Paper Format

This page includes instructions for formatting your paper, for quoting lengthy blocks of text, and for citing your sources.

Format of Your Paper

Set one-inch margins all around. Do not use headers or footers.

Place all titles and headings flush left.

On the first page, place your title at the top. Follow the title with two blank lines; then place your name followed on the next line by your college or university.

Body text (Times New Roman 12) is single-spaced. Indent the first line of every paragraph 0.5 inches. Do not add any blank lines between paragraphs.

Heading

And here a new section begins, once again with the first line of the paragraph indented five spaces.

Subheading (Times New Roman 12, italics)

Long Quotes

Quotes of 40 words or more are indented five spaces.

Citing Sources

Use the American Psychological Association parenthetical citation style for your sources. Include a References list at the end of the paper.

When citing sources use the author and date in parentheses. If directly quoting, use the author, date, and page number (if print) or paragraph number (if electronic).

The following is an example of a parenthetical citation and the entry in the References list:

McChesney (1999) is equally pessimistic, "...the key point is simply that those who think the technology can produce a viable democratic public sphere by itself where policy has failed to do so are deluding themselves" (p. 183).

References

McChesney, R. W. (1999). Rich media, poor democracy: Communication politics in
dubious times. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.