Index
Apostrophes
Binomials
Colons
Commas
Conjunctions
Dangling modifier
Documenting sources
Expository essay organization
Grades
Margins
Narration
Parenthetical citation
Plagiarism
Possessives
Quotation marks
Run-on sentences
Scientific names
Semicolon
Sentence fragments
Title of your essay
Titles of long works
Titles of short works
Verb passive voice
Verbs, to be
Works cited
Basis of Essay Grades
The A final
draft generally shows:
Exceptional understanding and
thinking: goes beyond a solid grasp of
material and competence in discussion to gain insights that are
not only
personal but illuminating contributions to a particular moment in
the course.
Powerful coherence: Essay
moves flexibly, fluently, and with
vitality, yet with enough control and purpose to convey both an
overall sense of unity and a growing development of ideas from
start to finish.
Bold yet suitable expression:
lively, literate, and appropriate diction,
syntax, and general style.
Well-developed proofreading
skills: produces effective, conventional mechanics and citations.
The B final draft
generally shows:
Good understanding and
thinking: an ability to absorb and analyze
material for the purpose of constructing a meaningful discussion.
Coherence: a clear sense of
order and unity of focus.
Effective expression: Diction
and sentence structures are intelligent and appropriate for
expression of the writer's understanding.
Sufficient proofreading
skill: produces mechanics (including spelling and grammar) and
citations that are usually conventional.
The C final draft
generally shows:
Limited understanding:
Reliance on the self-evident, on cliches, and on rehash of course
content produces uninformative (though not necessarily
"wrong") discourse.
Uncertain or merely
mechanical coherence: lack of point-to-point connections; little
or no sense of overall organization or unity of focus. Or depends
on a simplistic "list" (First,... Next,... Finally,...)
structure.
Minimal expressiveness:
limited range of diction and syntax; vague language and simple,
loose, or monotonously similar sentence structures.
Uneven proofreading or
mechanics: depending on whether style is plain or complex;
inconsistent or missing references and citations.
D and F final drafts
show:
Weak understanding: Due to
incomprehension, failure to grapple with the topic, or lack of
interest, the essay's ideas and substance are superficial, too
elementary, or wrong.
Incoherence: wandering paper,
lacking in focus, organization, or
point-to-point links.
Poor expression: diction,
idiom, and sentence problems.
Many mechanical errors.
Types of Writing
Understand the type of writing your teacher wants for each
assignment.
Narration
In short story writing, stick to one point of view, or make any
change in point of view clear by using line breaks or some other
clear indication of the switch. Do not switch back and forth
willy-nilly.
First Person:
narrative
from
the point of view of "I"
Second Person: speaking
directly
to the reader as "you"
Third Person
Limited:
from
the point of view of a narrator or author
who
is able to enter the mind of only
one
character (he or she)
Third Person
Omniscient:
from
the point of view of a narrator or author
who
is able to enter the minds of any or all characters.
Third Person Objective:
from
the point of view of a narrator who sees
and
reports the way a camera sees.
Exposition Types
A writer will often mix narrative and exposition when exploring
ideas through personal experience.
Some types of
exposition:
comparison/contrast, analysis, criticism, persuasion, process
analysis,
illustration, description, extended definition, cause-and- effect
analysis
Expository Essay
Organization
Structure of the
Five-Paragraph Expository Essay
Introduction
Opening remarks
Thesis
Plan of development
(optional)
Body (supporting paragraphs)
Topic sentence (supporting point 1)
Specific evidence
Topic sentence
(supporting point 2)
Specific evidence
Topic sentence
(supporting point 3)
Specific evidence
Conclusion
Summary (optional)
General closing remarks
While this plan outlines an essay's bare bones, it gives no hint
about an essay's soul. Use this method to get started, but then
try to go beyond this basic structure.
Writing Mechanics
Always proofread your writing before you produce the final draft.
* Read your writing aloud to yourself. You can catch faulty
sentences, incoherence, and other problems, especially if you
read the punctuation as you actually wrote it.
* Use punctuation correctly.
Use commas
between items in
a series:
President Clinton dropped his golf ball, his jaw, and his Cuba
policy.
before
coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, for, so, and yet)
joining
independent clauses:
Many newspaper pundits claimed that President Reagan regularly
fell asleep in cabinet meetings, but he vehemently denied
sleeping
through more than half of them.
If you omit the
conjunction but in this sentence, you have written a
run-on sentence
(comma splice).
around
parenthetical elements:
President Nixon, a strong Cold War anti-communist,
successfully
opened the diplomatic door to China. He stopped short,
however, of recognizing Cuba.
after fairly long
phrases or clauses preceding the main clauses of
sentences:
When Mike Lowry won the governor's race, he invited Bill
Clinton
to his inaugural ball.
Avoid
dangling modifiers:
Wondering irresolutely what to do next, the clock struck
twelve.
Use a semicolon
between closely
related independent clauses not joined by
coordinating
conjunctions.
The canvas raft floated smoothly near the edge of the pool; it
was
pushed by a gentle summer breeze.
before a
conjunctive adverb that joins two independent clauses.
List of conjunctive adverbs
also
furthermore
besides
still
nonetheless
indeed
likewise
thus
next
meanwhile
subsequently
certainly
moreover
however
similarly
finally
instead
consequently
therefore
then
nevertheless
When you join two
independent clauses with a semicolon and
conjunctive
adverb, place a comma after the conjunctive adverb.
The car I want to buy is a real bargain; furthermore, the bank
is
offering me an excellent financing rate.
between items in
series when some of the items require internal
commas.
The following sun-belt cities have experienced phenomenal
growth
in the past five years: Houston, Texas; Phoenix,
Arizona; and Orlando, Florida.
Colons
Use a colon to
indicate that what follows will be an example,
explanation, or elaboration of what has
just been said. Do not use a
colon where a semicolon is appropriate.
In this sentence,
what follows the colon explains what precedes the
colon:
She was sympathetic to both sides of the issue: tradition
encouraged
her to vote for the bill, but experience urged her to vote
against it.
colon to explain
(one word after colon)
Rick writes soap opera scripts for one reason: money.
colon to explain
(clause after colon)
All Terry's efforts were directed toward one goal: she wanted
to learn how to skydive.
But this sentence
contains two independent ideas and thus uses a
semicolon:
She was sympathetic to both sides of the issue; time now
demanded
that she choose one side over the other.
Colons often
introduce quotations:
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Antony says of Brutus:
"This was
the noblest Roman of them all."
Colons, with few
exceptions, separate titles from subtitles:
Strategic Defense Initiative: The Bottom Line.
Use
apostrophes to show possession
and to form contractions.
To form the
possessive of a word (singular or plural) that does
not end in s,
add an apostrophe and an s.
The car's fuel pump must be replaced. The media's role is
unclear.
Women's studies interest men, too.
To form the
possessive of a word (singular or plural) that ends
in s, add
just the apostrophe.
Charles' stolen car was found across town. The boys' football
game
ended in a tie.
Note: It
is also permissible to add an apostrophe and an s to form
the
possessive of
singular nouns ending in s (Charles's stolen car).
To show joint
possession, use an apostrophe only with the last noun.
To show
individual ownership, use an apostrophe with every noun.
Martha and Louise's committee report was thorough and clear.
Jason's and Helen's financial problems can be solved with better
money management.
Do not use
apostrophes with possessive pronouns (its, whose, hers,
his, ours, yours,
theirs).
Quotation
Marks
Quotation marks should enclose
quoted material, certain titles, and
words or phrases purposely misused
or used in a special sense (their
"friend" brought about
their downfall.). Single quotation marks also
enclose quotations within
quotations.
Quotation
Examples:
"Get out of here while you have the chance," the
stranger warned.
"What chance do I have?" Joyce wondered.
Alex responded quietly, "My
sister is the one to blame."
"I wish I knew," Paulette
sighed, "why I always end up doing
most of the work."
"Please be here by 8:00," Dad cautioned. "We don't
want to get a late start."
* Write dialogue correctly. Each time a different person speaks,
begin a
new paragraph.
* Titles of Long Works
Underline (or italicize) the titles
of books, names of magazines, names of
ships, names of newspapers, titles
of full-length films and full-length
plays, and titles of TV series.
The Awakening (book)
Romeo and Juliet
(play)
The Waste Land (long
poem published as a book)
New Jersey Driver Manual
(pamphlet)
Wall Street Journal (newspaper)
Time (magazine)
It's a Wonderful Life
(film)
Star Trek (television
program)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band (recording)
The Nutcracker
(ballet)
Rigoletto (opera)
Berlioz's Symphonie
fantastique (instrumental musical composition
identified by name)
Beethoven's Symphony no. 7 in A
(instrumental musical
composition identified
by form, number, and key)
* Titles of Short Works
Enclose these titles in
quotation marks: titles of poems, short stories,
magazine articles, songs,
chapters, newspaper articles, particular
episodes of a TV series, and
one-act plays.
"Rise in Aid to
Children Is Proposed" (newspaper article)
"Sources of Energy in
the Twenty First Century" (magazine
article)
"Etruscan"
(encyclopedia article)
"The Fiction of
Langston Hughes" (essay in a book)
"The Lottery"
(short story)
"Kubla Kahn"
(poem)
"Mood Indigo"
(song)
"The American Economy
before the Civil War" (chapter in a
book)
"The Trouble with
Tribbles" (episode of a television show)
"Preparing for a
Successful Interview" (lecture)
* Neither underline nor enclose in quotation marks the Bible or
titles of
historical documents (Constitution).
* Scientific names are typed in italics and underlined when
written.
* The first name of the binomial is always upper case; the second
is always
lower case (e.g. Homo sapiens)
* A lot is two words. Avoid this construction.
* Do not trust computer spelling programs; they do not
distinguish between
the meanings of homophones (bare and
bear; too, to, and two).
* Do not misspell book titles or authors' names (i.e., A
Seperate Piece).
* Do not use contractions in formal essays.
* Have someone else read your papers before you make the final
draft--
especially if the same problems keep
cropping up.
* Do not switch verb tenses in the middle of a paper unless you
have a
good reason.
* Use conventional capitalization.
* Avoid sentence fragments. A sentence must contain a verb, a
subject,
and a complete thought.
The absence of any of these elements
produces a sentence fragment, a
serious writing error. Experienced writers
sometimes use them for effect,
but use them with care. If your teacher
is not sure that you know exactly
what you are doing, (s)he will mark it as
an error.
Plagiarism
Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is stealing others' words. Quoting
a source
word-for-word, paraphrasing, summarizing or changing just a few
words
without acknowledging the source is plagiarism. Bainbridge High
School, all
colleges and universities, and the legal system deem plagiarism
illegal and/or
unethical. The teachers at Bainbridge High School will take
action against
cases of plagiarism when discovered. At colleges and
universities,
plagiarism may result in expulsion. Alex Haley, the author of
Roots,
inadvertently plagiarized a passage from the novel Jubilee; he
settled the
case by paying the author a large sum of money.
Documenting Sources
The material in this section comes from Gibaldi, Joseph and
Walter S.
Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New
York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1988. 155-76.
Follow your teacher's directions about documenting sources. The
standard
method today is to acknowledge sources in parentheses in the text
(Hemingway 67), and to include an alphabetized "Works
Cited" page at
the end of your paper. See the sample at the end of this style
sheet.
What to document
You must document everything that you borrow--not only direct
quotations and paraphrases but also information and ideas. Of
course, common sense as well as ethics should determine what you
document.
For example, you rarely need to give sources for familiar
proverbs ("You
can't judge a book by its cover"), well-known quotations
("We shall
overcome"), or common knowledge ("George Washington was
the first
president of the United States"). When you borrow words from
a source,
enclose them in quotation marks.
You must indicate the source of any appropriated material that
readers
might otherwise mistake for your own.
Parenthetical
documentation and the list of works cited
The list of works cited at the end of your paper plays an
important role in your acknowledgment of sources, but it does not
provide sufficiently detailed and precise documentation.
You must indicate exactly what you have derived from each source
and exactly where in that work you found the material.
The most practical way to supply this information is to insert
brief
parenthetical acknowledgments in your paper wherever you
incorporate
another's words, facts, or ideas. Usually the author's last name
and a page
reference are enough to identify the source and the specific
location from
which you have borrowed material.
The parenthetical reference indicates that the information comes
from a
book (or other source) included in the alphabetically arranged
list of works
cited at the end of your paper (See page 8). Thus you have
enabled the
reader to find complete publication information for the source.
Parenthetical Citation
Examples
Author's name in text:
Frye has argued this point before (178-85).
Author's name in reference:
This point has been argued before (Frye 178-85).
Authors' names in text:
Others, like Welleck and Warren (310-15), hold an opposite
point of view.
Authors' names in reference:
Others hold an opposite point of view (e.g., Welleck and
Warren
310-15).
Author's name in text:
Only Daiches has seen this relation (776-77).
Author's name in reference:
Only one critic has seen this relation (Daiches 776-77).
Author's name in text:
It may be true, as Robertson maintains, that "in the
appreciation
of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of primary
importance..." (136).
Author's name in reference:
It may be true that "in the appreciation of medieval art
the attitude of the observer is of primary importance..."
(Robertson 136).
The parenthetical reference precedes the punctuation mark that
concludes the sentence, clause, or phrase containing the borrowed
material.
In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin
states that he prepared
a list of thirteen virtues (13-37).
Citation for long prose quotation:
John K. Mahon offers this comment on the War of 1812:
Financing
the war was very difficult at the
time.
Baring Brothers, a banking firm of
the
enemy country, handled routine accounts
for
the United States overseas, but the firm
would
take on no loans. The loans were in the
end
absorbed by wealthy Americans at great
hazard--also,
as it turned out, at great profit
to
them. (385)
Citation for poetry:
Elizabeth Bishop's "In the
Waiting Room" is rich in
evocative detail:
It
was winter. It got dark
early.
The waiting room
was
full of grown-up people,
arctics
and overcoats,
lamps
and magazines. (6-10)
Citation for two or more works by the same author(s):
To cite one of two or more works by the same author(s), put a
comma after the last name(s) of the author(s) and add the title
of the work (if brief), or a shortened version, and the relevant
page reference: (Boroff,
Wallace Stevens 2), (Durant and Durant, Age of Voltaire
214-48). If you state the author's name in the text, give
only the
title and page reference: (Wallace Stevens 2), (Age of
Voltaire
214-48). If you include both the author's name and the title
in the
text, indicate only the pertinent page number(s) in parentheses:
(2), (214-48).
Other Style Tips
* Write in standard English; do not use slang unless you are
portraying a person in a narrative or short story.
* Avoid the passive voice of the verb.
Example: The article was written by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Better: Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the article.
* Do not use a twenty-five dollar word when a simple word will
work as well.
* Be clear.
* Be concise.
* Be intellectually adventurous. Take risks, but always support
your ideas.
* Use lively verbs. Avoid to be verbs (is, am, are, was, be,
being, been,
were, will be, will have been, etc.) whenever you can.
* Use a variety of sentence types.
* When writing about literature, use specific supporting details
and short quotations from the text when possible.
* Avoid There are, Here are, Here is, or
similar constructions.
* Do not write I think, I believe, In my opinion,
or similar apologies. Write as if what you say is universal
truth. Every reader knows, or should know, that you are
expressing your own views.
* Do not use In conclusion.
The Physical Appearance
of Your Paper
* Place this information in the top, right-hand corner of your
paper:
Name (First and last names, legibly written)
Date (Month, Day, Year)
Course Name, Period Number
Assignment Name or Number
* All papers must have a title. Center the title, but do not
underline it or
enclose it in quotation marks.
* Indent the beginning of each paragraph.
* You may type, word process, or handwrite
your papers. If you type or word process them, double space.
If you handwrite them, single space;
write with a pen.
* Use one side of the paper.
* Leave a one-inch margin on all four sides of the paper.
Works Cited
Formatting
(How
a Works Cited page should look)
MLA formatting of a works cited page, according to the 1998 MLA handbook
1. At the top of the page the words “Works Cited” should be appear in the middle of the page, without quotes, not bolded, not fancy or fun.
2. Next, the entries should be in alphabetical order with the first line at the margin and the next line, if necessary indented 5 spaces.
3. Finally all of the entries are double-spaced.
Example Entries:
Book
Last, First. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date.
Wilson, Frank R. The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. New
York: Pantheon, 1998.
An Anthology or a Compilation
Last, First (of editor), ed. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher's name,
Copyright Date.
Feldman, Paula R., ed. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. hBaltimore: Johns Hopkins
UP, 1997.
A Work in an Anthology
Last, First (of author), "Title of the Work." Title of the Book. Ed. First Last (of editor).
City of Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date. Page(s).
More, Hannah. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. Ed. Paula R. Feldman. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. 472-82.
Book with multiple authors
Last, First (first author on the title page), First Last (second author), and First Last (third
author). Title of theBook. City of Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date.
Blocker, Clyde E., Robert H. Plummer, and Richard C. Richardson, Jr. The Two-Year College: A
Social Synthesis. Englewood Cliffs: Prenctice, 1965.
Introduction to a book
Last, First (author of Introduction). Introduction. Title of the Book. By First Last (author
of the book). City of Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date. Page(s).
Doctorow, E. L. Introduction. Sister Carrie. by Theodore Dreiser. New York: Bantam, 1982. v-xi.
Book with a Translator
Last, First (of translator), ed. Title of the Book. Trans. First, Last (of translator). City of
Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date.
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Viking, 1996.
Multi-volume & Edition
Last, First (editor), eds. Title of the Book. Edition. Number of volumes. City of
Publication: Publisher's name, Copyright Date.
Daiches, David, ed. A Critical History of English Literature. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New York:
Ronald,1970.
Encyclopedia or Reference Works
"Title of the Entry." Name of the Encyclopedia. Edition. Year of Publication.
"Mandarin." Encyclopedia Americana. 1980 ed.
"Ginsburg, Ruth Bader." Who's Who in America. 52nd ed. 1998.
Magazine article
Last, First. "Title of the Article." Title of the Magazine. Date Month Year: Page(s).
Smith, John. "An Uneasy
Silence." Computerworld. 28 Mar. 1983: 54.
Scholarly Journal Article
Last, First. "Title of the Article." Title of the Magazine. Volume Number (Year): Page(s).
Most, Andrea. "' We Know we belong to the Land' : The Theatrically of Assimilation in Rodgers
and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!". PMLA 113 (1998): 77-89.
Newspaper article
Last, First. "Title of the Article." Title of the Newspaper. Date Month Year, edition,
section: Page(s).
Brody, Jane. "Heart Attacks: Turmoil beneath the Calm." New York Times 21 June 1983, late ed.:
C1+.
Film
Tile of the Film. Dir. First Last.. Perf. First Last (names of performers). Distributor of the
film, Year of
Release.
It's a Wonderful Life.
Dir. Frank Capra. With James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel
Barrymore, and
Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946.
Personal interview
Last, First (of interviewed). Kind of Interview. Date Month Year.
Pei, I. M. Personal interview. 27 July 1993.
Lecture
Last, First. "Title of Lecture". Sponsoring organization, City. Day Month year.
Ankcorn, Denise. “Pastoral Writing”. Bainbridge Island High School, Bainbridge Island. 15 Feb.
2000.
Painting,
Sculpture or Photograph
Last, First (of artist). Title. Museum, City.
Hine, Lewis. Saturday Night in the Tenements. The Gallery of Social Photography. New York.
Constitution
The Constitution is cited by both article and section, and typically use specific abreviations.
US Const. Art. (#), sec. (#).
US Const. Art. 1, sec. 1.
General
Article
Online
Last, First. "Title of the Work" Sponsoring Website. Date Month Year of access. <Web
address>.
Hunter, Robert and Jerry Garcia. "Ramble On Rose." David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. 27 July 1998.
<http://www.UCCS.edu/~dodd/ramble2.html>.
©Bainbridge High School, 9330 NE High School Road, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110
04/09/99