New wall in old house

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I am renovating an old apartment and want to enclose the ell part of a living room into it's own room (a study). In order to build the new wall which will enclose this space I was wondering:

1)If I nail in place the bottom plate and top plate first and then toe-nail in the studs, how do I ensure that the plates will be parallel to each other and the wall plumb?

2)Do I need to remove the plaster from the ceiling in the area where the top plate will be nailed in place or can I nail the top plate directly to the plaster ceiling?

Thanks very much,

E. Cooper