Conventions of Formal Writing

|Do |Do Not |
|Format your paper in the style required by your major: APA, MLA, |No abbreviations |
|Turabian/Chicago |No acronyms (unidentified) |
|Subject: Address the prompt |No casual/conversational tone |
|Objective: Analyze; do not summarize |No contractions |
|Attention-grabber first sentence |No slang |
|Solid thesis statement |No first or second person pronouns |
|Correct grammar |No references to self as the writer (i.e. “The reader” or “I feel …” |
|Correct mechanics |or “This writer …” or “We …” or “Us …”) |
|Correct spelling |No references to “the reader. |
|Employ action verbs |No announcements such as “In this paper …” (Exception: APA research |
|Minimal “to be” verbs (Substitute action/vivid verbs) |paper Abstract) |
|Provide supporting evidence from the literary work(s), including |No plot summary at the expense of analysis |
|citations, for all of your assertions. (Refer to your style manual or |No worn out clichés |
|Citation Handout.) |Avoid dead words or phrases when possible (See handout) |
|Present tense when writing about literature unless introducing |Avoid trite diction and weak verbs |
|historical background |No encyclopedia is allowed as a source |
|Transitional words and phrases between sentences and paragraphs |Do not provide definitions of common terms |
|Use characters’ and authors’ first and last names once; after that, |Do not ask questions |
|use last name only (if given). |Avoid anecdotal or stories |
|Vary sentence structure and word usage |Avoid announcing |
|APA and MLA: Place commas and periods inside closing quotations marks|Do not use phrases such as “This paper will address” or “In |
|unless citations follow in which case they are placed after the |Conclusion.” |
|citation’s closing parenthesis if using APA or MLA format. |Do not introduce new information in the conclusion. |
|Turabian: Place commas and periods inside closing quotation marks. | |
|Superscript follows quotation marks. | |