Abbreviations
In the text of a paper:
- Abbreviations consisting primarily of capital letters (such as acronyms) should usually be written without spaces or periods between the letters: ESP, JFK, PhD
- Initials used in a name should be followed by periods and spaces: C. S. Lewis
- Abbreviations consisting primarily of lower case letters should usually be written with periods but not spaces between the letters: p.m.
- Dates should not be abbreviated in the text of a paper
In the Works Cited list and in-text citations:
- Months should be abbreviated to three or four letters: Jan., Sept., Dec.
- Titles of works appearing in in-text citations should be abbreviated, usually to the first noun phrase: The Importance for The Importance of Being Earnest
- Some other frequently used abbreviations: ch. for chapter; ed. for edition; et al. for et alia, p. or pp. for page or pages; par. for paragraph; qtd. for quoted; UP for University Press
Capitalizing Titles
Capitalize the first and last word of the title; all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions; and the first word after a colon. Do not capitalize articles, coordinating conjunctions or prepositions unless they are the first or last word of the title.
"Explaining the Relation between Birth Order and Intelligence"
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
Dates
In the body of your paper, write out dates in full. You may use day-month-year style or month-day-year style, but be consistent: 5 September 2020 or September 5, 2020
Headings
Headings are not usually needed in a short paper, but they may be used as follows:
- do not substitute headings for transitions
- avoid using numbers and letters to designate headings
- align headings with the left margin and capitalize all important words
- include a line space before and after a heading
- typeface should indicate importance of headings:
Heading Level 1
Heading Level 2
Heading Level 3
Inclusive Language
To make your writing more inclusive, DO:
- use "people first" language: person with impaired vision instead of vision-impaired person
- use both masculine and feminine pronouns when gender is unspecified (e.g. If a student misses class, he or she should coontact the instructor) or change the subject to a plural (If students miss class, they should contact the instructor)
- use the pronouns preferred by individuals you are writing about, if known, including neologisms (e.g. "hir") and plurals
DO NOT:
- use "man" to mean human beings or use gender-specific terms to refer to people (e.g. "chairwoman")
- generalize about group identities
- use first-person pronouns that make assumptions about your readers
- use language that makes assumptions about others' experiences (e.g. "victims of" or "suffers from")
Italics
Use italics for:
- Titles of self-contained works such as books, magazines, journals, newspapers, plays, movies, television series, websites, etc.
Coming of Age in Samoa; Psychology Today; WebMD
- Non-English words that have not been anglicized through use, except for proper nouns, non-English titles in quotation marks, and quotations entirely in another language.
Some consider the movie John Wayne's tour de force.
- Words or letters referred to as words or letters: The word pitch has several meanings.
Do not use italics for emphasis.
Numbers
Within the text of your paper, write out numbers that:
- can be expressed in one or two words: thirteen, forty-two, two hundred
- are at the beginning of a sentence
- are used for percentages or amounts of money in passages containing few numbers, if you can do so in two or three words: ten percent, ten thousand dollars
- appear in an English-language title, even if a nuneral is used in the original: "The Greatest Hits of the Fourth Century"
Within the text of your paper, use numerals for numbers that:
- cannot be expressed in one or two words: 215
- appear in passages containing many numbers and precede units of measurement or express ratios: 14 inches
- are used for percentages or amounts of money that are expressed in more than three words or that occur in passages containing many numbers: 12.5%; $14.50
- are used in dates and times: May 4; 2:00 p.m.
- express a fraction as a decimal: 2.5
- are part of a numbered series: Chapter 7
You may also use numerals when your work uses frequent related numbers, such as statistical data.
You may blend numbers and numerals for large numbers: 2.7 million voters
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Paraphrase or summarize source material whenever possible; that is, put the material in your own words. Remember to identify the source for paraphrases and summaries, just as for quotations.
Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks for:
- Prose quotes under five lines long
- Verse quotes under four lines long
- Titles of short works contained within a longer work, such as periodical articles, book chapters, reference book entries, tv episodes, songs/poems, etc.,
Use apostrophes or "single quotation marks" for quotes inside quotes:
Max Stark points out, "The difference between 'annoyance' and 'harassment' is clear."
