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CNSA Style Manual
Chapter III -- CNSA Writing Assignments

Chapter 01 | Chapter 02 | Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 | Style Manual Index

 

 

As part of the Introduction to Counseling Research course, you will write three types of papers common to this field: a Journal Article Review, an Issue Paper, and a Review of Literature.  Each of these assignments is designed to help you learn and practice skills you will use in future writings.

This section of the CNSA web site is intended for use by all students enrolled in the CNSA program at Minnesota State University Moorhead.  The purpose is to provide downloadable templates to aid students in following APA writing style specifications in their course work.

You will need Microsoft Word® 97 (Windows) / 98 (Macintosh) or above in order to use the downloadable templates.

 

 

 

The Title Page

 

The title page should always be created separate from the rest of your paper.  By keeping the title page as a separate file you do not need to worry about the formatting differences between the title page and the body of your paper.  We recommend downloading the title page template below and then holding up a printed version to the course template that you received in CNSA 600.  Minor adjustments may need to be made due to differences in your printer, printer driver, and software.

 

downloadDownload the Microsoft Word template here.

 

The Journal Article Review

 

You will be writing a review of an article from The Journal of Counseling and Development or The Journal of Counseling Psychology.  This article must be a report of research. The paper must be no more than two pages long, excluding the cover page, and include a citation of the article at the top of the first page in APA style.  For the body of the paper, answer the questions below, and use the numbers given for your answers in the paper.  Have your instructor approve the article before your write your paper and attach a photocopy of the article when you submit your paper.

 

Elements of a Journal Article Review

  1. Bibliographic reference. APA style must be completely accurate.
  2. What is the purpose of the article?
  3. What are the major concepts, points, or findings in the article?
  4. How would you apply these concepts or findings to your counseling? Include three behavioral examples.
  5. What is your personal  reaction to the article, if any? Include three behavioral examples.
    The template link below contains all the formatting needed to complete a Journal Article Review. Again, your title page should be prepared separately from the paper itself. If you have questions concerning the formatting of this template, please see the formatting specifics section below.

downloadDownload the Microsoft Word template here.

 

 

 

The Issue Paper

 

In this paper you will discuss the pros and cons of a counseling issue.  It will also be two pages, one half page is devoted to the pro side of the issue, and another half page to the con side.  The third half page is devoted to your perspective of the issue.

 

The last half page contains the references.  It should include six to ten references from journal articles and books which you used in developing your discussion of the issue.    References may extend to a third page, but must start in the middle of the second page.  You need three different references for each side of the issue. Over 80% of the references must be journal articles.  Have the instructor approve your issue.  The issue must be a counseling issue only.

 

The template link below contains all the formatting needed to complete an Issue Paper. Again, your title page should be prepared separately from the paper itself. If you have questions concerning the formatting of this template, please see the formatting specifics section below.

downloadDownload the Microsoft Word template here.

 

 

 

The Literature Review

 

The purpose of the literature review is to demonstrate your ability to analyze and integrate professional literature.  The idea is not simply to list summaries of articles, but instead to synthesize your view of the significant findings from the literature.  The literature review is six to eight pages long (it will be 20 pages in your thesis).  You will need a minimum of 10 references for the six page review, and these references must be in APA style.  Each section, as well as the whole paper, need an introduction, discussion, and summary.

 

The faculty believe that every counselor needs to be able to think clearly, succinctly, and with vision.  Many great insights into counseling began with this type of paper, and you should expect no less of yourself.  You should think carefully about the topic for your literature review, as it may form the foundation for further research with the department or your program.  The topic for your literature review must be approved by your instructor.

 

The template link below contains all the formatting needed to complete an Literature Review. Again, your title page should be prepared separately from the paper itself. If you have questions concerning the formatting of this template, please see the formatting specifics section below.

downloadDownload the Microsoft Word template here.

 

 

 

Formatting Specifics

 

The following section goes further into the mechanics of how the templates above were created.  Please note that it is not necessary to apply any of the following steps to the templates above as they are pre-formatted.  You should, however, take the time to review this section in order to become better familiar with formatting your documents in Microsoft Word.

 

There are a few tricks in formatting APA style papers with CNSA modifications.  Microsoft Word has the ability to facilitate each of the formatting specifications necessary for your papers, however a little knowledge is needed first. Below are the steps to complete this process.  It is important to note that if you are starting a paper from scratch, each of the steps below must be completed in the order shown below.

 

Step One:

Setting the Margins

 

Once in Word, you will need to initially set your page margins to the desired specifications of 1" top, right, and bottom; 1.5" left.

 

  1. Click File --> Page Setup
  2. Under the Margins column (or button), set the top margin at 1, the bottom at 1, left at 1.5, and the right margin at 1.  (These are approximate settings, and will change depending on your individual program and printer.)
  3. Leave the header and footer at the default setting and click OK

 

 

Step Two:

Setting the Fonts

 

Next you will need to set your font to Courier (not Courier New), 12 pt.

 

  1. Click Format --> Fonts
  2. Change the font to Courier and the size to 12 pt.
  3. Click OK

 

 

 

Step Three:

Setting the Paragraph Formatting (double spacing)

 

Now you need to set your paragraph spacing to double

 

  1. Click Format --> Paragraph
  2. Change the line spacing to double
  3. Click OK

 

 

 

Step Four:

Setting the Tabs (above the fifth letter)

 

Within the body of your paper, a tab should result in the first tabbed letter residing above the fifth letter in the next line.  For this reason, we need to set the tabs to automatically move to this position.

 

  1. Click Edit --> Select All (now we have all the text highlighted so that we can apply the tab formatting to it all)
  2. Click Format --> Tabs
  3. Change the tab stop position to 0.41" and make sure that is the only tab stop listed
  4. Click OK

 

Step Five:

Setting a Hanging Indent for the Reference List (under the fourth letter)

 

Within the reference list of you paper, each second, third, etc. line for an individual entry should hang underneath the fourth letter.  This requires setting a hanging indent so that when typing your references, Word will automatically hang the following lines appropriately.

 

  1. Highlight your reference text ONLY (if you do not, Word will not know what text to apply this to)\
  2. Click Format --> Paragraph
  3. Change the Indentation: Special--> Hanging
  4. Click OK

 

Step Six:

Adding Page Numbers

 

We need page numbers on all but the first page of text, one inch from the right edge and one inch from the top edge.  This can be accomplished by setting Word to automatically add your page numbers.

 

  1. Click Insert --> Page Numbers
  2. Change the position to Top of page and the alignment to Right
  3. Make sure that Show number on the first page is not checked
  4. Click the Format button
  5. Set page numbering to start at 1
  6. Click OK

 

Step Seven:

Changing the Page Number Position (1" from page edges)

 

Next we need to force the page numbers to appear in the right location on each page.

 

  1. Click View --> Header and Footer
  2. Now double-click on the frame border (the broken lines making the box around the header) around your first page number (this will open the frame window)
  3. In the frame window make sure that the Horizontal Position is set to right, Relative to: margin (our right-hand margin is already set to 1" so setting this causes the right-side of each page number to align flush right on the 1" margin)
  4. Set the vertical Relative to: to page and then the Position to 1" (it is important that you set this relative to the page as your top margin may vary throughout your paper)
  5. Click OK to exit the frame window
  6. Click OK again

 

Step Eight:

Changing the Page Number Font (to match your body text)

 

Now we need the page number font and size to match our body text (12 pt. Courier)

 

  1. Highlight the first page number text (by sweeping and holding your mouse over the number itself)
  2. Once highlighted, click Format --> Font
  3. Change the Font: to Courier and the Size: to 12 pt.
  4. Click OK

 

Step Nine:

Creating a Second Section (to cause your body text to begin one line after the page number)

 

OK, after completing the steps above you may have noticed that your body text is starting each page on the same line as your page numbers.  What we need to do is to change the text settings so that is starts below the page numbers while keeping the first page text where it is now (because there is not a page number on the first page).

 

  1. Scroll to the bottom of your reference list (the end of your paper) and put your cursor at the end of the last word
  2. Click Insert --> Break...
  3. Select a Continuous Section Break, then click OK
    What is a Continuous Section Break?
    Good question! Section breaks allow Word to apply different settings to different sections, defined by these neat little breaks.  Say you wanted your first page to have a landscape orientation and your second page a vertical orientation. Adding a section break in between the two pages would allow you to accomplish that task without having to have a separate document for each page.  What does this mean for us?
    Well, our first page text needs to be 1" off the top edge, however the following pages need a little more distance to accommodate for the inserted page numbers. Instead of going through the hustle of having a second document for our first page, we are going to create two sections, the top with a 1" from top setting for the text and the second (the rest of the paper) with a little more.  This way you can type away and never worry about these settings!
  4. Now we need to set this section to have it's text a little over an inch off the top edge (to allow for our page numbers).  To edit a section's settings we need to be in Normal view, so click View --> Normal
  5. Now that you can see your section break, highlight it, then click File --> Page Setup.
  6. Under the Margins column (or button), change the Top setting to 1.3". 
  7. Make sure that the Apply to: is set at Selected sections (so that this top margin setting will only effect this section we have created)
  8. Click OK
  9. Click View --> Page Layout to see the change

 

Step Ten:

Changing the First Page Top Margin Back to 1" (necessary after altering it in step nine above)

 

After completing step nine above, you may have noticed that the first page text is now too low.  This is because we just moved it down to allow for the page numbers.  Problem is that the first page does not have a page number!  What to do?  You guessed it ... We need a second section!

 

  1. In Normal View, scroll up to your first page and put the cursor after your second paragraph
  2. Click Insert --> Break...
  3. Select a Continuous Section Break, then click OK
  4. Now that you can see your section break, highlight it, then click File --> Page Setup
  5. Under the Margins column (or button), change the Top setting back to 1"
  6. Make sure that the Apply to: is set at Selected Sections (so that this top margin setting will only effect this section we have created)
  7. Click OK
  8. Click View --> Page Layout to see the change