General Essay Guidelines

Introduction Effective writing still matters, even with today’s technological advances—effective communication is essential for our society to function and progress.

General Essay Guidelines 1. Research writing does not contain personal responses. Avoid using personal pronouns in academic writing. Only use: he, she, it, they, them.

General Essay Guidelines 2. Avoid colloquial expressions and slang terms. Specifically, stop using the phrase “a lot.” Multiple words can be substituted for this phrase: extreme, many, multitude.

General Essay Guidelines 3. Do not create questions in your writing. Only make strong declarations.

General Essay Guidelines 4. Academic paragraphs require five sentences. Remember: you are defending every point you make. Three sentences cannot make adequate defense of a major point.

General Essay Guidelines 5. Avoid FANBOYS. Do not open your sentences with: for and not, nor but or yet so

General Essay Guidelines 6. Even when speaking: Do not end your sentences with a preposition.

General Essay Guidelines 7. Avoid using contractions. Contractions were invented for speech. For academic writing, they shift your tone. don’t can’t won’t, etc.

General Essay Guidelines 8. Remember “it’s” is a contraction for “it is.” It’s going to rain today. On the other hand, “its” shows a form of possession: Despite its name, the smoggy-iris is white.

General Essay Guidelines Finally, it is important to remember as well: all typed assignments must be presented in double space only use Times New Roman, 12 point type follow rules for formatting paragraph indent opening lines of paragraphs use correct margin settings Zero points will be immediately placed on a project which does not follow these guidelines.