Lecture 2: Read This Before Turning in Any Work

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The purpose of this lecture is to give you a set of guidelines for all your written assignments. These are the absolute basics, and no one will do well unless they follow these guidelines.

There are two sections below, as follows:

1. Grading criteria for formatting.

2. Grading criteria for your prose style.

It is imperative that you follow these guidelines, no matter whether you are writing a major essay or a minor assignment, or you will simply not do well.

SECTION 1: Formatting:

You must immediately review p. 116 of the MLA Handbook. There you will find an example of the top of page one of an essay. You must format your assignments to look the same. Below, I list some noteworthy points that impact the grade a paper can receive:

1. On p. 116 you will see four lines of text that are located in the upper left hand corner of the page. They include your name, my name, and other information as well. These four lines must be included on every assignment that you turn in, but they should be on only page one of your assignments.

2. The document header is located in the upper right hand corner of each page. A document header is required for all your assignments. If you do not know how to create a document header then see the lecture "How to Create a Document Header." Once you create a document header properly it will automatically recreate itself on every page of your assignment. On p. 116, the document header reads like so: Josephson 1

3. An MLA paper maintains strict double spacing throughout. In other words, you begin typing on the very first blank line of text that is available, and there is never an instance where it is acceptable to use your enter key an extra time, so that you create extra blank lines. Just maintain strict double spacing throughout your entire document.

4. Do not write your papers as a single spaced document and then convert them to double spaced documents prior to turn in, for this will cause formatting problems. Trust me on this: if you do not follow these instructions your paper will not be formatted correctly.

5. Finally, I expect you to not only read but study the MLA Handbook, so that you will be able to negotiate MLA style guidelines successfully. Moreover, you must read all lectures carefully.

6. For all course work use a Times New Roman 12 pt. font, or it will seriously affect your grade. In fact, turn in no course work until you have reviewed the "Formatting of All Course Work" section of the syllabus.

7. MLA requires that margins be set an one inch all around: top, bottom, left, and right. However, I will accept 1¼ inches for the left and right margin settings, for that is the default setting in MS Word. Do not use any other margin setting, for it will negatively impact your paper’s grade, and could cause the paper to lose credit for a peer revision workshop.

8. All course work must be word-processed; never turn in handwritten work, for it will be returned at the earliest opportunity, and cannot receive credit.

9. The formatting guidelines established here and during class lectures must be observed.

10. The paper should meet the word/page count requirements, and all other requirements of lectures, prompts, and the syllabus.

11. Writing must be free—or predominantly free—of typos, awkward/unclear phrasing, and sentence level errors.

SECTION 2: Grading Criteria for your Prose Style (papers will also be graded on all other guidelines addressed in the individual assignment prompts, and direct instructions given during class):

· Do not use contractions.

· Do not use first person pronouns such as “I” “me” “my.”

· Do not use second person pronouns such as “you” “your” “yours.”

· Do not engage in personal stories, meaning stories of your own life experiences, or the experiences of friends, family, and so on.

· Do not begin sentences with conjunctions: but, and, or, nor, for, so, yet.

· Do not pose any questions in any assignments. This means, quite literally, not to use questions. Make statements instead.

· Do not quote the bible or make allusions to religion in any way.

· Avoid any form of direct address to the reader, such as "think about the fact that . . ."

· Avoid too casual of a prose style, such as sentences that begin with words like "well, sure, now, yes, no."

· Do not use the phrase “a lot,” which can usually be replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much.