WRITING GUIDELINES
Posted: 6 October 2003
These guidelines are similar
to those posted by
The Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation
at Northern Arizona
University. I have provided these notes as a guide to
students in my courses and/or working on a Thesis or other written
document under my supervision. If you have any further questions, or the
specific issue you are grappling with in relation to a citation or writing
style, please consult
The Chicago Manual of Style.
Below is a link to a Guide
provided by the OSU Library on conducting academic research and preparing
research papers/documents that can also be of assistance in preparing term
papers and theses:
Basic Steps to Doing
Library Research: A Guide
REFERENCES
1. Put references in your
text immediately after the first sentence in which the references
is cited. Do Not put references at the end of the paragraph in which it is
cited.
2. Proper reference
format within the text is: (Lastname 1999: Page#) -- where Lastname=the
author's last name, 1999=year of publication
- if you are citing a direct quote or data, you must include a :
[colon] after the year, followed by the Page Number(s) from which
the quote came. Otherwise, the page number(s) is optional.
3. Put references before
the final period in the sentence. An example of a proper use of in
text references is:
... and the population reach 55,000 in 1995 (Wright 1996: 337).
4. Always cite the reference
source for information you obtained from somewhere other than your own
mind. To not do this is Plagiarism. If several contiguous
sentences, or an entire paragraph, of information comes from the same
source, you need only reference it once in that paragraph.
5. "References Cited"
should be used instead of "Bibliography" at the end of your papers.
6. The proper format
for References Cited is:
Lastname, Firstname. Year.
Book Title. CityPublishedIn: Publisher.
Lastname, Firstname. Year. Chapter Title. In Book Title, ed.
Firstname Lastname, pp.#-##. CityPublishedIn: Publisher.
e.g. -- Smith, John P. 1556. Introduction. In T.C. Barnwood, ed.,
Geographies, pp. 3-12, London: Cheshire.
Lastname, Firstname. Year. Article Title. Journal Title Vol#(Issue#):Page##-##.
e.g. -- Smith, John, and Harney, Percy. 1910. New Discoveries in South
America. Geography 12(3):56-61.
See any recent issue of the Annals of the Association of American
Geographers for variations on different types of sources.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
CITATIONS -
Including WWW, E-Mail and CDRom
PAGE FORMATTING
7. Always use page
numbers for papers that are more than one page in length. The
preferred location is in the middle bottom of the page. (This allows
consistency when printing or photocopy back to back.)
8. Unless you are told
otherwise, 1.5 line spacing is preferred for most class papers.
Double (2.0) line spacing may be preferred for Theses (check with your
chair). - NEVER turn in a paper single spaced.
9. Always put Two Spaces
between sentences when typing on a typewriter or computer/word
processor.
10. Direct quotes that
extend beyond two page lines in length must be indented on both sides
and single spaced.
ABBREVIATIONS and
CONTRACTIONS
11. Avoid using "etc."
or "et cetera..." - you should not assume your reader knows what you mean,
and it is a sign of lazy thinking.
12. "e.g." means "For
example" or "Such as" - an example of proper use is: ... many western
states are in the Sunbelt (e.g., Arizona, Nevada and California).
"i.e." means "That is" - an example of proper use is: He was
not wrong (i.e., he was correct) to say ....
13. The Possessive if "It"
is "Its" -- NO Apostrophe. "It's" (with an apostrophe) means
"it is"
- other possesives include "his" and "hers"
14. Do Not use
Contractions in formal papers. For example: use "Do Not" instead of
"Don't" and use "Is Not" instead of "Isn't"
GRAMMAR and USAGE
15. The plural of a year
does Not use an apostrophe. "1990s" is Correct; "1990's" may
be widely used, but it is Wrong.
16. Avoid separating
two words with a slash "/" - in most cases a simple "and"
will do.
--- Also Do Not use "and/or" - in most cases a simple "and" will
do.
17. "There" =
location (There it is.)
"Their" = possessive (it belongs to them)
"They're" = contraction of "They are"
18. It is preferable to use
"that" instead of "which" whenever possible. Use "which"
only when the word "that" is too awkward.
19. Do not end a sentence
with a preposition (common prepositions include: of, by, with, at,
in, on, to, for, between, from, and through.)
20. USE YOUR SPELL
CHECKER - if you are using a word processor
21. USE YOUR GRAMMAR
CHECKER - if your word processor has one (and most do these days)
MORE WRITING
TIPS
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