Writing Assignment Short Guide

General Information.

Each writing assignment has specific goals, but there are a few general rules that apply to all writing.

1.  All of your work should be original.  You may achieve this by developing a question or thesis that requires you to analyze and synthesize information.  Original work cites sources of information or supporting analysis while maintaining an independent line of thought.  Remember that a string of arranged quotations which have been gleaned from sources is not a paper.

2.  The best writing will concern what you know.  Information you control which is not “common” knowledge springs from your experience of the world.  It matters little whether that experience derives from action, conversation, or reading.  You must have an authentic experience of any topic to write about it. Experience, however, should include the course readings and other materials designed to “instruct” you of the topic of the class.

3.  The length of anything you write should be determined by your purpose in writing.  No magic number of words exists which can assure that you will express what you want to express.  Of course, the more you practice, the more progress you will make toward clear expression.  The word “practice” suggests that writing is a process involving repetition and stages of development.  You will find better improvement from redrafting two pages five times than you will from writing ten pages once.  Imposed word limits are sometimes an important feature of student writing, since limits often demand careful consideration of content.  Learning to summarize or abstract a theme is a useful tool for developing many kinds of writing.  In a university context, short essays often allow for more and better feedback on the writing process.

Technical Expectations.

1.  You may be asked to include draft material with the final version for each assignment as evidence of your writing process [NOTE: YOU SHOULD KEEP “DRAFT” FILES OR HAND-EDITED HARD COPY REVISIONS FOR EACH WRITTEN PRODUCT, AT LEAST UNTIL THE GRADING PROCESS IS COMPLETE.].

2.   Sparing use of non-standard English is acceptable only when necessary to convey the sense of a story or theme.

3.   You are responsible for preparing your work in an acceptable style, following either the APA or MLA guides.

4.   In all cases, the requirements of this guide must be followed in addition to the APA or MLA guides.

5.   All material quoted directly or paraphrased from any source must be cited with full page references.

6.   Citation rules also apply to recordings, photographs, videos, films, songs, and conversations directly integrated in your work.

7.   Any influence, idea, or theme drawn generally from a source should be cited specifically enough for the reader to locate it.

8.   Classical sources, especially published texts, should be cited by the line or numbering conventions of source. 

9.  BY THE STANDARDS OF 3-6,  ANY GENERAL WORK THAT INFLUENCES YOUR WRITING REQUIRES AT LEAST A “NAME” CITATION IN YOUR TEXT; THE LEVEL OF SPECIFICITY OF CITATION DEPENDS UPON THE SPECIFICITY OF THE REFERENCE.

10. No work should be listed in the bibliography of a paper without appearing as a citation in the paper. 

11. No cited work should be missing from your bibliographic listing.

12. An annotation estimating the original date of authorship should be included in all bibliographic entries concerning ancient texts.

13. The following criteria will be used in grading all writing assignments:

The following table may serve as a guide to how I look at your use of preparatory material (readings, discussion, etc.) and your writing process in terms of content and style.  The essays you write should show some consideration of the course readings or discussion.   Essays are not merely an opportunity for you to express opinions that do not take the course content into account.  The approximate grade equivalents are provided as a guide.  Any area can cause the point value of an essay to drop.

                                well-represented in original terms