9.00 Preparing the Final Draft
Use standard conventions in preparing the final draft of your paper. Type your paper using a word processor.
 "APA Formatting and Style Guide" "Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style)" “MLA Formatting and Style Guide” |
9.01 Title Page
- For your title page, follow carefully the following "Sample Title Page." Count the title page as your first page.
Sample Title Page
[ Put Your Title Here: ]
[ With A Sub-Title Here ]
[ Put Your Name Here ]
[Put the Name of Your Professor Here]
[Put the Name of Your Class Here]
26 November 2009
- Unless you are working on a literary creation, use a title that says something specifically about your paper. A good title should help define the purpose and scope of your paper; it should also summarize its main idea(s).
- Does your title prepare the reader for what follows? Try to use the title to aim the audience toward your paper's Introduction, as well as to give the reader a specific sense of what the paper will be about.
- Does the title provide the best concise description of the contents of the report? If not, consider using a subtitle to clarify the specific subject matter of your paper.
- The American Psychological Association (APA) recommends a title length of twelve to fifteen words.
- Do not use abbreviations in your title; spell everything out.
(See Hodges and Whitten, 33g[2], 8a[4], 28b.)
9.02 Short Title and Page Numbers
On all pages place a short title in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Double-spaced below that put in the page number, numbering all pages except figures with Arabic numbers. See section 9.08 for the correct ordering of the paper's parts.
9.03 Margins
Leave a margin of one inch on all sides of the page. See see the sample first page of text in section 14.00.
Do not justify the right margin of your paper.
Do not divide words at the end of a line.
9.04 Spacing and Indentation
Double-space everything, except for the "Abstract." However, occasional single-spacing is allowed in student papers if it improves readability. Likewise, occasional triple- and quadruple-spacing is permitted to improve appearance and readability.
Except in the "References" section always leave two spaces after a period, a colon, question mark, and exclamation mark.
Leave one space after a colon in two part titles (e.g., "Myth in Method: Some Observations . . . ."), and one space after the publisher location in a reference list (e.g., "New York: Harcourc Brace Jovanovich"). Leave no space after a colon in ratios (e.g., "8:1") or in time (e.g., "10:30"). Likewise, leave no space after a colon when it separates chapter from paragraph number (e.g., "4:2") or chapter from verse in scriptural references (e.g., "John 3:16").
Leave one space after other marks of punctuation, except the dash, which should consist of two hyphens, without space between or at either side (--).
(See Hodges and Whitten, 17d.)
Indent paragraphs five spaces, except in the "Abstract" (if you have one). In the "References" section, for each entry, indent the second and succeeding lines three spaces.
9.05 Page Numbers
Number all pages consecutively throughout your paper, except separate pages with "figures" (see Table 1, page 49). Begin with the title page, placing the page numbers in the upper right-hand corner, double-spaced below the short title. Use the page numbering on this guide as an example.
9.06 Content Notes
Occasionally you may need to use content or explanatory notes to make incidental comments, to amplify or qualify textual discussions, and to acknowledge aid received in the preparation of the paper. See section 15.00 for an example of a content endnote. Using superscripts ( 1 ) number all notes consecutively throughout the paper. Type these notes on a separate page entitled "Endnotes," numbering them to correspond to their numbers in the text. Few now use footnotes (notes at the bottom of the page), except to explain tables, figures, and the like.
Type double-spaced, indenting the first line of each note five spaces. The content notes page, if you have one, goes towards the end of your paper, following the text and preceding the " Appendix" (if you have one), or the "References" (see section 9.08).
9.07 Tables, Figures, Illustrations, Diagrams
If you include a short table, figure, diagram or illustration to supplement the text, place it as close as possible to the part of the text that it illustrates (see section 9.07). If it is longer, indicate its position with instructions set off by lines above and below and place each table or figure on a separate page immediately following the inserted instructions--as with the following example, the table of which appears on the next page.
Table 1
Distribution of Men and Women over Five Skill Levels.
Levela
1 2 3 4 5 (high) (low) Total N Women 5% 31 35 17 11 99%b 1,284 Men 19% 22 42 07 09 99% 1,890
Note: From "Sex Differences in Soviet Earnings" by M.
Swafford, 1978, American Sociological Review, 43, 665.(Original work published in Karaptyan 1968a)
aLevel is defined in footnote d of Table 2.
bRows sum to less than 100% because of rounding error.
Example:
Insert Table 1 about here
At the bottom of each table, diagram or illustration, include the source of information and any other relevant notes. Do not number these notes in the same series as the content notes (see section 9.06). Make sure each has an accurate title.
Number tables consecutively, in the order mentioned in the text. Number figures, diagrams, and illustrations similarly, but separately.
Include a short title of the manuscript and the page number in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Double-space throughout.
In the text, refer to tables, figures and illustrations by their number. For example:
"Diagram 1 illustrates the relationship suggested in Table 2."
". . . these correlations support the hypothesis (see Figure 1)."
9.08 Order of the Paper's Parts
Order the parts of your paper as follows:
- title page with title, your name and some form of identification, and a short-title running head; begin on a separate page, numbered page 1. See section 9.01.
- abstract (optional, unless required by your instructor); begin on a separate page, numbered page 2. See section 7.05.
- text; start on a new page, usually numbered page 2 (unless you have an abstract). See section 7.02.
- content endnotes ("footnotes"), if you have them; start on a new page entitled "Endnotes." See sections 9.06 and 15.00.
- appendices, if you have them; start each " Appendix" on a separate page. See section 7.06.
- references; start on a new page, continuing page numbers through the end. See sections 7.04 and 8.07-8.14.