Outlining is a form of organization which is used among authors of all writing styles. The common organizational method allows writers to list all of their research and ideas in one place before the writing process starts. Understanding the general college essay outline can go a long way in getting your thoughts structured, as well as positive feedback from your professor. Take a look at this guide to learn how to write an outline.
Regardless of whether you’re writing an MLA or APA outline, the organizational process remains the same with some minor differences. The main difference being APA uses abstracts, as it requires one or two sentences per line. APA is used for humanities, as MLA is used more for social studies. Other than that, the simple outline remains the same for any kind of academic paper structure.
The most common college essay is 5 paragraphs. Thus, an easy way to remember the general format of a writing plan is to think of it as planning a 5 paragraph essay outline where students would write an Introduction, Thesis, Body, and Conclusion. Then, fit a total of 5 paragraphs within the basic structure. The same practice can be done with planning, except rather than paragraphs, it’s notes. The exact same method would apply to an argumentative essay outline and any other kind of paper structure throughout and beyond college.
An essay outline is one of the main planning methods when it comes to writing academic papers, scholarly articles, informative guides, novels, and encyclopedias. The everyday paper outline contains the headings: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. Every source is organized by relevance to strengthen the writing process. There are various formats when it comes to outlining, but the main formats required for a college essay outline is MLA and APA.
What Is an Outline?
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- The pages must have 1-inch margins.
- The text should be double spaced with 12-point font usually Times New Roman including quotations and notes.
- Different paragraphs must be separated with half an inch.
- The first page (the header) is slightly different from the rest of the paper.
- The name of the student is placed in the upper left corner.
- Below there is the instructor/professor’s name, followed by the name of the specific course and the date.
- The title of the MLA essay is located on top and centered. A separate title page is not required.
- The page numbers are placed on top, in the upper right hand side.
- An outline is optional.
MLA is a type of research essay that is usually written in colleges. MLA stands for Modern Language Association and has strict rules not only for the context, but also for the technical organization of the essay.
The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay. In it you introduce to the audience the topic you are going to write about. The tone and the thesis given in the introduction should set the context of the whole essay. You should explain to the audience why you are going to write on that specific thesis, what makes it interesting for you and what is your overall opinion and attitude on it. The length of the introductory paragraph will depend on your instructor’s notes. Usually the last sentence in the introduction is the thesis of the essay. It is precisely the thesis that you have to support through the whole essay.
The technical requirements for writing an MLA essay format are the following:
Introduction of MLA essay
The body of the MLA essay consists of transition, topic sentence, evidence and brief summary of everything written in the body so far. In order to write a good essay you should research the thesis well and draft your essay in advance. You can use quotes to support your thesis and when you use quotes in the MLA essay format do follow the rules for proper quotation. Use transition between paragraphs in order for the essay to sound organized and well written.
Writing an essay in MLA format is similar to writing any other type of essay. The basic structure of the MLA essay is: introduction, body of the essay and conclusion.
In its essence the MLA essay is just like any other research paper. So follow the rules you already know, research the thesis thoroughly, make the draft and start writing.
MLA style references a bibliography as a works cited page. When typing up your works cited page there are a few things that you should do.
If you are preparing an essay or research paper for college, the chances are high that you are going to need a few tips on writing an essay in MLA style. More often than not, when you get to the college level, there are two formatting styles that professors are looking for: APA (American Psychological Association) style or MLA (Modern Language Association) style. The differences are varied.
MLA 8 uses a new method to create citation entries. This container system allows flexibility by creating nine core elements within a container. Use this basic works cited format:
MLA style is commonly used in many colleges throughout the U.S., so learning the style and tips on writing in MLA style will serve you well throughout your college education.
General Formatting
- Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
Let’s say that you used books only as your sources of information. You will want to list the sources in alphabetical order by the authors' last name. For example, if you had two sources you would list them as follows:
If you’re including sources with no known author, place the title as the first element and alphabetize accordingly.
While writing an essay, the title page is provided only upon the professor’s request. In the upper-left corner of the paper, the first line would be the ‘full name of the student’. Immediately below the name of the student would be the name of the professor. The third line would be the title of the course being pursued by the student. The last line would be the date of submission. To summarize, following is the sequence:
MLA (Modern Language Association) format is a widely used referencing format for the Humanities discipline. In comparison to other referencing formats, MLA is a simpler and a more concise style. The set of guidelines on how to write an essay in MLA format will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
The title of the paper should be at the centre of the page and it should be double spaced between the date and title. It shouldn’t be underlined, made bold, italicized, and put in quotes. It should be put as the titles provided in books for example, “The Great Gatsby”.
In MLA format, the paper margin is well-defined and should be one inch (1’’) on all four sides – top, bottom, left and right. The essay should be double spaced throughout the document (before and after the title, between the paragraphs including the heading).
Header and Footer
- Name of the student
- Professor’s name
- Course name
- Date of Submission
The first line of each paragraph is indented. This allows the reader to quickly see where a new paragraph is starting.
Works cited page or Bibliography follows similar format as mentioned earlier - one-inch margins, last name and page number in the header. The first line of all citations should be at the left-corner and the next line should be indented to ½. The basic format of the Works cited page is given as follows:
correctional facility firms has grown to 14 (Austin and Coventry 3). The privatization of prisons occurs in two ways. First, state government can contract out (or outsource) specific services in a correctional facility to a private company after a bidding process. Second, and more radically, private companies build their own privately-managed prisons and contract with state governments to house their inmates. This latter approach, giving private correctional facility firms wide latitude over inmates, is taken in the Texas criminal justice system. In fact, many of these privately operated facilities “have no relationship at all with the state governments in these states, other than an obligation to pay corporate income taxes” (McDonald and Patten Jr. v).
Since we’re here to learn how to format an essay, we’ve pointed out some important things about the paper to help you write a correctly formatted essay.
The abbreviated MLA paper below (linked here without annotations) is about J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how the author used myth, story, and song to link all of his works together. Tolkien is famous for creating a fantasy universe called Middle-earth, which readers can’t truly understand until they read all of the books about Middle-earth (The Silmarillian, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings).
The MLA header should be one inch from the top and left margins. The heading and the entire paper should be double spaced.
Visual Sample Paper
If you’ve been wondering how to produce a research paper that is strong in both formatting and writing, you’ve come to the right place.
Whether you need MLA, APA citations, or Chicago style notes, look up the latest edition before turning in a paper.
The privatization of governmental services has increased dramatically in the past decade as local, state, and federal agencies have searched for ways to cut costs while still meeting their mandated responsibility to provide various public services. This privatizing trend has particularly affected the criminal justice system. Since the early 1990s, privatized correctional facilities have increased significantly, nationally and statewide. This policy has far-ranging consequences not only within the criminal justice system, but as an instructive example for government officials when considering the costs and benefits of privatization as a public policy option. By 2001, thirty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had privately-operated correctional facilities (Austin and Coventry 4). This movement has incited considerable debate and controversy, mainly because prison privatization calls for giving the private sector direct control over the lives of a captive human population.
For starters, the essay is in MLA format. That means it follows the style manual of the Modern Language Association, which tells you how to format the paper itself and every source you cite. You’ll also see notes like how long a paragraph should be, how to use commas properly, and how to correctly punctuate a title.