Formatting and Referencing Papers
FORMATTING YOUR PAPER: BEST PRACTICES
I try to provide approximate word lengths for assignments, rather than page lengths. This allows you to format based on legibility and readability, rather than on an attempt to make your paper fit within the page guidelines. As such, the following are meant to efficiently maximize and optimize legibility and space. As such, your paper should:
FORMAT FOR CITATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
If you pursue a career in academia, you will quickly discover that there is no standard or even semi-standard format for citation across journals. For me, I am more interested in consistency of citation strategy than in a particular format. That said, I recommend that my students use the APA (American Psychological Association) reference style. Here are some examples of how it looks:
IN TEXT CITATIONS:
References to a text:
Example 1: As Cons (2012) argues....
Example 2: Border regions are often seen as sensitive spaces by government officials and others (Cons, 2012)
Example 3: As Cons argues, "areas at the margins of state control are often referred to as sensitive spaces" (Cons, 2012, p. 12)
Example 4: Numerous authors have demonstrated that borders are often unstable spaces (Cons, 2012; Jones, 2012; Van Schendel, 2005).
For more information, go here.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES: These should be alphabetized and include all references used in the paper. They should also ONLY include references used in the paper.
Books:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Chapter in an edited book:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A.A. Editor & B.B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
Article in a journal:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article.Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.
Article in a newspaper:
Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.
Article from an online periodical:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article.Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from
http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
For a more full list of examples and formats from the APA, go here.
I try to provide approximate word lengths for assignments, rather than page lengths. This allows you to format based on legibility and readability, rather than on an attempt to make your paper fit within the page guidelines. As such, the following are meant to efficiently maximize and optimize legibility and space. As such, your paper should:
- Be in MICROSOFT WORD. It should NOT be a .rtf, .txt, or .pdf file. If you use a different word processing program and absolutely cannot get your hands on Word, contact me BEFORE handing your paper in to verify that I can accommodate your word processing program. Don't assume that I can.
- Have your name, the course number, my name, and the assignment date printed on the upper left side of the first page.
- Have a bold-face title on the first page, followed by your name. In most cases, a title page is not necessary
- Use a standard font such as Times New Roman.
- Have a font sized at 11 point.
- Have 1 inch margins (NOTE--Microsoft word defaults to 1.25 inches. You should change this for your paper)
- DO NOT JUSTIFY to the margins. It makes the paper unevenly spaced. Just have the main text aligned left.
- Include a page number in the lower right hand corner
- Have a single space after a period. There is no need to include multiple spaces after a period. That is a convention that is left over from the world of manual typing.
FORMAT FOR CITATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
If you pursue a career in academia, you will quickly discover that there is no standard or even semi-standard format for citation across journals. For me, I am more interested in consistency of citation strategy than in a particular format. That said, I recommend that my students use the APA (American Psychological Association) reference style. Here are some examples of how it looks:
IN TEXT CITATIONS:
References to a text:
Example 1: As Cons (2012) argues....
Example 2: Border regions are often seen as sensitive spaces by government officials and others (Cons, 2012)
Example 3: As Cons argues, "areas at the margins of state control are often referred to as sensitive spaces" (Cons, 2012, p. 12)
Example 4: Numerous authors have demonstrated that borders are often unstable spaces (Cons, 2012; Jones, 2012; Van Schendel, 2005).
For more information, go here.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES: These should be alphabetized and include all references used in the paper. They should also ONLY include references used in the paper.
Books:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Chapter in an edited book:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A.A. Editor & B.B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
Article in a journal:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article.Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.
Article in a newspaper:
Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.
Article from an online periodical:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article.Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from
http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
For a more full list of examples and formats from the APA, go here.
