How to Format a Capstone Paper

A capstone paper is an important piece of writing since it marks the end of one stage of your higher education and may lead into another. Because of its importance, you should be sure that your paper's formatting is correct. Although style guides do not greatly differ in general, each guide treats the small details differently. Confirm with your department or supervisor which style guide you should be using. This guide shows you how to follow the MLA style for capstone papers using the word processing program "Open Office."

Instructions

  1. Bringing Margins Into Line

    • 1

      Right click on any section of blank space on a page of your document. Select the "Page" option from the menu that appears.

    • 2

      Click into each text box that contains the margin measurements and change these values to "0.5." Margin measurements can be found in the section of the "Page" window labeled "Margins."

    • 3

      Click on the "OK" button to save your change.

    Separating Title Page and Body

    • 4

      Click on the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a mixing switch over it. This will open up the "Styles and Formatting" window.

    • 5

      Click anywhere on your title page.

    • 6

      In the "Styles and Formatting" window, click on the icon that looks like the upper half of a piece of paper.

    • 7

      Double click on the "First Page" option. This will change the formatting of your title page to the "First Page" style.

    • 8

      Right click on the "First Page" option in the "Styles and Formatting" window. Click on the "Modify" option that appears.

    • 9

      Click on the "Organizer" tab. Then click on the pull down menu labeled "Next Style." Change this to "Default" by clicking on this option. Click the "OK" button.

    • 10

      Click anywhere on the first page of your paper. Right click on the "Default" style in the "Styles and Formatting" window and choose the "Modify" option when it appears.

    • 11

      Click on the "Header" tab in the window that appears. Then, click on the "Header On" option to turn on a header, and click on the "Same Content Left/Right" option to turn this option off.

    • 12

      Click on the "Organizer" tab. Choose the "Left Page" option from the pull-down menu labeled "Next Style" by clicking on it. "Click the "OK" button.

    • 13

      Click anywhere on the first page of your paper. Right click on the "Left Page" style in the "Styles and Formatting" window and choose the "Modify" option when it appears.

    • 14

      Click on the "Header" tab in the window that appears. Then, click on the "Header On" option to turn on a header.

    • 15

      Click on the "Organizer" tab. Choose the "Left Page" option from the pull down menu labeled "Next Style" by clicking on it. "Click the "OK" button.

    Creating a Header

    • 16

      Go to the first page of the body of your paper and click on the bar of empty space that is set aside at the top of the page.

    • 17

      Type the following in order, putting each item on a separate line: your name, your student number, the name(s) of your supervisor(s), the course code of your capstone course and the current date.

    • 18

      Press "Ctrl" and "A" to select all of this text. Click on the text box to the right of the one with the name of your font and type "10" to change the font size of this header to 10.

    • 19

      Click on the bar of empty space on the second page of your paper. Type your last name here. Then add a page number by clicking on "Insert" and then selecting "Fields" from the menu that appears.

    • 20

      Right click on the page number (while it is not highlighted) and then choose the "Fields..." option from the menu that appears.

    • 21

      Click on the text box labeled "Offset" and insert the number "-1." This will make the program's page counter skip the first page (your title page) so that the current page will be labeled "2."

    • 22

      Press "Ctrl" and "A" at the same time to select all of the text in your header. then click on the text box beside the text box containing your font type and insert the number "10." Press "Enter," and this will change the font size of your header text to 10. In addition, click on the icon that has four horizontal lines that are lined up on the right side to make this header align right.

    Finishing Touches

    • 23

      Place your cursor at the beginning of the body of your paper by clicking just before the first word of your first sentence.

    • 24

      Press "Ctrl" and "A" to select all of the text of your paper that comes after the title.

    • 25

      Click on the text box beside the text box that contains the name of your font and type in "12." Press "Enter" to change the font size of all of the main text of your paper to size 12.

    • 26

      Right click over the text of your paper (while it is still highlighted) and press "Ctrl" and "2." This combination will double space all of the main text of your paper.

    • 27

      Check to make sure that the title of your paper, as it appears on the first page of the body of your paper, and the title that you use for your list of sources have not been double-spaced. If they have, highlight them and then press "Ctrl" and "1" to single-space them.

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