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Term
Paper Style Guide Ian MacLachlan (maclachlan@uleth.ca)
Contents:
This is a very
brief style guide for undergraduate students writing their first term paper.
It is not intended to be comprehensive or to include every fine point that is
covered in the dozens of full length style guides available in any academic
library. But it does provide a reasonable format that will be acceptable for
most arts and science, education and management disciplines. No matter how
much your professors may emphasize the substantive content and originality of
a term paper, the basic mechanics of grammar, style and documentation are
among the most common complaints and the most easily corrected faults. It is essential
to organize the paper in a logical sequence. It is not unusual to experiment
with several different sequences of material as the paper develops. But no
matter how you structure your paper, it must have an introduction, a body, a
conclusion, and a list of references. The paper should begin with an
introduction that states the goal of the paper, shows why it is an important
topic and explains how you will accomplish the goal. The main portion of the
paper is called "the body" and it should be divided into sections.
At the end of the text you will need a conclusion to summarize the results
you described in the body of the paper and demonstrate that you have achieved
the goal that you stated in the introduction. The conclusion may also discuss
the implications of your conclusions and propose directions for further
research. A list of the books and articles consulted in your research is the
final section. It is usually
helpful to separate each major section of the manuscript with a heading.
Major headings are typed in upper case (capital letters). Further division
using underlined or bolded subheadings is recommended for lengthy sections.
Subheadings, like titles, should capitalize the initial letter of all words
except prepositions, and articles. Sub-subheadings may also be used. The
headings, subheadings and sub-subheadings in these guidelines provide
examples. Sections of the
manuscript are divided into paragraphs to separate different ideas. Except
for the first paragraph below a heading, paragraphs are usually indented one
tab stop and separated by a double space. While a business letter often has
one sentence paragraphs, the rule of thumb for expository writing is to have
no fewer than three sentences to a paragraph. Italics are used
for words in foreign languages and to identify the titles of published books,
journals, popular magazines and newspapers. In years gone by, when
typewriters could not form italic characters, underlining was accepted as
equivalent to italics thus book titles were traditionally underlined. Now
that italics are available with all word processing software, underlining is
going out of usage for titles and foreign languages in favour of italics. Short quotations
should be identified as such using quotation marks. Quotations longer than
three lines should be single spaced and double indented in lieu of quotation
marks. Page references must always be given at the end of quotations. If more
than 10 percent of an essay is made up of quotation the originality of the
paper is compromised. In general, quotations are used for two purposes. One
is to provide evidence of a specific argument which you wish to discuss. The
second is to include a particularly apt piece of prose which succinctly
expresses an idea which you want to incorporate. Avoid quoting material that
must have parts excluded. If it is absolutely necessary to omit parts of the
text, signify the gap with three periods (an ellipsis) e.g. "To be ...
is the question."
It is possible to take a quote out of its context or to strategically delete
words using ellipses, changing the meaning intended by the author. This
is unethical in academic work. Ask yourself: Would the author agree that the
quotation I am using is a fair characterization of the original argument? Endnotes (grouped
at the end of the paper) or footnotes (typed at the foot of the page) are
becoming obsolete for all but discursive or explanatory material that is not
a part of the main text. Footnotes or endnotes are seldom used as a reference
system in the social, natural, or management sciences, however they are still
commonly used in humanities such as philosophy, history, and English
literature.
Parenthetical referencing (sometimes called "in-text referencing")
is now the preferred method for giving credit for ideas or the source of
quotations (see the references heading below). In the event that explanatory
notes are necessary, they should be consecutively numbered in superscript
(e.g.1). If used, the notes themselves should be listed in
numerical order on a separate page which is placed after the conclusion and
before the references. Numbers of 100 or
greater and all decimals should be expressed as figures (11). Exact numbers
less than one hundred should be spelled out (nine), except for: (a) numbers
referring to tables and figures (e.g., Table 4); (b) numbers preceding the
word percent (e.g., 5 percent); (c) numbers preceding units of measure (e.g.,
7 kilometers) or (d) dates. Never use a numeral at the beginning of a
sentence. The "#", "%", and "&" symbols
should not be used in text, spell out the word in full. Many insist that
Canadian spelling conventions should be followed in a Canadian university
(e.g. colour, honour and labour not color, honor or labor). Use the simplest
constructions available (oriented not orientated). Avoid contractions in
formal writing (e.g. she'll be comin’ ’round the mountain when she comes).
Normally abbreviations are not used, though in some technical writing they
are acceptable, especially for units of measure.
If you wish to use an acronym it should be defined first unless it is in
common usage (e.g. "U.S.A."). For example, in the first usage you
would write, "The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)..." Once the acronym has been defined, you may
subsequently use "UNESCO" without further explanation.
Remember, "it's" is a contraction for "it is" and as a
contraction, should not be used in a term paper. The possessive adjective
"its" requires no apostrophe just as "my" "his"
"her" and "our" require no apostrophe.
The spell checker included with your word processing software is very useful
but it is vital to use it intelligently and carefully. Many technical terms
are not included in the word processor's dictionary even though they are
found in the literature. For example, the term "Gini," referring to
a coefficient of inequality, is not in my word processor's dictionary.
"Gin" is suggested as the preferred alternative! While English
grammar is beyond the scope of this guideline, two simple faults are so common
and so easily avoided that they are worth mentioning. An infinitive is
the purest generic form of a verb consisting of the word "to" and
the verb itself. For example: "to write" or "to walk." If
the "to" and the verb itself are split by inserting an adverb it
becomes a split infinitive which should be avoided. Examples of split
infinitives include: "to badly write" or "to softly
speak". The error is easily avoided: "to write badly" or
"to speak softly." Sometimes a split infinitive is clearer or used
commonly and therefore is acceptable, as any devotee of Star Trek will
attest ("to boldly go where no one has gone before"). Ending a Sentence with
a Preposition A preposition is
a short word that links other words (e.g. by, for, of, with). Avoid ending a
sentence with a preposition. "This is the only example I can think
of." Instead, you could write: "I can think of only one
example". Sometimes this rule is broken too. "I have much to be
thankful for" is surely preferable to, "I have much for which to be
thankful". Tables and
figures (graphs, diagrams, or maps) are vitally important to geographic
papers but they must be referred to and discussed in the text. Photocopies
are acceptable in a term paper but only if all of the photocopied material is
relevant to the point at hand. An edited and typed table or an original graph
is a much more effective way of documenting your argument than a sheaf of
photocopies. If you use photocopies of tables or figures you must add the
source where you obtained it.
Sources for tables and figures must be acknowledged. The word
"Source:" followed by a full citation should be at the base of all
tables and figures.
Tables should be numbered consecutively. The table number and its title
should appear above the table. Tables may be integrated into the text or they
may be on a separate page immediately after the figures and before the
references.
A "figure" is a graphic such as a map, bar graph, or diagram.
Figures should be numbered consecutively. Figures may be integrated into the
text or placed on a separate page and inserted between the text and the
references. The figure number and title of the figure should be placed at the
foot of the page. Neatly hand drawn figures and freehand lettering are quite
acceptable for term papers. USING
THE FIRST PERSON (I OR WE) IN A TERM PAPER Traditionally, it
was considered inappropriate to use the first person singular (I) or even the
first person plural (we) in academic writing. There are two reasons for
this. The social
sciences have traditionally followed the natural science model which places a
premium on objectivity. Whether I measure 10 milliliters of one molar
sulphuric acid or you do it, there should be exactly the same amount in the
beaker. And if we use union density as a surrogate measure of class struggle,
you and I should both draw the same conclusions about class consciousness in
Alberta compared with Ontario. Assuming that scientific evidence is gathered
and reported in completely objective fashion, it does not matter who
conceives the hypothesis, records the evidence or writes up the results; the
objective conclusion from objective evidence is beyond subjective
interpretation. Thus the subjective pronoun wrongly personalizes science and
wrongly infers that someone could possibly have a personal influence on
scientific outcomes. The second reason
is that any use of “I,” shifts the emphasis away from the subject of the
paper and towards its author. Academic papers are not works of autobiography,
the subject of an academic paper or report is a problem, phenomenon, or
event. Any reference to “I” makes the author the subject of the paper instead
of the task at hand. The substantive subject of the investigation deserves
pride of place as the grammatical subject of the sentence. For example: In a research
report writers may need to refer to specific actions and procedures that they
had to undertake themselves. For example:
All of the
preceding subscribes to the view that science is and ought to be a strictly
objective inquiry. This view has been under fire for some time by a variety
of critics arguing for different conceptions of knowledge, especially in the
social sciences and humanities. Most recently the post-modernists have argued
that research is unavoidably subjective. They sometimes drive this point home
by using the subjective “I” as an integral part of their reasoning. From this
perspective, some would consider the use of the first person to be acceptable
in post modern scholarship. Until the 1980s,
the use of masculine singular pronouns such as "he" was accepted as
generic and applicable to either a male or a female. (For example: "If a
student follows all of these instructions, his paper should have no stylistic
problems.") This is no longer the case and most universities have
adopted inclusive language policies mandating language which does not
discriminate among any social characteristics, including gender.
Unless you are referring to a particular male or female, you should use
"gender neutral" or "inclusive" language in all of your
academic and professional writing. For example: "If a student follows
all of these instructions, his or her paper should have no stylistic
difficulties". The preceding example is inclusive but it is also
cumbersome! With a little practice it becomes quite easy to write inclusively
without the ponderous and repetitive usage of she/he or his/her. For example,
one could write: "By following all of these instructions, students
should have no stylistic problems with their papers" or, "Papers
which follow all of these guidelines should have no stylistic faults". PRESENTATION OF THE
MANUSCRIPT Double spacing is
traditionally required for term papers, however, one-and-a-half spacing is
very common, conserves paper and is easy to format using a word processor.
Leave one inch margins on both sides, top and bottom of each page. With the
exception of the cover page, all pages should be numbered with Arabic
numerals.
A term paper should be printed in black ink on only one side of white
letter-size (8.5x11 or A4) paper. Submit the original, not a photocopy. Avoid
weird font designs and use a 12 point font for text.
Term papers were traditionally expected to have a cover page with the title,
author’s name and so on. This wastes a lot of paper and the current trend is
towards put the title author's name, course name, number and instructor for
which it is prepared and the date that it is submitted at the top of the
first page and to start the paper text immediately below the preliminaries. Avoid putting any form of commercial clip
art on the cover page, it is unoriginal. All pages should be stapled securely
in the upper left hand corner. Use a heavy duty stapler for papers over 15 pages
in length. Bobby pins, paper clips or a dog-eared corner do not convey the
impression that you want to make. Contrary to popular belief, most
professors do not appreciate any type of report cover and the clear plastic
ones are especially hated. Pages may slip out of the plastic spine, plastic
doubles the weight and volume that must be lugged home for grading, and
plastic folders are environmentally unsound. Whenever you use
a specific fact or discuss a concept that has been obtained from a source
document you must clearly identify the source so that the interested readers
may obtain it for themselves. This is called "referencing" or
"citation." Referencing styles vary considerably.
Footnotes, or more commonly, endnotes are preferred by humanists. Notes are
especially useful for documenting primary sources obtained through archival
research. The most common standard for referencing in the humanities is now
the Modern Languages Association (MLA). Parenthetical or “in-text referencing
is preferred by science and social science writers who make extensive use of
journal articles. A widely used standard for parenthetical referencing is the
American Psychological Association (APA). A third common standard is based on
the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). The CMS provides two documentation
systems, one for the humanities (notes and bibliography) and the author-date
system for use in the sciences and social sciences. Geographers might use either style. For
instance a historical geographer would use a style based on footnotes with a
bibliography while an economic geographer is more likely to use the
author-date system. My preference is for author-date referencing following either
the CMS or APA style. In
using parenthetical referencing for student papers, especially in a library
research paper, it is essential to provide page numbers in all references
that refer to specific concepts, facts or data. You may only omit the page number when the
reference to the article refers to the entire work. For example: In a typical year, new housing
construction adds only 2-3 percent to the total housing stock of North
American cities (Yeates, 1990: 187)
[A page number (p. 187) is
given because a specific fact was obtained from a particular page of the
book.] Yeates (1990)
takes a spatial organization approach to his textbook on urban geography. [No page number is given
because this is a general reference to the whole approach of the article. Note that we may use the author’s name as
the subject of the sentence with the date in parentheses or we may construct the sentence
differently so that the author, date and page are all in parentheses (see
above). At the end of our paper we must have a list
of references which includes the full bibliographic citation for every
parenthetical reference appearing in the paper. For example: List of References Yeates, M. 1990. The
North American City. 3rd edition, New York: Harper and Row. CITING SOURCES
OBTAINED ON THE WEB The web has
become an important source for essay writing and academic research. Mixed in
with some very useful and heretofore inaccessible information there is a huge
volume of unreliable and downright pernicious misinformation. Like any
printed source material, the web must be approached critically. Referencing
style for web based information is still in its infancy. Anything you can do
to make it easier for your reader to find the relevant page is a good idea. Sample Entries for
Web References We access a web
site by using a universal resource locator (URL). Unless you are referring to
an entire web site itself, it is never acceptable to insert a long
meaningless URL text string direct into your text. In rare cases you
may be simply identifying a home page in itself and no entry in the
references is necessary. For example: Like most Alberta
municipalities, the Town of Coaldale has a web site with a host of
information relating to municipal governance, social services and economic
development (http://www.town.coaldale.ab.ca/) More commonly,
however, you will be referring to a specific document available through the
web. It is essential to refer to the author or corporate author in your
parenthetical reference and to provide the URL in the bibliographic citation.
For example: The American Psychological Association (1999) has one of the
best guides to academic citation of web sources In this case you
would need the following entry in your references at the end of the essay: American
Psychological Association 1999, August 9) Electronic Reference Formats
Recommended by the American Psychological Association Washington, D.C.
Retrieved August 27, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html [The
date following the author (a corporate author in this case) is the date of
the last update of the document. The date of retrieval is necessary because
web sites are constantly changing and the document may no longer be
available, a disadvantage of using the web when a more permanent source is
available. This problem is well illustrated by the URL above.] Most academic
geography journals are now available in electronic format. A wide variety of
contemporary popular magazines and newspapers may be accessed through the
web. For example:
Mercosur has not developed as quickly as the European Union due to growing
friction between its two largest members: Argentina and Brazil (Murphy and
Kessler 1999) In this case you
would need the following entry in your references at the end of the essay: Murphy, Tom and
Kessler, Richard 1999 "Will Mercosur Get Left in the Dust?" Business
Week Online August 18. Retrieved August 27, 1999 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/index.html [This
entry looks quite similar to an ordinary reference to the hard copy of a magazine,
the only difference is that the date of retrieval and URL are given. Note
that the title of an electronic publication is italicized.] 4. The web is
becoming a useful source of data from a wide variety of statistical agencies.
For example, Lethbridge grew by only 3.4 percent between 1991 and 1996
compared with 5.9 percent for the province of Alberta as a whole (Statistics
Canada 1998). And in the
references section of the essay you would write: Statistics Canada
1998 "Statistical Profile: Population Statistics for Lethbridge (City),
Alberta - Part 1" Retrieved August 27, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://ww2.statcan.ca/english/profil/Details/details1pop.cfm?SGC=4802012&A=&LANG=E&CSDNAME=Lethbridge Plagiarism is the
representation of the words of another person as your own. It is an academic
offence and is punished very severely. Whether the text is taken from a
published source, from another student or the internet, it is still
plagiarism. Plagiarism includes: 1. Extended
word-for-word quotation of another source without indicating that it is
quotation and identifying its source. 2. Extended
paraphrase of another source without indicating its origin. Some people
believe that they can rip off a paragraph, changing a word or two here and
there and so avoid being accused of plagiarism. This is not so.
Judgment plays an important role in deciding the appropriate number of times
to cite your sources. Library research papers are an exercise in summary,
synthesis and analysis of other works. Obviously a library research paper
will require a lot of citations or notes to identify where ideas were
obtained. Taken to its extreme, however, the text could be so littered with
citations and notes as to be unreadable. As a rule of thumb when a large
amount of citation seems necessary, I would normally be satisfied to see a
single citation at the point where an idea is first raised in the text and a
citation at the end of a paragraph to indicate the source which was used for the
preceding material. When in doubt, give credit for the idea.
Other unethical essay writing behaviour includes the fabrication of
references, disguising of source materials and the submission of work which
has already been used to fulfill the requirements of another course of
instruction. Many of these issues are matters of fine judgment. Your
instructor is available to discuss them with you. This thumbnail style guide for university term papers is geared to
students having little prior experience with academic writing. It does not
attempt to replace the many detailed manuals of style available in the
library or book store. Many disciplines have a standardized stylistic format
for all academic writing. Those who have learned to follow the excruciatingly
detailed format of professional associations such as the Modern Languages
Association or the American Psychological Association may not need this
précis though they may appreciate its brevity.
Northey, Margot
1993 Making Sense: A Student's Guide to Research, Writing, and Style
3rd ed. Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1993 Secretary of
State of Canada 1985 The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing
Toronto: Dundurn Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations 6th ed. Revised. by John Grossman and Alice Bennett, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
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