Style Sheet for ARC Accreditation Reports
The accreditation self-study will be a work of many hands that nevertheless must speak for the ARC community in one clear voice. To achieve this goal, it’s important that the contributions of the different committees be similar in style and organization. Please follow these guidelines to ensure that the development of the self-study proceeds as smoothly as possible.
Organization
Each committee submission should begin with a brief narrative overview, similar to an executive summary, that highlights its key findings. This short narrative will provide the writer of the final self-study document with collective perspective of the committee. The overview should be factual and objective.
The body of each committee submission should be a series of bullet points that present committees findings or responses to ACCJC accreditation checklist items. The points may be grouped in alignment with ACCJC checklists or as the committee sees fit. Each point should be specific and conclude with a citation [in brackets] of the evidence that supports the committee’s statement or conclusion.
Overly simple example: American River College has written policies on equity and diversity [http://web.arc.losrios.edu/about/community.html].
Group the bullet points into two sections: The first section comprises self-evaluation, documenting the college’s programs and their appraisal (whether positive or negative). The second focuses on a planning agenda, itemizing responses to identified problems and means for measuring effectiveness of those responses. We cannot realistically expect our self-study to demonstrate that we are perfect in any way, so we must be prepared to document our shortcomings candidly and identify constructive responses to those failings. The outcome of the self-study will be more than simply a comprehensive descriptive document; it will also include an action plan.
General formatting
- For compatibility’s sake, use Microsoft Word 2003.
- Please keep text formatting to a minimum.
- Use single-spaced 12-point Times Roman (or equivalent) throughout.
- No underlining or bold text; use italics if emphasis is important. Avoid ALL CAPS except for acronyms like LRCCD. (Make sure all acronyms are fully written out on first use.)
- Use standard margins, one inch or thereabouts on all four sides.
- Do not use columns.
- Allow text to wrap naturally; do not press Enter at the ends of lines except when the lines actually end.
- Separate paragraphs with a blank line (press Enter twice) and do not indent first lines of paragraphs.
- Use a footer that displays page number and committee name at the bottom of each page.
Special formatting
- Use Word’s built-in table function when creating tables (please don’t try to align things with tabs).
- Use Word’s built-in bullet-text creator for numbered lists or bullets.