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Essay Format: Its Types, Styles, and Main Peculiarities
Essay format variety
As students you face the need to write essay almost every day. Accordingly, you are sure to know that there is a whole variety of essay format requirements. A student can be assigned a task of writing a paper using MLA, APA, AMA, etc. essay format.
MLA essay format
Let us start with the MLA essay format as it seems to be the most frequently used formatting style in the academic world, especially at levels of school, college, or university. Thus, MLA essay format, among other minor points, presupposes the presence of a title page in every essay. Also, MLA essay format requires the paper to be double spaced, have 1 inch margins on all sides, and use non-underlined and centered headings at the majority of levels.
APA essay format
The APA essay format is similar to the MLA format in the obligatory character of the title page, but is different in the following points:
- Times New Roman, 12-point;
- Italicized headings that can be centered, flush left, indented, or integrated with the text depending on the heading level;
- References page is obligatory;
- Author – date system of referencing is used;
- In-text citations require the author’s name and the year of publishing only;
- Direct quotations require, apart from name and date, page numbers where they are found in the sources.
AMA essay format
The AMA essay format also has its own peculiarities. For example, this format presupposes the capitalization of all letters in the first level headings that are flush left. As well, the AMA essay format allows the students to use either 12- or 10-point font and does not limit their choice to Times New Roman style only.
So, there are a lot of essay format varieties, and it is up to you and your teacher what format to choose and follow.