If you are interested in contributing to RE:Reflections and Explorations please keep in mind the following guidelines and contact Regina Naff.
General Guidelines
- All VT graduate students are eligible to offer essays, but we particularly encourage those in ASPECT, Human Development, P G and G, Public Administration and Public Policy, Political Science, Rhetoric and Writing, Sociology, and Urban Affairs and Planning to submit commentaries
- Topics need to be germane to the Institute’s vision and mission (posted on our website)
- Analytical rather than polemical pieces
- Approximately 750-1,000 words
- Due Monday of the week promised for publication on Thursday
- For ideas on the sort of effort what we have in mind see Soundings Commentary
- VTIPG reserves the right to edit, accept/reject all pieces submitted.
Formatting Guidelines
- Please use 1.25 margins, 1 inch at bottom and top.
- Please use 12 point New Times Roman font.
- Please use endnotes and not footnotes, see below. When using endnotes, please use Arabic numerals.
- Please double-space all material, including endnotes.
- Justify only the left margin (not the right).
- Use tab function for paragraph indentation.
- When quoting 5 lines or more of prose (generally more than 40 words) indent from the left margin and drop the quotation marks. Single space block quotations.
- Subheadings should be set in uppercase and lowercase letters. Do not number subheads.
- Attach note numbers to text only and not to headings, titles or figures.
- Keep heading and essay titles succinct
- Do not use (serial) comma before the conjunction in a series of three or more elements in a sentence. Exceptions may be made if meaning changes without the serial comma (example: I’d like to thank my parents, Robert Louis Stevenson, and God. Without the serial comma we would have: I’d like to thank my parents, Robert Louis Stevenson and God.)
- If you reference a page or text with a URL, provide that URL and note where it should go in your final text
- Include a brief bio noting your degree program, undergraduate degree (and Master’s where appropriate) and where earned as well as your interests.
- Use in-text parenthetical citation style as follows: (Kirakosyan 2014, 34). The period comes after the citation at the end of a sentence. The exception is for block quotations; for them, the period at the end of the sentence comes before the parenthetical citation.
- Please use a reference list at the end of your essay. Refer to the Harvard University Press guidelines (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/resources/authors/pdf/hup-author-guidelines-author-date-citations-and-reference-lists.pdf) for style conventions.
- Place page numbers bottom center and please do not paginate the first page of your essay.
Dr. Max Stephenson, Director of VTIPG, serves as editor of all pieces submitted.