Style Guide For Papers

A fundamental aspect of academic professionalism is conformity to the particular writing style characteristic of a given discipline. This Style Guide is based on what is known as Chicago Style, with some added or altered elements, and is the standard that you should use in drafting all written work for departmental courses. In those cases where this guide does not address a specific issue you may have, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style (14 th edition, University of Chicago Press: 1993), available in the reference section of the Trexler library.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT:
Quicklinks:General | Running Text | Capitalization | Numbers | Foreign Words & Foreign Quotations | Translations | Italics | Quotations(general) | Block Quotations

General:

• When printing your final draft, use clean, white 8½” x 11” bond paper, and print one side only. Do not print final drafts on paper that has been salvaged from the recycling bin. While I appreciate the ecological concerns involved, a final paper draft should not also be a statement on environmental ethics. This is simply a matter of disciplinary professionalism.
  
• never use textbooks, encyclopedias (of any kind) or other basic reference book in college-level research.
  
• The text of the manuscript body must be typed, doubled-spaced, and in 12 point Times Roman or Garamond font.
  
• Margins of all pages of the paper must be at least 1 inch and no more than 1¼ inches on all four sides, with ½ inch headers (if used).
  
• A separate, unnumbered title page including the title of the paper, your name, the name of the course, the current semester, the date of submission and the signed Muhlenberg College Academic Behavior Code Pledge is required on all papers (see Figure 1 of this style guide). The Pledge is to be typed as follows:

I pledge that I have complied with the Muhlenberg College Academic Behavior Code in this work. [your signature]

See the format for the title page

• Begin the text of the paper on the page after the title page, headed with the complete title of the paper and your name.
  
• With the exception of the title page, all pages of the manuscript should be numbered (bottom, center) with Arabic numerals, beginning with the first page of text: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. . .
  
• The manuscript should be clean, collated and neatly stapled in the upper left-hand corner of the paper. papers that are not stapled will not be accepted.
  
• Do not submit papers in folders, manila envelopes, report covers or similar.
  
• While you may incorporate non-textual data in your paper (so long as it is in conformity with this style guide), do not include any irrelevant supplementary materials, such as images, figures, illustrations, tables, etc. that are not essential to and explicitly referenced in the text.

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Running Text:

• Write inclusively: avoid sexist language. See Casey Miller and Kate Swift’s The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing (New York: Lippincott and Crowell, 1980), or The University of College Cork’s Guide to Non-Sexist Language
  (http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/equalcom/language.html).
  
• Do not use contractions: write “do not” instead of “don’t,” “can not” instead of can’t,” etc.
  
• Commas: Use serial commas. Use a comma to separate the clauses of a compound sentence but not a compound subject or a compound predicate unless there are three or more elements. Use commas around parenthetical elements.
  
• Lists: Generally, run lists into text with (1), (2), (3), etc. not (a), (b), (c), etc. Use pairs of parentheses, not singles.
  
• Spelling: Where alternate spellings exist, use the first spelling in Webster’s unless otherwise noted.

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Capitalization:

• Events: Capitalize historical, quasi-historical, political, economic, and cultural events/plans:
  

• Fields of study—do not capitalize:
  B.A. in anthropology
  the sociology department
  he studied psychology at Harvard
  
• Figures, tables, appendixes: Capitalize in text if they refer to items within the present work:
  “In Figure 1 . . .”
  “As you can see in Table 2. . . .”
  
  . . . but lowercase if they refer to those in other works:
  “In Johnson’s figure 1 . . .”.
• Historical/cultural terms—lowercase, except where capitalized by tradition or to avoid ambiguity:
  
  

  Middle Ages Restoration Progressive Era Roaring Twenties Stone Age U.S. colonial period

  romantic period nuclear age ancient Greece Great Depression depression

  
  
• Names of organizations, committees, associations, conferences—capitalize full official names; lowercase when they become general. Lowercase “the” preceding a name, even when it is part of the official title:
  
  

  Circuit Court of Cook County county court Baltimore City Council city council

  Bureau of the Census Census Bureau congressional federal

  
  
• Place-names—capitalize geographical and popular names of places:
  
  

  Antarctica Central America North Pole Orient Asia Ivory Coast Atlantic

  Upper Michigan Back Bay (Boston) Foggy Bottom (D.C.) City of Brotherly Love the Big Apple the States Parent’s Plaza

  
  
• Directions—capitalized when used as a name, but not when used as a direction:

• Titles/offices—capitalize civil, military, religious, and professional titles only when they immediately precede the name. In formal usage such as in acknowledgments or in lists of contributors, capitalize the title following the name:
  
  

  Dr. Vanessa Panetta, a sociology professor
  Lt. Colonel Raoul Cedras
  John Smith, Professor Emeritus at Yale University
  Professor van Buren, assistant professor of anthropology
  a professor emeritus
  Dr. Alfred Keppler, chair of the Department of Sociology
  the chairman of the department
  

• Academic degrees/titles—capitalize when formal, lower-case when informal:
  
  Louis Spindler, Ph.D.
  a Master of Science degree from University of Virginia
  a master’s degree in education

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Numbers:

• Spell out numbers one through ten and larger numbers when used in the approximate sense:
  “About a hundred soldiers were killed.”

• Age: 24 years old; 11 months old; a 34-year-old woman; in woman in her thirties.
  
• Dates:
  

  the ninth century 20th century 1960–65; 1960s the sixties October 6, 1966 April 1993 (note no comma)

  A.D. 500 C.E. 1200 1000 B.C.E. September 18th, 1998 22 March 2002 payday is on the sixth of each month

  
  
• Fractions—hyphenate as both adjective and noun:
  a two-thirds majority
  two-thirds of those present
  
• Ordinals: use nd/rd : 22nd or 22nd rather than 22d; 23rd or 23rd rather than 23d.
  
• Quantities—Use numerals for above ten and spell out measurement:
  
  26 millimeters
  five miles
  In areas of very heavy usage and in tables, okay to use 26 mm, 5 gm, or 10 mph
  Express round numbers above 1 million in numerals + words: 20 million
  20 percent, but in areas of heavy usage and in tables, it is okay to use 20%
  Use commas in four-digit numbers: 1,409 (but page 1409).
  
  Series—When dealing with more than one series of quantities, use numerals for one of the series: When small numbers occur in a group with large numbers, set them all in numerals for consistency. Use numerals for numbered items such as parts of a book:
  
  “The first shape had 4 sides, the second had 7, and the third had 3.”
  “The amount of units given to each was 700, 223, 12, 345, 6 and 1,000, respectively.”
  chapter 5
  part 2
  page 35
  volume 4
  
• Times: 2:00 p.m., noon.
  
• Inclusive numbers—use all numbers except in year spans:
  893–897
  1,023–1,045 but 1989–92
  
• Statistics: use N for sample sizes, but use n for subgroups of samples.

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Foreign Words and Foreign Quotations:

• Words: italicize foreign that do not appear in the main section of Webster’s, but italicize them on first use only.
  
• Quotations: put in quotation marks (and don’t italicize) longer foreign items, such as sentences and quotations.

Translations:

• Include translations of foreign words in parentheses immediately following (without italics and without quotation marks).
  
• Include translations of foreign-language quotations either in an endnote or in brackets immediately following the quotation (without italics and without quotation marks).

Italics:

• Words as words—italicize words used as words in written context; but when the context is solely the spoken word, use quotation marks:
  “A speech event is a way of speaking”
  “In Smith 1994, the term subaltern implies . . .”.
  
• Use of [sic]: italicize word, not brackets. Correct obvious typographical errors rather than use [sic].
• Legal usage: Use italics for names of legal cases.

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Quotations (general):

• All published quotations must be cited with page number(s): (1992: 7–8).
  
• Initial letter: Change case of initial letter of quote to fit sentence without using brackets.
  
• Spelling/punctuation corrections: Leave all spellings and punctuation alone in quotes; use [sic] if necessary, and give an explanation in text if absolutely necessary.
  
• Do not use quotes for yes or no except in direct discourse.

Block Quotations (block extracts):

• If extract takes more than four manuscript lines, make it a block extract.
  
• Material set off in block extract is not enclosed in quotation marks. Quoted matter within the extract is set off with double quotation marks (With a stern look on his face, He told her, “Get my tools”), and quotations within these quotations with single quotation marks (She replied, “I will not get your tools simply because you say to me, ‘get my tools’ with that stern look on your face.”).
  
• Block extracts should be set in 10 point type.
  
• Block extracts should be indented 4 spaces from the left and right margins.
  
• Do not center justify block extracts.
  
• Use brackets for citation at the end of a block extract; put sentence period before citation.
  
• If you have added italics for emphasis, specify: [Smith 1993:22, emphasis added].
  
• If multiple paragraphs occur within a continuous block, the first paragraph should have no indentation, but subsequent paragraphs should be marked by indents rather than extra leading.
  
• When a quotation run into the text in the typescript is converted into a block quotation by author or editor, the initial and final quotation marks must be deleted and the internal marks changed.
  
• Do not use initial or final ellipses.
  
• Do not use boldface or other special formatting to set block extract apart from text.

CITATIONS IN TEXT:

REFERENCE LIST (BIBLIOGRAPHY):

• References follow the text and footnotes in a separate section headed References.
• All references cited in the text must be listed and vice-versa.
• References should be single-spaced.
• List references in alphabetical order by authors’ last names.
• Use hanging indention (see examples).
• Invert the authors’ name; if there are two or more authors, invert only the first author’s name (see examples).
• Arrange multiple items by the same author in order by year of publication, earliest year first.
• Distinguish works by the same author in the same year by adding letters (e.g. 1993a, 1993b, 1993c).
• Use italics for book and periodical titles.
• If no date is available use “N.d.” in place of the date.
• Include only city for place of publication.
  • EXCEPTION: In cases where the city is not universally recognizable, use U.S. Postal Code abbreviations for the state as well: (e.g., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications).
  • EXCEPTION: For foreign cities of publication, provide the name of the country (e.g., Stuttgart, Germany: Gundert Verlag).

EXAMPLES OF REFERENCES
[Quicklinks: Books | Journal Articles in Print | Newspaper & Magazine Articles in Print | Articles Retrieved in Electronic Format | Other]

BOOKS:

Basic form for a book entry is:

(1) Author’s last name, followed by a comma and the first name and middle initial, ending with a period.
(2) <RETURN> to next line with 5 space indent
(3) Year of publication followed by a period
(4) Title of book italicized ending with a period
(5) City of publication followed by a colon and name of publisher ending with a period.

One Author
DeAnda, Roberto M.
      1995. Chicanas and Chicanos in Contemporary Society. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Two or more Authors
Herrera-Sobek, María and Helena María Viramontes.
      1995. Chicana (W)rites: On Word and Film. Berkeley: Third Woman Press.

Edited Volume
Nordstrom, Carolyn and Antonius Robben, eds.
      1995. Fieldwork Under Fire. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Organization, Association or Corporation as Author
International Monetary Fund.
      1977. Surveys of African Economies. Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund.

No Author
[No author].
      1993. Manual of Style. 14th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

               NOTE: List books with no author alphabetically by the first significant word in the title.

Chapter in Book
Nathan, Peter E. and Raymond S. Niaura.
      1987. “Prevention of Alcohol Problems.” Pp. 333-354 in Treatment and Prevention of Alcohol Problems: A Resource Manual, edited by W.M. Cox. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc.

Multiple Works by Single Author
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy.
      1992. Death Without Weeping. Berkeley: University of California Press.

     2001. Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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JOURNAL ARTICLES IN PRINT:
Basic form for a journal article is:

(1)Author’s last name, followed by a comma and the first name and middle initial ending with a period.
(2)<RETURN> to next line with 5 space indent
(3) Year of publication followed by a period
(4) Title of article in quotations and ending with a period inside the closing quotation mark
(5) Name of journal in italics
(6) volume number followed by issue number in parentheses followed by a colon followed by the page number(s) and period
(7) Use the issue number following the volume number in parenthesis or exact date for journal article prior to the volume number for journals that do not number pages consecutively within a volume.

One Author
Garcia, Alma M.
      1998. “An Intellectual Odyssey: Chicana/Chicano Studies Moving into the Twenty-first Century.” Journal of American Ethnic History 18(1):109.

Two or More Authors
Exum, William H., Robert J. Menges, Bari Watkins, and Patricia Berglund.
      1984. “Making It at the Top: Women and Minority Faculty in the Academic Labor Market.” American Behavioral Scientist 27:301-324.

Multiple Works by a Single Author
Kovats-Bernat, J. Christopher.
      2002. “Negotiating Dangerous Fields: Pragmatic Strategies for Fieldwork Amid Violence and Terror.” American Anthropologist 104(1): 208-222.

2000. “Anti-Gang, Arimaj, and the War on Street Children in Haiti.” Peace Review. 12(3):415-421.

 

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NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE ARTICLES IN PRINT:

Basic form for a newspaper or magazine entry is:

(1) Author’s last name, followed by a comma and the first name and middle initial, ending with a period
(2) <RETURN> to next line with 5 space indent
(3) Year of publication followed by a period
(4) Title of article in quotations and ending with a period inside the closing quotation mark
(5) Name of newspaper/magazine in italics
(6) date of publication followed by a comma
(7) page number of article within the publication ending with a period.

Magazine
Jana, Reena.
      2000."Preventing culture clashes - As the IT workforce grows more diverse, managers must improve awareness without creating inconsistency." InfoWorld, April 24, pp. 95.

Newspaper
Rimland, Bernard.
      2000. "Do children's shots invite autism?" Los Angeles Times, April 26, A13.

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ARTICLES RETRIEVED IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT:
Basic forms for the citation of materials retrieved in electronic format vary, depending on the nature of the medium cited.

Full-Text From Commercial Databases
Graham, Lorie M.
      1998. "The Past Never Vanishes: A Contextual Critique of the Existing Indian Family Doctrine" American Indian Law Review, 23:1. Retrieved May 25, 1999 Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe, Law Reviews.

Web Version of Newspapers
Clary, Mike.
      2000. "Vieques Protesters Removed Without Incident." Los Angeles Times, May 5. Retrieved May 5, 2000.(http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_vieques000505.htm).

Web Base Journals
Smith, Herman W. and Takako Nomi.
      2000. "Is Amae the Key to Understanding Japanese Culture?." Electronic Journal of Sociology 5:1. Retrieved May 5, 2000
(http://www.sociology.org/content/vol005.001/smith-nomi.html).

Information Posted on a Web Site
American Sociological Association.
      2000. "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Workshop." Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, Retrieved May 5, 2000
(http://www.asanet.org/members/socwkshp.html).

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OTHER:

Government Documents
Since the nature of public documents is so varied, the form of entry for documents cannot be standardized. The essential rule is to provide sufficient information so that the reader can locate the reference easily. For example see the following:

United States. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.
      1999. Rehab a Home with HUD's 203(k) : HUD and FHA Are on Your Side. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Dissertations & Theses
Valencia, Albert.
      1995. "An examination of selected characteristics of Mexican-American battered women and implications for service providers." Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Education, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA.

FIGURE 1: TITLE PAGE

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