Research Projects
Other Research Projects-Helpful Resources
Society of Actuaries General Style and Format Guidelines
- The report should be word–processed, using only one side of each sheet of paper. It should be
double–spaced throughout. The font should be 12 pt, and the margins should be 1 inch on all four sides.
- The report should comprise the following elements, at a minimum:
- Abstract or Executive Summary
- Table of Contents, including lists of figures and tables
- Introduction or Background
- Methodology or
Materials and Methods
- Discussion
- Results
- Conclusions or Recommendations
- Citations (List
of References, Bibliography, Footnotes, or End Notes)
- Appendixes (as necessary for detailed presentation of results)
- Each section or chapter should have a caption. Major captions should be centered and typed in capitals.
Sub–captions should appear at the left–hand margin
- Symbols should not be handwritten. They should be prepared with a word–processing program that supports
mathematical equations. Particular care should be exercised so that symbols are legible, especially Greek
symbols, subscripts, and superscripts. The international code, described in Appendixes 3 and 4 of Actuarial
Mathematics, should be used.
- Tables and figures or charts should be numbered consecutively, have a title that is clear, concise, and
complete, and have a legend that explains all symbols used. No two tables or figures may have the same title; if
a table is longer than one page, the second and ensuing pages are simply
labeled “Table 1–Continued.”
- The sources of previously published material used to prepare the report must be identified. The following
information must be given:
- Author(s) or editor(s) name(s)
- Title of article (in a journal) or chapter
(in a book, if author is different from author of book)
- Title of book or journal
- Date of publication
- Volume or edition number, inclusive page numbers
- City of publication (for books)
- Publisher (for
books)