General Formatting and Typing

1-in. (2.54-cm) margins on all four sides of each page of the manuscript

font is the correct size (12 points on a word processor) and the correct style (serif typefaces such as Times New Roman)

double-spaced throughout, including title page, references, tables, and appendixes

page header is the first two or three words of the title

page number appears on the same line with the page header and is five spaces to the right of the page header

page header and page number are at the top of each page of the manuscript

one space after all punctuation marks

lowercase letters in parentheses have been used to indicate a series of events or items within a paragraph

words are not hyphenated at the end of a line

units of measurement have correct abbreviations

Arabic numerals have been used correctly to express:

• all numbers in the Abstract,
• numbers that are greater than 10,
• numbers that immediately precede a unit of measurement,
• numbers that represent fractions and percentages
• numbers that represent times, dates, ages, participants, samples, populations, scores, or points on a scale,
• numbers less than 10 only when those numbers are compared to a number greater than 10 (e.g., "Participants included 15 humanities and 3 natural science majors.")

words have been correctly used to express:

• numbers less than 10,
• numbers at the beginning of a title, sentence, or heading

Title Page

running head is aligned with the left margin and is equal to or less than 50 characters and spaces long

Abstract

word Abstract is typed at the top of the page

first line of the Abstract is even with the left margin

Abstract is 150 to 250 words

Body of the Manuscript

no one-sentence paragraphs

language is chosen to reduce bias

quotations are word-for-word accurate and page numbers are provided

word while is used only to indicated events that take place simultaneously (alternatives: although, whereas, and, but)

the word since is used only to indicate the passage of time (alternative: because)

terms that are abbreviated are written out completely the first time they are used, then always abbreviated thereafter

the word and is used in citations outside of parentheses

the ampersand (&) is used in citations within parentheses

when two or more citations are in parentheses the citations are typed in the same order they appear in the References section

each and every citation used in the manuscript is correctly typed in the References section

phrase et al. is used with each citation that lists six or more authors, and with each citation that lists three to five authors after the first instance of that citation

in the Method section the word participants is consistently used (do not use subjects)

in the Results section all test statistics (e.g., F, t, p) are italicized

References Section

all entries are typed in alphabetical order

every entry occurs in the body of the manuscript

authors' names are separated by commas

volume numbers of journal[s] are italicized

each entry is typed in a "hanging indent" format, meaning that the first line of each reference is typed flush left and every line after the first line of each entry is indented

names of journals, book chapters, and books are correctly capitalized