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SHORTCUT 38 Print a First-Class Final Draft No matter how objective the grader, a paper that's easy to read seems a notch better. So pay careful attention to formand your instructor's guidelines-in preparing the final draft. If you need to submit the paper on an electronic disk or as an e-mail attachment, make sure you know what word processing formats are acceptable. If it's wanted on paper, stick with white, unlined sixteen-pound or twenty-pound 8 V:z" by 11" paper. Use only black type for everything but color illustrations . Double-space and keep margins 1 ~ inches at the left and right and at least 1inch at the top and bottom. Unless your instructor states a preference, create an attractive cover page, centering the title on the page and putting your name under it along with the class name and other identifying information. Repeat the title, along with your name and class, at the top of all the pages of your manuscript unless you're told to do otherwise . Number all the pages. If your paper doesn't call for footnotes, end notes, or a bibliography , be sure to substitute complete reference information in the text right where you've keyed the first draft to your bibliography sheets. If you're expected to footnote or prepare a bibliography, and you haven't been shown how, use the following method. (Unless you've specifically been told to exclude a bibliography, prepare one. It usually reaps extra points.) Afootnote goes at the bottom of the page on which the reference appears, often separated from the text by a line across the page. An endnote is a footnote listed, along with the rest of your notes, at the end of your paper. (The footnoting tool in word processing programs, which can do both kinds, is a great timesaver once you learn how to use it.) If you have just a few 107 Copyrighted Material footnotes, you can use an asterisk (*) right after the reference, even if it's in the middle of a sentence, and another asterisk at the footnote. But for most papers, footnotes are numbered consecutively . (The numbers or asterisks go after all punctuation except dashes.) A bibliography groups all the references you used for your paper (whether referred to directly in the paper or not) alphabetically at the end of the paper. Though the paper may mention the author or title, these bibliography citations are neither starred nor numbered. A bibliography is often stylistically different from a list of endnotes in other ways, too. Here's a common way of listing a source in a bibliography: Fowler, H. W A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd edition. Revised by Sir Ernest Gowers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. Entire handbooks have been written about proper footnoting and bibliography preparation. If your instructor is a stickler for form, or your paper's sources are complicated, we suggest you refer to the handbook that's preferred in your school. Many schools use the Chicago Manual of Style. You can read footnoting rules and examples from it and from several other university style manuals online. Once your final draft has been checked, print it and read it again for typographical errors. If you find a better word here and there, make neat corrections in ink or, better still, print the page again. If a big change is needed, don't be lazy; make the revision on your computer and print the whole paper again. Hand it in-on time-and relax. You're bound to get an A. 108 Copyrighted Material ...

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