Free MLA Essay Word Template for High School and College Students

Many of you might not know that I taught college-level writing courses for eight years. Of the four classes that I taught (basic comp, first-year comp, advanced comp, and advanced tech writing), teaching Advanced Composition was one of my very favorite things I've ever done. And I've developed a lot of tips, tricks, templates, and content to help my students over the years. One of these templates is for essays in MLA format.

Microsoft Word is great software for writing essays, but the default settings will interfere with a properly formatted essay--especially because Word automatically adds extra spacing each time you hit enter to create a new paragraph (improper spacing may be considered a crime by some teachers).

For MLA formatting, this should be set to "0" and "Double."

I designed a Word Template to ensure perfect formatting every time. Apply STYLES (HOME tab) to each line or paragraph by clicking anywhere on the line or paragraph, and applying the appropriate Style. Each style has been named so you can easily identify which style needs applied to which part of your essay.

Download Mrs. Lee's MLA Essay Word Template and save in your "Custom Word Templates" folder on your hard drive. 

Instructions on how to use this template:

1. Do a search for the folder Custom Office Templates on your computer (hard drive or cloud) and then save this file in that folder. 

2. Open Microsoft Word.

3. Options appear to open files on a HOME tab, including a file option called Blank. The MLA template might show up under New files at the top of the page, but if not, then click on the NEW tab in the left sidebar, and then click on PERSONAL (to the right of "Office"). Scroll until you find Mrs Lee's MLA Essay Template 2021 and then click on it. (Note: by opening the file this way, you are not opening the actual template, but a new doc with the template formatting embedded.)

4. You can always personalize the template (like adding your name in the heading and header) and then re-save it as a Word Template (.dotx) in your Custom Office Templates folder. 

 Or, if it doesn't appear at the top, click the NEW left sidebar, and then click PERSONAL.

Additional tutorials on how to use Styles in MS Word:

My Book: Mrs. Lee's Color Code Revision

Hi, friends. I want to introduce you to my brainchild, Mrs. Lee's Color Code Revision: A Visual Revision Strategy for Academic Essays. While teaching composition at the college level, I realized that many students don't know how to revise their academic essays beyond grammar and punctuation. So I developed this strategy to help students pinpoint the content in each paragraph that could be improved. 

Mrs. Lee’s Color Code Revision reveals an innovative revision strategy for improving academic essays. Students often don’t know where to begin when asked to revise an essay beyond grammar and spelling errors. Color Code Revision gives students a starting place as well as a strategy to focus their revision efforts into creating well developed paragraphs with supporting details. This book starts with how to color code and then moves on to commonly asked questions regarding color coding and its connection to the revision process.

The Color Code Revision strategy works best with formal academic essays, including various types of research papers, research reports, rhetorical or textual analyses, position papers, evaluations, summary response essays, and book reviews. This strategy can also be used to help improve informal writing during the drafting process.

The Color Code Revision strategy has been used successfully at the college level for developmental English courses, freshman composition, and advanced composition classes. Additionally, Mrs. Lee’s Color Code Revision is a great writing resource for middle schools, high schools, homeschool, and tutoring centers. It will benefit those needing “chunking strategies” to help with learning differences.

Mrs. Lee’s Color Code Revision can be used:

• as a supplement to any writing handbook or English textbook (as this book does not provide lessons on grammar or conventions).
• as a supplement text to any class that requires the writing of at least one polished essay.
• during in-class revision workshops. It works best if the instructor models the process on several paragraphs, preferably using a student sample of the same genre as the assigned essay being revised. Then the student can use this book as a guide to begin the color code revision process in his or her own paper.
• during peer reviews.
• as a self-guided revision tool for any student who needs to revise an academic essay even when this book is not a required text for the course.

Praise for Mrs. Lee’s Color Code Revision: “I loved the Color Code Revision workshop!! I have never seen anything like it and now I use it with every class paper I write.”

“What I found most helpful is the colorful rainbow to help me execute a great flow in my essay.”

“The rainbow Color Code Revision is an amazing tool!”

 

If this could help you or someone you know, please check out the kindle/ebook and paperback versions on Amazon and Apple Books.

*Note: Because so much of success depends on one’s ability to write, Mrs. Lee believes everyone should have access to books that improve writing skills, so she keeps the kindle edition priced low for wide affordability.