Essay Tips

My Symbols AWK: awkward sentence. WC: word choice?? “watch sentence phrasing” Phrasing= Sentence structure and word choice. WC: word choice?? Underlining sentences= awkward sentence. Points to the particular part of the sentence, which is awkward. OR it is a clear editing mistake (larger than one word) Example: more than one THE, no THE ?= not sure of your meaning, could come back to work choice.

Use the quote as your title. Include Citations

Commas I LOVE commas, BUT………. Overusing commas is BAAADDDD!!! It can break up sentences, which are otherwise quite elegant. Commas are not always for a “breath”. While you are letting the writing flow out of you and you feel the need for a comma PAUSE and evaluate.

Awkward Sentences Sometimes this can mean that you simply need to reverse the order of your sentence. Read it both ways if it sounds off. Sometimes there are simply too many words!!! I crossed out a lot of words and sometimes this can help the flow and get to your point much more efficiently. Example of reversing: Efficiently get to your point

THIS Many sentences I read began with This. It is not entirely improper to begin a sentence in this manner, but you want to use it sparingly since very often it can become confusing to the reader. Example: This is why Nick is capable of judging the people around him so well. Nick is capable of judging the people around him so well because he can maintain the feeling of “within’ and ‘without’. If you are making a concluding statement or you really want to drive a point home then avoid using ‘this’. BE DECLARATIVE. Example: “Fitzgerald chose this moment to reveal this characteristic of Nick because he really feels like he doesn’t relate to everyone at the party as he watches them interact”

They It is oftentimes unavoidable to use the term ‘they’. It is acceptable when directly referring to a specific group of people. Ex. The people at Gatsby’s parties are feigning interest in his life. They are superficial people who are enveloped in a yellow cloud of their own ignorance.

The Quote While it is difficult to avoid saying “this quote”/ “the quote” when you are focusing on only one line of the book you do want to do your best to avoid using this term and pretend as though your teacher is not MAKING you write about this quote- rather that it is sincerely important and interesting to you.

Tense This is tricky When you are writing your paper you want to make sure it is in the proper tense. Past Tense or Present Tense. It is a style choice, particularly since we are intensly aware of the time period it is set in and that it is told from a reflective narrator’s point of view. Sometimes the past tense can seem passive and gets in you way. He did this, He was educated, he was going to the party. If it begins to sound like this then Present Tense is much better. You must change the paper to suit the tense. This is what editing is for.

Loaded Terms The beauty of the quotations chosen is that there are many ideas going on in the background and there are insights into characters. It is difficult to talk about these insights and ideas without using LOADED TERMS. Example: Morality!! What is the definition of morality? Do all of our characters hold to this idea? Moral Relativism!!! Scary!!!! Cannot avoid it in your paper Be careful when dropping terms like this in your paper. “The morality of friendship” was used in a paper. This could be a great idea, but you need to narrow it down so I understand exactly what you mean.

In the Future In your future academic papers for this class and beyond. Words like these are also loaded terms: Culture Society Gender Sexuality Values