Misconceptions/Meaningful Learning Forum - Article Specifications

All articles must be submitted on a computer disk and on paper. These specifications are divided into three types: items which will receive priority treatment, items which are acceptable but may take longer to process, and items which are unacceptable.

Cover Sheet: Please include a cover sheet with each article indicating: Title, Author, Completion Date, Program and Computer system the article was produced on including programs any graphics were produced in, and the name of the file the article is contained in. If there is more than one file on your disk, please indicate the name of each file, what it contains, and the program that produced it.

Paper Stock: 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper with black ink.

Color: You may include color in your article. However, in the event that we release a print version, such a version is likely to be black & white and we make no promises about the appearance of color in black & white versions.

Margins: Left and right margins should be 1.25 inches. Top and bottom margins should be 1 inch.

Page Orientation: It is preferred if the entire article is in the portrait orientation. Mixed orientations are acceptable, but may delay processing.

Font: Any font which is allowed under the Cornell Graduate School's "Doctoral Dissertation, Master's Thesis, and Advanced Degree Requirements (October, 1992)" is acceptable. Palatino 12 is preferred. Times 14 is acceptable. Palatino 10 or Times 12 can be used for tables and footnotes, but we recommend that they be used sparingly. Times 10, Palatino 9 and their equivalents are never acceptable. You may use more than one font in an article, such as one font for the main text, and another font for titles, but please avoid typographic extravagance.

Disks: 3 1/2 inch disks are preferred. 5 1/4 inch disks are only acceptable if absolutely necessary and are likely to cause delays. 2 inch electronic typewriter disks are never acceptable. We currently must receive articles on a disk, and will not accept e-mailed submissions. Never send us the only copy of your article as disks can get lost in the mail.

Programs: Microsoft Word 5.1 or Word Perfect 3.1 for the Macintosh are preferred. Word or Word Perfect for Windows are acceptable. Other programs are probably acceptable, and may or may not cause delays.

Title: Center on the top of the page in bold type, one standard font size higher than the main text. In other words, if the main text is in size 12, the title should be in size 14. If the main text is in size 14, the title should be in size 18.

By line: Center one line below the title in plain type, same font size as main text, single space if necessary. Include name, institution and nation. You also MUST include a completion date. If you want readers to be able to contact you, include appropriate contact information.

Bios: Please include a short bio of each author at the end of the article.

Completion Date: You MUST include a completion date in the by line section of your article. You could include "Completion Date: 1-25-95", or "Date Completed: 1-25-95" where you would substitute the actual date completed for 1-25-95 in the example. This is critical. This ensures that should you submit more than one version of an article, we will easily know which version is the most recent one, and will be able to process the correct version without delay.

Abstract: You should write a short abstract for your article, and place it in the same document as your article. The abstract should be the first page and should include the same title and by line information as the article itself. If for some reason you neglect to write an abstract, we will copy the first paragraph or two from the start of your article as use that as an abstract.

Graphics, Graphs, and Tables: Graphics must fit within the standard margins. Graphics should be submitted in the document where they would be if this were a standard printed document. Graphics should also be submitted separately in a standard graphics format such as PICT or TIFF. Graphics do not always convert properly when they are inside a word processor program, so this measure makes it easier to fix a document under some circumstances. Also, if you are including a graph that was produced from a table of numbers, include the table of numbers in either a tab delimited or a comma delimited text file. Graphics should also be submitted separately in the printed copy, enlarged if the originals are small.

We recommend that all graphics be displayed in the format: dashed line graphic figure title as text, not in the graphic itself dashed line. This will ensure that the position and nature of graphics will be clearly marked in any text only versions.

Equations: If your article contains equations, please make a note of this on your cover sheet and indicate how they were produced. If possible, please include a table of equivalents to your equations that would display properly in a text file.

Justification: Full justification throughout the body, except tables and figures.

Spacing: Space and a half in the body of the text.

Paragraphs: Indent paragraphs. You must put a blank line between a section title and the previous text. It is recommended that you put a blank line between paragraphs of the main text because in the text only version, the blank line makes paragraphs easier to distinguish from each other, but this is optional.

Section Titles/Headings: CAPITALIZE and bold. If you have multiple levels of headings, use any formatting which easily allows the reader to distinguish between the heading types.

References and Footnotes: American Psychological Association style preferred. Please reverse indent your bibliography, or use some other means which clearly separates one reference from another. If you used EndNote Plus to create your bibliography, please send us a copy of a library which contains the references for your article, and ONLY the references for your article.

Page Numbering: If your word processor can include automatic page numbers in the footer, please put page numbers centered in the footer in the same font and size as the main text. Do not put page numbers directly into the text.

Length: Please limit your submission to thirty (30) pages including references, unless we have specifically requested otherwise. Articles less than 15 pages are preferred.

Quotes: You should consider using curly quotes, but this is optional. If you do use curly quotes, please remember that curly quotes are directional and need a different character for the open and close quote, i.e. ³². On a Mac, the open curly quote is Option-[, and the close curly quote is Option-Shift-[. (Note: as you can tell from this paragraph, the web currently does not know how to handle curly quotes, so regular quotes are fine.)

Editing: The organizers of the Meaningful Learning Forum reserve the right to edit submissions in order that they conform to these specifications. If there are questions concerning the format or these specifications please contact, Robert Abrams at (607) 255-9830 or miscon-seminar@cornell.edu. If you wish, we can arrange access to a manuscript editor at cost.

Please send your article to:

Robert Abrams

California Consortium for Teacher Development
Crown College/Education Department
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

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