Short answer. Yes, at least as to matters of form. The same rules that apply to pleadings govern written motions when it comes to matters like caption, designation, and signature, even though motions and pleadings remain distinct kinds of documents with different substantive purposes in a case.
What the law says
The Rules applicable to pleadings shall apply to written motions so far as concerns caption, designation, signature, and other matters of form.
Rule 15, Section 11 — Form. Read the full provision →
Borrowing pleading-form rules for motions
Rather than creating an entirely separate and distinct set of formatting requirements specifically for motions, the rule simply extends the Rules already applicable to pleadings so that they also govern written motions, at least as far as matters of form are concerned. This means a written motion is not, in the end, governed by some wholly separate and distinct formatting scheme all its own.
What specific elements are covered
The rule names caption, designation, and signature explicitly by name, and then adds other matters of form more generally on top of those three. A written motion, in other words, needs to carry the same general kind of caption identifying the court and the parties involved, the same kind of clear designation naming exactly what the document is, and the same kind of formal signature requirement that a pleading itself would ordinarily need to satisfy. A motion signed by counsel binds the movant the same way a signed pleading does, and a motion that omits the required caption or designation risks the same kind of formal defect a defective pleading would carry.
Why this consistency makes sense
Since motions are filed within the very same underlying case as the pleadings themselves, applying these same formal conventions across both keeps the overall case record internally consistent — anyone reviewing the case file later can reasonably expect a written motion to look, and to be organized, in fundamentally the same basic way as any other formal filing already sitting in that same case.
What this section does not cover
This particular provision addresses only matters of form — caption, designation, signature, and similar formal elements of presentation. It does not, by its own express terms, extend the substantive content requirements that apply to pleadings, such as what a complaint or an answer must specifically allege, over to motions; the substantive content a motion must actually contain is instead governed separately by the provisions specific to motions themselves found elsewhere in these rules. A motion that satisfies every formal requirement can still be denied on the merits if its substantive grounds are weak, since matching the formal conventions of a pleading says nothing about whether the relief the motion actually asks for is warranted.