A cover page for an essay (also called a title page) is the first page of a formal academic paper, presenting the essay's title, the author's name, the course, the instructor, and the submission date in the layout the assigned citation style requires. Whether a cover page is required depends on the style: APA and Chicago typically require one, MLA usually does not. This page collects the exact layout rules and worked examples for APA, Chicago, MLA, and Harvard cover pages, plus the formatting choices most likely to lose marks on a rubric. This guide on cover page for essay walks through the rules, examples, and decisions that come up in real student work.
When You Need a Cover Page and When You Do Not
The first decision is whether the essay needs a cover page at all. The answer depends on the citation style the assignment requires.
APA requires a title page on every formal student paper unless the instructor specifies otherwise. The page is page one of the paper and contains the title, author name, institutional affiliation, course, instructor, and due date.
Chicago requires a title page on every formal paper. The information is similar to APA but the layout differs: Chicago centers the title roughly one-third of the way down the page and stacks the author, course, and date near the bottom.
MLA does not normally require a cover page. The author's name, instructor, course, and date appear in the upper-left corner of the first page of text, with the essay title centered below that header. A cover page is added only when the instructor requests it.
Harvard does not have a single official cover page format. Most Harvard-style assignments follow institutional templates that resemble Chicago or APA. Check the specific course handbook before assuming a default.
When in doubt, the assignment brief overrides every style default. If the instructor's brief asks for a cover page in MLA, follow the brief. If the brief is silent on whether a cover page is required, follow the style default above.
APA Cover Page: Layout and Worked Example
APA's seventh-edition student paper title page contains, in vertical order: the paper title, the author name, the institutional affiliation, the course number and name, the instructor name, and the due date. The page is double-spaced. The title appears three or four lines below the top margin, in title case, bold, centered. Three blank lines separate the title from the author name.
APA cover page elements (top to bottom)
- Page header (running head): page number in the top-right corner. Student papers do not require a "Running head:" label in APA 7.
- Paper title: bold, title case, centered, three to four lines below the top margin.
- Author name: three blank lines below the title, centered. Use the writer's full name as it appears on the institutional record.
- Institutional affiliation: single-spaced, centered, immediately below the author name. Format: Department, Institution.
- Course number and name: centered, immediately below the institutional affiliation.
- Instructor name: centered, immediately below the course.
- Due date: centered, immediately below the instructor name. Format: Month Day, Year.
APA cover page worked example
The Effect of Sleep Restriction on Working Memory in Undergraduate Students
Maria Lopez
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
PSYCH 304: Cognitive Psychology
Dr. Jordan Khoury
March 14, 2025
Chicago Cover Page: Layout and Worked Example
Chicago's title page contains the paper title, the author name, the course, and the date. The Turabian student manual is the most common reference for student Chicago papers. The title sits roughly one-third of the way down the page, centered, in title case. The author name, course, and date sit near the bottom of the page, also centered, with about an inch between the title block and the bottom block.
Chicago cover page elements (top to bottom)
- Top third of page: paper title, centered, title case. No bold required (some institutions prefer it; check the brief).
- Middle of page: blank.
- Bottom third (about three quarters down): author name, centered.
- Two lines below the author: course number and name, centered.
- One line below the course: due date, centered. Format: Month Day, Year.
No page number appears on the Chicago title page. Page numbering begins on the first page of text.
Chicago cover page worked example
The Reframing of Civil War Memory in Postwar New England Newspapers, 1865-1900
(blank space)
Caleb Hartwell
HIST 322: American Civil War and Reconstruction
March 14, 2025
MLA First-Page Header (No Cover Page) and Worked Example
MLA does not normally use a cover page. The first page of an MLA paper begins with a four-line header in the upper-left corner that contains the author name, instructor, course, and date. The essay title appears centered below that header. The body text starts immediately under the title, double-spaced.
MLA first-page header elements (top to bottom, upper-left)
- Author full name
- Instructor name (with title: Professor, Dr., Mr., Ms.)
- Course number and name
- Due date in day-month-year order, no commas
Below the four-line header, the essay title is centered, in title case, with no bold, italics, underlining, or quotation marks. The body text begins on the next line, indented half an inch on the first line of each paragraph.
MLA first-page worked example
Rosa Halverson
Professor Sandoval
ENGL 110: First-Year Composition
14 March 2025
How Frederick Douglass Earns His Audience's Trust Before Turning the Knife
If the instructor specifically asks for an MLA cover page, the layout follows the same fields as Chicago, with the title centered in the middle of the page and the author block near the bottom.
MLA Title Page When the Instructor Requires One
When an MLA assignment specifies a cover page, the layout combines elements from MLA's standard heading with Chicago's title-page proportions. Center the paper title roughly one-third of the way down the page in title case. Stack the author name, instructor, course, and date near the bottom third, centered, double-spaced. Page numbering begins on the next page (the first body page) following the same MLA convention. For the rest of the MLA paper layout, see our MLA paper formatting guide and the dedicated MLA title page guide.
Margins, Font, and Spacing
All four styles agree on the basics of page setup, with minor variations.
- Margins: one inch on all sides.
- Font: Times New Roman 12-point or another serif font of comparable size. APA 7 explicitly accepts Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11. MLA prefers Times New Roman 12 but accepts comparable serif faces. Chicago accepts any readable serif font; 12-point is the default.
- Line spacing: double-spaced throughout the cover page in APA. Chicago double-spaces between elements but allows single-spacing within multi-line elements. MLA double-spaces the first-page header and title.
- Justification: left-aligned (ragged right edge), not full-justified. The cover page elements are centered horizontally; the body text is left-aligned.
- Page number: APA places the page number in the top-right corner of every page, including the title page. Chicago and MLA omit the page number from the title page.
Capitalization in the Title
Both APA and MLA use title case for paper titles on the cover page. Title case capitalizes the first word, the last word, and every major word in between (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns). It does not capitalize articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (in, on, of, by), or coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) unless they appear as the first or last word.
An example: "The Effect of Sleep Restriction on Working Memory in Undergraduate Students" is correctly title-cased. Common errors are capitalizing every word, including short prepositions and articles, or using sentence case where only the first word is capitalized.
Common Cover Page Mistakes
Wrong style. Submitting an APA cover page on an MLA paper, or vice versa, is the single most common cover page error. The cover page declares the style of the entire paper; getting it wrong sets the wrong tone before the grader reads the first sentence.
Missing required fields. APA cover pages require both the institutional affiliation and the course number; many drafts include the course but omit the affiliation. Chicago cover pages require the date in Month-Day-Year format; abbreviated dates lose marks.
Title formatting errors. The title should be in title case, not all caps, not bold-and-underlined, not italicized. Most rubrics deduct for using the wrong typographic style on the title.
Adding decoration. Cover pages do not include images, borders, color, or institutional logos unless the assignment brief explicitly asks for them. Decorative cover pages signal an inexperienced writer to a careful reader.
Treating the cover page as page zero. In APA, the cover page is page 1 of the paper and the page number 1 appears in the top-right corner. In Chicago and MLA, page numbering begins on the first body page, so the cover page is unnumbered. Confusing these conventions creates a mismatch with the rest of the page numbering.
Using a template that does not match the brief. Word and Google Docs ship with cover page templates that look professional but do not match any specific style. Build the cover page from the style's specifications, not from the word processor's gallery.
Quick Reference: Cover Page Required by Style
- APA: Required. Title, author, institutional affiliation, course, instructor, date. Page 1, page number in top-right.
- Chicago (Turabian): Required. Title centered one-third down. Author, course, date stacked near bottom. No page number.
- MLA: Not required by default. First-page header in upper-left with name, instructor, course, date; title centered below. Cover page only if instructor requests.
- Harvard: Institution-dependent. Check the course handbook; most templates resemble Chicago or APA.
- Brief overrides default. Assignment instructions always supersede style defaults.
How to Build the Cover Page Last, Not First
The drafting workflow that avoids cover-page errors is to write the body of the essay first and build the cover page in the final pass. Reasons: the title may shift during drafting, the page number depends on the body length, and the formatting matches more easily when the body is already laid out. Build a placeholder cover page early so the document structure is in place, but format it carefully only when the body is final. For section-level pacing across an entire essay, see our essay outline templates; for length conventions, see our guide to essay length.
EssayFount writers can audit a draft for cover page accuracy, convert a cover page between APA, Chicago, and MLA when an assignment changes style, and verify that font, spacing, margins, and page numbering match the rubric the paper will be graded against. The audit returns a marked-up draft within 24 hours for most undergraduate papers.