English in Africa STYLE SHEET

Style Sheet

 We must emphasise that it is the writer’s responsibility to submit final copy that is of an acceptable standard in terms of language, style, and reference logic. Submissions that do not meet this standard may be returned for revision. If an acceptable standard is not subsequently attained, the essay will not be published.

 

Formatting

Please do not use Automatic Styles, right-line justification and the like – they frequently prove difficult to remove and simply interfere with the copy-editing process.

Use 12pt font, other than for indented (that is, block or set-off) quotations, endnotes and the Works Cited list (which require 10pt font). Use the Times New Roman font style.

Apart from single spacing for set-off quotations, endnotes, and Works Cited, use 1½-line spacing throughout. Do not insert an extra space between paragraphs. Instead, use an indent at the start of each new paragraph. Do not indent the opening paragraph of sections in an essay.

Ellipses

If material is to be omitted within a sentence in a quotation, indicate the omissions in square brackets containing three evenly spaced dots:   “Ellipses [. . .] usually signify that words have been omitted from a direct quotation.”  Should words be omitted from the end of a sentence, place a period after the square brackets containing the evenly spaced dots: “It is not passive but active [. . .]. It is not imitative but creative.”  When words are left out after a grammatically complete sentence, the period precedes the square brackets: “The slash is a diagonal line also called a virgule or solidus (/).[. . .] There is a space before and after the slash only in quotations of poetry.”

Endnotes

Use endnotes sparingly and only when the material in question cannot be incorporated into the main text by means of a parenthetical reference.  Endnote numbers in the main text should follow all punctuation and bracketed references.

Quotations

Use double quotation marks throughout.

In the case of run-on (or in-text) quotations, place any punctuation marks after the closing parenthesis of the reference: “When an ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use the ellipses followed by the end of sentence punctuation” (DiYanni and Hoy 589). Make sure run-on quotations fit the syntax of your sentence.

Where quotations themselves include quoted material, place the latter in single quotation marks.

For cited material longer than four typed lines, skip a line and then indent each line of the quotation. Do not use quotation marks for indented quotations.

Here, as a sample of what Ndebele means by “spectacular representation,” is the description of the white woman:

She had a round-shouldered, thick body and reddish-complexioned face that looked as if it had been sand-blasted into its component parts: hard plains of cheeks and knobbly cheek-bones and a bony ridge of nose that separated twin pools of dull grey; and the mouth a bitter gash, cold and malevolent as a lizard’s, a dry chapped and serrated pink crack.

(90)

Note that the quoted passage is set in 10pt font.  Also note that additional information (in the form of a page reference) has been inserted in round brackets after the final period of the quotation. In the case of run-on quotations, such additional information is inserted before the period at the end of your sentence.

 

Parenthetical References

When citing borrowed material within the text of your essay, identify the author and the page number immediately following the borrowed material (MLA 9th edition): for example (Coetzee 67).  Avoid redundancy of reference, though.  If the author is named in the text, or a title referred to, do not repeat this information in the parenthetical reference.  In such instances, cite only the page number in parentheses.

If more than one work by the same author is referred to, the work’s title, or a shortened version thereof, is included after the author’s name: for example, (Coetzee, “Farm Novel” 17).

Place parenthetical (or in-text) references at the end of the sentence or at a natural pause within the sentence. Should it follow a quotation, place the reference after the closing quotation marks.

In terms of punctuation, treat an in-text citation as you would a page reference.  With run-on quotations, place any punctuation marks after the closing parenthesis of the reference: “When an ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use the ellipses followed by the end of sentence punctuation” (DiYanni and Hoy 589). And, with an indented quotation, the period is placed before the opening parenthesis of the in-text citation: 

Observe the following procedure for the use of block quotations:

Set off quotations of more than four typed lines or forty words from the rest of your paragraph by indenting each line of the block quotation ten spaces. [. . .] Like other incorporated material, block quotations should be introduced to ensure that they fit in with the rest of paragraph and should include parenthetical documentation

(DiYanni and Hoy 7)

Unless an in-text citation or page reference is required, place the punctuation mark inside the closing quotation marks in the case of run-on quotations: “Do not place quotation marks around a block quotation.” 

In parenthetical references, do not use ‘cf.’ unless the work referred to offers a contrasting perspective.  For simple bibliographical support of some or other contention, opinion or notion, use ‘see.’

In this form of in-text citation, the date of publication follows the name of the publisher in the bibliographical entry:

Baldwin, Mark. “The State of Art.” Literature and Politics, edited by John Howe.
University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 66–82.

 

When citing from an indirect source, use the abbreviation ‘qtd.’ followed by the source:

According to Coetzee, South African literature is a “literature in bondage” (qtd. in Baldwin 67).

 

In referring to two or more sources, separate the information by means of a semi-colon: (Baldwin 67; Coetzee 98–99).

 

Works Cited

The publication uses MLA 9th edition throughout. For guidance, please refer to:

Please note that place of publication is no longer required.

 

List your sources at the end of the document under the title WORKS CITED (using 10pt font). Arrange entries in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames. For journal article, please include DOIs, where available.

 

For internet sources, please place the URL within angular brackets <>. When the URL of a document is very long and complicated (for example: http://aca.ru/org/links%blur/%23518%#A-98kllxx%_ZCXAD%%/lec.??/ catalan%blogmag/%/content), replace it with the URL of the site’s search page (for example: <http://www.jstor.org/search>.).

                                                        

Mike Marais
2007, 2009

Updated: Sophy Kohler 2022

 

GENERAL, HOUSE STYLE AND CONSISTENCY

 

ABBREVIATIONS

When using abbreviations always use accepted forms. The MLA Handbook 8th edition contains a handy list of acceptable abbreviations, found in pages 95-101. Do not use periods after, or spaces between, letters when abbreviations are predominantly capital letters UNLESS the abbreviation is the initials of a person’s name, then a period and a space follow each initial.

 

ABSTRACTS
200–250 words

 

AUTHOR BIOS
50–100 words

 

CAPITAL LETTERS
First World Third World
Parliament (singular/specific) the High Court decision
a particular Constitution, but constitutions generally

 

DASHES
en-dash (with spaces) or em-dash (no spaces) in sentences?
e.g.
Use en-dash with space either side, such as:
‘writing still holds urgency and relevance today – as testified to by J.M. Coetzee’s 2022  novel…’ (Kusek EiA 50.2)
instead of:
‘I could feel my finger-tips on them as if they were sensitive piano-keys—a sensation I never had…’ (Lindfors)

 

DATES
12 May 1865
1994–99 (en rule; elided)

 

FOOTNOTE NUMBERS
follow end punctuation at the end of the sentence .8 or after a colon: 9

 

INITIALS AND SPACES
J.M. Coetzee or J. M. Coetzee?
V.S. Naipaul or V. S. Naipaul?
If initials are used conventionally in a name, as in these examples, do not use spaces between initials. Use a space between the period after the final initial and the surname, as in these examples:
  1. E. K. Mqhayi, A. C. Jordan, J. M. Coetzee à S.E.K. Mqhayi, A.C. Jordan, J.M. Coetzee.

 

NUMBERS
1–9 in words
10+ in numerals

 

ONE WORD / TWO WORDS?
abovementioned
in so far/inasmuch
online/offline
policymaker
roleplayer
worldwide

 

PEOPLE GROUPS / RACE
Use lower case for colour or local usage, as in black, coloured, white. Use upper case for ethnicity or geographical region, as in African, Indian.

 

With the 9th edition (2021), MLA has updated its advice to the following: “When the dictionary gives both the capitalized and lowercased form as acceptable options—as many do for black and Black, for example—choose one and be consistent. If you are working directly with an author or discussing a person or community whose preferences are known, however, follow that preference” (p. 91).

 

PRESS or P?
Oxford UP (not Oxford University Press)
State U of New York P (not State University of New York Press or SUNY Press)
PU de Grenoble (not Presses Universitaires de Grenoble)

 

But for other academic presses and for nonacademic presses that have Press in their names, spell out Press:

Academic Press
Belknap Press
MIT Press
New Press

 

RANGES
Use an en rule, unspaced, to indicate a range (eg 6–10, 2010–2014).

 

RE OR RE-
reappear, reintegrate, reorganise
re-edit, re-educate, run-on
SPELLING
UK, not US spellings (-ise, -yse)

Updated: Carol Leff 2024, David Attwell 2024

 

 

Last Modified: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 18:39:23 SAST