I would like to draw the following picture: 
But, I would like to label the sides as $8.5$ and $11$ so that they are a standard sheet of paper. How would I do this in TikZ?
Maybe this is what you're looking for. You have to set the variable \y to the value that gives the best result. \y has to vary between \h and \l. If you want a smaller picture, divide all the coordinates by a scale factor.
\documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture} \pgfmathsetmacro\y{9.5} \pgfmathsetmacro\l{8.5} \pgfmathsetmacro\h{11} \pgfmathsetmacro\a{sqrt(\y*\y-\l*\l)} \pgfmathsetmacro\b{\y-\a} \pgfmathsetmacro\x{\y*(\y-\a)/\l} \draw (\l-\x,0)--(0,0)--(0,\h)--(\l,\h)--(\l,\y); \draw[dotted] (\l,\y)--(\l,0)--(\l-\x,0); \draw (\l-\x,0)--(0,\b)--(\l,\y)--cycle; \node[below] at(\l/2,0){$\l$}; \node[above] at(\l/2,\h){$\l$}; \node[left] at(0,\h/2){$\h$}; \node[right] at(\l,\h/2){$\h$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}