A procedure is developed for modeling differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) melting curves of linear polyethylene and ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymers produced with single-center and multicenter polymerization catalysts. The modeling demonstrates that the use of the statistical description of random copolymers and the introduction of several assumptions about the crystallization pattern of long ethylene blocks in ethylene copolymers are sufficient for the representation of most characteristic features of DSC melting curves of the polymers. This type of modeling can be applied to ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymers containing up to 10 mol % of an a-olefin. The approach is, in principle, similar to modeling the results of other analytical techniques used for the characterization of copolymer heterogeneity, such as Tref and Crystaf. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 49: 195-205, 2011