October

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations
Written by Kate L. Turabian

Hee…I cheated. Most of my time was spent reading stuff for school instead of leisure reading, so I didn’t know what to put down for this month. Luckily, the Education Department lent me a copy as an aid in editing theses & practicum papers.

A Manual for Writers is one of the recognized authorities in preparing any kind of academic paper. This is not a book you can read from cover-to-cover. I tried to do so when I was in grade school but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Now that I’m older (and wiser too?) and have more experience with journals and academic papers, I’ve finally figured out how to utilize the book. It's on its sixth edition and includes how to deal with on-line references as well as unpublished work. It’s a handy reference and I wish I had gotten over my aversion to it much earlier and used it for my thesis.