A
Few Important Words About Essay Writing
-
Essays
should be formatted as follows: Essays
should be typed, double-spaced, with 12-pt. font (nothing
fancy – Times New Roman would be great). Include
page numbers. Include a separate title page with
the essay title, centered, one-third of the way down the
page. The title of your essay should be printed in
the same font type and size as the rest of your essay,
and it should not be underlined, boldfaced, or colored. The
same is true of the rest of the information on your title
page. Two-thirds of the way down the page,
center your name, student number, class name and number,
and professor’s name (each in a separate line). Leave
a little space, and below this, type the date (also centered). Alternatively,
include this information in a header in the upper left-hand
corner of the first page of your essay.
-
Use
the MLA citation method as found in the MLa
Handbook (Giribaldi). This can also be found online,
or in almost any writing reference manual. Do not use
footnotes. Include a Works Cited page. Make sure
your citations are error-free (consult the MLA manual for proper
formatting).
-
Protocol
for submitting essays: the first essay is due on a Friday, outside of class time, and
the second essay is due on the last day of classes. Since these
essays are not due during class time, it is very important that they
arrive
in Rick's mailbox in UC 173 BEFORE 3:30 PM on the date on which
they are due (although early essays are more than welcome).
Celene will collect the essays at this time. Late
essays must be submitted by email to Celene, and these will
be graded but will not receive comments. A late
penalty of 1% per day will also be applied.
-
Ensure
that your essay is built on a strong structure, including an
introduction with a clear thesis statement, body paragraphs
guided by topic sentences that reflect a logical flow of ideas,
and a conclusion. If your essay is a comparison between
two theories or theorists, a thesis statement will likely consist
of a clear and specific encapsulation of what you perceive
to be the central focus of each theorist in relation to a single
idea or set of ideas. Although this is not an English
class, in order for you to communicate your ideas well at the
university level, your essay must be logically coherent,
grammatically and syntactically clean, and it must work closely
with the text or texts in question. Write,
rewrite, revise, and proofread!!! Have someone else whose
skills and judgment you trust to critique your essay for both
style and content.
-
Start
working on your essay at least 2 weeks in advance so that if
necessary you can visit the Writing Center and receive
help with your writing. Every college
has its own writing center, and you must submit a work-in-progress
usually a week in advance of an appointment with a tutor in
order to receive assistance.
-
Finally,
remember that your reader is really most interested to perceive
that you have a good understanding of what you are writing
about, and that you can communicate this understanding. You
should think about the fact that you are writing for an audience,
but it is even more important that you yourself undergo a
process through which ideas and concepts become real and
something that you “own.”
|