Many instructors will accept neatly-printed papers from those without a typewriter or word processor. Whether typed or handwritten, your paper should respect certain conventions unless your instructor gives specific guidelines on format. If your instructors tell you to “follow a standard format” for your paper, this is what they expect:

Title Page

The first page of your paper. Includes the title, your name, the date, and the course for which the paper was prepared.

Endnotes, References, or Works Cited, Bibilography

These should always be listed on separate pages at the end of your paper.

Typing Conventions

Your pages should be typed double-spaced with 1" margins. A typical typewritten page, 12 point font, contains about 200-250 words. Instructors who give page length assignments (for example, “Write a 5-7 page paper.”) will be neither fooled nor pleased by 5-7 pages of huge type surrounded by 2-½" margins.

Do not type your paper in all capital letters. Demonstrating correct punctuation and capitalization is a requirement in many classes, and ALL-CAPITALS writing should be reserved for headlines and various special uses.

Repeat the title of your paper on the first page of text and number all subsequent pages.

Proofread your paper. Print a clean copy if using a word processor, or if not, neatly correct your spelling and typographical errors.

Typing Footnote and Endnote Numbers in the Text

If you use footnotes or endnotes instead of in-text citations, the quotations and ideas you borrow will be identified by “superscript numbers.” Note numbers always follow the word, phrase, sentence, or idea you're quoting. They appear in superscript, ½ space above the typewritten line.

This illustrates a superscript note number.¹

To mark superscripts with a typewriter, simply turn the carriage back half a line.

Here is a typewritten superscript note number.¹

Italics and Underlining

Italic letters are used to identify the titles of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers, along with certain foreign phrases and abbreviations. If your typewriter or computer lacks italics, underline any titles, words, or phrases which normally would appear in italics.

For example, the book Habits of the Heart would be typed Habits of the Heart.

¹ Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page preceded
       by a short line to separate them from the body of
       the text. They are frequently printed in a typeface        smaller than the body of the text.