Font Usage

Stay Consistent Throughout Your Paper

When drafting any part of your essay, you want to be sure that you are formatting everything in a consistent manner.  While you may think it looks better to add in different sizes and styles of fonts, this is contrary to the requirements of MLA, APA, and Turabian formatting.

It is also very important to remember that this 'consistency' extends to your headers, footers, source citation pages, abstract, and any other section of your paper that you craft.  It is very common for students to ignore the header and footer formatting, as if they were not key parts to the paper.

Every item that you add into your paper is important.  For it all to flow as one, professional piece of writing, the FONT SIZE and FONT STYLE must be consistent throughout the whole document.

FONT USAGE

In the Turabian and APA formatting styles, they call for a few areas of the writing to be in bold font. However, unless it is directly referenced in your formatting handbook to use bold or italics, do not use them.  In general, the whole paper will be in one size, one style, and one design of font.

No matter which style format you are using for your writing (APA, MLA, or Turabian) you must adhere to some basic rules when it comes to FONT USAGE.  The formatting associations have standards that they present to those in their field; however, if your instructor (or institution) asks for something slightly different than the 'standard' prescribed by your formatting association (APA, MLA, or Turabian), then you will always go with what your instructor (or institution) is looking for--while maintaining the knowledge of what the 'standard' is for your formatting style.

After all, think about the 'standards' for title pages in APA, MLA, or Turabian format.  While each association has guidelines for a title page, Liberty and your instructor's wishes supersede the APA, MLA, or Turabian formatting guidelines, if there is a conflict.  If you recall, MLA does not even require a title page any longer, yet MLA formatted papers here at Liberty must include a title page as part of a 'standard' Liberty requirement for papers.  As the official MLA handbook reminds us, always check with your instructor for the final say on formatting guidelines.  You'll never go wrong if you're following your instructor's guidelines.


Standard FONT SIZE and FONT TYPE

1. The standard FONT SIZE is 12 point font.
• While some format guides indicate that as long as the font is easily read, it will be fine--and they often assert that size 10 or size 12 point font would be acceptable--this is not actually the case.  The size 12 font is the standard and what your instructor will be expecting to see in your writing.
2. The standard FONT TYPE is Times Roman font:
• The font types that I am willing to accept are Times or Arial.
• The reason I add in Arial to the fonts I will accept is because it is--in my opinion--a cleaner, clearer font that is easier to read.  Furthermore, up until a few years ago, both Arial and Times were considered the 'standard'.  With updates to the formatting handbooks, some of the formatting associations have adjusted the font styles that are the standard to only include Times Roman.
• While in our class, I will accept either Times Roman or Arial.  My preference is Arial--my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. 
  
• When you go to a different class, though, be sure to clarify with your new instructor the FONT TYPE that he or she is willing to accept in your paper submissions.