1. Norms of High School Writing

2. Capitalization First word in each sentence. First-person use of ‘I’.
Proper nouns
Specific Persons, Locations, and Things
Days of the week, month, holidays
Historical events
Race, Nationalities, Languages

3. Punctuation Period/Question Mark/Exclamation Point Comma Apostrophe
Quotation Marks
Colon
Semi-colon

4. Complete Sentences Begins with a capital letter.
Concludes with an end mark (./?/!)
Main clause
Subject + Verb
Expresses a complete thought

5. Consistent Verb Tense Past Present Future
I typed this slide and ate a Snickers.
Present
I am typing this slide while eating a Snickers.
Future
I will type the slide and eat a Snickers.

6. Consistent Point of View
1st Person: I
2nd Person: You
3rd Person: He , She , They

7. No Contractions Don’t = Do not Won’t = Will not It’s = It is
I’ll = I will
Who’s = Who is
That’ll = That will

8. Formal Language b/c = because & = and btw = by the way u = you
TV = television
pic/photo = picture/photograph

9. Strong Word Choice hate deteste good pleasant ask inquire
Mrs. Cubitt sat in her chair.
Mrs. Cubitt exhaustively sank into her chair.

10. MLA Formatting Double spaced 12 point font (Times New Roman / Arial)
1 inch margins
Right Corner = Last Name + Page Number
Left Corner = Name / Teacher / Class / Date
Centered Title
Evenly spaced paragraphs