I'm writing a spoof scientific journal/diary for my coursework at the moment, and to get top marks I need to be able to format it correctly. The layout of it is something like this: January 21st 2009' Blah blah blah January 23rd 2009 etc. - - - - - Do I need to indent the first line of every entry like I would for a new paragraph/line of dialogue? Or would it be acceptable to leave it like this? I forgot to include that I'm not sure whether to double-line space it or leave it as single. Any help would be appreciated.
Your teacher didn't give you specifics of how it should be formatted? Like double spacing, font size, and other such things? I would imagine you would indent the beginning of every paragraph, as that is the typical proceedure for most writing. I would leave at least two lines between the entry date and the start of the paragraph. And at least two lines from the end of the entry to the start of the next entry date (maybe even three or four lines at the end of the entry before the next.) I would ask your teacher about the double spacing. Many teacher perfer double spacing as to give them space to make comments in, as well as making it easier to read.
My teacher didn't give me any formatting guidelines because the nature of the piece has been left up to us. I know how to format typical prose, but I'm a bit sketchy because this is a different style. I'll just double space it and leave the rest how it is. Thanks for the help.
go to your library and check out 'diary' books [e.g., anne frank; bridget jones], to see the various ways it can be done... or, since the styling is up to you, just do it the way you might write diary yourself... you can also 'see inside' many books on amazon...
If you google "scientific journal" "format", it will give you a great link to abacus.bates.edu with all the info you need. Google is your friend.
