Checklist and Guidelines for Typing an Essay

Stapling and Covering

Please read carefully all the checklist and guidelines as you did mistakes with my last assignments, this is the last time I trusted you. IMPORTANT Staple the paper in the upper left corner. Do not use binders or plastic covers unless your instructor requires them. Fonts and printing: All essays must be typed with print on only one side of the page. Black is the standard colour for printed ink and generally Times New Roman or Arial 12 point font is used. Margins, line spacing, and paragraphs: Use margins of one inch on all sides. The essay should be double-spaced (but not the notes or the bibliography which are usually single-spaced), with no extra blank lines between paragraphs. The first word of each paragraph should be indented one-half an inch. Direct Quotations: Brief direct quotations (i.e. less than three lines) should appear in quotation marks (“ “) but otherwise should follow the format used in all other paragraphs in the paper. Where you need to alter a direct quotation to make it fit grammatically within a given paper, you may include new or altered words (that do not alter the meaning of the quotation) in square brackets. Where you need to leave out a words from the direct quotation indicate with a series of three periods where words have been removed. Where direct quotations contain grammatical or spelling errors include the word “sic” in parentheses next to the error. Long direct quotations (i.e. longer than three lines) should appear as “block quotes.” All text of block quotes is to be indented one inch from the left margin (with no extra indentation for the first word). Block quotes do not appear in quotation marks. Pagination: All pages, with the exception of the title page and bibliography, should be numbered sequentially in the upper right-hand corner of the paper, flush with the right margin. Emphasis: For emphasis and titles of books, use either italics or underlining. Choose one and be consistent. Notes (Footnotes or Endnotes): All notes are numbered, following the note numbers used in the text. Footnotes occur at the bottom of each page and are numbered in normal text (not superscript). The first line of the note is indented a half-inch (or five spaces); subsequent lines are flush left. Footnotes are single-spaced, with a blank line separating them. Endnotes, on the other hand, are gathered together at the end of the essay, beginning on a new page with the word Endnotes centred on the first line (subsequent pages do not have a title). In the Endnotes the numbers are in normal text (not superscript). The first line of the Endnote is indented a half-inch (or five spaces); subsequent lines are flush left. As with footnotes, Endnotes are single-spaced, with a blank line between notes. Bibliography: The word Bibliography is centred on the first line (subsequent pages of the bibliography do not have a title). Sources are listed alphabetically by author’s name or by corporate/government name and are single-spaced.