Lecture Topic: Read This Before
Turning in Any Work
The purpose of this lecture is to give you a set of simple
guidelines for all your written assignments, and I truly do mean ALL
written assignments. These are the absolute basics, and no one will do well
unless they follow these guidelines. I will begin with a short list of things
to avoid, and follow with a short list of things you must make certain to do.
No matter whether you are writing a Thought Paper, a Major Project, or anything
else, you must follow these guidelines or you will simply not do well.
Things to avoid:
- 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- Do not
quote the bible or make allusions to religion in any way.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."
By avoiding the above infractions you will receive higher
grades. Understand that my first order of business as your teacher is to rid
your prose of anything on the list above. The upshot is that academic writing is
not about personal stories, nor is the prose style so relaxed that it includes
the other items on the list.
Things to make certain to do:
You must immediately review Example
Assignment Page, for you must format all your assignments to look the
same as the example. Below I list other noteworthy points that you will be
graded on:
- Work
exclusively in a Times New Roman 12 pt font.
- Review
all �Formatting of All Course Work� section of the syllabus.
- The required software for this course
is MS Word. Do not turn in work that is composed using different
software. MS Word is free of charge to all students enrolled in this
course. Go to https://app.it.okstate.edu/sdc/login.php
for a free download. You will need your o-key email address and o-key
password. If you do not have this information, or if you experience any
difficulty with the login, call the IT helpdesk at 744-HELP (4357), and
they will gladly assist you.
- 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.
- 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 to
you, 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.
- 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.
- Use a
document header, even if the assignment is only one page in length.
- Titles
of essays and articles go inside quotation marks. In the rare instance
that you might refer to a work of fiction, titles of poems and short
stories also go inside quotation marks. Before making references to fiction
or poetry, students should consult with the instructor, for such
references would probably be inappropriate. Moreover, none of these
examples should be italicized, nor should they be underlined or boldfaced.
- Titles
of books, films, and plays can either be italicized or underlined, but
should NOT appear inside quotation marks.
Word 2007 Users:
For your document to be formatted properly you must do the
following:
1.
Click on the �Page Layout� tab.
2.
Locate �Spacing� and change the �Before� and �After�
settings to �0 pt�
3.
Underneath the �After� setting there is a tiny icon on
the same line where it says �Paragraph.� Click the icon and a splash box will
appear.
4.
Change the �Line spacing� to double.
5.
Click the �Default� button at the bottom of the splash
box.
6.
You will be asked if you wish to change the default
settings. Click �Yes.�
7.
With these settings you will no longer have formatting
problems.
8.
If you wish, you can also click on the �Home� tab, then
click on font, and change the default font setting to Times New Roman 12 pt.
By following the above instructions you will receive higher
grades.