Style Guide for Submission of Online Scholarly Work
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

     For Students in the Communication Studies Department
                      at
     California State University, Northridge
     
                Version 1.1
              (15 August 1997)


About this Document
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    This document is formatted as a text-only ASCII document.  It will
    be "enhanced" for the WWW but otherwise presented as a
    preformatted text file.

    It is designed to illustrate style for online presentation.  Style
    is as important a part of communication in the online world as
    substance; often more important if the saturation of the Internet
    in commercial advertising is any clue.

    This document is designed as a set of guidelines for style in
    online submission of scholarly work.  It will be updated and
    developed further by the students and professor in this course. It
    is intended as a set of rules for the presentation of text-only or
    ASCII documents, such as electronic mail messages. It is not
    intended as a WWW style guide.

    Most of these guidelines should be followed by students making
    presentations over electronic mail.  It is not necessary that
    every mailing to a list be in strict conformity with these
    guidelines; these are intended for formal presentations only.

    This is not designed as a set of hard-and-fast rules about online
    submission of work; rather, this document is offered in the spirit
    of the RFC (Request for Comment) tradition on the Internet.
    Students in 454 are expected to take these guidelines seriously,
    but with issues of style there must always be some flexibility. 
    Thus while students should feel free to experiment with different
    communication styles for different scholarly purposes, students
    must make stylistic choices that have *some* rationale.

    Scholarly communication, unlike advertising, at least pretends to
    prioritize substance over style.  Style in academic writing is
    generally quite standardized -- there are certain conventions for
    references, abstracts, footnotes, etc. that are rigidly followed
    by editors, conference administrators, and class professors.  Such
    standards are in their early stages of development on the
    Internet.

The Standards
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    Consistency

        The key rule for any style standard is that whatever standard you
        use must be internally consistent.  This is true whether you are
        writing papers for hardcopy or to be turned in via electronic
        mail. Whether you use any particular standard format for citing
        URLs, for example, you should use that same format throughout
        your document.
        
    Text Editor
    
        It is assumed that you are using a text editor to format the
        documents you turn in over electronic mail.  Most text editors
        have useful features such as the ability to convert tabs to
        spaces and insert hard carriage returns in documents.  If you
        are using a word processor or an email program to format your
        documents you will find your formatting takes much longer than
        it would with a text editor.
    
        If you do not have a text editor, or you do not know what one
        is, visit http://www.vcsun.org/~battias/class/454/fall97/text.html and
        read on.
    
    Carriage Returns
    
        You should always use hard carriage returns when formatting 
        so that the text you enter into your text editor looks the 
        same as the text your colleagues receive when you send it
        via electronic mail.  Instead of letting your text editor 
        format the length of each line automatically, you can simply 
        insert a carriage return where you want it so that it will 
        always look the same no matter how it is read.  
        
        Many people are used to formatting "block quotes," or 
        indented chunks of text, by using the "Tab" key while 
        working in their word processor.  Do not do this or...
        
          you will get this:

        
                  1.  There are times, like the present, when we live with
            the           possibility of destruction that people become 
            crazed about           sexuality.       
             
          when you want this:
        
                  1.  There are times, like the present, when we live 
                      with the possibility of destruction that people 
                      become crazed about sexuality.
        

        Many text editors include a "hard wrap" feature that allows
        for an entire block of text to be formatted according to 
        a specified column length and indentation.  
        
    Spacing
        
        Double-space between major points to enhance readability.  If you
        have ten paragraphs to format, do not format them all one on top
        of the other.  Separate your thoughts with carriage returns.
        
    Indentation
        
        When you want to indent text, use spaces rather than tabs.  
        Many text editors have a "Detab" function that automatically
        converts tabs to a specified number of spaces; use this
        feature to insert spaces instead of tabs.  If you use tabs,
        many email programs will mangle your documents.
        
        A note about WWW Forms:  Many WWW-based programs which use
        forms input such as HyperNews do not handle indentation
        well.  If you are formatting your document for posting to
        HyperNews, you are better off avoiding indentation altogether.
        If you wish to indent, however, make sure to put hard carriage
        returns on every line, otherwise HyperNews will mangle your
        document!
        
    Source Citation
    
        Give as much information as is necessary about online 
        information you want to cite.  It may be helpful to use
        one of the many standards for Internet citation that have
        been published by scholarly organizations such as MLA, APA,
        and SCA.  
        
        If the information you are citing is accessible from the WWW,
        be sure to include the full URL of the document.  Do not put
        punctuation before or after the URL, except to enclose the URL
        in angle brackets like this:  <http://my.url>.  
        The reason for this is that punctuation may be misconstrued as
        part of the URL address.
        
        Examples:
        
            Steve Crocker, "Host Software" (07 April 1969).  Published
            as RFC-0001 on the Internet at 
            http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1.html.
            
            Steve Crocker, "Host Software" (07 April 1969).
            Available on the Internet at 
            <http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1.html>
            
            Steve Crocker, "Host Software" (07 April 1969).
            Available via FTP from <ftp://nowhere.org/rfc0001.txt>
            
    Emphasis
    
        Different kinds of emphasis are used throughout this document.
        Many de facto standards have developed such as the following:
        
        CAPITALIZATION:  Often used to indicate SHOUTING on Usenet and
                         electronic mail.  Not recommended for informal
                         emphasis; if used it should be sparing.
                         
                         Also sometimes used to indicate book titles
                         in reference lists; the same effect is also 
                         sometimes gained through _underlining_.
                         
        Underlined Headings
        ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
        
        (the above was developed using the tilde [~] character 
        to underline)
        
        Another Underline
        =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
        
        (annoying but it does the trick)
        
        *Italics*:      Well, sorta.  But the asterisk-enclosure 
                        standard has become pretty much the norm
                        on email lists and usenet.
                        
        Emoticons :^)   Pretty much anything goes that looks like
                        a facial expression.  Mostly for informal 
                        emphasis; should not be extensively used in
                        scholarly presentations.
                        
    Title, Authorship, and Date
    
        Formal online presentations must include a title and byline
        for citation.  You should also include your email address
        and the creation date of the document. 
        
        If the document is constantly updated, you may wish to include
        a "Version Number" in order to keep track of updates in a 
        "Version History" section of your document.






For Further Reading:
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        *  Pixie Ferris, "Writing in Cyberspace," 
           Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine 4:6 (01 June 1997).

        *  Chris Lapham, "Why the Book is Always Better than the Movie: 
           Guidelines for Developing Online Content," Computer-Mediated
           Communication Magazine 4:6 (01 June 1997).