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A perfect cover page is an essential part of an essay's presentation. It can make a great first impression on your instructor and set the tone for your essay. First, to write a cover page, understand your assignment's formatting requirements. This includes the required format for the cover page, which may vary depending on your instructor's or institution's guide.
Once you have this information, you can create a title page that looks professional. It should include the title of your essay, your name, the course title, and other pertinent details. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to make a cover page for an essay.
This article will show the following:
- We’ll describe how a good cover page should look.
- In the article, we offer you examples of different formats of a cover page, including MLA, APA, and more.
- You’ll know the measurements you require to position some cover page aspects.
What Does a Paper Cover Page Look Like?
Creating a cover page for an essay in grade school was simple - add your name and date, and it's done. However, structuring an essay and following grammar rules in university involves multiple steps that may be unfamiliar to you. But knowing how to format an essay can make the process easier. However, it can be overwhelming to determine the appropriate structure and ensure that your essay adheres to grammatical rules.
A well-designed cover page is crucial for an essay's presentation; many students wonder how to make one. Therefore, we have compiled a guide on creating a title page for the most commonly used citation formats you may come across.
A cover page is a separate page at the beginning of your academic essay. It contains the title and author's name and may also feature details like page number, course name, instructor name, and more. Remember that it's essential to format your page consistently with the rest of your essay.
Use these tips when writing your cover page:
- Keep every margin at 1 inch;
- Select a font that's easy to read. We'd recommend Times New Roman and Arial for this;
- Always keep the font size at 12;
- Use double-line spacing.
MLA Style Cover Page
The MLA cover page has a vague format for essay pages. Instead, formatting guidelines are based on your teacher's preferences and standard MLA (Modern Language Association) text formatting. You can follow some best practices to create an MLA essay cover that looks professional. A typical sample MLA cover centers essay titles about one-third of the page's length. You can also use italics or bold lettering to emphasize important words or phrases.
In our sample MLA format cover, including the necessary MLA heading in the top-left corner is crucial. Follow this guide for proper writing of the cover page template:
- Your name;
- Instructor's name;
- Course;
- Date;
- Page number half an inch away from the top;
- Your name is an inch away from the top;
- The arrangement of the details is an inch away from the leftmost side of the sheet while ensuring it's double-spaced throughout;
- A half-inch indent in the first paragraph.
APA Style Cover Page Format
The APA citation format is widely used in the academic and business worlds but has some challenging aspects. For this reason, many busy students order cheap essays to avoid dealing with the nuances of APA essay cover. For your APA cover page, keep your essay's title brief, under 12 words, and center it. Below the title, include your first, middle, initial, and last names without academic credentials like a PhD. On the following line, indicate your research location, usually your university. Below are the properties of the APA cover page format:
- The title of the paper, centered at the top of the page.
- Your name (student's name), centered below the title.
- The institutional affiliation (college or university name), centered below your name.
- Course name and number.
- You professors’/instructor’s name.
- Optionally, you can include a running head aligned to the left margin (with the words "Running head:" followed by a shortened version of the title).
- Finally, include a page number in the top-right corner.
Chicago Style Cover Page Format
The Chicago page format, commonly called Chicago style paper, is a popular citation format used in the humanities department. The Chicago cover page format typically includes the following:
- The title of your essay centered on the page and in the title case (i.e., the first letter of each major word is capitalized);
- Your name is centered below the title;
- The course title is centered below your name;
- The instructor's name is centered below the course title;
- The due date is centered below the instructor's name.
The page may also include a shortened title at the top and a page number in the header of each subsequent page. It's essential to follow the specific structuring requirements set by your instructor or institution when creating your Chicago-style cover page. The Chicago and Turabian styles are similar in the following ways:
- Both styles typically place the title of the paper one-third to halfway down the cover page, centered horizontally;
- The title is usually in title case; the major words are capitalized;
- The author’s name is listed below the title and centered horizontally;
- The name of the institution with which the author is affiliated is often placed below the author’s name on the page;
- Both styles generally don’t include a page number on the cover page.
Additionally, endeavor to use the same font on your cover page that you use in your paper. Follow proper capitalization rules for essay titles, using uppercase for keywords and lowercase for articles and prepositions unless they begin the title. This ensures consistency and professionalism throughout your research papers; if you have more questions, you can always check PapersOwl's page for more information.
ASA Style Cover Page
The cover page format of ASA is based on APA and includes a running head. In ASA, keep your header below 60 characters. Another distinction is that ASA mandates the inclusion of a total word count on the cover sheet, encompassing footnotes and references.
Additionally, include your name and course. List them all vertically below your name and course if you conducted research at several institutions. Apart from these differences, all other elements follow the APA format.
It's worth noting that page numbers start on the title page and must be placed at the bottom-right corner.
Harvard Cover Page Format
The Harvard cover page is also known as the Harvard referencing style. It is primarily used in social science and humanities disciplines, including literature, history, and economics.
The Harvard cover page example typically includes the following information, arranged in this order:
- Title of the research paper;
- Author's name (last name, followed by the first initial);
- Date of submission;
- Course name and number;
- Name of instructor.
In addition to the cover page, the Harvard referencing format requires in-text citations and a reference list at the end of the document. The in-text citations include the author's last name and year of publication, while the reference list provides complete bibliographic information for each source cited in the document.
Bottom line
Although formatting your work according to the requirements of your college might be challenging, it is vital. Undergraduate students, who sometimes take classes in several different areas at once, should be especially concerned about this. However, keep these requirements from obstructing your ability to learn. Use these suggestions to create the ideal cover page, and if you need assistance, we are always here to help. And if your professors require some changes, their instructions hold more weight than the guidelines mentioned here.
