The author of a thesis, dissertation, or student paper produces a "final" manuscript; the author of a journal article produces a "copy" manuscript (which will become a typeset article). The differences between these two kinds of manuscripts help explain why the requirements for theses, dissertations, and student papers are not necessarily identical to the manuscripts submitted for publication in a journal.

Copy manuscripts have been described throughout the Publication Manual. Their life span is short; they are normally read by editors, reviewers, and compositors only and are no longer usable after they have been typeset. Copy manuscripts must conform to the format and other policies of the journal to which they are submitted.

Final manuscripts, however, reach their audiences in the exact form in which they are prepared. Final manuscripts have a long life span; they may be read by many people over a long time. The difference between how copy manuscripts and final manuscripts are used is one reason for the differences between the preparation of journal articles and the preparation of theses, dissertations, and student papers. A number of variations from the requirements described in the Publication Manual are not only permissible but also desirable in the preparation of final manuscripts.

• Use a title page. Contrary to the APA guidelines, do not print a number on the title page (even though it still counts as page 1 of the set of pages for each assignment) and do not provide other preliminary pages. As a minimum, the title page should contain, first, the title of the assignment, and, following the title, the date it is due, your full name, the course name, the course number (LIS 386.13), and the school name. Since the written assignments for LIS 386.13 are relatively short, you do not need to provide an abstract.
  
  
• Use double spacing for all of your general prose discussions of your various topics, as well as for references. (Note: The first time that 386.13 was taught, the instructional staff specified single spacing of references, as allowed by APA 2001 [p. 326]. However, we found that this exception to the general rule of double-spacing caused more confusion and inconvenience than the possible saving of paper is worth, so we abandoned it. If you prefer, however, you may use single spacing for references.)
  
  
• Use italics, instead of underlining, to indicate emphasis in the text. For other uses of italics, please follow the guidelines on pages 100-103 of APA 2001. (Note: When you type a URL, Microsoft Word [and most other word processors] will automatically underline the URL. In LIS 386.13 you may leave such underlines in your text. Of course, in preparing materials for presentation on the Worldwide Web, hyperlinked names and URLs should always be underlined, so as to indicate to the reader that they are hyperlinked.)
  
  
• Use hanging indents in the references list (as discussed on page 299 of APA 2001). (Note: Microsoft Word will easily handle hanging indents for you; just look up "hanging indent" in the MS Word "Help" files.)
  
  
• Number all pages beginning with 2 after the title page (which counts as page 1). The numbers, and the page headers to the left of them, go on the top right side of each page within the top 1-inch margin. Notes, the title page, the reference list, figures, tables, and appendices do not count toward page limits. With this flexibility, and that of the font and pitch allowed, you should have no difficulty meeting the page limits of each assignment. Keep in mind however, that APA discourages the use of content footnotes: "In most cases an author integrates an article best by presenting information in the text, not in a footnote" (APA, 2001, p. 202).
  
  
• Use APA standards for notes and references. Properly cited secondary references may be used for this course. It is particularly important in professional schools such as the iSchool that notes and references be impeccably done. Please use only the APA standards. There are other standard bibliographic and note formats—for example, in engineering and law—, but social scientists and policy analysts ordinarily use the APA style. Familiarity with standard formats is essential for understanding others' work and for preparing submissions to journals, professional conferences, and the like. The sixth edition of Blanche Ellsworth's English Simplified (available at the Perry-Castañeda Library and other libraries) is an excellent resource for information on notes, grammar, punctuation, and so forth. In addition, you may also consult "A Guide for Writing Research Papers" by Charles Darling (2000), which is a useful if non-canonical source.
  
  

• Use APA standards for electronic references. Electronic references should be prepared according to APA's Electronic References and pages 268-281 of APA 2001. (Note: Because of the rapidly changing nature of electronic information sources, the Electronic References will be updated from time to time and should take precedence over the guidelines in APA 2001 when these two sets of guidelines differ.)

• For personal experiences, no formal attribution is needed (unless a source happens to be available and you wish to attribute it), but your prose should make it clear that you are making a statement that is based on your personal experience.

• As a guide to when to cite, we quote from a UT-Austin Webpage entitled "Academic Integrity":

  One of the most complicated aspects of source citation is learning how to distinguish "borrowed ideas," which must be cited, from "common knowledge," which does not need to be cited. A simple guideline is that well known or easily accessible facts, such as the winner of the 1908 World Series, or commonplace observations, such as Einstein's prominence in modern physics, need not be cited. Unique ideas, controversial or especially important facts, and novel insights all must be cited (although other items may need to be cited which meet none of these criteria). This is a judgment that often depends on the writer and his or her academic community. What the audience of an academic journal considers common knowledge may not be seen the same way in a freshman composition course.

To be safe, be attentive to where you encountered a particular idea. Just as with paraphrasing, good note taking is invaluable for tracking the origin of ideas. And of course, the best advice remains: when in doubt, cite.

• Submit formal essays as a Microsoft Word attachment to an email message sent to the class emailbox, unless the assignment instructions specify something else. Use 10-point or 12-point type only, and use 1-inch margins on all sides of your text. Do not right-justify your lines of text (this is sometimes called "full justification"); leave a ragged right margin. This style is now preferred even in many typeset journals.

It is imperative that you proofread your work thoroughly and be precise in editing it. It is often helpful to have someone else read your writing, both to eliminate errors and to increase clarity. Use the spell checker in your prod processor to review your documents, but be aware that spell-checking dictionaries: do not include most proper nouns, including names; omit many technical terms; include very few foreign words and phrases; and cannot identify such errors as writing "the" instead of "them" or using homophones, e.g., writing "there" instead of "their."

If you have any questions about these standards, please ask. We will be glad to discuss them with you at any time.

Accomplishing this work would be very tedious without software help. As noted in the Home Page of the course, you are expected to have Microsoft Word (in a version from Microsoft Office 97 or later) available to you (as well comparable versions of Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel). You are encouraged to purchase MS Office XP or Mac Office 2001 for this course; either of them is available at a greatly reduced student-only price from the Campus Computer Store, and registered UT-Austin students anywhere—not just those in Austin—are eligible to purchase items from this store.

Some Things to be Careful About

Since the production of professional-level written work is one of the aims of the class, the instructors and TAs will read and edit your work as the editor of a professional journal or the moderator of a technical session at a professional conference would. The reminders below will help you prepare professional-level written work appropriate to any situation.

1. Use formal, academic prose.  Avoid colloquial language, e.g., *you know?*  It is essential in graduate work and in professional communication to avoid failures in diction -- be serious and academic when called for, be informal and relaxed when called for, and be everything in between as necessary.  For this course, avoid words and phrases such as "agenda," "problem with," "deal with," "handle," "window of," "goes into," "broken down into," "viable," and "option."

2. Avoid clichés.  They are vague, *fail to "push the envelope," and do not provide "relevant input."*

3. Avoid computer technospeak like "input," "feedback," or "processing information" except when using such terms in specific technical ways; similarly avoid using “content” as a noun.

4. Do not use the term "relevant" except in its information-retrieval sense.  Ordinarily, it is a vague and colloquial cliché, but it also has a strict technical meaning in Library and Information Studies.

5. Do not use "quality" as an adjective; it is vague, a cliché, and colloquial.  Instead use "high-quality," "excellent," "superior," or whatever more formal phrase you deem appropriate.

6. Study the APA style convention for the proper uses of the ellipses *. . .* and *. . . .*

7. Avoid using the terms "objective" and "subjective" in their evidentiary senses; these terms entail major philosophical, epistemological controversy.  Avoid terms such as "facts," "factual," "proven," and related constructions for similar reasons.

8. Avoid contractions.  *Don't* use them. (Note: Contractions are welcome in your comments on the 386.13 Discussion Board, where the atmosphere is intended to be something like that of a classroom discussion. But please avoid contractions in your formal written work for the course.)

9. It is unacceptable to use "/" in prose, except in fractions and in the construction "and/or". For example, say "she or he" rather than "s/he."

10. Be circumspect in using the term "this," especially in the beginning of a sentence.  *THIS *is often a problem because the referent is unclear.  Pay strict attention to providing clear referents for all pronouns.  Especially ensure that pronouns and their referents agree in number; i.e., "each person went to their home" is a poor construction because "each" is a singular form, as is the noun "person," while "their" is a plural form.  Therefore, either the referent or the pronoun must change in number.

11. The use of "if" ordinarily takes the subjunctive mood when it leads to a contrary-to-fact statement. For example, in talking about a short person named John Doe, you might say, "If John were [not "was"] a tall person, then. . . ."

12. Put "only" in its appropriate place, near the verb if it modifies the verb and near the noun if it modifies the noun.  For example,  it is appropriate in spoken English to say that "he only goes to Antone's" when you mean that "the only place he frequents is Antone's."  In written English, however, the sentence should read "he goes only to Antone's."

13. Do not confuse possessive, plural, or contracted forms, especially of pronouns.  It's bad to use *it's* as a possessive, so you should use *it's* only in its contractual sense, i.e., when it's a contraction.

14. Do not confuse "affect" and "effect," "compliment" and "complement," or "principle" and "principal." If you do, readers will not *complement* your work or *it's* *principle* *affect* on them.

15. Avoid misplaced modifiers; e.g., it is inappropriate to write the following sentence:  "As someone interested in the history of Mesoamerica, it was important for me to attend the lecture."  The sentence is inappropriate because the phrase "As someone interested in the history of Mesoamerica" is meant to modify the next immediate word, which should then, obviously, be both a person and the subject of the sentence.  It should modify the word "I" by preceding it immediately.  One good alternative for the sentence is:  "As someone interested in the history of Mesoamerica, I was especially eager to attend the lecture."

16. Avoid use of the terms "valid," "parameter," "bias," "reliability," and "paradigm," except in limited technical ways.  These are important terms and should be used with care and precision.

17. Remember that the words "data," "media," "criteria," "strata," and "phenomena" are all PLURAL forms.  They *TAKES* plural verbs.  If you use any of these plural forms in a singular construction, e.g., "the data is," you will make the instructor very unhappy :-(.

18. "Number," "many," and "fewer" are used with plural nouns (a number of horses, many horses, and fewer horses); "amount," "much," and "less" are used with singular nouns (an amount of hydrogen, much hydrogen, and less hydrogen).  Another useful way to make this distinction is to recall that "many" is used for countable nouns, while "much" is used for uncountable nouns. Another example: In the Austin area, at least, upscale grocery stores attempt to appeal to the knowledgeable by having express lines limited to "10 items or fewer" while lower-scale groceries limit their express lines to "10 items or less."

19. *The passive voice should generally not be used.* It is preferable to use the active voice. Note also that APA 2001 allows the use of "I" and "we" (with cautions regarding the use of "we").

20. "Between" is ordinarily used with two alternatives, while "among" is used with three or more.

21. Generally avoid the use of honorifics such as Mister, Doctor, Ms., etc. when referring to persons in your paper, especially when citing their written work.  Use last names and dates as appropriate.

22. "Cite" is a verb, "citation" is a noun; similarly, "quote" is a verb, "quotation" is a noun.

23. Places on the Worldwide Web are not "sights" but "Websites" or "Web sites."
    
    

24. *PROFREAD!  PROOFREED!  PROOOFREAD!*

25. Use double quotation marks (“abc"), not single quotation marks (‘xyz’), as a matter of course.  Single quotation marks are to be used only to indicate quotations within quotations.

26. "As" does not equal "because."

27. Use "about" instead of the tortured locution "as to."

28. Only very rarely should sentences begin with "and" or "but." And we can add that it is inexpert writers who tend to overuse such constructions.
    
    

29. In a course dealing with scholarly matters including public-policy studies as well as science and technology studies, the term "issue" is used in a technical way to identify sources of public controversy or dissensus.  Please use "issue" when you want to refer to topics about which there is substantial public disagreement; do NOT use "issue" synonymously with general terms such as "area," "topic," or the like.

30. The University of Texas System uses "UT-Austin" to designate The University of Texas at Austin; "UTA" is used to refer to The University of Texas at Arlington.

Some Editing Conventions for Student Papers

The following are marks that the instructor and/or TA may use in grading your papers for this course.

Symbol	Meaning
#	number OR insert a space (context will help you decipher its meaning)
AWK	awkward (and usually compromises clarity as well)
block	make into a block quotation without external quotation marks; do so with quotations of 4 or more lines
caps	capitalize
COLLOQ	colloquial and to be avoided
DB	database
j	journal
lc	make into lower case
lib'ship	librarianship
org, org’l	organization, organizational
Q	question
REF?	what is the referent of this pronoun?  to what or whom does it refer?
w/	with
w.c.?	word choice?

Some Additional Sources of Information on APA Style

The American Psychological Association maintains a Website, APA Style.org, that deals with the APA's style guidelines. In addition to information about the APA Publication Manual and recommendations for citing electronic sources, this Website also provides information about a computer program, the APA-Style Helper, which writers can purchase and use on their own computers as an aid to following the APA style guidelines.

The following additional sources of information about using the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association were kindly contributed by Lori Eichelberger.

http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.cfm?doc_id=796 [This appears to have been updated to accord with the 2001 edition of the APA Publication Manual. It includes a hyperlink to a sample paper that illustrates various APA stylistic matters.]

The first two of the following sources appear not to have been updated for APA 2001, but all three should still be helpful with basic APA style considerations.

http://www.newark.ohio-state.edu/~osuwrite/apa.htm

http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-crib.html

http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/apa.html

References

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychological Association. (2001). Electronic References. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved July 7, 2001 from http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Darling, Charles (January 10, 2000). A Guide for Writing Research Papers based on Styles Recommended by The American Psychological Association. Hartford, CT: Author. Retrieved May 6, 2001 from http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm

Wolcott, Harry F. (1990). Writing Up Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.