A N D T R I C K SF O R F O R M A L W R I T I N G

WRITING TIPS

VOICE AND TENSE

• Write in 3rd person• Avoid 1st and 2nd person (no you, I, we, etc.)

• Maintain tense consistency throughout paper. • Literary present

AGREEMENT

• Subject/Verb • The children are going to play.• The child is going to play.

• Pronoun/Antecedent • The children went to play with their toys.• The speaker worked on his/her speech. • The boys rode their bikes.

DICTION

• Strong Verbs • Active Verbs• Avoid• “to be” verbs• Passive verbs “was” constructions

• Homonyms• Descriptive language• Limit filler words

SYNTAX

• Simple Sentences• Independent clause• The car sped down the highway.

• Compound Sentences• Two independent clauses combined with a comma and coordinating conjunction• The car sped down the highway, but the traffic was moving quickly, too.

• Complex Sentences• One independent clause and one dependent clause• Because traffic was moving quickly, the car sped down the highway.

• Compound-Complex Sentences• Two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.• Because traffic was moving quickly, the car sped down the highway, but the

driver did not get a ticket.

FORMAT

• Double Space• 12 point font• Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New• 1” Margins • Remove extra space between paragraphs• Indent paragraphs• No Title• MLA Citation for source(s)• In-text or parenthetical citations• Name in upper left• Due Date• Class and Period

SAMPLE FORMATTING

HOMONYMS

• There, Their, They’re• Allowed, Aloud• Where, Wear• Ball, Bawl• Whine, Wine• Ant, Aunt• I, Eye, Aye• Lie, Lye• Fair, Fare• Meet, Meat• Role, Roll• Capital, Capitol• Accept, Except• Buy, By, Bye• Eminent, Imminent• Scene, Seen

EDITING

• Write the rough draft several days prior to due date• Re-read work critically• Spell check work• Do not simply change spelling and diction errors• Rewrite passages when necessary• Organization• Cause/Effect• Sequential• In Medias Res

• Syntax• Avoid run-ons, fragments, and repetitive structure

MLA CITATIONS

• Placed at end of work. Works Cited (centered on own line)• Author. Title. Site. Publisher. Location. Date.

Source Acquired Date. <URL>.• URL inclusion is falling from use, but is required

for this course.• Last, First. –or- Last, First, and First Last.• Day Month Year. No punctuation within date.• 25 August 2014.• 5 Dec 2014.

CITATIONS

• “Standards based grading will provide a more accurate indication of student performance at any given point in the year” (Maxlow).• According to Ms. Maxlow, English Dept. Chair at

TCHS, “standards based grading will provide a more accurate [look at] student performance” through-out the year.• The English Department at TCHS is leading the

charge toward standards based grading with the goal of more accurately determining student mastery throughout the year (Maxlow).