Writing Style Guide for Graduate Programs in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration,

Mississippi State University

 

            An underlying goal for students in the Graduate Program should be to write major course papers that are of publishable quality.  Students should approach writing a major paper for a class with the attitude it is actually going to be sent to a public administration or political science journal for consideration.  The intellectual content of each paper, the attribute upon which publication decisions should ultimately be based, is the responsibility of the student.  However, in preparing papers for submission, certain basic stylistic requirements must normally be met.  This style guide serves to answer some recurring questions regarding those requirements.  The goal here is permit the student to produce a paper that can be prepared for publication submission with relative few stylistic changes, depending on which journal the paper will be submitted to.  Instructors within the department may, at their discretion, specify deviations from the conventions indicated below.

 

            Format: All main body text, with the exception of indented matter (usually long quotations), notes, and references, should be typed double-spaced on one side of the page on white standard paper with one inch margins on all sides.  Times New Roman font (available in both MS Word and Corel WordPerfect) and 12-point type are to used.  All pages except the title page should be numbered.

 

          Headings and Titles: Paper titles, subtitles, and text subheadings should be selected carefully with consideration to appropriateness, conciseness, and cogency.  Subheadings should be limited to three levels and visually distinct from each other.  A sample approach, based on The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition as used by Public Administration Review (PAR), follows:

 

1.       Article title and principal subheads: 14-point type, Times New Roman, bold, and set on a line separate from the text.

2.       Secondary subheads: 12-point type, Times New Roman, bold, and set on a line separate from the text.

3.       Sub-subheads: 12-point type, Times New Roman, bold, set in italics, run in at the beginning of the paragraph, and followed by a period.

 

            Text Citations: Generally, all references in the text or any notes should indicate the last name of the author, year of publication, and include pagination where appropriate.  Sample approaches follow:

 

1.       Author's name in text: Campbell (1976, 150)

2.       Author's name not in text: (Campbell, 1976)

3.       Two authors: (Campbell and Stanley, 1976, 150-152)

4.       More than two authors: (Campbell et al., 1976, 150)

 

(Go to http://www.niu.edu/pub_ad/par_html/submit/stylesheet.html for PAR’s style sheet.)

 

            Ibid., op. cit., loc., supra infra, or cf. should not be used.  Subsequent citations of the same source generally should be listed in the same manner as the first citation.  Complete information for every reference should be listed at the end of the paper only, under “References.”

            Notes: Notes are for discursive comments and not for documentation.  Superscripts for notes should be inserted in the text.  Notes themselves should appear, single-spaced with a double-space between notes, on a separate sheet immediately following the conclusion or end of the paper under “Notes.”  If used, this placement comes before “References.”

 

          References: References will be listed in alphabetical order by author and, if the author has more than one publication cited, in order of publication with the earliest publication listed first.  In all cases indicate an author’s name, do not substitute “_____” for multiple listings.  This will make it easier to add or drop references if redrafting a paper.  References will be internally single-spaced, with double-spacing between individual references.  The exact style of the reference may vary, however references should generally include the following items: author’s name, year of publication, title of book or article, title of journal (as appropriate), volume number and issue number of the journal in which the article appeared (as appropriate), name and location of book publisher (as appropriate), page numbers of article cited (as appropriate).  Sample approaches for an article and a book respectively, as used by PAR, follow:

 

Thompson, D. F.  1992.  Paradoxes of Government Ethics.  Public Administration Review 52(3), 254-259.  ("52" is the volume number, "3" is the issue number, and "254-259" is the page range.  Note there are no quotation marks around the article title in this format.)

 

Van Wart, M.  1998.  Changing Public Sector Values.  New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.

 

          References from the Internet: Use of the Internet to obtain journal articles has made research easier, but how to cite such material, particularly if provided in a format that does not reproduce journal pages exactly (often referred to as “full text” format), is still problematic.  One approach, based on that provided by MSU’s Mitchell Memorial Library staff and taken from MLA (Modern Language Association) format, appears to meet departmental requirements.  Below are modified excerpts from the library’s fact sheet, “Citing Articles from EBSCOhost.”

 

Format:

Author’s Last Name, First Name.  Date of original source.  Title of Article.  Original Source of Article with Volume(Issue) of original source: number of paragraphs.  Product name.  Date of visit to site.  Available URL.

 

Example:

Lanken, Dane.  1996.  When the Earth Moves.  Canadian Geographic 116(2): 35 pars.  EBSCOhost. 15 April 1998.  Available http://www.epnet.com/ehost/magnolia/login.html.

 

       As is normal procedure, the author’s last name is placed in parenthesis within the body of the text.  Since there are no page numbers to cite, refer to specific paragraph numbers  Example: “Where there had been pavement five minutes before, there was now thin air” (Lanken, 1996, 2).  You may have to count down to a specific paragraph manually.  However the website will provide you with the total number of paragraphs.

 

(Go to http://library.msstate.edu/reference/handouts/index.asp for a complete listing of Mitchell Library fact sheets.)

 

            Tables and Figures: In order for students to avoid the problem of making tables and figures fit within the text body, these items should instead be placed on separate sheets after all other material at the very end of the paper.  The placement of tables and figures within the text body would be indicated as follows: Insert two double spaces following the last line of text after which the table or figure would be placed.  As appropriate, insert and center one of the following statements, [Insert Table X here] or [Insert Figure X here].  (“X” represents the number of the figure or table in Arabic numerals.)  Insert two more double spaces before the next line of text.

 

A Comment About Style and Style Manuals:  Students in the graduate program should realize there are a number of style manuals that may be specified by either journal editors or faculty members for use in preparing papers.  The Chicago Manual of Style is in wide use, but the APA (American Psychological Association) and “Turabian” style manuals, as well as the aforementioned MLA manual, are as well.  Your instructor is the final arbiter regarding writing style in any given course.  The above information is provided to get you, at least, headed in the right direction regarding basic requirements.