GUIDELINES ESSAY
FORMATTING
Numbers of pages: 15-20 pp (including bibliography)
Font: Times New Romans 12
Line spacing: Exactly 14
Margins:
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Top 4 cm
Left and Right: 2.5 cm
Down: 3 cm
Footnotes style: Times New Romans 10
MAIN PARTS OF AN ACADEMIC ESSAY
Title Page: A title page should include the essay’s title (capitalized and centered from the top of the
page), your names with your student number below it (in a footnote, one for each student, indicate
your paragraph), and the course and instructor’s name with the date below it.
Introduction: it has three main goals: introduce your topic, introduce your thesis and the structure
of your essay.
Body of essay:
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Review of literature: the aim of this part of your paper is to show to your reader that you
have read the main published work concerning your topic.
Methodology: it refers to the approach to study the phenomenon or your topic. The
methodology refers to the theories at the basis of the techniques. We distinguish two main
approach: qualitative (interviews, focus group, content analysis, comparative historical
method) and quantitative (surveys, inferential statistics, multivariate statistics and
econometrics). You can also choose a theoretical approach.
Data: it is important introduce the data that you consider for your analysis and explain their
function in order to support your thesis.
Results and discussion: it is the most important part of your essay. You have to show your
main results and discuss them.
Conclusion: A conclusion is more than a summary, in this part of your essay you can reassert your
thesis or explain why the results are not in line with your thesis of hypothesis.
QUOTATION
I remember you that it is strictly forbidden to copy the ideas or part of published works in your essay.
It’s plagiarism! So you can, or better, you must quote the other authors in your work. How?
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Direct quotation: You must always cite a text or author when you are using direct quotations
(eg. repeating exactly what is in a book or article). These quotations must be placed in
quotation marks (“ ”) and will be followed by the reference information. When quoting,
always be sure to copy the quote exactly as it appears in the text.
“terrorism is an unmistakable phenomenon […] the search for a scientific, all-comprehensive
definition is a futile enterprise” (Laquer, 2004, p.238).
If the quotation is yet cited in another text, this is the correct form:
“The use of the word terrorism is usually unfocused, it usually has all kinds of implicit
validations of one’s own brand of violence, it’s highly selective. If you accept this norm, then
it becomes so universally applicable that it loses any force whatsoever. I think it is best to
drop it”1
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Paraphrasing: using your own words but the concept isn’t yours, so you may decide to
paraphrase the text. In this case, it’s important to put in parenthesis the author’s name and the
year of publication.
Les communiqués, par conséquence, véhiculent des informations sur les BR en étant
influencés par leurs représentations, car elles sont le résultat d’un processus psychique à la
fois conscient et inconscient (Carli et Paniccia, 2002).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APA Style
NB : Author refers to Last Name or Surname of the Author. N. means the name of the author.
Book
Author, N. (Publication Year) Title of work. Publisher City, State: Publisher.
If the authors are two:
Author, N. and Author, N. (Publication Year) Title of work. Publisher City, State: Publisher.
If the authors are more than two:
Author, N. et al. (Publication Year) Title of work. Publisher City, State: Publisher.
Edward Said, cited in “Environmental Terrorism: A Critique,” by Shannon O’Lear, in Stanley D. Brunn, ed., 11
September and its Aftermath (London: Frank Cass, 2004), p. 132.
1
Chapter of a book
Author, N. [it refers to the author of the chapter] (Publication Year) Title of Chapter. In Author, N.
[the book’s author] (ed.) [it means editor] Title of the book. Publisher City, State: Publisher, pp-pp.
[pages of the chapter]
If the chapter’s authors are two or more than two, we apply the same rules of the Book bibliography.
If the book’s authors are more than one, we put an “s” to ed so (eds).
Author, N. et al. (Publication Year) Title of Chapter. In Author, N. (eds) Title of the book. Publisher
City, State: Publisher, pp-pp.
Journal Article (scientific)
Journal in print
Author, N. (Publication Year). Article title. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Author, N. and Author, N. (Publication Year). Article title. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Author, N. et al. (Publication Year). Article title. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Journal online
Author, N. (Publication Year). Article title. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), pp-pp. doi:XX.XXXXX or
Retrieved from journal URL.
Agency’s Report
Institution. Report Title, Publisher City, Publication Year.
Yearbook
Yearbook title, Publisher City: Institution Publication Year.
N.B.: for the online resources it’s extreme important to indicate also the date of consultation.
Evaluation Criteria
1. Proper Terminology: the correct use of scientific language;
2. Clarity: refer to the language and to the ability to express the concepts in your own words,
3. Contents: check if the contents (concept, theoretical framework, methodology) are correct.
4. Coherence: refer to the pertinence of your contents to the topic
5. Cohesion: logic process of narration.
The score range for each criterion is show in the figure below:
The final mark is the sum of the 5 criteria.
POWER POINT PRESENTATION
Presentation time: 15 minutes.
Slides: 7