Reasons Papers Are Returned
Reasons I will return your paper to you and consider it late:
failure to staple the paper.
lack of a cover page.
lack of page numbers.
parenthetical references instead of footnotes or endnotes.
huge fonts (i.e. anything larger than 12 point or anything designed to be bold, stout, or wide)
Reasons you will still do poorly even if you have gotten all of the above correct:
failure to follow formatting instructions. You are responsible for learning the technical aspects of your word processing program to delete extra spaces between paragraphs, set the margins, and turn off the widow/orphan protection and “keep together” functions. These are easy to learn and will make your life easier.
lack of a thesis. Students would be very surprised at how difficult it is to read a paper without a thesis, and how frustrating it can be to grade that paper. Theses are very easy to write and will make writing the rest of the paper very easy.
including your name or any cover page information on any page other than the cover page.
use of personal references (I, we, etc.)
use of colloquial, idiomatic, or profane language or of informal language and/or contractions.
use of incorrect bibliographical, footnote, or endnote forms.
quoting from the course notes.
use of non-approved internet secondary sources (this means you must get permission to use such sources).