Carpenter Document Consulting

According to the calendar, it’s still spring. However, in academia, it’s summer, and many students are enjoying a respite between semesters. Many of our academic clients work through the summer, keeping us busy, but the summer is typically a bit less hectic than fall and spring. So, if you’re thinking about having us help you with a project, now is the time! We have two major projects on our calendar for the rest of May, but we have room to take on more.

Perhaps you’re looking for a summer job or internship and need your resume edited. Or, you’re trying to get a jump start on grad school applications, and you’re writing your personal statement. Maybe summer is a slow time for your business, and you want to improve your website text. We can help with those projects and more. Contact Barbie today!

Happy Derby Day! Believe it or not, we found a major Derby-themed error for you today. This year’s Derby glasses, which are used at the Derby and sold in stores across Kentucky, feature a major error. 1948 is listed twice in the list of past Derby winners. Whoops! Check it out:

We had a very busy spring semester, as we worked with nearly a dozen doctoral students who were defending, revising, and graduating. We helped 10 doctoral clients finish their dissertations and earn their PhDs this semester! In addition, we added 11 new clients who are in the early stages of the dissertation process, writing and defending their proposals. We look forward to continuing to work with these students after they conduct their research and compose their full dissertations.

With 21 doctoral clients in a 16-week spring semester, clearly, we were busy in spring 2013. We look forward to more work this summer and fall!

It’s May, which means that students are in the midst of final exams and final papers before the semester ends! However, work at Carpenter Doc hasn’t slowed down. We are currently booked through mid-May with a few major editing projects on the horizon, including two books. We are accepting new projects and clients, but your project will likely not be started until around May 15. Please contact Barbie to get your summer projects on the calendar today!

Establishing that initial formatting for your thesis or dissertation can be confusing, especially when you’re trying to adhere to both your style guide and your school’s unique formatting guidelines. Understanding a few easy features of Word can make formatting much easier. We have a new tutorial up on our Scribd page that shares these helpful tips. Check them out, and contact Barbie if you need help formatting your thesis or dissertation!

Scribd: Formatting Your Thesis/Dissertation

There’s nothing more tedious than taking out paragraph returns line by line, which is a task we often have to do when a document is formatted improperly. Say you have a single-spaced manuscript with a return between paragraphs, and you now need it to be double spaced without any returns between paragraphs.

Here’s a Word shortcut that will reformat your document in one click:

• Select Ctrl+H.
• Find: ^p^p
• Replace: ^p
• Click Replace All.

This command will eliminate the extra spaces after each paragraph. Then, just reset the line spacing to double, and you’re good to go! A tedious task that could take hours now takes seconds.

Now that the weather has finally warmed up here in Kentucky, we’re enjoying the spring temperatures around town. Downtown Lexington seems to be a hub for poorly written signs. Here are a few examples:

This restaurant couldn't decide whether it should use quotes or not, so it tried both. (Answer: No quotes!)

Here's a word we've never seen misspelled before!

We’re hitting the road today through Sunday, though we are bringing projects with us to help our clients meet their deadlines. We will have Internet access and will be responding to emails as best we can, but please be patient as we balance travel, current projects, and new project inquiries over the next few days. If you have a project in with us, it’s in work, and we’ll be in touch soon with the completed project!

Spring commencement ceremonies are just a few weeks away, which is certainly hard to believe! However, when we look at our full schedule, it’s clear the end of the semester is approaching. Our calendar is filling up deep into May with dissertations, proposals, capstone projects, books, and more. If you anticipate a last-minute, end-of-the-semester project, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss availability.

Many legitimate electronic sources exist, whether you’re citing the online version of a journal article, a newspaper article, or an organization’s fact sheet. However, citing electronic sources can be tricky, and every style guide has different standards when it comes to properly citing online sources. In particular, including the URL and formatting it might cause you trouble.

URLs are not static — the website might disappear or the page might move, rendering your References list inaccurate if you include the URL. However, the URL is a great way to link readers directly to your source. Every style guide offers different suggestions for formatting electronic sources.

Here are some style tips for URLs in your References list:

APA Style

• The latest edition of APA recommends that you include the item’s digital object identifier (doi), when available, in lieu of the URL because it can change.
• However, not all electronic sources have a doi. For those that do not, include the full URL preceded by “Retrieved from.”
• APA allows the use of active or inactive links — just ensure you format your links consistently throughout your References list.

MLA Style

• Current MLA Style does not require the use of URLs.
• If you opt to include the URL, enclose it in angle brackets at the end of your entry: <http://www.carpenterdoc.com>
• Include the designation “Web” in each electronic source after the publication date and before the access date.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list of APA and MLA electronic source guidelines, it’s a start. If you have more questions, we’re available to review your References!