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Basic Writing Guidelines

The document provides basic writing guidelines for assignments. It outlines default page formats, including length, font, margins, spacing, and file type. It also discusses referencing requirements such as citation style, order of references, and age of sources. Finally, it explains the difference between academic and ordinary writing, noting academic prose should avoid contractions, personal stories, questions, and casual language.

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Wainaina Nick
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
21 views

Basic Writing Guidelines

The document provides basic writing guidelines for assignments. It outlines default page formats, including length, font, margins, spacing, and file type. It also discusses referencing requirements such as citation style, order of references, and age of sources. Finally, it explains the difference between academic and ordinary writing, noting academic prose should avoid contractions, personal stories, questions, and casual language.

Uploaded by

Wainaina Nick
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Writing Guidelines

1. Default Page Length and Formats

 Page length: 275 words (Unless stated otherwise)

 Font and Font Size: Times New Roman, 12point

 Margins: 1” (inch) Margins all round

 Line Spacing: Double-space (Unless otherwise specified)

 Paragraph Spacing: Double-space, 0pt after every paragraph

 Paragraph Indents: First Line Indent (Unless its MLA, which we will cover

later)

 Word Per Paragraph: 100-125 Words

 Microsoft Word (.doc/docx) file type

 Text Alignment: left alignment of the text

2. Referencing Requirements

 Sources (bibliography/references/works cited) on a separate page

 Paper should strictly follow citation style (MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago)

determined by the Customer

 All MLA and APA references should be in HANGING INDENT and in

ALPHABETICAL order.

 Order number is used for file name (i.e. 1000232.doc)

 Separate Title and Reference Pages (For APA, and Harvard). For MLA, NO

title page, but separate reference pages

 Adhere to the number of references required


 All references must not be older than 5 years, unless otherwise specified.

3. Always Use Academic Prose:

Always apply the following requirements to your writings:

 Do not use contractions such as “I’m, I’ll, we’ll, we’d”, and others alike.

 Do not use first-person pronouns such as "I" "me" "my."

 Do not use second-person pronouns such as "you" "your" "yours."

 Do not engage in personal stories, meaning stories of your own life experiences,

or the experiences of friends, family, and so on.

 Do not begin sentences with conjunctions: but, and, or, nor, for, so, yet.

 Do not pose any questions in any assignments. This means, quite literally, not to

use questions. Write sentences in the form of statements instead.

 Do not quote the bible or allude to religion in any way.

 Avoid any form of direct address to the reader, such as "think about the fact

that . . ."

 Avoid too casual of a prose style, such as sentences that begin with words like

"well, sure, now, yes, no."

 Do not use phrases such as, "a lot," "lots" or "lots of," which can usually be

replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much, often.

 Do not use exclamation points, for they are usually unnecessary.

 Periods and commas should be inside of quotation marks, but other forms of

punctuation go outside of quotation marks.

 Do not use the word "okay" when words like "acceptable" are applicable instead.

 Do not use the word "nowadays," "nowadays," or any slight variation thereof.
4. Difference Between Academic And Ordinary Writing

 For example, compare the following two paragraphs: although the ideas expressed

in the paragraphs are the same, one presents them in a much more formal,

academic way.

Example 1 (Academic) Example 2 (Ordinary)

Capital is a complex notion. Capital is a difficult thing to

There are many definitions of the understand. We can explain it in

word itself, and capital as different ways, and in

applied in accounting can be accounting, we can look at it

viewed conceptually from a from different angles.

number of standpoints; that is, Accountants talk about legal

there is legal capital, financial capital, financial capital and

capital and physical capital. The physical capital. How we apply

application of financial and financial and physical concepts

physical concepts of capital is of capital is not easy because

not straightforward as there are people in business use it

various permutations of these differently...

concepts applied in the business

environment...

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