general tips cs ia

8/6/2019 General Tips Cs Ia

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GENERAL TIPS

General style

Specific editorial requirements for submission of a manuscript will always supersede instructions in these

general guidelines.

To make a paper readable

y Print or type using a 12 point standard font, such as Times, Geneva, Bookman, Helvetica, etc.

y Text should be double spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper with 1 inch margins, single sided

y Number pages consecutively

y Start each new section on a new page

y Adhere to recommended page limits

Mistakes to avoid

y Placing a heading at the bottom of a page with the following text on the next page (insert a page

break!)

y Dividing a table or figure - confine each figure/table to a single page

y Submitting a paper with pages out of order

In all sections of your paper

y Use normal prose including articles ("a", "the," etc.)

y Stay focused on the research topic of the paper

y Use paragraphs to separate each important point (except for the abstract)

y Indent the first line of each paragraph

y Present your points in logical order

y Use present tense to report well accepted facts - for example, 'the grass is green'

y Use past tense to describe specific results - for example, 'When weed killer was applied, the

grass was brown'

y Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader directly, and don't use jargon, slang terms, or

superlatives

y Avoid use of superfluous pictures - include only those figures necessary to presenting result


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Conclusions and recommendations

The final chapters should entail few paragraphs summarizing what you did and found ().

Discussion

Discuss the findings. Do your findings support existing theories? Explain why you think you found what

you did.

Recommendations

Present recommendations based on your findings. Avoid the temptation to present recommendations

based on your own beliefs or biases that are not specifically supported by your data. Recommendations

fall into two categories. The first is recommendations to the study sponsor. What actions do you

recommend they take based upon the data. The second is recommendations to other researchers. There

are almost always ways that a study could be improved or refined. What would you change if you were to

do your study over again? These are the recommendations to other researchers.

EXAMPLE:

Limitations

According to Stanard, et al. (2000), many of the spiritual assessments being widely used today

are based on a Judeo-Christian perspective or a belief in God or a Higher Power as the basis of

measurement (p. 209). Therefore, the results are not fully representative of the general

population and may not accurately address a clients spiritual issues or needs at all.

Additionally, counselors must consider the information they are seeking; as suggested by

Moberg (2002), a qualitative instrument may provide more useful information than a quantitative

measure. The instruments outlined in this article measure spiritual constructs which are viewed

as specific pieces to a more complex spiritual whole. These measurements provide a limited

perspective to the much larger concept of spirituality. Although the SAI, INSPIRIT, and SWBS


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appear to possess strong psychometric properties, many of the other published spiritual

assessments have small norming samples, are not well-constructed, and cannot be deemed either

reliable or valid.

Recommendations

As is true with any formalized instrument, discretion is imperative when choosing and

administering spirituality assessments. Some published spirituality assessments do not report

norming or validity data (Hill & Hood, Jr., 1999). Some measures, reported by Hill and Hood,

Jr., are acknowledged and strictly defined as research instruments and should not be used without

careful consideration. Therefore, knowledge of the intended use of the assessment and

determining the specific construct to be measured relative to the clients needs are essential.

The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) requires that

Counselors administer assessments under the same conditions that were established in their

standardization. When assessments are not administered under standard conditions, as may benecessary to accommodate clients with disabilities, or when unusual behavior or irregularities

occur during the administration, those conditions are noted in interpretation, and the results maybe designated as invalid or of questionable validity (Section E.7.a., p. 12).

Therefore, it is imperative that counseling professionals understand the limitations of any

spirituality assessment that is used either in research or for counseling purposes. Some

instruments, such as the SWBS, may be useful with a variety of populations, however, other

instruments, such as the SAI, may require more research and revisions before it is useful in the

counseling process.

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