Style Guide

Cahier voor Literatuurwetenschap – Style Guide

A typical paper for CLW should be between 5000 and 8000 words including footnotes and bibliography. As CLW is an online publication, we can make exceptions to this word limit.

Articles can be in English, German, French or Dutch. For contributions in English, either UK or US spelling can be used, as long as it is consistent. Note that UK punctuation conventions will be applied throughout, for consistency.

Formatting:

  • Subheadings: Use subheadings rather than numbers for subsections. Use bold for subheadings.
  • Paragraphs: Align all text to the left. Double space the entire text, including footnotes. Indent each new paragraph and do not introduce an extra space between paragraphs. Introduce an extra space after subheadings, as well as before and after quotes.
  • Font: Use Times Roman 12 point, also for footnotes.
  • Quotations: Short quotations within the text itself should be marked as such with “double quotation marks” except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”. For ellipsis within a quotation, use ellipsis marks [...]. Lengthy quotations (over 60 words, around 5 lines) should be indented in the text as display quotes without quotation marks.
  • Punctuation: Unless the punctuation is part of the quoted material, it goes outside the quotation marks. Do not put a space in front of a question mark, or in front of any other closing quotation mark.
  • Italics: Use italics only for book and journal titles, and for specialist terms from other languages at first mention. Italics can also be used to accentuate certain terms.
  • Footnotes: Do not use endnotes, only footnotes. Try to restrict the amount of footnotes. Mention the footnote number after the punctuation mark.
  • Names: Give both first and second names of writers, artists, critics etc. at first mention.

Translations:

  • Give quotations in the original if they are in French, German, English or Dutch (CLW’s languages). If quotations are in another language, provide a translation in the language of your essay (e.g. a French translation of a Czech text when you are writing in French.).
  • If translation is required: translations of single words, short phrases or short sentences (max. 2 lines) can be provided in parentheses in text. Longer translations should be provided in footnotes. Use existing published translations or cite as own translation.

 Images:

  • Supply images (max. 3) as TIFFS or JPEGs at 300dpi.
  • Insert cues for illustrations images (fig 1, 2, 3 etc).

References:

CLW follows The Chicago Manual of Style with Author-Date references in the text. Please provide a complete list of cited works at the end of your article. For examples of references, you can consult The Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide.

Do not refer to sources in footnotes. You may use footnotes for digressions, but please keep them to a bare minimum. When referring to a source in a footnote use the same parenthetical system as above. Do not use ibid., op. cit., etc.