered, last name/page # should be in upper right. Everything else should be left-aligned, (not justified/blocked) (Also, about titles, see #7)

7. Put shorter titles (articles, speeches, poems, short stories) in quotation marks. Use italics for longer works (e.g., books, films)

8. Title should efficiently communicate the assignment’s/essay’s topic and main idea. Capitalize all important words.

? Ex. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: A Case Study in Pathos ? Ex. Taking the Reins Back: Macbeth’s (Re)Assertion of Dominance in Act III, Scene II ? Your title should 1) indicate your basic topic; 2) hint at the direction you take that topic, i.e.,

foreshadow your thesis or main idea; 3) Be clever if possible.

9. Include an 5-7 sentence abstract, or summary, at the beginning of your essay. This abstract should appear after the title, but before the first paragraph. In the abstract, you should tell readers what your essay does: What is the main idea or thesis? What are the supporting points you develop? What do you look at in the essay? etc. It’s often a good idea to start the abstract with “This essay argues . . .In the opening of this essay, I try to . . . IN the next section of this essay, my goal was to . . . etc.” (Your abstract should be the last thing you write. You should go back through your essay to see what your main ideas ended up being and then make the abstract reflect what the essay actually does.) The abstract should be labeled with a subheading (“Abstract”), single spaced, italicized, and left-aligned (not centered) throughout.

Abstracts are common in published academic writing. See examples of abstracts here and here.

The abstract does not count toward your word count minimum. So, for example, if I ask for 1000 words, you must produce 1000 words AFTER the abstract.

10. Double-space the essay part

https://practicaltypography.com/justified-text.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/158