Society for Teaching and Learning
in Higher Education
Mills Memorial Library, L211
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, ON L8S 4L6
T: (905) 525-9140, ext. 20130
F: (905) 524-9850
Presenters
at the STLHE 2009 Conference, hosted by the University of New Brunswick, are invited to submit a
maximum 2,000-word paper based on their conference sessions for publication in
the Collected
Essays on Learning and Teaching (CELT). We are seeking papers suitable for a general
academic audience.
Submissions will be peer-reviewed
by faculty from across Canada. The
editorial board may approach proposal writers to request changes as
needed. Manuscripts may be in either
English or French.
Criteria for Manuscript Review and
Selection
Clarity and coherence of the submission.
Relevance to the 2009 STLHE Conference theme,
“Between the Tides.”
Relevance and usefulness to the intended
audience.
Contribution to scholarship and/or effective or
innovative practice(s) in higher education.
Deadline, Format, and Contact Information
The deadline for submissions is September 25, 2009.
Format
guidelines are listed below.
Submissions should be sent electronically to celt@uwindsor.ca on or before September 25, 2009.
CELT will be
published in CD format in time for distribution at STLHE 2010 hosted by Ryerson
University and Ontario College of Art and Design.
For more information, please contact Jessica Raffoul at celt@uwindsor.ca.
The printer-friendly version of this webpage provides a template which shows the formatting on a word processor that most closely replicates the printed appearance of essays as they will appear in the finished publication. Laying out your contribution in this way is of enormous help to the editors when preparing copy for the printer. The title of your essay should be formatted as shown above, centred, and with words uncapitalised apart from the first word of the title and the first word following a colon. Author’s name and affiliation follow after a line space, left-aligned, and formatted as in the example above. The abstract is justified at both margins, but the rest of the paper is left-justified only (i.e. with ragged right-hand margin).
Introduction
Contributions to the collection should be around 2,000 words (the absolute maximum is 2,500 words).
The writing style should be straightforward and aimed at a general academic audience.
It is perfectly acceptable to speak directly to readers in the first person ("In my experience . . ", "I suggest . . "), and authors should try to avoid extensive use of the passive voice that often characterises traditional academic writing.
The essay should make an argument in narrative form, and not overly rely on charts or bulleted lists.
We also strongly discourage use of acronyms, unnecessary abbreviations (e.g. "HE" for "higher education"), and jargon that might not be understood outside a particular discipline or context.
Use capitals sparingly (e.g. "director", "psychology department", not "Director", "Psychology Department").
Spelling should follow the usage in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (e.g. ‘behaviour’, ‘centre’).
Text Format and Layout
The text should be in Microsoft Word (no other word processing software, please!), using 12-point Arial type, single-spaced throughout, and with a single space between sentences. In the body of the paper all text is left-justified. All margins (left, right, top, and bottom) should be set at one inch.
Sub-headings
We can normally accommodate only two levels of sub-headings—major and minor. Major headings are left-aligned and bold-faced, while second-level headings are left-aligned and italic. Both types of headings are in lower-case, apart from the first letter and for words appearing after a colon or semicolon. There should be a line space between both major and minor sub-headings.
Third-order sub-headings. If it is absolutely necessary you may use a third level of heading, as shown here. These are in italics, flush left, preceded by a line space, and end with a period. Text continues on the same line as the heading, with no line space.
Paragraphs and Quotations
The first paragraph in a section has no indent, but subsequent paragraphs are indented by a half inch, except for those that immediately follow a quotation or bulleted list. As Jones (1983, p. 10) points out:
Quotations should be used sparingly, and only if they make their point in a unique way that you cannot easily summarise or paraphrase. Longer quotations, of a sentence or more, are indented on the left and are separated by a blank line before and after the quotation. Quotations in the text have a single inverted comma (double inverted commas for a ‘quote within a quote’) at the beginning and end, whereas longer, indented quotations do not. The reference for the quotation should include the page number(s) of the text, as in the Jones (1983) example above.
This is one occasion, as mentioned above, where a paragraph starts flush left (because it follows an indented quotation). Note that there is no line space between paragraphs, except in the case of indented quotations. Do not use one-sentence paragraphs.
Tables, Figures, References, and Other Matters
Tables and Figures
What we have here is two levels of heading, one following the other. The first is a main heading designating a new section.
Figures, tables, illustrations can be used if necessary, but should not be so plentiful as to overwhelm the narrative flow of the text. All tables are preceded by a number and title (e.g. Table 1 Survey of editors’ attitudes to different fonts), with the table number in bold, the title in italics, and no punctuation marks at the end of either. If possible the table should be incorporated in the body of the word-processor copy, not supplied separately.
In the case of figures, the heading format is the same, except that the heading goes below the figure. Complicated figures and illustrations must be supplied separately as camera-ready copy. The title for the figure should appear in the text at an appropriate place.
Very occasionally it might be appropriate to have an appendix for your essay (for example, if you are describing the development of a questionnaire you may wish to include it). However, remember that anything that appears in an appendix is part of the essay word limit.
References
Using APA style. If you use references they should be in the format recommended by the American Psychological Association in its Publication Manual, fifth (2001) edition, which is widely available in Canadian university libraries and bookstores. Authors' names and date of publication (see Cannon and Hore, 1997; Murray, 1997) are cited in the text (not in a footnote), and a complete list of references, which will generally be quite short, appears at the end of essay (see the example, below). A good way to see how references are cited correctly is to look at the reference lists in the many social science and education journals that use APA style.
Each reference starts with a hanging indent, and there is no space between entries. It is vital to check references in the text against the reference list. Reference lists that are incomplete, in the wrong format, or are full of errors and omissions greatly complicate the editing process and will cause delays in publication. Please try not to ‘over-reference’: include only those citations and references that are essential to your argument. This is especially important where references are obscure and would be hard for readers to obtain. Make sure that references to web sites are cited correctly (see the APA Publication Manual for guidance), and use them sparingly, since many web sites are ephemeral. Be sure to check the link before including any web citation.
Footnotes and Abbreviations
Footnotes should be avoided if it all possible (it is nearly always possible to include the relevant material in the body of the text) and should never be used for reference citations, which should be done as shown here (Jones, 1983). Try to avoid acronyms and abbreviations as far as possible, especially where they refer to organisations or institutions of largely local interest. When you use an acronym for the first time, follow it by the full name in parenthesis.
Author’s biography
This section should be quite short (one or two sentences) and describe the author's current position and academic interests as they relate to your contribution. You can see an example below.
References
Cannon, R. A., & Hore, T. (1997). The long-term effects of 'one-shot' professional development courses: An Indonesian case study. International Journal for Academic Development, 2, 35-42.
Jones, J. J. (1983). The art of laying out journals. London: Mystification Press.
Murray, H. G. (1997). Does evaluation of teaching lead to improvement of teaching? International Journal for Academic Development, 2, 8-23.
The Authors
Christopher Knapper Director (Retired)
Instructional Development Centre
Queen's University
Kingston, ON Canada
Joan Smith Psychology Department
University of Land's End, England
