Whys and Wherefores of Using Standard Manuscript Rules

A manuscript is defined as an author’s copy of his work written by hand or typewriter which is used for the basis for typesetting.

When you write a story, book, poem, play, or any other type of work that may be published, you submit the work to an editor in the form of a manuscript.

When you submit a paper to a teacher, you submit it in the form of a manuscript. The form you will use is standard manuscript form.

***

*You must use double spacing for a manuscript. Do Not use single spacing, one-and-a- half spacing, or triple spacing.

Reason: Double spacing allows room for corrections and insertions. (Triple spacing puts too few lines on a page for the editor or the teacher to feel continuity of thought.)

*You must use a standard style type face. When you have the wide choices of type found on many computers, choose clean, clear type face such as Times Roman or Helvetica.

Reason: These are easy to read.

Things you do not do on a computer, typewriter, or word processor:

Do not use type larger than standard twelve points or smaller than standard ten points.

Reason: Difficult to read. Large type is used for headlines and advertising copy. The smaller type is used for classified advertising and public notices.

Do not use italic, script, or any other fancy type face.

Reason: Difficult to read. Even a magazine uses such faces for brief accents only. Exception: You may italicize titles that are normally underlined (book, movie, ship, etc.)

Do not use boldface type except to stress a single word.

Reason: Difficult to read. In a published work, bold face is used for accent or stress only as I am doing here.

Do not change type faces.

Reason: Even a newspaper does this only to differentiate headlines from the body of a story.

Do not use illustrations or other adornments or embellishments.

Reason: These are reserved for published works or special presentations. Such things are great when properly used, but they are not properly used in a manuscript or English paper.

If you are writing by hand, do not use drawings or cut-out published illustrations.

YOU WILL FIND THAT STANDARD MANUSCRIPT RULES WILL BE USED THROUGH COLLEGE. YOU WILL EVEN USE IT FOR POST-GRADUATE WORK.

Elizabeth McBroom