The researchers to ensure practical instructions for the accomplishment of a certain task use a rule of thumb. It is developed as a result of practice instead of research or theory. A rule of thumb is to include preparation of title page, using courier 12-font size, 1-inch margin, title page, page number on header or footer, use of tables and graphs, and double line spacing. The reason for using the rule of thumb is to make it neat, easy to read, and well developed.
A double spacing and using 12 size fonts ensures neat and tidy work that can be explained to the reader. A good manuscript is that which is easy to read. Researchers use fonts and line spacing to make it readable. It includes paragraphing, sentence structure, headings, subheadings, and other reading preferences. Headings and subheadings should be bold to make it clear for the reader to understand the topic. A good format paper will allow the reader to take the interest in the entire paper. The presentation of the manuscript is necessary to attract readers and influence them to read the whole manuscript (Salkind 200).
Graphical representation of the work always facilitates users. For example, it is applicable in selecting figures or tables that can explain the entire story to the reader if he is unable to get the idea from the text. The graphical representation can explain the idea better than words, and it is easily understandable. The use of colors, design, and methods to present the table and figures play important role in making the work neat and clean. There should be an explanation of each graph or table that will help the reader to understand the objective of using graphs and tables. Graphs and tables are suggested to be 1.5 lines spacing to make it professional paper (Salkind 220).
A manuscript should be strong and effective to feed all the material in the mind of a reader. There should be the title page including a name of the writer and the topic that is to be discussed in the paper. The page number is useful in acknowledging the reader how long the paper is and at what page he is reading the manuscript. A well-developed paper will allow the reader to read the whole paper that is written on a specified topic. In the absence of title page, it will be difficult for a reader to identify what is written and who has written the paper. An important thing done by the researchers is to protect copyrights of the paper. It is helpful in restricting others to present the document by just changing the title page or headings. The material used in the paper to explain things must be fully analyzed before publishing as it will amount to an error in the paper (Salkind 240).
Rule of thumb is extensively used to format the paper before publication. The rule of thumb presented in this paper is to guide new writers how to manuscript their work. There are many other things such as using colors to separate different sections of the paper, but they are not applicable to all writers. The researchers may use different techniques to design the paper, but the important thing is to ensure all essential rules that are named as “rule of thumb” for the writers.
Work Cited
Salkind, Neil J. Exploring Research. 8th. London: Pearson, 2012. Print.
