We have discussed various aspects of writing a cause-and-effect essay in our blog. Still, there is one aspect that remains uncovered by our posts. It is formatting such essays. Unfortunately, it is not entirely obvious to every college student how to format a cause-and-effect essay. Yet, many professors expect such knowledge from their students. Let us try to understand what general guidelines for formatting cause-effect essays can be used by students when working on their papers.
If you want to see how this paper should look, you can get a custom college essay of this type and use it as a model.
How to format a cause and effect essay
When starting to work on your essay formatting, the first thing you need to do is look at the instructions your professor has provided you with. In many instances, professors do cite such requirements in the paper instructions. Make sure you follow all of them. In most cases, however, professors will limit their requirements to stating a citation style as the general guideline for formatting your future essay. There are a few such citation styles, including the most popular ones, such as:
- APA
- MLA
- AMA
- Chicago
- Harvard
And a few others. A citation style mainly tells students how to deal with citations in their papers and arrange the list of citations at the end of the paper. However, it also provides specific requirements for the page layout, such as how to number the pages and whether or not to include a title page, etc. For instance, an APA paper will have a title page, while an MLA essay will start at the first page. Harvard citation style requires students to make footnotes or endnotes for every citation entry. MLA and APA citation styles use parenthetical citations instead.
As for the page layout and generally accepted fonts and spacing and margins, specific guidelines are “set by default.” In case there were no specific guidelines on the font size, spacing, and margins, you may apply the following values:
- Set margins to one inch on all sides
- Use times New Roman font
- Apply 12 PT font
- Indent each paragraph half an inch
- Use hanging indention for your “works cited” or “references” page.
- Apply double spacing
These are the guidelines that work for most citation styles as well.
Here is another piece of advice to consider; familiarize yourself with guidelines for the most popular citation styles mentioned above. Consider downloading and printing a sample of formatting layout for each of these styles. This will allow you to understand the formatting rules in theory and visualize these styles. Such visualization will allow you to easily detect formatting mistakes if you make such.
Still, in case your professor failed to provide you with instruction regarding your cause and effect essay format, consider discussing it with them. Make sure that they do not take certain formatting patterns for granted. Suggest your own formatting options and see if your professor approves them.
Cause and effect essay outline format
Some students wonder if there is a particular formatting guideline for individual parts of a cause-and-effect essay. For instance, they assume that there may be a particular guideline for cause and effect essay outline format. Luckily, such separate formatting rules do not exist for individual parts of an essay. You only use hanging indention for your reference list; as for the outline, you use general format to create your outline layout. However, it is reasonable to logically arrange your outline with Arabic numbers and letters of the Latin alphabet. Here is an example for you to consider:
- 1. Introduction
- A. Getting Attention
- B. Introducing the interdependence between the cause and its effects
- C. Introducing your thesis
- D. Announcing the effects of the cause in focus
- E. Transition
- 2. Body paragraph 1
- 3. Body paragraph 2
- 4. Body Paragraph 3
- 5. Conclusion
- A. Revisiting the effects of the cause in focus
- B. Restating the thesis
- C. Drawing a conclusion
However, you need also to realize that, by far, in many cases, an outline is not required by the essay instructions. In most cases, you write your outline for your own convenience, which is why its formatting is largely up to you. We sincerely hope that this post has made it clearer how to format your cause-and-effect essay. Please, do not hesitate to ask questions if something remains uncovered. You should also keep in mind that we are always there to provide you with top-quality academic assistance in case of an emergency. Please, do not hesitate to contact our support guys; they are always ready to provide you with any information needed or even help you place an order for a cause-and-effect essay writing or proofreading, may you need it.