Guidelines for writing term papers in English (ca. 4000-8000 words)
General:
Please leave a wide margin (at least ⅓ page) on one side of each page.
The main words of the title of your paper should start with capital letters.
Names of books are printed in italics (without inverted commas).
Names of essays, poems etc are given in inverted commas.
If you divide the paper into sections, you can give a table of contents at the
beginning, but in arts papers in English we do not usually number the sections.
Give a full bibliography at the end, and remember to certify that you have not
plagiarized (all sources must be acknowledged).
Format:
Use standard fonts between 10 and 12 point.
Use double spacing.
Paragraphs after the first must be indented in English written or printed texts.
Do not leave an extra line between paragraphs.
Never split words with hyphens at the ends of lines in English.
Quotes:
Give quotes in the text in inverted commas (always at the top in English).
Quotes longer than three lines should be given single-spaced and set in from
both margins without inverted commas with a free line before and after them.
Quotes should always be long enough to make grammatical sense and not
distort their original meaning. Quotes included in your own sentences must fit
grammatically. Any changes made to quotes must be marked in square
brackets.
Quotes must have references after them in brackets. References without direct
quotes should be preceded by cf.
Writing:
When talking about texts use Present tenses (the usual past tense rules — see
Life Raft — and one tense into the present).
Use academic register (no colloquial words, no contractions, no note form).
After a colon (:) we use a small letter (unless it's a new sentence beginning a
quote).
Between main clauses without a conjunction you need at least a semi-colon (;).