FORMAT AND CITATION GUIDE FOR TERM PROJECTS

The following is a brief guide to the use of headings, citations, and references for term papers or projects required for all of my upper division/graduate level courses. Deviations from this format may result in a lowering of you grade. Hence, I suggest you follow this guide closely as you write your paper. I want to strongly encourage you to refer to Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writing Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations for any questions you might have concerning the mechanical aspects of writing, and to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style for questions regarding writing style.

General guidelines for your paper include the following. First, type your paper, double spaced, using a word processing program. Number each page (except the first page) in the upper right-hand corner and do not right justify your paper. Write in a clear and concise style; your grade will reflect the mechanical and stylistic elements of your paper as well as its content. Please have a friend read your paper before you turn it in. This will help you identify problems related to spelling, grammar, style, and content. As a general rule, should expect to revise your paper at least twice before turning it in.

Description of Headings

Please note that the heading format you are to use are printed in bold, the underlined headings are used here to help guide you through the examples. Please double space before and after all headings.

Primary headings such as the INTRODUCTION or DISCUSSION are centered in capital letters.

A-level Subheading
 

A-level subheadings (principal subheadings) are centered with the first letter of each word being capitalized.

B-level Subheading

B-level subheadings are left-justified with the first letter of key words capitalized.

C-level Subheadings. C-level subheadings are indented 5 spaces and followed with a period. Additional subheadings are rarely used except for exceptionally complicated works. Note that all of the headings are bold to help distinguish them from the body of the text. Also, note that there is a double space between the last sentence in the previous section and the following heading or subheading (see below).

Anytime you use a heading of a certain level, it should contain two subdivisions just as is required with an outline. Equally important is that each heading must be followed by at least one paragraph and that in no case should you use a single sentence paragraph in your writing. Finally, remember that the first sentence of your paragraph establishes the topic of paragraph and the last sentence should introduce the following paragraph. Also, never end a page with a heading.
 

Example of a Title Page

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Example of Heading Format

Soils as Relative Dating Tools

Pedogenesis.

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Examples of Citations

The citation style I want you to use is the most common style used in scientific journals (APA) with one modification. Normally, this style simply provides the author's name and year of publication. However, I want you to also add the page number to your citation. This is useful for a number of reasons. First, it encourages you to take notes while you are reading. Second, it helps me identify articles that the reader may find useful. Third, it allows me to verify unusual findings or interesting tidbits of information.

Example 1: Soils are commonly used to estimate the ages of Quaternary moraines in the western United States and Canada (Birkeland and Berry 1991, p. 281).

Example 2: Reider (1983, p. 181) suggests that changes in Neoglacial climate brought the return of forest vegetation and podzolization which is presently removing carbonates from the soil profiles.

Example 3: "The simultaneous operation of regressive and progressive pedogenetic pathways raise the possibility that soil evolution may exhibit patterns far richer and more complex than increasing development over time"(Phillips 1992, p. 169).

Note that when a quotation is used, the page number of the quote must also be given. Avoid the use of long quotes! Generally, you can paraphrase the material in longer quotes more concisely than it was originally written. In addition, long quotes require additional format changes in your paper (see Turabian's guide noted above).

Example 4: Mack et al. (1993, p. 129) suggest a new classification system for paleosols using morphological and mineralogical features.

In cases where there are more than two authors, the Latin "et al." ("and others") is used for brevity.

Example 5: The use of soils for dating Quaternary aged deposits has been reported elsewhere in the literature (Richmond, 1962, Mahaney 1978, Burke and Birkeland, 1979).

When multiple citations are used, they are listed first in chronological order (earliest publication first) and then in alphabetical order when two or more references are cited for the same year. When one or more references by the same author(s) are cited for a given year, the year of each reference must be followed by a letter, e.g., (Birkeland et al. 1991a, Birkeland et al. 1991b).

Examples of References

EXAMPLE 1: - Journal article (#s refer to volume and pages)

Birkeland, P.W. and Berry, M.E. 1991. Use of soil catena field data for estimating relative ages of moraines. Geology 19:281-283.

EXAMPLE 2: - Book or Special Publication Chapter -

Ponti, D.J. 1985. The Quaternary alluvial sequence of the Antelope Valley, California. Pp. 79-96. In: Weide, D.L. (ed.). Soils and Quaternary Geology of the Southwestern United States. Special Paper 203, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO.

EXAMPLE 3: - Book -

Troeh, F.R., Hobbs, J.A., and Donahue, R.L. 1999. Soil and Water Conservation. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

EXAMPLE 4: - Report or miscellaneous publication -

Singer, M. J. and Janitzky, P. (eds.) 1986. Field and Laboratory Procedures Used in a Soil Chronosequence Study. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1648. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

EXAMPLE 5: - Dissertation or thesis -

Burns, S.F. 1980. Alpine Soil Distribution and Development, Indian Peaks, Colorado Front Range. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

EXAMPLE 6: - Electronic Sources -

Likens, G. 1997. Ecosystem studies of watersheds. Journal of Conservation Ecology 1:21-37. Available: http://www.consecol.edu
 

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