Question

How do you format an appendix (in an essay)?

I am writing my chemistry assignment, complete with equations, diagrams and definitions, and my teacher has recommended that, to save our words, because we have a word limit, to construct an appendix to put, in particular these three things, in. I just want to know how to format an appendix; what it should look like and what to put in it.
Thanks,
Lucy

Answer 1

Read Below...

Explanation:

Appendices are used to present relevant details to the people you want to present your report/assignment to..

The details must contain or concern the contents of the report/assignment..

Most people/few of them, might likely get tired due to the huge contents of the research given, so the Appendix is likely to impress them to enable them have interest in your work done or also give them more information that is too large to fit in the report..

Lets just say, its closely related to Table of Contents, but not exact..

So if you are advised not to exceed the word limit, you can use the Appendix to easily achieve that..

What should it look like `->` Similar to table of contents format, but not always..

What to put in it `->` Only contents concerning the assignment or contents that is very large, but can be reduced to few words in a sentence or two..

Answer 2

Some ideas on how to build and use the appendix:

Explanation:

It sounds like your Chemistry teacher is giving you license to make an appendix that will work for you and that the format isn't as important.

I don't know Chemistry but I do know Algebra, so I'll describe how an appendix could work in an Algebra paper and I'll let you get creative with the Chemistry.

The purpose of the appendix will be to get rid of duplications of explanations and things in your paper. You'll be able to make mention of a rule in the body of the paper and have the definition in the appendix.

For example, in my Algebra paper, in showing how to solve a variety of problems, I need to use the Commutative Law (the one that says that `a+b=b+a`). And so each time in my paper that I want to use the Commutative Law, all I need to say is by the Commutative Law... and so I can avoid describing it each time and, if I can manage it, I can skip steps in my equation solving/examples (I could say Using the Distributive and Commutative Laws we get...) and in that way save words.

To make this work, the way to set up the appendix will be to take the terms you want to use in your paper repeatedly and simply list them in alphabetical order with a brief explanation of what it is. For my Algebra paper, I could have:

Associative Law: `a+(b+c)=(a+b)+c`

Commutative Law: `a+b=b+a`

Distributive Law: `a(b+c)=abxxac`

And if you have a base graph you need to include, and using my Algebra example, perhaps the graph of `y=x`, I can add that in as well:

Base Graph, `bb(y=x`:

graph{x}

You can put that into the appendix (so in my example between Associative and Commutative).

It can help to have in the body of the paper those terms you have defined in the appendix highlighted in some manner - perhaps bolded or italicized to let the reader know there is more information in the appendix. Make sure when referring to the items in the appendix that you use the term exactly as listed in the appendix. For the base graph of `y=x`, I'd always want to refer to it in the paper as Base Graph, `y=x` so that it can be found easily.

Those are some ideas. I hope it helps and good luck on the paper!