Guidelines for Academic Papers

7/24/2019 Guidelines for Academic Papers

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Guidelines for Academic Papers1. Overall Layout

The paper should include these elements in the following order:

Title page

Table of contents Text with footnotes

Bibliography (Works cited list)

Appendix (if necessary)

You are required to attach a statutory declaration of original authorship at the end of the

paper. The declaration is not part of the paper itself and therefore does not appear in the table

of contents and is not numbered as a page. A sample of the statutory declaration is included

on page 3 of this document. It must be signed in the original.

2. General Format

Students in the Masters Degree Program are required to compile a Hauptseminar-Arbeit of

about 40,000 characters or roughly 20 pages.

The paper has to be written in accordance with guidelines of the MLA Handbook for Writers

of Research Papers. Individual instructors may have their own preferences in terms of

margins, line-spacing, etc., but formatting should be consistent throughout the paper.

Type and print your paper in a clear, legible type such as Times New Roman/12pt or

Arial/11pt with 1 -line spacing. Use right and left justified margins that leave room for

comments: 2cm on top and bottom margin, 2.5cm on the left and 3.5cm on the right. Indent

the first line of paragraphs about 3.5 cm from the left margin. (MLA recommends that youuse the Tab key as opposed to a repeated use of the Space Bar).

The text should be divided into an introduction (thesis, methodology), a main body

(argumentation, examples), and a conclusion. Use numbered section headings and be

consistent in layout, especially if you work with multiple level headings (1., 1.1, 1.2, 2.

etc.).Also mark your pages consecutively with Arabic numerals. Correct page numbers should

be included in the table of contents.

3. Citing works

Please consult theMLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papersfor all standard citationformats:

Full title: Gibaldi, Joseph.MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7thedition. New

York: Modern Language Association, 2009. Print.

You will find copies in the department library under 07AM10/040/48

Other helpful resources:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mla
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mlahttps://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mlahttps://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/


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2.3. Title page

Single-spaced, flush left:

Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg

Institute for English and American Studies

[Semester][Instructor]

[Seminar with title]

14pt, 1-spaced, bold, centered

The title should be informative but not too long

12 pt, single spaced, flush right:

[First and last name]

[Street and street number]

[Zip code and city]

[Email address]

[Matriculation number]

[Course of studies, semester of study]

[Deadline]


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2.4. Statutory declaration

Attach a signed copy of the following statutory declaration at the end of the paper.

Wahrheitsgeme Erklrung

Ich erklre hiermit wahrheitsgem, dass ich

1) die eingereichte Arbeit selbstndig und ohne unerlaubte Hilfe angefertigt habe,

2) auer den im Schrifttumsverzeichnis angegebenen Hilfsmitteln keine weiteren benutzt und alleStellen, die aus dem Schrifttum ganz oder annhernd entnommen sind, als solche kenntlich gemachtund einzeln nach ihrer Herkunft unter Bezeichnung der Ausgabe (Auflage und Jahr desErscheinens), des Bandes und der Seite des benutzten Werkes, bei Internet-Quellen unter Angabeder vollstndigen Adresse und des Sichtungsdatums, in der Abhandlung nachgewiesen habe,

3) alle Stellen und Personen, welche mich bei der Vorbereitung und Anfertigung der Abhandlunguntersttzten, genannt habe,

4) die Abhandlung noch keiner anderen Stelle zur Prfung vorgelegt habe und dieselbe noch nichtanderen Zweckenauch nicht teilweisegedient hat.

Mir ist bewusst, dass jeder Versto gegen diese Erklrung eine Bewertung der eingereichten Arbeitmit Note nicht bestanden zur Folge hat.

Erlangen, den ..........................................

[The translation below has been closely translated to facilitate a better understanding of the document;

nevertheless only the original German document is legally binding.]

Statutory Declaration

I hereby declare truthfully that I have

1) composed the submitted paper on my own and without undue assistance,

2) not used other sources beyond those listed in the bibliography and that I have indicated all passages takenliterally or in paraphrase from secondary sources. Documentation of each passage by source includes naming

the edition (number of edition and publication year), volume and page of the work used or listing the

complete URL and date last visited for internet sources.

3) indicated all institutions and persons that have supported me in preparing and writing the paper.

4) not previously submitted the paper for grading elsewhere, nor has the paper, or parts of it, served any other

purposes.

I am aware of the fact that every violation of this declaration results in a grading of the paper as failed.

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Guidelines for Academic Papers