1. Things you should already know… BUT TEND TO FORGET.

2. QUOTES CANNOT STAND ON THEIR OWN AS SENTENCES!  INCORRECT  Example: Unferth killed his brothers, which means he is not good. “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin.” Because Unferth murdered his brothers, it stands to reason that he cannot be considered good by any means, and is therefore not an epic hero.

3. QUOTES CANNOT STAND ON THEIR OWN AS SENTENCES!  Quoted evidence must always be incorporated correctly into a sentence.  CORRECT:  Example: Unferth killed his brothers, which means he is not good. Beowulf says, “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin.” Because Unferth murdered his brothers, it stands to reason that he cannot be considered good by any means, and is therefore not an epic hero.

4. QUOTES CANNOT STAND ON THEIR OWN AS SENTENCES!  INCORRECT  Example: Unferth killed his brothers, which means he is not good, “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin.”  The blue portion of this sentence is an independent clause, which could stand on its own as a sentence. The red portion, regardless of the fact that it is in quotes, is also an independent clause. Those two should be separated by a period, not a comma.  MLA’s answer to that issue is to use a colon instead of a comma.  CORRECT:  Example: Unferth killed his brothers, which means he is not good: “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin.”

5. Quoted Material Cannot Serve as Commentary  INCORRECT:  Example: Beowulf was the same “boastful fool who fought a swimming match with Brecca” (250), and the fact that in “the end victory was [Brecca’s], not [Beowulf’s]” shows that Beowulf was the stronger of the two warriors.

6. Quoted Material Cannot Serve as Commentary  CORRECT:  Example: To Unferth, Beowulf is the same “boastful fool who fought a swimming match with Brecca” (250), and in “the end victory [is][Brecca’s], not [Beowulf’s].” In this example, Unferth argues that Beowulf has been bested before in terms of brute strength, and can therefore not be classified as an epic hero.  Your job as a writer is to interpret the quotes, and explain your interpretation to the reader using commentary. Quotes cannot and should not stand alone in any capacity.

7. BE SPECIFIC!!  INCORRECT  EXAMPLE: Beowulf had to help the Danes because Unferth never did anything about Grendel. Beowulf tells Unferth, “But he’s learned that terror is his alone,/ Discovered he can come for your people with no fear/ Of reprisal.” This is what Beowulf says to show Unferth that he is more of a hero than Unferth will ever be.  “This” what?? Quotes cannot speak for themselves.  Commentary must be specific to cleary state how your evidence supports your thesis.

8. BE SPECIFIC!!  CORRECT:  Example: Beowulf had to help the Danes because Unferth himself never attempted to slay Grendel. Beowulf tells Unferth, “But [Grendel has] learned that terror is his alone,/ Discovered he can come for your people with no fear/ Of reprisal.” In this example, Beowulf essentially says that Grendel only returns because warriors like Unferth failed to rid Denmark of Grendel in the first place. Because of this failure, Unferth cannot possess the responsible leadership required of an epic hero.

9. PRONOUNS THAT YOU MAY NOT USE IN PERSUASIVE OR EXPOSITORY ESSAYS:  I, YOU, WE, US- INCORRECT  Example: I believe that Beowulf is an epic hero because he is strong and brave.  Using pronouns like the aforementioned four gives an informal tone to any persuasive or expository composition. Both of those types of papers are supposed to be formal in both language and tone.  Besides changing tone, the purpose of the piece changes when you choose to use these four  Using “I” in an expository essay causes that essay to suddenly become a narrative one.  ESSAYS IN WHICH YOU MAY USE “I, YOU, WE, US”: NARRATIVE

10. PRONOUNS THAT YOU MAY USE IN PERSUASIVE OR EXPOSITORY ESSAYS:  CORRECT: Beowulf is an epic hero because he is strong and brave.  PRONOUNS THAT YOU MAY USE IN PERSUASIVE or EXPOSITORY ESSAYS: HE, SHE, IT, THEY, THEM or any variation thereof.  These pronouns preserve the formality of the tone, and do not change the essay’s purpose.

11. VERB TENSE  NARRATIVE OR HISTORY PAPERS: PAST TENSE  Reasoning: if it happened in the past, use past tense.  EVERYTHING ELSE: PRESENT TENSE

12. NO QUESTIONS, PLEASE.  Keep in mind that a reader is looking to you for answers, not more questions.  Using lots of questions in your writing is risky, as it makes you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.  Exception:  Persuasive writing:  The use of rhetorical questions is acceptable in persuasive writing as long as it persuades the reader/audience to think/act in a certain way.  If the question does not do that, it is functionless and should not be used.

13. MLA Format  Modern Language Association  Dictates formatting and style for most college-level papers in the United States.  If your professor doesn’t specify what format he/she would like, use MLA.  Specifications for Every Paper:  Font: Times New Roman, 12 Point  Spacing: Double  Margins: 1 inch, all 4 sides  Justification: Left  Parenthetical Citations for quotes, paraphrasing and summaries.  Page numbers: top, right-hand side of page, preceded by last name of student; only on pages 2+

14. SMALL STUFF  Book Titles and Titles of Other Major Works(plays, anthologies, etc.): Italicize  Periodicals(online or print): “Put Title in Quotes”  Citations go inside the period in a sentence.  A parenthetical citation is considered to be part of a complete thought. Thus, the period to the sentence comes AFTER the parentheses close on a citation, not before.  Example:  INCORRECT: Beowulf says, “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin.” (320-321)  CORRECT: Beowulf says, “And there’s more: you murdered your brothers, your own close kin,” (320-321).

15. SMALL STUFF  CAPITALIZE THE FIRST WORD OF EVERY SENTENCE!  CAPITALIZE PROPER NOUNS!  DO NOT CAPITALIZE COMMON NOUNS!  Do not use “line,” “ln,” “#,” “pp,” or “pg” when citing a text.  DO SIMPLY USE THE NUMBER OF THE PAGE/LINE ITSELF, UNLESS YOU ARE TOLD OTHERWISE.

16. HELPFUL HINTS  Solidify consistency using the Find and Replace Feature  Find all instances of () to ensure correct placement of citation features.  Pay attention to what changes if you choose to Replace anything.  Spell Check  Use it.  But pay attention to common usage- spell check only checks spelling, not context.  Grammar Check  Use it.  But pay attention to common usage- grammar check only checks the construction of a sentence.  It cannot analyze clarity or specificity.  Read your paper aloud to yourself.  You will likely hear more errors than you will see- after a while, the mind sees what it chooses to see.

17. Remember, YOU are right!!!  THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER!!!  Argue your points.  Trust your intelligence.  Find examples that can be argued in support of your thesis- odds are, no matter how crazy you think your thesis might be, that support exists somewhere!  Use confident language: you have the right answer- make the reader trust you.  Don’t use words like “usually,” “possibly,” “might,” etc.  They make you sound like you aren’t sure.  Use formal language, but use language that sounds like a high school student wrote it.  No text messaging acronyms: “YOLO” AND “LOL,” etc.  No using numbers to substitute as words