Writing Tips

Format

Do not staple your papers together; fold them lengthwise and put your name and the date on the top—on the appropriate side!

Follow the directions in the handout MS Word.

Titles of works that are always sold as parts of something else are put into quotation marks; titles of works sold individually are put in italics.  Since short stories are not sold individually, they are put in quotation marks.  “A & P” is a short story in the collection Pigeon Feathers.

In a title, capitalize the first word and all following major words, such as nouns and verbs.

Do not put quotation marks around your own title!

The Body of the Essay

Critical analyses are written in third person, not first.  Therefore such phrases as “in my opinion” or “I think that” are redundant and should be cut out.

Provide at least three examples—one from the beginning of the story, one from the middle, and one from the end—for each element of support for your thesis.

Use present tense in describing the action of a story. Do not say:  Sammy thought to himself,

“If she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem . . . “ (12). Say instead: Sammy thinks to himself, “If she’d been born at the right time. . . .”

Be sure to give your reader context for the quotations you use.  For example, don’t just say: Death warns the Doctor not to cheat him again. “It is all up with you, and now it is your turn”

(7).  With this statement Death takes the Doctor to an underground cave. Instead say: After the Doctor has saved the Princess’s life, Death tells him: “It is all up with you, and now it is your turn” (7). With this statement Death takes the Doctor to an underground cave.

A hyphen (-) is different from a dash (—); a dash is longer.  If you type two hyphens together-- Word will automatically turn it into a dash.

Commas and periods go inside quotation marks unless they are followed by a parenthesis.

The short story, “To Build A Fire,” was written by Jack London.

“A & P” opens with the line: “In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (12).

Use double quotation marks, not single, unless you are quoting a quotation: “Elisa brought him a fifty-cent piece from the house and dropped it in his hand. ‘You might be surprised to have a rival some time.  I can sharpen scissors, too’” (225).