Essay Cover Page

An essay cover page provides essential information about the essay.  

For this reason, academic and professional writing demands good skills on how to write a cover page.

It is essential when it comes to how to write an essay.

Note that the cover page is also referred to as the title page.

What to Include

As a scholar, you are required to appreciate the differences in respective title pages.

Rightly, this brings us to the question, “what goes on the title page?”

Answering the above question requires you to first understand what it is a cover page.

Per se, a cover/title page is your academic or professional essay’s front page.

It particularly includes key details about your work and yourself.

How to Write an Essay Cover Page

It is clear that the cover page could have different details and features depending on the formatting style being used.

With this mind, different cover pages are as explored below.

APA Cover Page

This is one of the most common cover pages in academia.

It contains the following:

1. Running head

2. Paper’s title

3. Author’s name, and

4. Institutional affiliation

The above APA cover page features should appear as explained below.

Running Header

The running header should:

-Be flush to the left and to the top of the page

-Have a page number flush to the right and to the top of the page

The header and paper’s title should look as illustrated below:

Running head: PAPER TITLE

Title

Skills on how to write an essay cover page requires you to understand the features of the title. In this, the title should:

-Be in UPPERCASE and LOWERCASE letters.

-Be centered in the page’s upper half.

-12 or less words.

-Be in one or two lines.

-Be double-spaced.

Author’s Name

In an APA cover page, the author’s name should:

-Be immediately beneath the title.

-Include the author’s first name, middle name initial (s), and the last name

-Not use titles like Dr. or PhD

Institutional Affiliation

This is another important feature in the APA cover page. Institutional affiliation should:

-Indicate where the research was conducted by the author(s).

APA cover page template should as illustrated below.

APA Cover Page Sample

MLA Cover Page

MLA is another formatting style the features extensively when it comes to how to write an essay cover page. As illustrated in respective cover page templates, it is quite different from the APA style. The question is, what goes on a title page in the MLA style?

The contents of the MLA cover page should follow each other like:

1. The header

2. Author’s name

3. Instructor’s name

4.  Course’s name

5. Publication date

6. Paper’s title

The Header

The MLA header should:

-NOT have a separate title or first page.

-Have a header on the top right side.

– Have the author’s surname as the header.

-Be in Upper and Lowercase letters.

-Have the page number after the header, separated with a space.

The header should be as shown below:

     Surname 1

Author’s Name

The author’s name should:

-Be on the top left-hand corner.

-Include your two names.

Instructor’s Name

Skills on how to write an essay cover page demand that the instructor’s name should:

-Be immediately after the author’s name.

-Include the title of the instructor, e.g. Professor.

Course’s Name

The name of the course should:

-Be immediately beneath instructor’s name.

-Include the full name of the course for the essay.

Publication Date

This entails the date the essay was write and should:

-Be immediately beneath the title of the course.

-Start with the day, followed by month and then the year, e.g. 2 January 2020.

Paper’s Title

This should:

-Appear immediately after the publication date.

-Be centered on the page.

-Use italics and or quotation marks when referring to other works, e.g. Analysis of Symbolism in Merchant of Venice.

MLA cover page template is as illustrated below.

MLA Cover Page Sample

Harvard Cover Page

This is also a common style that requires you to demonstrate savviness on how to write an essay cover page.  The below is what goes on a title page in Harvard style.

1. The header

2. Page number

3. Essay’s title

4. Author’s name

5. Class/Course’s name

6. Instructor’s name

7. Institutional affiliation

8. City and State

9. Publication date

The Header

When it comes to how to write an essay cover page in Harvard, the header should:

-Entail a short description of the essay’s title.

– Be placed on the top right side.

– Be in lower and uppercase letters.

Page Number

The page number should:

-Be in numerical numbers.

-Be 5 spaces after the header.

Essay’s Title

The title should:

-Be in uppercase letters.

-Be centered at about the upper two-thirds of the page.

-Be double-spaced.

Author’s Name

The author’s name should:

-Be about 3 spaces below the title.

-Start with the preposition “by”.

-Include all your names.

Class/Course’s Name

This should:

-Be placed about 5 spaces below the author’s name.

-Include either the name of the class or course.

Instructor’s Name

The instructor’s name should:

-Be directly below the class/course’s name.

-Include the instructor’s full names, and titles if any.

Institutional Affiliation

This should:

-Be directly below the instructor’s name.

-Include the school/college/university the student is studying at.

City and State

The city and state should:

-Be directly below the institutional affiliation.

-Include information on the city or state the institution is within.

Publication Date

This should:

-Be directly below the city and state.

-Start with the day, followed by the month, and end with the year, e.g. 7th January 2020.

Harvard cover page template would look as below.

Harvard Cover Page Sample

Chicago Cover Page

The Chicago style is also common in academics and professional work. It is therefore important to learn how to write an essay cover page in Chicago.

Accordingly, the below is what goes on a title page in Chicago style.

1. Title

2. Author’s name

3. Class

4. Date of publication

Title

The title should:

-Be in uppercase letters.

-Be centered at about the upper two-thirds of the page.

-In case of a subtitle, the title line should end with a colon, and the subtitle in uppercase placed under the title.

Author’s Name

When it comes to how to write an essay page in Chicago style, the author’s name should:

-Be placed at about the lower two-thirds of the page.

-Include all the names of the author.

Class

The class should:

-Be placed immediately below the author’s name.

-Include all the relevant details about the class.

Date of Publication

This should:

-Be placed immediately below the class.

-Start with the month, followed by the day, and end with the year, e.g. January 7, 2020.

A Chicago cover page template should be as illustrated below.

Chicago Cover Page Sample

Leave a comment