Selection of an appropriate line spacing for the main body of the text. If you are expecting someone else to write comments on the document, this should be at least 1.5 and some people prefer 2.0. Selection of a suitable paragraph layout. Selection of suitable margins all round the document. The default settings on most word-processing packages are sensible.
Page numbers are really useful.
If your word-processor does not do this as standard, find out how pagination is achieved. To do this using a word-processor you should plan to use tabs. Learn how to set these to suit your requirements, as it will save an enormous amount of time. References to other people's work are very important and almost all academic documents require a bibliography. There are several systems for referencing and creating bibliographies.