Formal Writing Tips

Things to do… When writing an essay in class: 1. Only use blue or black ink. Pencil is not permitted. 2. Only write on the front of your notebook paper. 3. Double space-

Otherwise… Type your essay. Double space- Use Times New Roman. Use a 12 font.

Do….. Organize before you write. If time permits, outline what you plan to write about. All paragraphs must be a minimum of 5 sentences. Your thesis should be the last sentence in your introduction.

Do……. Use quotes to validate your opinions and give your writing more power. Be sure to explain the quotes that you use. Be specific when writing. Avoid generalizations. Use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Do…… Use quotation marks for poems, short stories, song titles, magazines, newspaper articles and TV episodes. Underline or italicize books, plays, movies, TV series, magazine titles, newspaper titles, and CD titles.

Do….. Make sure that your tense does not change: You would not say “ Janie married Joe Starks and go with him to a new town.”

Do…. Use words instead of numbers for anything under 2 words: 1= one 83= eighty-three 101=101

Things to refrain from- Using first person- (1, we, me, etc.) Using second person- ( you and your)

Refrain from…. Announcing directly what you are writing about. (MS. COOK HATES THIS!!!!) In this essay, Today you will learn, In this essay I will write, This essay will tell you or anything remotely similar.

Refrain from…. Using contractions (can’t, don’t, won’t) Using abbreviations ( etc, b/c, w/) Using symbols (#, @, &) Using texting lingo ( LOL, TTYL, JK) Using garbage words or slang (A lot, stuff, get, lots, got, very or really) Use a synonym as a replacement- very pretty(beautiful) really careful (cautious)

Refrain from… Using double negatives ( He has not read none of her books.) Beginning sentences with conjunctions (and, but, so etc.) Using sentence fragments and run on sentences. Using clichés ( Jane gets a wake up call.) PLAGIARISM!