This page is an adaptation of Sonoma State University geographer Brian Baker's page.
Spelling & Punctuation
It's = it is -- only used as a contraction. Its is the possessive form (e.g., "its mapping program," where its refers to an agency). Any time you use it's, see if substituting "it is" makes sense. If not, use its.
Their = a possessive pronoun. As such, it shows possession (e.g., "their cuisine," which means you are referring to someone's, maybe the Italians,' cuisine). Any time you use their, see if substituting would require the use of an apostrophe. It should.
"There" is not a possessive pronoun. It does not show possession or ownership. "There" is not a contraction. It does not mean "they are."
They're = a contraction of "they are." Do not contract "they are" and you will avoid making this mistake.
The plural of "country" is countries.
The possessive form of "country" is country's.
The possessive form of "countries" is countries'.
A spell check tool would not catch the common errors mentioned above. The lesson here is that you must proofread your writing before submitting it.
Capitalizing: capitalize only proper nouns, i.e., names of specific things -- the European Union is one object, but geographic information systems and biology aren't, so don't use initial capitals.
Word Use
Affect is a verb; effect is almost always a noun (e.g., "the effects of timber harvesting"). Effect is often used when affect should be. For example, you should write, "The location of coal deposits affected the diffusion of industrialization." Don't use effect as a verb except in the sense of "brought about" or "created", e.g., "His new personality was effected by Prozac."
Invigorate your writing by regularly referring to a dictionary or thesaurus. Most of you have a thesaurus included among your word processing program's tools. Use it! Repeated use of relatively few words makes for boring papers.
Avoid beginning sentences with the word "The".
Grammar
Two spaces between sentences is the accepted practice. Two spaces make it easier to separate sentences.
Watch for verb-noun agreement errors. The British Isles are, not is.
Style
Long, complex sentences: Break these into two or simpler sentences. Long sentences are difficult for readers to follow. Newspapers are some of the worst offenders, by the way!
Avoid passive voice whenever possible. Example of passive: "The coal deposited were exploited by incipient industrialists." Active substitute: "Incipient industrialists exploited coal deposits."
Usage of first person (I, my, we, our) is becoming more accepted, even in formal writing. Use it to avoid passive voice. Avoid second person, generally ("You should consider...").
Very, extremely, totally, wholly, hugely, etc.: avoid use of superlative words like these when possible. They often are superfluous and/or pretentious. Instead of saying, "the initial cost of infrastructure is extremely expensive," just say, "the initial cost of infrastructure investment is high."
Also avoid empty modifiers such as different and various.
There is (are, was, were)...: Reword sentences beginning with "there is" whenever possible. This construction is distracting and boring. Example: "There are many different landscapes in France like bocage, forested uplands, elite, coastal fringes ..." Substitute "France's landscapes include like bocage, forested uplands, elite, coastal fringes ..."
This/these used at the start of a sentence or phrase should usually include a reference to what they mean. Example: "This is helpful in estimating the cost of a GIS." It's often unclear what "this" refers to. Say instead: "This knowledge..." Do this even if it sounds somewhat redundant (i.e., like you are repeating yourself).
Opening sentences in papers are often too obvious and boring.
After
you write a draft, ask yourself if dropping the first sentence or two
would
be more effective. Example of unnecessary opening sentence: "The
world
is becoming a very complex place, and technology can help us manage our
world
more effectively."
Bibliography
Citations in the text should use the author-date system: "Columbus discovered America in 1492 (Cortez 1993)," or "Cortez (1993) proved that Columbus discovered America in 1492."
Do not use journal title, article title, etc., and omit page numbers unless the reference is to a book. Also, cite source near the beginning of your discussion of it, not at the end of the paragraph.
Bibliography: scientific papers usually list only works actually cited in the paper, and the list is usually called something like Literature Cited or References.
Bibliographic entries should include all authors (do not use et al.
in
bibliography), year, and title of work. For articles, also include
title of
journal, volume (often neglected), issue number if paginated
separately, and
page numbers. For books, also include publisher and city where
publisher located.
For chapters in books, include title of edited volume, editor(s),
publisher
and city where publisher is located. For journals, underline (or
italicize)
name of journal; for books and chapters within books, underline (or
italicize)
the book title. Do not put article titles in quotes. For
complicated
cases, see the Chicago Manual of Style.
Some basic examples:
Article in journal:
Nyerges, T.L. 1991. Analytical map use. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems 18: 11-22.
Book:
Langran, G.E. 1991. Time in geographic information systems. London: Tayor & Francis.
Chapter in edited volume:
Coppock, J.T. and Rhind, D.W. 1991. The history of GIS. In Geographical information systems: Overview, principles and applications, eds. D.J. Maguire, M.F. Goodchild, and D.W. Rhind, pp. 21-43. Harlow, Essex: Longmans.
Government report:
Anderson, J.R., Hardy, E.E., Roach, J.T., and Witmer, R.E. 1976. A land use and land cover classification for use with remote sensor data. Geological Survey Professional Paper 964. Washington, DC: US Geological Survey.
World Wide Web page:
EPA Environmental Research Laboratory. 1994. Image processing
workbench. Dated 12 June. Accessed at
http://morpheus.cor.epa/gov/pub/misc/ipw on 23 October 1997.
Format of Papers
Double space papers for any class unless otherwise instructed.
Single (or
1.5) spacing makes it difficult to comment. It really doesn't use that
many
more trees!
Page numbers: all pages in a paper or report should be numbered, except
for
title page (if included). It's difficult to refer to pages unless they
are
numbered. Computer usage seems to have caused a decline in page
numbering!
Cover sheets are unnecessary for almost all papers -- save resources
here!