Note that most academic papers and projects have designated guidelines and criteria specific to their purposes. Be sure to adhere to those individual criteria.

• Be sure you understand the requirements of every assignment, and contact your teacher promptly if you have questions.
• See Writing Guides and Resources for additional resources.

A clearly stated thesis or central idea presented in one or more sentences provides a necessary focus for your entire paper. Academic writing and most professional writing require an explicit rather than an implied thesis; therefore, your papers for this class should usually state your central idea clearly early in your essay.

Your thesis and surrounding sentences of your introduction usually must include a comment or opinion and must show clearly the significance of the topic and its impact on your life and/or others. Concrete, specific examples and details throughout your paper will illustrate and emphasize that impact. You can use the following checklist to double-check that you have an appropriate central idea.

1. Clear statement of central idea (thesis)
   • Precise topic
   • Comment, viewpoint, or opinion about topic
2. Context and significance
   • Background information
   • Importance of topic

Unless otherwise specified, consider your classmates and students as your primary readers, along with your teacher. In fact, you may be asked to exchange your draft or paper with one or more classmates. Keep in mind that this general readership brings a variety of backgrounds to the class, including a range of ages, job experiences, and social experiences such as living in other parts of this country and in other countries. Therefore, midlevel general diction and nontechnical vocabulary would be most appropriate. Standard usages, clarity of expression, and readability are essential.

• Your introduction should have an opening or lead to attract readers' interest and attention. Consider how you would appeal to a reluctant audience instead of to the captive audience of the class and teacher. You can begin with a short story or anecdote, an interesting or provoctaive example, a challenge, a quotation, or a question to entice your reader. If you ask a question, answer it right away to ensure your reader understands your thinking on the topic.
• Establish the relevance or significance of your topic. Make clear why you care and why readers should care about the topic and your treatment of the topic. Always include sufficient background information and any necessary definitions to clearly establish the context for your discussion.
• End the introduction with a clearly stated or clearly implied thesis or central idea so that readers have no doubt about your limited topic and your purpose or opinion.

• Body paragraphs (also called topical paragraphs because they develop the topic through subtopics) must be fully developed and supported with sufficient, relevant, concrete, specific support for clearly identified points.
• Use as many body paragraphs as necessary to develop your thesis. In general, separate well-developed points into paragraphs not only for meaning but for visual emphasis.
• Use the best details, examples, expert testimony, anecdotes, statistics, reasons, and other concrete, specific information to make your paper credible and interesting.
• The clearest and most effective body paragraphs in academic papers include all the following elements in each paragraph:
  1. a clearly presented topic sentence or two as the central idea with a sense of purpose,
  2. appropriate connections to the paper's main point or thesis as reminders throughout, and
  3. transitional words and phrases within the paragraph to aid unity and coherence.
• Ensure that body paragraphs are logically organized in relation to each other and that the information within paragraphs is logically organized as well.

At the minimum, a concluding paragraph should restate your thesis/central idea and give your essay a sense of completion. Two or three sentences will suffice for a short paper, but more may be appropriate. In fact, some reflective commentary at the end strengthens your paper and makes your point more emphatic and memorable. Your conclusion gives you an opportunity to make a dramatic restatement or appeal; a conclusion allows you to make generalizations related to your purpose. Some of the same techniques that make effective openings can be used in conclusions, but avoid questions at the end.

• Although readers see your title first, you might want to write it last, after you have drafted your paper and know what the paper is about.
• Compose a title that fulfills both of the following goals. In order to accomplish both goals, many academic papers have a main title and subtitle separated with a colon.
  1. catches your reader's attention and
  2. identifies the topic and focus
• Your title can set the tone for your paper but cannot substitute for full information in your introductory paragraph.
• Consult a recent college handbook for rules on capitalizing and punctuating titles. Do not underline, italicize, or quote your own title. Do punctuate the name of a literary work appropriately.
• Here are some examples of titles:
  • Not Just a Sneaker: Tips for Buying Athletic Shoes
  • Success in School: How Pat Smart Makes Dean's List Every Semester
  • Keeping the Sand in Sandbridge
  • Breaking the Bottleneck: Alternatives for Highway Planning
  • The Perils of Perfection: Aylmer's Obsession in "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Editing and Revising

In many ways, what we understand as "good writing" really is careful re-writing, re-thinking, and editing and revising. Some Revision Strategies can help you change a "good" paper into an "excellent" paper.

• After you have sufficiently planned and drafted your essay, consider getting feedback from readers by asking one or more objective people to read it for clarity and development.
• Allow time to set the draft aside for a day or at least for a few hours so you can reread with a fresh perspective and some detachment.
• Reread your draft and revise as many times as necessary for clarity, unity, coherence, development, adherence to the criteria of the assignment, and effective diction and syntax.

Proofreading

• When you are satisfied or out of time, whichever comes first, carefully proofread for appropriate and accurate spelling, grammar, and mechanics. If you use spell check or grammar check software, be aware of the benefits and shortcomings (such as inability to distinguish usage differences between here and hear or imply and infer). You are responsible for determining that accuracy.
• After you have prepared the final copy according to the format guidelines for the specific assignment (usually MLA format for English and Humanities classes), proofread again, making any last-minute corrections.
• Be sure to keep a paper copy as well as a backup file.

You are the author of your paper, and your language and views should be clear as well as clearly your own. Give yourself credit by differentiating clearly between your own words and ideas or those of others. When you do use additional resources to add authority and information, use appropriate scholarly conventions to give credit to any personal, print, audiovisual, online, and other resources that helped you develop and support the ideas and information. Giving credit is both a courtesy and a requirement for academic work. Failure to do so is academic dishonesty. See Academic Integrity.

Documenting Sources

The following brief outline covers some key points about using sources. Consult my Documentation Guide Website for full details.

• Incorporating Quotations and Paraphrases
  • When you quote or paraphrase sources other than a literary work, credit the author by name, usually at the beginning of the citation, and include the page number in parentheses at the end. For online resources, a date might be a reasonable substitute. Or use your wording to make clear that the reference has ended. See In-text Citations for explanations and models. Follow the guidelines and models in your textbook and at Writing Guides and Resources.
  • When you quote from a literary work such as a play, novel, or short story, the way you construct your sentence should make it clear what author and work you are quoting. Therefore, you do not need to mention author's name in your parenthetical citation.
• Documenting in Appropriate Format
  • Current Modern Language Association (MLA) formats usually are required for formal papers in composition and literature classes.
  • Some classes require other documentation formats, for example, American Psychological Association (APA) or Chicago.
  • See Works Cited and Acknowledgments and Writing Guides and Resources.

Acknowledging Assistance and Support

You can also include a page of acknowledgements after the conclusion of an undocumented paper or after the Works Cited of a documented paper to express appreciation to helpful people such as librarians, friends and relatives, or the Writing Center. An example follows.

Most English classes and other classes in the humanities require Modern Language Association (MLA) format for formal papers.

• View an MLA Essay Format Sample.
• Format according the requirements for an MLA-style essay - designed for maximum readability as well as for consistency in college papers:
• book font such as Times Roman
• 12-point type size
• 1-inch margins all around
• double spacing throughout, 1/2-inch new-paragraph tabs, no extra space between paragraphs
• automatic header and pagination with last name and page number set flush right
• student identification at left margin: student name, professor name, course information, submission date, other information designated by professor
• last name and page number as automatic header set in word processor
• title centered and properly capitalized and punctuated
• parenthetical in-text citation of sources - see Documentation Guide: In-text Citations a
• separate page with alphabetical Works Cited for bibliography - see Documentation Guide: Works Cited and Acknowledgments for entry patterns and hanging indent format
• Read an example of a documented essay that uses correct MLA format: "A Zoo Way of Thinking" by Kelly Columbus, pseudonym for a former English composition student (if the file does not open automatically, download and install free Adobe Acrobat Reader).
• See the MLA Style Guide and online updates at the MLA Website.