Basic Tips

All papers should have titles. They should be creative. "Option 2" is not a title.
Always use the present tense when you are discussing texts or textual events (even events in the ‘past’).
A paragraph should be at least three (3) sentences long
Always use apostrophes for possessive words. (Dickens’ prose, girl’s house, girls’ houses)
Plural words do NOT use apostrophes.
Its = possessive. (Its tentacles were large.) It’s = it is. ("It’s growing," he observed.)
When possible, avoid the passive voice (being verb + participle). Instead, try to use direct, active verbs and clear subjects. If you want to discuss certain features of a text and don’t want to use the passive voice, you can also use the author’s name as your subject:
Passive voice: "When we are introduced to our protagonist…"
Active voice: "When Godwin introduces us to our protagonist…"
You can use the first person (‘I’) in papers, just not excessively.
If you would like to mention readers, they can be either ‘he’ or ‘she.’ It’s your choice. Mentioning both, however, is a bit awkward. If you want to avoid this difficulty, use "readers," "we," or "us."
Commas must be used before clauses.
Don’t overdo it with semicolons or colons.
When including quotations or plot details, always explain why they are significant and how they support the overall argument of your paper.
Literary papers should always support their claims with closely interpreted literary examples.
Introductory paragraphs should provide a clear and specific ‘preview’ of the arguments that are to come.
Quotations must be followed by a parenthetical citation of page or line number.

Parenthetical Citation

Once your reader knows which edition of a text you are using, the only information necessary to document a quotation is a line or page number placed in parentheses before the end of your sentence.
Remember: Always place punctuation AFTER your page or line citations.

1.) For poems whose lines are numbered consecutively, from beginning to end, just use line numbers:

In "The Reeve’s Tale," the miller’s daughter has "eyen as greye as glas" (120).

2.) For prose works (short stories, novels, and most plays) use page numbers.

Aristotle defines comedy as "an imitation of characters of a lower type" (51).

The above tips on "Parenthetical Citation" are courtesy of http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/tips/handlingquotations.htm (September 19, 2001).

Citing Sources

For literature papers, all references should be cited using MLA Style. You may either attach a separate “Works Cited” page to your essay or use footnotes to document texts the first time you quote them.

For more information on proper documentation, see Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference or http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/intext.html (or click the link “proper citation” under “Writing Resources” at our course homepage).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious offense. It is a theft of intellectual property. Moreover, it undermines the honest and thoughtful exchange of ideas – principles that form the heart of higher education. If you are unsure about documenting sources it is always better to err on the side of caution.

For more information on proper and improper forms of citation, see the website “Avoiding Plagiarism” (UC Davis) at http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm.

More on Quotations

You should always try to incorporate quotes into the actual grammatical structure of your writing. For instance:

Carlyle notes that "[i]t is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word" (64).
OR: Carlyle argues, "It is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word" (64).
OR EVEN: Carlyle defines the Victorian period as "the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that word" (64).
Note that I used brackets [ ] to change capital and lower case letters. Brackets may also be used to change words so that they correspond grammatically with the sentence that encases them.

A complete quoted sentence (or more) should NEVER stand ALONE in your writing. If the sentence is fewer than four (4) lines in length, you should pursue one of two possible strategies:

1.) Incorporate the quotation into one of your written sentences. (See the “Age of Machinery” example above.)

2.) Introduce the quote with a SEPARATE sentence, but use a colon to join both sentences together. For instance:

In “Signs of the Times,” Carlyle stresses the pervasiveness of industrialism: "Not the external and physical alone is now managed by machinery, but the internal and spiritual also” (65).

Finally, if you are quoting a sentence that is four (4) lines or longer, use a block quote as follows:

Hard Times compares Coketown’s industrial landscape to a fanciful mechanical bestiary:

[I]t was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had [...] vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. (22)

Note that the above block quote is single-spaced. It also does not use quotation marks. Only in this case does the parenthetical citation of page number follow punctuation. The quote should be indented a half an inch from each of your margins. (You can adjust the "ruler" on your computer to format these margins automatically.)

Helpful Links on Writing

(under construction!)