1. Formatting Your Compositions Correctly and Consistently
Manuscript Form
Formatting Your Compositions Correctly and Consistently

2. Introduction Manuscript:
Any composition that is prepared for someone else to read for
Grading
Publication
Editing
Etc.
Form:
Shape
Appearance
Structure
Model

3. Introduction
So, we need to be very careful about what our compositions look like when we write or type them:

4. Introduction It is Important to Remember:
You are creating compositions to communicate your thoughts, ideas, emotions, feelings, desires, or beliefs to another person.
Therefore, your compositions must be easy to read and the form must consistently follow the rules that the reader expects. Otherwise, you will not be communicating well.
Too many students forget this.
They don’t care/think about the reader at all.

5. Introduction
Different majors require different manuscript forms (often called “styles”).
Always make sure to check with the person or group to whom you are submitting your composition to make sure your form is correct. Ask if they have a “style guide” (for example APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)
It is your responsibility to make sure your form is correct.
I will be grading your manuscript form!

6. Introduction Think about it this way ….
You would not expect to get a job if you went to the interview dressed in a dirty t-shirt and ripped jeans!
Similarly, you should not expect your reader to respect your composition if you do not follow the rules for presenting it to them properly.
Readers expect your writing to look a certain way. If it doesn’t look how they expect it to, they will dismiss it.

7. Note: Libre Office
In this class, all homework composition assignments must be typed using Microsoft Office or Libre Office, but you are not allowed to use Hangul (.hwp)!
Hangeul is very powerful software for Korea compositions but it is not designed for English. If you use it for your English compositions they will look strange to native speakers.
A free download of Libre Office is available here:
Some of the settings might be slightly different from the ones you see here (which are from MS Office) but you should have no trouble finding them.

8. Handwriting mistakes

9. Common mistakes
This is real!

10. Paper Paper – Keep it Simple! Size: A4 Colour: White
Examples of some common mistakes students make when handwriting their compositions can be found in the book.

11. Paper
Incorrect
People who litter often thoughtlessly say, “It’s not my problem. Why should I care? It’s someone else’s job to pick it up.” We should be just as proud, however, of our schools, parks, streets, public buildings, and countryside, as we are of our own homes. Surely, the people who drop their garbage on the street don’t throw garbage on the floors of their own homes, or in their own gardens. Littering is bad for the environment and garbage is ugly to look at. No one wants to live in a dirty country, and no one wants tourists to go away thinking that a country’s citizens are dirty, selfish, and uncaring. It is up to each individual to do his or her best to keep our public spaces clean for everyone to enjoy. We should think of the whole country, inside and out, public and private, as our home. Instead of thinking, “Someone else will do it,” we should all think, “I can do it
myself!”

12. Paper
Before you print your homework, use the “Print Preview” function in MS word

13. Paper If you need to write on the back (usually you won’t!) Correct
Incorrect

14. Paper When you use more than one piece of paper:
Do not use paper clips and do not fold the corners over to keep the pages together!
Use one staple in the top-left corner.
A check mark like this means “correct”

15. Paper
Incorrect:

16. Margins Composition Space
Top Margin
Left Margin
Composition Space
Right Margin
Bottom Margin
The margins are the white spaces around the composition.
They form a ‘picture frame’ around your composition.
Make sure to check the margins carefully before you print!
All four margins (top, bottom, left, right) should be set to 2.54 cm (this equals 1 inch).

17. Margins – Text Alignment
The Left Margin should be perfectly straight. The Right Margin should not be perfectly straight! Use this:

18. Margins – Text Alignment
Can you see the mistake? People who litter often thoughtlessly say, “It’s not my problem. Why should I care? It’s someone else’s job to pick it up.” We should be just as proud, however, of our schools, parks, streets, public buildings, and countryside, as we are of our own homes.
← empty space

19. Margins (and Line Spacing)
Do not use the enter key at the end of every sentence!

20. Indentation The first line of every paragraph must be indented:
People who litter often thoughtlessly say ….
We create the perfect indentation by using the ‘tab’ key once!
This is a rule for this class only.
Indentations and tabs are not, in fact, the same, but we use the tab key to indent. You might have to set the indentation size!
Some styles will require smaller or bigger indentations. You must check with your professor!

21. Indentation Again, different style guides will have different rules.
In this class we use the tab key set to 1.27cm (1/2 inch)
½ inch
1 inch
Tab
Margins

22. Adjusting the Margin and Tab sizes

23. 1) Check the Margins A basic rule (the one we follow in this class):
The indentation is half the size of the margin.
Our Margins are 1 inch (2.54 cm)
So the tab (indentation) will be ½ inch (1.27 cm)

24. 1) Check the Margins
Click the ‘layout’ tab
Click ‘margins’

25. 1) Check the Margins These should all say 2.54 cm.
If they don’t, then you must click ‘custom Margins’ at the bottom.

26. 1) Check the Margins The custom margin window:
You can click ‘Set as Default’ which should mean that you don’t have to do this every time.

27. 2) Adjust the Tab Size for Indentation
Click this little arrow
The ‘Paragraph’ window will open.
Click ‘Tabs’

28. 2) Adjust the Tab Size for Indentation
Start with ‘clear all’
Set this to 1.27 cm
Make sure this is set to ‘left’
Click ‘set’
Click ‘OK’

29. Or …
Select the text that you want indented, then click Paragraph, and under Indentation set Special to First line and by at 1.27 cm.

30. 2) Check the Tab Size for Indentation
2.54 cm
1.27 cm

31. Indentations
You may need to check the autocorrect settings:

32. Line Spacing
All compositions must be double spaced! People who litter often thoughtlessly say, “It’s not my problem. Why should I care? It’s someone else’s job to pick it up.” We should be just as proud, however, of our schools, parks, streets, public buildings, and countryside, as we are of our own homes.

33. Line Spacing
How does this look? People who litter often thoughtlessly say, “It’s not my problem. Why should I care? It’s someone else’s job to pick it up.” We should be just as proud, however, of our schools, parks, streets, public buildings, and countryside, as we are of our own homes. But: All compositions in this class must be double spaced.
Indentation is good
Right margin is good

34. Line Spacing
People who litter often thoughtlessly say, “It’s not my problem. Why should I care? It’s someone else’s job to pick it up.” We should be just as proud, however, of our schools, parks, streets, public buildings, and countryside, as we are of our own homes.

35. Line Spacing
This is the easiest way to double space your compositions:

36. Line Spacing
Do not use the ‘enter’ key to double space your compositions!

37. Avoiding a Common Mistake
Too often I hear from students: “I didn’t do it. The computer did it!” Well … all that means is that they need to figure out how to change the computer’s settings to match the formatting required in this class (and other classes, for other teachers, or for other purposes. This is a necessary skill!)

38. Avoiding a Common Mistake
A common student ‘error’ is caused by Microsoft Word’s default settings. For some reason, in both Word 2007 and Word 2010, the ‘normal’ style is set for some very strange spacing.
The good news is, these defaults are pretty easy to change.
I’ll show you now, but I don’t expect you to memorize it. You’ll have to experiment with the settings to get it right (and look on the Internet for help if you have to!)

39. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style
First, right click the ‘normal’ box, and then click ‘modify’ 1. 2.

40. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style
Then, make sure to click ‘new documents based on this template’. 3.

41. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style Next, click ‘format’ followed by ‘paragraph’.5. 4.

42. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style
Adjust the ‘spacing’ so that both ‘before’ and ‘after’ are set to ‘0 pt’, and ‘line spacing’ is set to ‘single’.
[Even though we are double spacing our compositions, we will do that manually, later.] 6.

43. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style
Finally, after you click ‘OK’, (two times to get back to the document), right click ‘Change Styles’ and then click ‘Set as Default’. 7. 8.

44. Step 1: ‘Normal’ Style
Now, every document you create, should have this spacing set as the default and you won’t have to worry about it.
However, it is probably safer to save your changes as a ‘Quick Style Set’.
Then, even if the computer changes the settings to the awkward defaults, you can quickly change them back!
For example, I’ve saved the ‘text book’ styles so I can edit easily. With one click, I can replace the entire quick style set!

45. Step 2: Page Size and Margins
You may have to make sure that your page is set up correctly, too. On my computers the default page size is set to ‘letter’ (which is an American size that the rest of the world doesn’t use!), but, of course, it should be set to ‘A4’. This can be very frustrating when you print! See the videos on the blog site for more.

46. Titles
Titles should be centered on the first line of the composition Do not: Use a different font or size Title Put the title in quotation marks “Title” Or any other ‘marks’ <Title> You may underline your title if you want See page 17 for more (Capital Letters, especially)!

47. Step 5: Required Information
In this class, I want you to include 6 pieces of information in the top left corner of every composition you submit to me. This information is not required for photocopied homework pages from the text book, planning pages, short answer/fill-in-the-blank assignments, etc.

48. Step 5: Required Information
Notice that this information is single spaced!

49. Required Information
Just in case the previous slide was hard to see, at the top of every composition, you must include: Name: Student Number: Class: (use only 01, 02, or 03) Date: Teacher: Assignment: (usually the page number from the textbook)

50. Font Size: 12 point Style: use something simple like Arial Calibri
Times New Roman (for this class!)

51. Report General Presentation No cover page! By Timothy Main
Department of English Language and Literature
Blah blah blah blah blah

52. General Presentation
Manuscripts should not be folded:

53. The Final Manuscript Top Margin Left Margin Right Margin Bottom Margin
Name: Bill Smith
Student Number:
Class: 01
Teacher: Tim Main
Date: March 14, 2008
Assignment: Manuscript Form
Manuscript Form
A good manuscript should look like this page. Don’t worry if you make mistakes when you submit your homework compositions, but be sure that you can produce a good, easy to read, manuscript for the exams, or your grade will go down. The most important things to remember are the six pieces of information in the top-left corner of the paper, the fact that the first sentence of the paragraph is indented, and the composition is double- spaced. If your compositions look like this, I will be very happy and you will have a much better chance of getting a good grade.
Top Margin
Left Margin
Name: Bill Smith
Student Number:
Class: 01
Teacher: Tim Main
Date: March 14, 2008
Assignment: Manuscript Form
Manuscript Form
A good manuscript should look like this page. Don’t worry if you make mistakes when you submit your homework compositions, but be sure that you can produce a good, easy to read, manuscript for the exams, or your grade will go down. The most important things to remember are the six pieces of information in the top-left corner of the paper, the fact that the first sentence of the paragraph is indented, and the composition is double- spaced. If your compositions look like this, I will be very happy and you will have a much better chance of getting a good grade.
Right Margin
Bottom Margin

54. Reminder
These are very basic rules and some majors, disciplines, professors, publishers, etc., may require very different rules. For example, you may be required to ‘justify’ the text, or complete a specific title page (the 6 pieces of information on the top are for this class only), and so on. It is up to you to find out what these rules are and create your compositions accordingly.