Essay Writing Help: Format And Presentation Count

One of the sad aspects of essay marking occurs when a student writes a brilliant essay, answers the question being asked, sticks to the topic rigidly and presents an evidence-based argument in favour of their thesis, but still gets a less than perfect score because they fall down on the format and presentation. The crazy thing about this is that it is so easy to get the format and the presentation right.

What is really important here is to ask your teacher for precise instructions. They may be given to you anyway and in writing so there is no excuse for you to not know how the essay should be presented. The college you attend may have on its website a description of how particular essays are expected to be formatted. Follow the rules and if you're not sure, ask.

Basic formatting

This can include such things as the typeface and the size of the font. Simple things like the line spacing which usually is 1.5. Then do you have a space between paragraphs? What happens about indentations at the beginning of a paragraph? What about subheadings or section headings? Are these indented and made bold? All of these things are important and while you may think that the most important thing is to research and write well, think of the person who has to read these hundreds of essays. They need them to be in a set format so they can forget about indentation and fonts and concentrate on the quality of the writing.

Title page is very important

This says everything about you and your essay. It's your ID. It makes the task of the person reading the essay so much easier. Don't omit anything. You may be required to place your name, your student number, your tutor, his or her name and even your department's name and obviously the title of the essay. Take your time in getting this just right.

Then we come to the body or content of your essay - not the actual writing but the structure of the content. The usual structure is introduction, first and second fact paragraphs and conclusion. Follow this formula exactly. This enables your tutor to read with ease and appreciate the quality of your writing. By all means spend a great deal of time in researching, planning and writing your essay but do not neglect the formatting.