Style Guide American Literary and Cultural Studies

Transcription

1 INSTITUT FÜR ANGLISTIK, AMERIKANISTIK UND KELTOLOGIE Style Guide American Literary and Cultural Studies How to Write a Term Paper Advice on form and content Updated: May 2015

2 Content Formal term papers Source documentation Works Cited (MLA Style) Title Page Content of term papers

3 Length Formal term papers Issues Kurse 3,200-4,400 3rd year term paper 4,800-6,000 Bachelor thesis BA 14,000-28,000 Term paper (Master) 7,200-8,800 Master thesis 32,000-40,00 Margins left 4cm, right 2cm, at the top and bottom each 2cm Font Times New Roman 12 pt. 1.5 line spacing full justification Pragraphs every first line of a new paragraph must be indented (except when preceeded by a new heading). paragraphs must not be too short no one sentence paragraphs (at least five sentences). sort paragraphs by argument, try to combine thoughts into logical units. be careful to logically combine each paragraph with the next or previous one. Make sure that your argument is relevant and not repetitive. Structure of your work 1. Title page 2. Declaration of authenticity (download pdf-file: 3

4 3. Table of Contents 4. Introduction 5. Subdivide, where appropriate, your main part into separate chapters 6. Conclusion 7. Works Cited 8. Appendix (if applicable) Pagination There are a variety of ways to deal with pagination: 1.) Page numbering starts with number 2 on the second page (table of contents). Even though pagination starts on the first page (title) the first printed page number appears on page 2. 2.) Page numbering starts with page number 1 on the first page of the introduction, leaving all the preambulatory pages unnumbered. Please always make sure to talk to your teachers first and ask for their preferred method! List of Works cited sort in alphabetical order by author names, (no pagination or bullet points!) consistent citation-style e.g. author-date style or MLA please contact your supervisor with regard to the amount of sources needed. Issues papers usually have sources, MA papers 20+ sources. term papers written in English should have a sufficient amount of sources in English Web sources should be regarded with extreme caution! They must occur in an academic context, therefore, websites like Wikipedia, sparknotes or the like are to be avoided. For further reference see the official MLA Style Guide Citations Citations are written in inverted commas. Please note that in American English papers, commas and periods are incorporated into the quote, regardless of whether they appeared there in the original quote. This does not apply to colons and question marks. 4

5 "A period is incorporated into a quotation." "If the quote is followed by a in-text citation reference, the period follows after the parantheses" (Rules 159). Citations longer than three lines are not included in the text body, but are Indented by 1.5 cm, 10 pt, single spacing, indented on the left side, simple line spacing and require NO inverted commas. Make sure to always indicate when you are using direct or indirect quotations from the text. Not marking paraphrases is considered plagiarism! Direct quotes must remain in the original language. Do not translate quotes! If you feel the need to clarify what was said, explain the quote and its meaning. 5

6 Source documentation The following are possible formats which you may use to document your sources. Please note that individual lecturers may have alternative formal requirements. Author-Date Style independent of your bibliography style, always: (surname author. Year of publication: page), thus e.g. paraphrase or quote (Hutcheon 1983: 40) normally: APA 6th ed. style guide author-date style for your bibliography and bracket-method for in-text citations additional information is mentioned in footnotes, so long as the content is not directly relevant for the argumentation in the text. On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens 2003: ; for a contrasting view, see Pyle 1999: 43; Johnson, Hull, Snyder 2009: 21-35; Krieg 1989: Footnotes in Author-Date Style: Monographs: Surname, name. Year of publication. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, p. ##. "quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote " 1 Footnotes must be regarded as whole sentences which begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, cf. and ibid. begin with a lower case letter within sentences and with a Capital letter at the beginning of a sentence/footnote. Example Footnote: 234 Dr. Johnson, [ ] pointed out that the act of writing alleviates the boredom of the writer and the product of that act combats readers potential boredom. [ibid, p. xi] For further information regarding the cultural aspects of boredom in literature cf. Patricia Mayer Spacks. Boredom - The Literary History of a State of Mind Author Name Surname. Year of publication. Title, p ##. 6

7 MLA (Modern Language Association) style: newest and current edition 7 ed, 2009 Instead of footnotes, MLA style uses in-text citation references. "A quote is followed by the author's last name and page number in parentheses" (Doe 147) Footnotes are exclusively used for further information (as mentioned above). see MLA Style guide 7

8 Works Cited (MLA Style) Monographs Last name, First name. Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Chatman, Seymour. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP, Print. Editions Last name, First name. Title: Subtitle. Year of first edition. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Rhodes, Daniel. Clay and Glazes for the Potter Iola: Krause Publications, Print. Multiple Authors Last name, First name, and First name Last name. Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By Chicago: U of Chicago P, Print. Note that in MLA style, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press are abbreviated by CUP and OUP respectively. Edited Books Last name, First name, ed. Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Fludernik, Monika, ed. Hybridity and Postcolonialism: Twentieth-Century Indian Literature. ZAA Studies 1. Tübingen: Stauffenberg, Print. Last name, First name, and First name Last name, eds. Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. 8

9 Fludernik, Monika, and Ariane Huml, eds. Fin de Siècle. Literatur, Imagination, Realität 29. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, Print. Last name, First name, First name Last name, and First name Last name, eds. Title: Subtitle. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Nünning, Ansgar, Marion Gymnich, and Roy Sommer, eds. Literature and Memory: Theoretical Paradigms - Genres - Functions. Stuttgart: Francke, Print. Articles from Books Series Last name, First name, and First name Last name, eds. Title: Subtitle. Series title and number. Place: Publisher, Year. Print. Article from an Edited Book Last name, First name. Title of article. Title of book. Ed. First name Last name. Place: Publisher, Year. Page numbers. Print. Chatman, Seymour. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Reading Narrative: Form, Ethics, Ideology. Ed. James Phelan. Columbus: Ohio State UP, Print. Essays in Journals Last name, First name. Title. Journal Volume. Issue Number (Year): Page numbers. Print. Dimovitz, Scott A. Portraits in Absentia: Repetition Compulsion and the Postmodern Uncanny in Paul Auster s Leviathan. Studies in the Novel 40.4 (Winter 2008): Print. Films Title. Dir. First Name Last Name. Studio, Year. Film. 9

10 It s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. RKO, Film. Internet Sources Last name, First name. Title of Document. Website Name. Publisher Name, Date of posting. Web. Date of access. Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A List Apart Mag., 16 Aug Web. 4 May Blake, William. The Book of Thel, copy F, pl. 2. The William Blake Archive. Ed. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi. 13 Nov Web. 23 Oct

11 Title Page RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITÄT BONN INSTITUT FÜR ANGLISTIK, AMERIKANISTIK UND KELTOLOGIE Sommersemester 20**: Course Title (Name of Lecturer) Title, bold 14pt Subtitle (if applicable), bold, 12pt Name, Surname 12pt 2 nd Semester Matrikelnummer Street Area Code Place Phone Address 11

12 Content of term papers Term papers are supposed to consist of an autonomous, selected and structured work on a topic that has been chosen on the basis of individual interest. Generally, a term paper should be based on current research. Contextual literature should serve to emphasize, reinforce or contradict a thesis. A given thesis can and should always be examined critically and if necessary, be proven wrong. Citations do not speak for themselves, but rather must be put into an explanatory context. Citations should not just be listed but should always be part of the line of argumentation. The quote underlines your ideas and structure of the text, but they can also introduce academic difficulties and divergences in the interpretation of certain texts. The biography of an author does not belong into a term paper. Exceptions are studies focusing on biographical aspects, where they are closely connected to the analysis of a text. Summaries of the primary text should not obtain a prominent position within a term paper. Introductory phrases according to content and/or structure are justifiable, but a whole summary is mostly unnecessary. Search for synonyms in order to avoid word repetition. Do not use contracted forms (wasn t, it s, isn t, couldn t, they re, hadn t, wouldn t, etc.), but write them out (was not, it is, is not, could not, they are, had not, would not, etc.). In American literary and cultural studies, you are free to use personal pronouns. We prefer direct and active sentence structures like "In this paper, I will show..." etc. 12