Redlands High School Writing Standards

Redlands High School Writing Standards Learn to present your writing with pride in an educated manner Whether it is English, Science, or History One of the first attributes of an educated person is his or her writing ability All high school graduates should master the standards of formal, academic writing

Academic Pride Take pride in presentation! Pay attention to each teacher’s heading expectations Typing is preferred. Use a professional 12-point Times New Roman font, double space, leave one-inch margins, indent paragraphs, and print on white paper.

Commit to writing as a process: Idea generation Drafting Revising More revising Read your work aloud to hear some of the obvious problems.

Have Someone Else Read Your Paper Proof your paper from a hard copy Not from the computer screen In order to ensure a more thorough editing.

Be Consistent When writing about a piece of literature, write in the present tense. When reporting on past occurrences or observations, write in the past tense. Example: Huckleberry Finn is a brave boy whose values are far superior to those of the adults in his society.

Be Consistent Keep verb tenses consistent. Example: Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. It is about…. Hemingway writes in The Old Man and the Sea about an old man whose quest is….

One, Two, Three, 10, 11, 12… Spell numbers through one hundred. However… In scientific and technical writing- write all numbers above nine as figures.

Watch Out For These Errors Avoid second person: “you,” “your,” “you’re.” Do not refer to your audience. Not: The passage really grips you. Instead: The passage is gripping.

Do Not Write Like You Text Write in complete sentences! Use coordinating conjunctions between independent clauses if you wish to combine them as one sentence (but, or, yet, for, and, nor).

Write in An Elegant Manner Use precise terms: AVOID “thing,” “got,” “a lot,” “nice,” “hard,” “stuff,” “guy,” “kid.”

Credibility Support your topic sentence in a paragraph with specific evidence: facts, examples, and details.

Be Careful First person is only appropriate when writing reflection, autobiography, or narration. (I, me, my, mine, our, us, we)

Quotations When using direct quotations to illustrate ideas, always introduce quoted material and ease it into your writing. Avoid “dumping” quotations on your readers.

Plagiarism Remember that a quotation is any passage removed from a copyrighted text, Also, be sure that if you are paraphrasing another author’s ideas, you still cite that author even though you won’t be putting quotation marks around the paraphrased words.

Plagiarism Use quotation marks correctly. Periods and commas are always placed inside quotation marks. Example: “Dr. Slaughter wants you to have liquids, Will,” Mamma said anxiously.

In Formal Essay Writing Avoid contractions slang colloquialism profanity

Contractions Examples: don’t won’t shouldn’t Instead use these: do not will not should not

Slang Examples: dude dope phat for sure like Bangin Wack Chillin Yo

Colloquialism "y'all" "gonna" "wanna“ "old as the hills" "graveyard dead" "There's more than one way to skin a cat"

More Problems Avoid cliches by choosing precise, original language Always write for your audience.

Follow This Format Use a thesis statement and topic sentences in each essay: Thesis statement: A sentence with a subject and an opinion in your introductory paragraph, which shows the reader the point of your entire paper.

Follow This Format Topic sentence: This type of sentence begins each body paragraph, informs the reader the point of the paragraph, and supports the essay’s main idea.