A Few Important Words About Essay Writing

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.”