GUIDELINES FOR WRITING PAPERS
Professor David Weddle
Department of Religion
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riting papers seems to many students the most onerous burden of college life, laid upon them by all faculty, without mercy or reason. But there is an important point to such assignments: to develop the necessary skill of conventional or formal writing. This style of writing is required for standard professional communication, specifically for the report and analysis of research. Conventional writing is used in all disciplines as the common form of expression, even though each may employ a different specialized vocabulary. Therefore, one is not free in conventional writing to create new literary forms; rather one is required to follow established and customary rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation, organization, evidence, and logic. The creativity and imagination in conventional writing is entirely in the richness and significance of its content, not in innovations of form.
Conventional writing is a technical skill, like playing the piano. Almost anyone can become proficient in the technique through study and practice, although few are capable of virtuoso performances. Similarly, any literate person can achieve the technical competence to write with formal accuracy; it is a matter of "learning the scales," or drilling oneself in the fundamentals of grammar and style. In piano playing, the rules are set by scales, rhythm, and key. In writing the rules are set by vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Just as we expect musicians to perform their compositions accurately before we are willing to listen to their music, so we expect writers to express themselves correctly before we consider their ideas.
It is my expectation that your essays will conform to the standard rules of conventional writing. Errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as well as faulty logic or imprecise language, will thus detract from the value of your papers. The most common errors, which can be avoided by careful proofreading, are the following:
Use of gender exclusive language (such as referring to every human as "man" or "he")
Lack of agreement between subject and verb or between pronouns
Imprecise referents for this, that, and it. · Do not use this as the subject of a sentence!
Misspellings and misuse of punctuation
Use of the second person (reserved for Victorian novels and sermons)
Run-on, or overly complex, sentences
· Sentence fragments, most often in the form of long introductory clauses with no object
Paragraphs with more than one main idea
Vague and indecisive conclusion
Each essay should also include a title page, including your name, the title of the paper, the name of the course, and the date. Your name should appear on the title page only. You should also put the title at the top of the first page and use subheadings to indicate the main sections of the paper. Do not forget to number your pages! If you are in doubt about any matter of form, please consult one of the handbooks:
Random House Handbook, Third Edition (1980)
W. Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (Macmillan, 1979)
Kate Turabian, A Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press, 1976)
To be more specific, let me emphasize two primary conventions of writing you are expected already to have mastered, viz., spelling and grammar. Together, they provide the conditions for English-speaking people to communicate with each other, no matter what regional or ethnic dialect we may speak most comfortably and creatively at home. Conventional writing is the standard in professional, academic, and business writing. It is required in this class as part of your education in the real world.
Spelling. Unless we signify our meanings with words both reader and author understand, we cannot communicate. We must share a minimum number of verbal signs (words), even if each of them has several different meanings. Since the author may be using a word in a sense different from that which the reader assigns to it, there are many possibilities for misunderstanding when both use the same word. But if the reader is unsure of the exact word the author is using, then the margin of error in communication can become an impassable gulf. That is exactly the situation when you misspell a word!
True, Mark Twain said it is an unimaginative mind that can spell a word in only one way, but he worked with editors who insured that his published works were free from misspellings! A paper with such errors, especially in the age of spelling checkers, is an embarrassment. Errors are the result of inattention and lack of concentration. They often indicate the point at which the author lost interest in the paper or completed the draft too late for careful proofreading. If you are uncertain about the spelling of a word, look it up. It is also wise to read the definition to make sure it means what you intend.
Spelling errors confuse communication because they obscure the signifier; therefore, the reader cannot understand what is being signified. Spelling errors are the written equivalent of slurred speech. Ever talk to someone who is slightly drunk? Their words blend into each other because the tongue feels thick and the sounds can no longer be clearly articulated. As soon as someone beginsh to talk lak shish… you stop listening for anything worthwhile. When writers cannot spell their words accurately, you have the suspicion that they also fail to grasp their meaning clearly, a suspicion that is often confirmed.
Grammar. The rules of grammar provide the structure of signification. This phrase comes from the scholars who study the way we use signs to communicate; they call their field semiotics. The term comes from the Greek word translated as sign. So our words are verbal miracles, pointing beyond themselves to the reality they signify. Like all signs, words are pointers. The first question we ask about words is "What do they mean?" Thus, the importance of a precise, shared vocabulary.
But it is also important to consider, as John Ciardi asked about poetry, "How do words mean?" In part, the answer to that question is grammar. Grammar provides the rules of the language game and, as in other games, if you don’t play by the rules, you will be disqualified. Of course, e.e. cummings wrote without capitalization and James Joyce, as well as a gaggle of philosophers, made up his own words. But they are the exceptions that prove the rule. If you hand in anything that looks like Finnegan’s Wake, it will be returned for rewriting. You must earn the right to exercise the prerogatives of eccentric genius.
Suppose Michael Jordan had decided that his feats of athletic ability were too severely limited by one of the rules of basketball, namely, the rule of dribbling. It slowed him down, it even provided a rare opportunity for an opponent to steal the ball from him. How much better if he simply took the ball in both hands, ran the length of the court, dodging defenders, leaped into the air and stuffed the ball into the basket! Before long, no matter how dazzling his dunks, even Air Jordan would have been soaking his flying feet in the shower! The rules cannot be arbitrarily disregarded, even if the result is spectacular, because the result is not basketball. The beauty of Jordan’s accomplishments was precisely that he pulled them off within the form of the game. That is why some regarded his play as art. Artful writing also can move gracefully only within the forms of grammar.
Never indent the first paragraph of a paper. Indentation indicates a break from what goes before. There is nothing preceding the initial sentence of any written work. All subsequent paragraphs represent breaks from what goes before and should be indented.
A reference enclosed in parentheses following a quotation should not be included within the quotation marks. The reference is, however, part of your sentence and should be followed by a period. Example: “…there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).
Avoid the use of the second person in formal writing. Addressing the reader directly is a rhetorical device most effective in Victorian novels and sermons. (Speaking of novels, Armstrong’s book is not one.)
A dash (—) is composed of two hyphens. But most word processing programs can produce a dash. In MS Word press CTRL +ALT + the hyphen on the numeric keypad.
In conventional American usage, quotations are set off by double quotation marks. The use of inverted commas, or single quotation marks, is a British convention and is limited in American usage to designating quotations within quotations.
The phrase “different from” more clearly expresses contrast than the phrase “different than.”
The possessive of a proper name that ends in s is formed by adding ’s. There are only a few exceptions to this rule, including the names of Jesus and Moses.
To indicate decades do not add ’s to the initial year, as 1920’s. That form is possessive. The plural is formed in the usual way by adding s, as 1920s.
The verb “to try” should usually be followed by another infinitive phrase, not by “and,” since only one action is usually in mind. For example, the phrase “to try to please” specifies the object of the trying, rather than treating trying as one action and pleasing as another.
Titles of books are printed in italics. Terms in foreign languages, including Latin, should be italicized.
Avoid confusing i.e. (“that is”) with e.g. (“for example”). The former is the abbreviation of id est and is followed by a more specific or exact statement of what precedes it. The latter is the abbreviation of exempla gratia and designates an instance of the category preceding it.
The plural and possessive of “it” are indicated by its. Only the contraction of “it is” is spelled with an apostrophe as it’s.
The plural of criterion is criteria, just as the singular of bacteria is bacterium.
A quotation of more than three lines should be set off, single-spaced, and indented. Since it is thereby separated from the text, it is not necessary also to enclose it with quotation marks. Such practice is analogous to wearing both a belt and suspenders.
As a general rule, commas and periods are enclosed within quotation marks, whereas semicolons are placed outside a closing quotation mark. A question mark goes inside quotation marks when it is part of the text quoted and outside when it is part of the sentence containing the quoted text.
Commas should be used sparingly and always for a specific purpose, such as to set of non-restrictive phrases (of which the preceding is an example). A pair of commas is required to set off an element in a sentence. Be sure to include the second one.
Avoid orphan lines, especially section headings.
Do not use contractions in formal writings; they are a reflection of colloquial speech.
Use the possessive form of pronouns that are the subject of gerund phrases, as in “His claiming that the giraffe’s long neck is the product of design seems to be a stretch.”
Never begin a sentence with “hopefully” because the modified verb, even if the sentence includes one, is almost never clear.
Avoid noun-noun construction, such as “design patterns.” Such expressions constitute jargon and are best left to the confusing style of government bureaucrats.
Do not use the term “this” as an unspecified reference, an in “this proves beyond all doubt that I am right.” This may refer to the preceding word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or universe.
Always hyphenate compound adjectives, as “the fourteen-year-old boy.”
As a general rule, spell out numbers of less than three digits and all round numbers that can be expressed in two words, as one hundred or three thousand. Any number used as the subject of a sentence should be spelled out. Large numbers may be expressed by figures in units of millions or billions, as 2.5 million. A fraction standing alone should be spelled out, as three-fourths. But a numerical unit composed of a whole number and a fraction should be expressed as a figure, as 2½ percent.
In hypothetical clauses, use the subjunctive mood of the verb, as in “if he were to find evidence of God...” The subjunctive is the mood which indicates what would happen if certain conditions were to be met; it is the mood of longing, a projection into an unknown future.
ALWAYS NUMBER YOUR PAGES!!
Most word processing programs provide proportional spacing that adjusts to the widths of individual letters. It is, therefore, unnecessary to leave two full spaces between sentences, as was conventional when using a typewriter. When you print a page produced by word processing software, it should look as much like a published page as possible.
Divide extended essays by subheadings that indicate briefly the content of each section of text.
REWRITE! The key to good writing is rewriting. You cannot expect to do your best work if you begin the project a few hours before it is due. If you are too pressed to prepare an initial draft and then rewrite it, at the very least leave yourself time for a careful proofreading.