GUIDELINES FOR SCHOLARLY WRITING

How to avoid the most common stylistic mistakes in term papers, theses, and dissertations
Revised, August 2007 Robert Sokolowski The source for most of the following material is Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , 7 th edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). A new edition of Turabian was published in Spring 2007, the first new edition in eleven years. You should own a copy of this edition of Turabian. Anyone who wishes to write scholarly papers must get into the habit of looking things up in Turabian. Look things up frequently and repeatedly, get a sense of where to find things, get used to the index. Everything you want is in Turabian: title page, table of contents, footnote style, quotation marks, punctuation, capitalization, headings, subheadings, and so on, but you have to become adept at using the book. There will be an answer to your question, but you may have to search carefully for it. Most of what concerns philosophical writing will be found in chapters 16-25 of the seventh edition. W hen writing a thesis or dissertation, do not assume that you can put your material together in any manner at all and that it is up to your director to put things into proper style. The director is not a copy editor. It is your responsibility to use good style. Also, it is important that you be consistent in your style throughout your paper. Catholic University recommends Turabian for theses and dissertations, so you should become accustomed to that style. You should use the correct style right from the beginning of your paper, in the very first draft. The correct style should become habitual. By paying attention to details of style you can save your director or teacher and yourself a lot of time and energy. To learn these rules is not beyond your ability. You can write with proper style, but you must put your mind to it. The best way to proceed in learning a skill is to first get a very clear understanding of the most basic principles and to learn how to do the tasks that arise most often. To use a military metaphor, secure the beachhead first; get the basics down cold. Then move on to the more particular details. I have found that three issues must especially be mastered in scholarly style: 1. 2. 3. Notes and bibliography Ellipsis Reference to continuous pages.

These three topics will be covered below on pp. 2-6. Errors are often made in regard to them, and such errors are inexcusable if systemic. No teacher or director will be upset if you make a mistake in regard to some arcane point of style or if you make an occasional lapse in regard to an ordinary topic; but he will have every right to be upset if you do not follow even the most basic rules or if you are inconsistent in your style. Such mistakes show that you have been careless in your writing. After treating these three topics on pages 2-6, we will move on to a number of other issues.

THE BASIC FORM AT FOR NOTES The basic format for notes (whether footnotes or endnotes) is found in Turabian 16.1; see the examples that Turabian gives on pp. 143-45. W hen your references have variations or complications of any sort (volumes in a series, multiple authors, reprints, etc.), check carefully for the proper style. If you learn what is in section 16.1 of Turabian, on pp. 142-45, you will be in very good shape. PLEASE LOOK CAREFULLY AT ALL THE FOLLOW ING EXAM PLES TO SEE W HERE PERIODS, COMMAS, COLONS, SPACES, AND THE LIKE ARE LOCATED. This is how you refer to a book in a footnote or endnote:
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John Smith, The Philosophical Study of Human Action (New York: Jamestown Press, 1985), 19-24.

This is how you refer to an article in a footnote or endnote:

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Helen Jones, "A Survey of Metaphysical Research in the 20 th century," Journal of Philosophical Inquiry 15 (1994): 23. This is how you use ibid .:
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Ibid., 36-41. Ibid . is used to refer to the immediately preceding entry. Note the period and comma, and note that the word is not italicized or underlined. Op. cit . is not used anymore.

You give full information only for the first reference to a book or article. Subsequent references usually give the author's surname (family name) only and an abbreviated version of the title:
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Smith, Philosophical Study , 65. Jones, "A Survey of Metaphysical Research," 49.

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This how you incorporate translators or editors into footnote or endnote references:
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Charles de Gaulle, My Life and Deeds , trans. W inston Churchill (Oxford: Contemporary Press, 1959), 698.

Yuri Andropov, "Spies and Counterspies," in Clandestine Enterprises , ed. Aldrich Ames (Moscow: Pravda Press, 1978), 25.

For an essay or a chapter within a larger book that is edited by another person, use the following format in notes: Major, John. "W in Some, Lose Some," in The Future of British Politics , ed. Margaret Thatcher (York: Parliament Press, 1989), 57.

THE BASIC FORM AT FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY Books: Smith, John. The Philosophical Study of Human Action . New York: Jamestown Press, 1985. Articles: Jones, Helen. "A Survey of Metaphysical Research in the 20 th century." Journal of Philosophical Inquiry 15 (1994): 18-95. In notes, whether footnotes or endnotes, you give the authors first name first, then his family name. In the bibliography, you give the authors family name first and then his first name. The obvious reason for this rule is the fact that in the bibliography listings are ordered alphabetically. If the book or article is written by more than one author, you give the surname of the first author first, but you use the other style for the other authors: Smith, John, and Adlai Stevenson. Electoral Politics . New York: Chelsea Press, 1960. W hen the books cited have translators or editors: Brezhnev, Leonid. Traveler's Guide to Afghanistan . Translated by Zbigniev Brzezinski. W ashington, DC: Potomac Press, 1978. Chirac, Jacques. Collected Essays on the Political Philosophy of George W. Bush. Edited by Paul W olfowitz. Boston: Karl Rove Press, 2007. Notice that in the bibliography the translator or editor is introduced by the full terms, Translated by or Edited by, whereas in the notes you use an abbreviation. There is a special format for bibliographical entries for an essay or a chapter within a larger book: Major, John. "W in Some, Lose Some." In The Future of British Politics , edited by Margaret Thatcher, 25-69. York: Parliament Press, 1989. Notice where the periods are placed, and notice that the In is capitalized. Notice how the book as a whole is punctuated internally by commas (In The Future of British Politics , edited by Margaret Thatcher, 25-69.). Notice that the page numbers go inside this whole-book reference. Look carefully at the differences between the format for notes and the format for bibliography. If you have more than one book by an author in your bibliography, you need not repeat the authors name for each title. You can replace it by a 3-em dash (you make a triple hyphen three times and join them) followed by a period. See Turabian, 16.2.2, pp. 148-49 and 21.7.3, p. 304. Brezhnev, Leonid. Traveler's Guide to Afghanistan . Translated by Zbigniev Brzezinski. W ashington, DC: Potomac Press, 1978. . My Vision of the Future . Translated by Ronald Reagan. New York: The Village Press, 1995.

ELLIPSIS (LEAVING SOM ETHING OUT) IN CITATIONS People always make mistakes here. Most of the time, people just throw the ellipsis points (dots) around randomly, hoping beyond hope that they will come out right. But you need not do this; you do have freedom of will in this domain and you can deliberate and make intelligent choices here. There is a simple logic to ellipsis and you can get it right if you pay attention . See Turabian 25.3, pp. 352-58. Note the number of dots and the number of spaces, and notice where the spaces are. 1. The simplest case: you leave out a word or a few words, all within one sentence, and no comma or semicolon is needed: "Queen Elizabeth reigned happily and prosperously for many years." "Queen Elizabeth reigned . . . for many years." [THREE DOTS, FOUR SPACES: word, space, dot1, space, dot2, space, dot3, space, word.] THE FOLLOW ING ARE W RONG: W RONG: "Queen Elizabeth reigned...for many years." W RONG: "Queen Elizabeth reigned ... for many years." W RONG: "Queen Elizabeth reigned . .. for many years." 2. Slightly more complicated: you leave out a word or a few words within one sentence, but a comma or semicolon must be retained because of the grammar of the sentence that remains: "The team left, but unfortunately the mascot remained behind." "The team left, . . . the mascot remained behind." "Boris came home; he found work and later his wife joined him." "Boris came home; . . . his wife joined him." "Smith is thoughtful, Blake is colorful, Dodds is dramatic. "Smith is thoughtful, . . . Dodds is dramatic." Lets get dramatic about this so that we can remember the principle. This is the rule that applies here: the comma or semicolon cleaves to the word it follows; it clings to that word; it is attached to it; it will not let go; there is no space between that word and the comma or semicolon. After the comma or semicolon, however, the same rule applies as in case (1): space, dot1, space, dot2, space, dot3, space, word; three dots and four spaces. As a variant on this case, the comma or semicolon may appear at the end of the line of dots if words between the last word and the comma or semicolon have been left out: Johnson was fast and clever; the other players could not catch him. Johnson was fast . . . ; the other players could not catch him. Here you have: word, space, dot1, space, dot2, space, dot3, space, semicolon, space, word. 3. The third and most complicated case: your ellipsis leaves out the rest of one sentence and you include the next sentence in the quote. "He saw the event in all its splendor. He described it in his report." "He saw the event. . . . He described it in his report." [Note the two spaces after the last dot!] Here the rule is, again, that the period cleaves to the word it follows; it clings to that word; it will not let go; there is no space between that word and the period. Then, almost the same rule applies as in case (1), with only 4

one difference: there are two spaces after the last dot. I repeat: there are two spaces after the last dot. This double space marks the end of one sentence and the beginning of another. Also, the first word in the next sentence is capitalized. 4. A case in which no ellipsis points or ellipsis dots are needed: if your citation is obviously truncated, obviously not a full sentence, you do not need to insert any ellipsis points because the reader knows you must have left something out. The following passage is correct: RIGHT: Gibson says a certain kind of glass is translucent but not transparent. You should not write the passage as follows: W RONG: Gibson says a certain kind of glass is . . . translucent but not transparent. 5. Another case in which ellipsis points are not needed: Turabian says (p. 353) that if you leave out words at the beginning or the end of a sentence, you need not indicate this omission by ellipsis points. Suppose the original sentence is, There was chaos in the city and the mayor sought to encourage the police. You want to cite the last part of the sentence. The correct way to cite it is, RIGHT: The historian said, The mayor sought to encourage the police. 6. If you weave the citation into your own sentence, you should adjust the capitalization accordingly.

Heres a summary of the CORRECT forms for ellipsis. Use this summary to get a sense of the logic of ellipsis. She She She She She She worked worked worked worked worked worked carefully . . . and thoughtfully. carefully, . . . but nothing came of it. carefully; . . . nothing came of it. carefully . . . , and nothing came of it. carefully . . . ; nothing came of it. carefully. . . . The rest was up to chance.

REFERENCE TO CONTINUING PAGE NUM BERS You wish to refer to a passage in a book or article. The passage covers more than one page. For example, you wish to refer to a passage that goes from page 15 to page 18, or from page 32 to page 47, or from page 875 to page 954. How do you do this? Turabian gives the rules and a simple table illustrating them in 23.2.4, pp. 326-27. The basic rule that you will use most of the time is that you decline to two digits. Remember this slogan: Decline to two digits! Obviously, if two digits change, you change both of them (you write, for example, 58-69). But even when there is a change in only one digit, you still decline to two digits (lets hear it again!). The following are correct: 25-28 346-49 5653-57 You do not write the following: 25-8, or 346-9. You decline to two digits. But some exceptions are inevitable, especially when there are 0's in the page numbers. Suppose the first number is 100, 200, 500, or 6000. In this case, you use all the digits in the second number: 100-105 500-510 6000-6234 You dont write 100-5 You dont write 500-10 You dont write 6000-234.

Suppose the first number is 102, 205, 508, or 6003. Here you use only the changed digits in the second number: 102-5 205-67 508-95 6003-8. There is one more rule, but it will rarely come into play: if you have a four digit page number, and if three digits change, you write down all four digits in the second number. The following is correct: 8532-8641. But you probably wont use this, because there are very few books that have so many pages.

LOCATION OF REFERENCE NUM BERS Turabian 16.3.2, pp. 151-52. RIGHT: RIGHT: RIGHT: RIGHT: He found happiness late in life.1 He found happiness late in life (and almost missed it).2 As Oglethorpe said, "Nothing is the same anymore." 4 He found happiness late in life 5but it was too late. [This is done when the reference pertains to the part of the sentence before the dash.] . . . . . . . . . . . . late in life 1. same anymore" 4. same anymore". 4 He found happiness late in lifebut it was too late.5

W RONG: W RONG: W RONG: W RONG:

Do put the reference numbers where they belong. They are terribly embarrassed when they are out of place.

THIS Never (almost never) use the word this without specifying what kind of thing you refer to: W RONG: He returned and found the room a shambles. This bothered him. [W hat bothered him? Returning? Finding the room messed up? Returning and finding the room messed up? The room's being messed up?] He returned and found the room a shambles. This discovery bothered him.

RIGHT:

QUOTATION M ARKS, SINGLE OR DOUBLE Turabian 21.11, pp. 306-7, 25.2, pp. 348-52. Do not use quotation marks for block quotations. If you begin a passage with quotation marks, don't forget to put closing quotes at the end. If you have quotation marks at the end of a passage, dont forget to put quotation marks at the beginning. In American usage, double quotes are primary and single quotes are usually used only within double quotes. British usage is different in several respects. He said, "You won't get far; even if you think, 'I shall escape,' you will be caught." Double quotes are used even to set off single words. The philosopher tried to explain the nature of the "I." He thought it would be good to examine "mind." As noted below, periods and commas normally go inside double quotation marks, while colons and semicolons go outside. This practice is followed even when the double quotation marks are used to set off a single word or phrase. Turabian admits (21.10, pp. 305-6) that in some fields single quotation marks are sometimes used to set off words or phrases. In this case, the period or comma goes outside the quotation mark. He decided to study 'the mind'. 7

PUNCTUATION M ARKS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE QUOTATION M ARKS Turabian, same as previous item. PERIODS COLONS QUESTION MARKS and and and COMMAS SEMICOLONS EXCLAMATION POINTS go inside quotation marks. go outside quotation marks. go outside the quotation marks unless they form part of the quotation.

RIGHT:

Smith said, Dont go near the fire. Did Smith say, Dont go near the fire? Smith asked, How far can he go? Smith said, Dont go near the fire; then he left the room. Smith said, Dont go near the fire. Smith said, Dont go near the fire; then he left the room.

W RONG: W RONG:

W HICH AND THAT Turabian 21.2.3, pp. 298-99. A distinction is normally made between that and which when they are used as relative pronouns. Not all writers follow this rule, but it is generally accepted as good style. British style differs from the American on this point. That introduces a restrictive or defining clause, one that is needed to identify the antecedent:

He saw the cart that was being pulled by the horse. [W hich cart did he see? The one being pulled by the horse. The phrase is needed to identify the object. The phrase is restrictive or defining.] The river that lies between W ashington and Virginia is called the Potomac. Which introduces a nonrestrictive or nondefining clause, one that is merely added to the antecedent and is not necessary for its identification. A comma separates such nonrestrictive clauses from their antecedents:

Johnsons cart, which was being pulled by the horse, was filled with hay. [W e already know which cart is being referred to; its being pulled by the horse is just an added bit of information.] The river, which was at flood stage, was flowing very fast. In British style, which is often used in a restrictive or defining clause.

COM M AS AND INTRODUCTORY CONNECTIVES W ords like however , consequently , indeed , therefore , and rather , when used to introduce a sentence, should be followed by a comma; even thus should be so marked off when it is used as a conjunction, when it has the sense, "as a result" or "consequently," but not when it is used as an adverb in the new sentence: Furthermore, he returned to his fatherland. Indeed, we can see the results. And thus, they all went back to Abyssinia. Thus he saw the outcome of his folly.

THE FINAL COM M A IN A SERIES OF TERM S Turabian 21.2.2, p. 298. RIGHT: She bought a computer, monitor, diskettes, and software. (This is the Oxford comma. Its placed before the and in a list of three or more items. Many writers dispute this rule.) She bought a computer, monitor, diskettes and software.

W RONG:

A GENERAL RULE ABOUT COM M AS The following rule is taken from Margaret Nicholson, A Dictionary of American-English Usage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1957), a work based on Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage . "A comma should not separate inseparables, e.g. a verb from its subject or object or complement, a defining relative from its antecedent, or an essential modification from what cannot stand without it." W RONG: The charm of his history, is, its greatness. W RONG: A sheriff, who is dishonest, should be fired. W RONG: The king will, in no circumstances, agree to the plan. Thus, according to this rule, you should NEVER insert a comma between a subject and its verb between a verb and its object between a verb and its complement W RONG: The man who came to dinner, was tired. W RONG: The postman delivered, the letter. W RONG: The participants were, warriors.

Be careful about this rule. In complex sentences, commas often get inserted into such improper places.

PRESENT AND PAST TENSES W hen you speak about historical events, use the past tense; when you speak about someone's doctrine or ideas, use the present tense: The author lived in the sixteenth century and wrote six books; he says that virtue should be pursued and vice avoided and he thinks that society helps man become better. Aristotle was a student of Plato. Aristotle, in his ethical writings, says that virtue is different from selfcontrol. [Think of the author or the authors mind as being alive in our present time through his writings.]

USE AND M ENTION There is a difference between using and mentioning a word or phrase: USE: MENTION: MENTION: W e saw fifteen planes fly overhead. The term fifteen planes is ambiguous. The term "fifteen planes" is ambiguous.

Mentioned terms can be either italicized (or underlined) or put between quotation marks, but the trend is toward italicizing (or underlining). 9

STRANGE PLURALS Turabian 20.1, 284-85. W RONG: Pilots of 747's are well trained. W RONG: 1980's RIGHT: Pilots of 747s are well trained. RIGHT: 1980s

However, some writers, newspapers and journals do use the apostrophe. W henever the omission of the apostrophe would be misleading, it should be inserted. The following are correct: His way of writing a 's is strange. She gave a lot of C's and Fs in that class because the term papers were so badly written; the students were extremely careless in following the style prescribed in Turabian .

ITS AND IT'S ITS IT'S = = possessive; belonging to it: contraction of it is : You can tell a book by its cover. It's hard to face the facts.

In the case of it's , the contraction of it is , think of the it and the is as being squeezed together by massive forces that squash the middle i and slowly force it upward until only the dot and a little tail, the residue of the bottom stem, are left. The i is condensed into an apostrophe.

HYPHENS AND DASHES Turabian 21.7, pp. 303-4 Learn to distinguish between hyphens (-), which are short, and dashes, which are long. For most practical purposes, dashes are what one calls an em-dash. It was given that name back in the days when type was set by hand. This dash was the length of the capital letter M. It was distinguished from an en-dash, which was shorter, the length of the capital letter N. Hyphens are used in compound words and inclusive numbers: Dashes (em-dashes) are used to set off words and phrases: hard-and-fast, 89-94 He came exhausted and stayed. He arrived earlier than we expected and stayed. Turabian says you should not leave a space before and after an em-dash. I question whether this is good style. Some publishers do insert spaces there, as in this sentence: He came exhausted and stayed. I think it is more elegant to add such spaces, but for official CUA documentsthat is, for theses and dissertations one should follow Turabian. It may not be a good idea, but its the law.

FINAL REM ARK: ALW AYS REM EM BER TO PAGINATE YOUR PAPER.

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