By Becky Presnall
Maybe you’ve finished your paper, and this is the final step that remains between you and turning it in, or perhaps you haven’t been able to start yet, daunted by the prospect of what awaits. Either way, at some point in the composition process, you are faced with the time-consuming, detail-oriented task of formatting.
Now, I could give a list of reasons why formatting is incredibly important, whether it has to do with discipline-specific priorities and needs, professionalism, avoiding plagiarism, or a host of other causes. But the fact of the mater remains that, especially if it’s a style that you are unfamiliar with, this can easily become a part of the writing process that bogs you down. So on that note, this week’s article is about making that step a bit less intimidating by offering some resources that can help you in your quest for formatting knowledge.
Zotero
Zotero is an incredibly helpful program which can save data from your source material and then use that to generate and insert either citations or even entire bibliographies (in a variety of styles) into your document. It is free to access through Baylor University and can prove a time-saving resource, especially when working on longer projects. You can find a helpful tutorial for how to access and use it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i24iDJ4A5c.
Purdue OWL
Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a host of resources for formatting papers and creating citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and many other styles. Something that I’ve personally found helpful many times in the past is the examples it provides for formatting each kind of resource, showing what type of information about source material should be noted for future bibliographic entry.
Style-Specific Manuals
When in doubt, go to the manual. Many disciplines have specific styles that they use, so investing in a style manual for the particular method of your field can often be worthwhile. However, as you look for this, do make sure to find the most recently-updated version, since most styles tend to release a new edition every few years.
Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines Page
If you are writing your dissertation or thesis for Baylor University, these documents have a formatting style all their own. As a result, you’ll want to take advantage of the resources offered by the Dissertation and Thesis Office on their “Formatting Resources” page: https://graduate.baylor.edu/formatting. There you can find PDF guidelines for both Dissertations and Theses, as well as videos on front matter, headings, and triple spacing. They also offer formatting workshops at the beginning of each semester, so keep an eye out for when those become available for registration.
Baylor Libguides
The Baylor Library offers many helpful guides that are accessible 24/7 to students and can be found here: https://libguides.baylor.edu/. Under “Citing, Writing, and Publication,” you can find their formatting guides, as well as a list of citation managers with their compatible browsers and more resources on installing and using Zotero. You can also reach out to the library to inquire about the resources they offer and where to find them through their “Ask Us” page (https://libanswers.baylor.edu/ask).
University Writing Center
On the University Writing Center’s (UWC) “Resources For Writers” page (https://uwc.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/resources-writers), you can find links to information on MLA and APA formatting, as well as some strategies for integrating source material once you have crafted your citations. These are available 24/7 for student access, and are helpful references in the writing process.
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Now, when you look at these resources, don’t just pick a random one off the list and commit to that resource and that resource alone for the rest of your life. Take your time, investigate them thoroughly, try things out and see what works best for you. Because at the end of the day, the best way to go about formatting is the way that gets the job done, and that method can differ from person to person. So use this article as a starting place for learning more about yourself and your writing process, and you might just discover something helpful along the way.