1) Every paper should have a communicative title. This is probably true for every paper you submit for any university class. This is true of virtually every chapter in every book, it is true of every article in every journal, so of course it should be true of your work.

2) What the title should communicate is what the paper absolutely must have, its thesis. If you can’t abbreviate your thesis into a concise title, it might be that you don’t really have a clear understanding of the thesis—and, by implication, don’t really have a clear thesis. Here are some useful links to help you think about generating a thesis and presenting it as a thesis statement.

3) Put your name and a page number on every page, in the top right corner. Do not do so on your first page. The first place your reader will see a page number is on the second page. On the first page I do want to see your name, my name, the course number, and the date of submission.

4) Double space your typing, and use only one side of the page.  All margins, right, left, top, and bottom should be one inch.  Use a 12-point font that’s easy to read, that is neither too small nor excessively large (Times is an appropriate font; BernhardModern is about as small as you should go; Arial is too large; a Mac equivalent would be Chicago).  I work with computers and computer-generated script every day, which makes me sensitive to misguided attempts to make papers appear longer, shorter, or in any way other than they would appear if these rules are followed.

5) PROOF READ! Do yourself a favour, and proofread the paper, in hard copy, before you submit it. Correct any mistakes you find, in pen if need be, before you give the paper to me. Chances are I won’t miss the mistake, so don’t worry about calling my attention to it. Your attention to such details will not go unnoticed, I promise you.

6) In this age of computer spell-checkers spelling mistakes are less important, but paradoxically less forgivable, than they used to be. Get the hint?

7) Indent the first line of all paragraphs.  Indent all long quotations (four lines or more in your own paper) on every line of the quotation.  (I’ll provide examples of this in class.)

8) If you’re unsure how to do or say something experiment but indicate to me--perhaps in pen with an asterisk and an explanatory note at the bottom or on the back of the page--that you are experimenting and unsure.

9) Most academic writing is formal, or high, in tone. When writing academic prose you should avoid contractions such as "can’t," "don't," "won't," etc. In 1213 this rule becomes a convention, which means you can violate it in order to achieve a tone befitting your work and its intended audience.

10) Feel free to use personal pronouns. "I," "we," and "you" are welcome in your paper, provided you employ them in such a fashion as does not damage the tone of your paper.

11) Staple your pages together.

12) You are responsible for knowing and for following any and all specific instructions not contained in this generalized list.

13) When writing about writing, always provide your reader with enough material to make sense of what you say. Use quotations in order to show your work, your reasoning process. As you write, you become immersed in what you want to say and what is crystal clear to you in that state is seldom if ever so clear to your reader.

14) HAVE A THESIS, KNOW THAT THESIS, AND ARGUE THAT THESIS! Whatever you include in your paper should be there for one primary reason: because it offers support for the one idea that holds your paper together from beginning to end and gives it its reason for being, its thesis.