Guidelines For Papers

   Your papers should be full pages for the required number of pages (or more).
   Use one inch margins: top, bottom, right and left. (Be careful, “Word” often defaults
to 1 1/4 inches, and you may have to set the bottom margin at less than 1 inch.) Use
a point size of 12 (or 10) for your printing font. Use Ariel, or Times New Roman for
your font. Do not use Courier or Courier New. You should double space the text of
your paper. The first line on your paper should be your name and the Title. The next
line should begin the paper.
   Use a wordprocessor and a grammar checker.
   Do not use a paragraph title or skip lines between paragraphs. Indent the beginning
of each paragraph. Start a new paragraph when a new idea, thought or subject is
introduced. Try to keep paragraphs to under 250 words. Where a paragraph is
overly long, try to divide it into shorter parts.
   Do not use “I think..”, “In my opinion...”, “It seems to me...”, “I believe...”, etc.
What you write should be what you think, believe, etc. To repeat it is redundant and
indicates that you are in fact unsure of the point you are about to make. Be careful
not to use the same words, similar words or similar ideas over and over. It makes
your writing harder to read. Long quotes (more than one physical line) should be
indented on the left and right and be single spaced.
   Do not discuss the assignment. Talking about how you feel about the assignment,
how you approached it, what you considered and rejected are all ways of filling up
pages without actually responding to the assignment. Do not describe what you will
discuss or list the items you will be discussing. Do not repeat the essay or story,
except as support for your points. Do not use a cliche or other trite language, e.g.,
“the quick and the dead,”  “dead as a doornail,” “day in and day out,” “trials and
tribulations,” etc.