PROOFREADING CHECKLIST

Format and layout

• The first lines of all paragraphs are indented by one tab.

• There is no extra line spacing between paragraphs.

• Use 2 pt. line spacing.

• Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font. (This is just to make sure that everyone hands in essays of equal length.)

• Number all pages, except the first.

• If you’re using footnotes, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc…)

Spelling and punctuation

• Numbers are spelled out when it is possible to do so in two words or less. (For instance, “22” appears as “twenty-two,” 2,000 appears as “two thousand,” and “117” is expressed in numerals.)

• The names of decades are spelled as this: the 1880s, the 2000s. (Note: there is no apostrophe (‘) in it.

• Quotations are placed between double quotation marks: (“…”)

• Commas and full stops appear inside the quotation marks ( ,” and .”), while colons and semicolons are placed outside (”: and ”;). Question marks appear inside the quotation marks if they are part of the original quotation; if not, they go outside.

• If you’re quoting a sentence but not in its entirety, it is not necessary to add ellipses (. . .) at the beginning or end of the quotation—only when you take out words in the middle.

• The titles of longer works (books) are printed in italics; the titles of shorter works (journal articles) are placed between quotation marks.