Research paper(Hist 1301)

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Writing Guidelines

Professor J. Bennett

1. FONT: Use Times New Roman 12-point font

2. PAGE NUMBERS: Insert page numbers in the same font as your text at the bottom center of the page by using the “Insert” function of your word processing program.

3. HEADING: In the upper-right hand corner of the first page insert the following – make sure that you single-space your heading.

First Name Last Name

HIST 1301/1302.Section #

Assignment Name

4. TITLE: All papers (unless it’s book review or response/reaction paper) must have a title that suggests your theme in a creative way. Skip a pace after the header, and place your

title in the center of the page. DO NOT PUT YOUR TITLE IN BOLD FONT, DO NOT

DOUBLE-SPACE YOUR TITLE, DO NOT UNDERLINE IT, DO NOT ITALICIZE IT,

AND DO NOT PUT IT IN QUOTATION MARKS. Capitalize the first letter of all nouns

and verbs, and put all articles and propositions in lower case. Then skip a space and begin

your prose.

5. SPACING: Double space only your prose.

6. MARGINS: Set margins at 1” on all sides. Most word processors usually have this preset. Use only left-hand margin justification.

7. INDENT PARAGRAPHS: Indent to indicate a new paragraph. DO NOT SKIP A SPACE BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS

8. CITATIONS: If citing or quoting material there is no need to use endnotes or footnotes. Instead use parenthetical citations by placing relevant source information in parentheses

after a quote or a paraphrase. This means that the author's last name, the sources year of

publication, and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must

appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works

Cited/Bibliography page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in

parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always

appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence, ex. (Bennett 2013, 13) or

(Buzzanco 2004, 67).

9. USE THE THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW: Never use “I,” “my,” or otherwise refer to yourself in formal academic writing. You should also avoid using the second person

point of view, such as by referring to the reader as “you.” Instead, write directly about

your subject matter in the third person.

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• For example, replace “I think the most important part of your day is having a good breakfast,” with “The most important part of the day is having a good

breakfast,” or “A nutritious breakfast is an important part of a healthy diet.”

10. USE OBJECTIVE LANGUAGE INSTEAD OF INFORMAL EXPRESSIONS: Informal expressions include slang, colloquialisms, clichés, and contractions. They’re common in

speech and casual conversations, but they aren’t appropriate for academic writing.

• Slang words and colloquialisms are casual expressions shared by a region or social group, like “lit,” “basic,” “bae,” “extra,” “turnt,” “wanna,” “gonna,” “got

it,” “sank/sunk in.”

• Clichés are overused expressions that have become meaningless or boring, such as “only time will tell,” “actions speak louder than words,” “the grass is always

greener on the other side,” and “you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

• Examples of contractions include “don’t,” “wouldn’t,” “hasn’t,” and “it’s.” Instead of using them, spell out the words in full.

11. INTRODUCTIONS vs. CONCLUSIONS: These are actually different! However, you may have been taught that a conclusion is just a restatement of your introduction. Here is

the difference. Your introduction explains the question you’re going to address, including

who cares about it and why. And then your conclusion is about the answer: you explain

how all the stuff in the body of your paper fulfilled your promise and thoroughly

answered the question. So, the structure is question, evidence, answer.