Writing Guidelines
Christopher R. Jackson, Ph.D.
DeAnza College
The following brief remarks are meant only as an introduction to the subject of expository writing, and are not to be taken as exhaustive. For a fuller treatment of these matters, please consult the following books:
Frederick Crews, The Random House Handbook.
If you can purchase only one book, this would probably be it. It combines advice on usage, organization, style, writing, and research methods.
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.
Brief and bright, Strunk and White's classic advice should be required reading for any composition class. The section on misused words is especially helpful.
Kate L. Turabian, Student's Guide for Writing College Papers.
A solid, practical guide to writing for the social sciences, especially useful in matters of form and citation.
Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition.
The definitional work on style, its thoroughness is at times daunting.
F.N. McCoy, Researching and Writing in History: A Practical Handbook for Students.
A good step-by-step guide to researching and writing a term paper.
David Sanderlin, Writing the History Paper: How the Select, Collect, Interpret, Organize, and Write Your Term Paper.
Especially useful for guidance on the mechanics of writing.
I. STYLE
Active voice
Although other languages find the passive construction elegant, you should avoid it in almost all circumstances when writing proper English. Thus write "Lincoln freed the slaves” instead of "the slaves were freed by Lincoln." Passive constructions should be reserved for special situations when you purposefully wish to cloud the subject-object or cause-and-effect relationship. You should be very sure of yourself and your writing to get away with such a violation of the rules of style.
Avoid circumlocution
Get to the point. "Filler" sentences that state the obvious might creep into your first draft, but should be eliminated before the paper is turned in to the instructor.
X "Of course, there are two sides to every question." (No kidding.)
X "It is difficult to understand the history of this period, since it happened so long ago." (This is self-evident, and heralds the weakness of the analysis.)
X "As unemployment rose, more and more people were out of work." (That is the very definition of "unemployment.")
X "A closer examination of this problem seems warranted." (If it were not, why would the reader go any further?)
Avoid clichés
Clichés are phrases that have been used so often that they are worn down; they signal a lazy, unimaginative writer.
X "Upon liberation, Primo Levi's tears fell like rain." (Factually incorrect, and offensively jejune.)
Avoid qualifiers
Avoid qualifiers, such as "greatly" "basically," and "very." They pretend to strengthen your prose, but actually weaken it by giving your sentences a conversational air. In the words of Strunk and White "these are leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words."
Avoid contractions
Perfect for conversation or to shorten a written sentence to make it "punchier," you should avoid contractions in formal prose. If you violate this rule, you should have a very good reason.
Write in the third person
Do not begin your essay with the phrase "I think that...." Although we do not have to go as far as Gibbon and utterly condemn the practice of using "that most disgusting pronoun," most historical prose is written in the third person. Where editorial interjection is required, use the third person convention of "the author." For example, "[t]he author was unable to obtain a copy of this obscure 17th century tract on pornography in time for this book review."
Make defensible statements
Nothing is more jarring to a reader than a statement that is so broad or general that it cannot be reasonably true. "All Germans are authoritarian, and therefore Hitler was the inevitable outcome of German culture." The skeptical reader will think you are indulging in a gross generalization, and thereby reducing the whole of German culture to one socio-psychological trait. What about Bertolt Brecht? He was German, and no one accused him of being authoritarian. The thesis is so broad that a single exception defeats it. Try to find a middle ground between a thesis that is so narrow and qualified as to be boring, and a thesis that is so broad that it is indefensible.
Assume an intelligent but ignorant audience
Adopting the correct tone for your paper is sometimes difficult, but in general you should err on the side of clarity. Try to write as if the audience is generally informed and intelligent, but knows almost nothing about the subject at hand. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln do not have to be introduced in your paper, for example, but Horace Greeley, prominent newspaper publisher and 19th century presidential candidate, does. When writing about a person for the first time, use their first and last names, and identify them briefly.
II. GRAMMAR, USAGE, PUNCTUATION, AND SPELLING
A. Grammar
Although English is a marvelously flexible language, abounding in dialects, fashions, and neologisms, there are still certain standards to which students must adhere when writing "standard American English"--the kind of language we expect in civilized, intelligent, expository discourse. Avoid slang, dialect, and jargon.
Sentence fragments
A stylist with a sure sense of what can work in his or her prose can get away with sentence fragments to great effect. In general, however, you should avoid them, as it lends a breezy, conversational air to your writing.
X "Biff did not attend lecture on Monday morning. Being hung-over from the night before."
Note that the sentence fragment above would be entirely acceptable if joined with the preceding sentence by a comma. (Note that the behavior described would not be acceptable.)
Subject-verb agreement
Verbs in English often change when the subject of the sentence is plural rather than singular; make sure that the verb agrees with the subject.
X "The students writes on a complex topic."
X "Jane write on a complex topic." (Note that a comma after Jane in this sentence would make it a correct imperative sentence.)
X "The entire class write on a single topic." (This is a tricky situation: although we know that there are many people in the class, the subject, "class," is nevertheless singular, and the verb must agree with it.)
Run-on sentences
Independent clauses must be properly joined if the writer wishes to avoid run-on sentences. There are two varieties of run-on sentences, the comma splice, and fused sentences.
X "Skippy was pleased with his vacation plans, he was going to Fort Lauderdale." Note that a coordinating conjunction, such as "for" after the comma would solve the comma splice in this sentence.
X "Moose was not the biggest man on campus he was meanest and allowed his teammates to know it by stomping on their feet during practice and hating his teachers by writing meaningless drivel." This is the fusion of three different sentences without proper coordinating conjunctions; stay away from fused sentences (and stay away from Moose).
Tense
Using the correct tense is often tricky. Always use the past tense when writing about past events. "America experienced rapid industrialization in the nineteenth century." But when writing about what an author says in a book or article about a past subject, use the present tense: "America experienced significant social tensions as a result of its rapid industrialization, as Howard Zinn writes in A People's History of the United States."
B. Usage
Not all words were created equal. Finding the correct words for your sentences might seem a simple matter, but is, in fact, complex. The English language is probably the richest in the world, giving us a marvelous variety of terms from which to choose, but it also opens the door to abuse, degradation, and silliness. Finding the correct word is often a matter of ear, and that can only be gained from wide and discriminating reading. In general, however, one should use simple, clear, and precise words unless you have a very good reason not to do so. When possible and appropriate, however, you should vary your words to add texture to your prose.
Avoid vulgarity
While you might sincerely believe that Adolf Hitler's mother was a dog, that Oscar Wilde suffered from a lack of masculinity, or Newt Gingrich is related to an obscure tropical fish, you should not use vulgar or obscene terms in your writing. Use your paper to argue reasonably for a proposition; do not indulge in name-calling.
Under no circumstances will racial epithets be tolerated, either spoken in class or written in papers.
Words
Some of the more abused and ridiculous terms that have crept into common usage (and which you should avoid):
Basically. As with so many bolstering modifiers, it has a conversational air about it; it usually means nothing. Avoid using this word and its cousins (essentially, ultimately, totally, terrifically, etc.).
Disinterested. It means impartial. Do not confuse this word with "uninterested."
Effect. As a noun, it means the result of something; as a verb it means to bring about a result. Do not confuse with "affect," which, as a verb, means to influence something.
Either/Or. These are correlative conjunctions; when using the word "either," "or" is the correct conjunction. When using the word "neither" the correct conjunction is "nor."
Empathize. The very latest in abused terms that attempt to dragoon an existing word into a different meaning. To "empathize" with a person means to feel their emotions in a real, physical way. To "empathize" with a burn victim would be something to be avoided; the word "sympathize" is correct.
Enormity. Does not refer to size, but to monstrous wickedness. Do not confuse with "enormousness."
Farther, further. "Farther" relates to distance, "further" relates to time: "In the one-hour race I could not run farther than ten miles, a problem I pursued further with my coach."
Irregardless. This is not a word. It is probably derived from the American military, which is fond of creating super-superlatives. Use either "regardless" or "irrespective."
Its. "Its" is a possessive; "it's" is a contraction of "it is." "It's great being the fraternity social chairman; I love being its driving party force."
Less refers to quantity, fewer to number: "I like the class less now that there are fewer students."
Novel as a noun refers to a work of fiction; do not call someone's history book a "novel." "Novel" as an adjective refers to something new or original.
Presently. The primary meaning of this word is not what is happening right now, but instead something that will happen in the near future: "I will join you presently."
That, which. "That" is the restrictive pronoun, "which" is the non-restrictive. "The student's paper that was written with a quill pen was fascinating." (It defines the one paper among many.) "The student's paper, which was written with a quill pen, was fascinating." (It adds a fact about the only paper in question.)
Unique. This word is absolute, and thus cannot be qualified. Nothing can be "very unique"--it is either one of a kind, or it is not.
Way. This is not a synonym for "very."
Sexism in language.
Unfortunately, no one has devised an elegant and practical way around the sexism that is inherent in the English language. While it is obvious that terms such as "lady lawyer," "girl taxi driver," and "Jewess" have gone the way of the dinosaur, the dilemma presented by the so-called common gender remains daunting. An indefinite person has traditionally been referred to as "he"--"a student should turn his paper in on time." This sentence would seem silly at Mills College. But at most coeducational institutions, the problem still exists. The use of a virgule compound "s/he" is clumsy, as is a constant repetition of "his or her," but short of an entirely new, ungendered pronoun, we will probably have to live with the clumsiness, or restructure sentences so that they avoid the situation entirely. Thus "students should turn their papers in on time," or "get those darn papers in on time!"
C. Punctuation
Rules of punctuation are often arbitrary, but they must be mastered anyway. Botched punctuation calls attention to itself, either by misleading the reader or changing the meaning of a sentence, but correct punctuation is invisible. Try to be invisible in your punctuation.
Periods (.) should end most sentences; only an exclamation point or a question mark are otherwise allowed to end a sentence that you write. The latter should be used sparingly, the former rarely (if at all) in expository writing. Using too many exclamation points is somewhat akin to laughing too hard at your own joke.
Commas (,) have several functions. They can separate main sentence elements, separate independent clauses containing coordinating conjunctions (for, and, but, nor, or, so, etc.), separate members of a series, set off modifying clauses or phrases, or set off parenthetical elements.
Semicolons (;) have two basic functions: to join apposite independent clauses, and to show main divisions in a series that also contain commas.
Colons (:) are used to introduce a statement or figure. A good rule of thumb in using a colon is asking yourself if the phrase "that is," or "namely," could be substituted for it.
Dashes are produced in a typescript by typing two hyphens between the dashed words with no spaces--like this. The dash is used to indicate a break in thought. Although the dash can be used dramatically in punctuating your essay, it is important not to overuse it.
Brackets [ ] indicate words inserted by the author, and are usually used to clarify matters, particularly in quoted matter that contains an ellipsis. "As Kaiser Wilhelm II noted in his first speech before the Reichstag, 'the labor question [is] ... most dear to my heart.'"
Ellipses (...) are used only to designate omitted words in a quotation. They should never be used in formal prose as a substitute for proper punctuation. Use three periods to indicate that material has been omitted within a sentence, and four periods if you wish to end your own sentence with a quote that contained material that you omitted.
Question marks (?) should be placed inside the quotation marks if the quoted material contains a question, outside the quotation marks if the question is your own. A question, even if it is rhetorical, requires a question mark.
Quotations marks (") in American English are always made with double marks. Single quotation marks are used only if a quotation is made within a quotation. Despite common misuse, single quotation marks are not appropriate to effect a voice in your prose, particularly irony.
X The professor was struck by the 'learning' of his students.
That sentence is incorrect (in more ways than one).
Commas and periods are always placed inside the quotation-marks, colons and semicolons are always placed outside the quotation-marks, and question-marks and exclamation points are placed either inside the quotation-marks (if they were part of the original quotation) or outside the quotation-marks (if it is your question or surprise that is expressed).
(N.B.: Do not be fooled by some of the books you read: according to British usage writers use single quotation marks first, and then use double quotation marks for quotes within quotes; you are in America, and should adhere to American style.)
D. Spelling
Nothing is more certain to alienate your reader than numerous misspelled words in your essay. While your ideas might be impressive, misspelled words are sometimes so distracting that the reader will ignore those pearls of wisdom and conclude that you are an ignorant swine. You do not want this to happen. A spell-checker is a useful tool, especially for typos, but it cannot think and thus will not always detect wrong words that are spelled correctly--"through" for "thorough," "to" for "too," etc. Nothing can take the place of a good proof-reading; if possible, have a friend or the student advising center check your paper. A good dictionary is an essential tool for the writer, and should be at your side whenever you are composing, not merely to check spelling but also to clarify the meaning of particular words. (Do not use the thesaurus function in your word processor to pick different words—MS Word might think that those two words are equivalent, but they might be significantly different in the context of your sentence. If you use the thesaurus, look the new word up in the dictionary before using it.)
III. PRODUCTION
Plan ahead. It is important to give yourself enough time to reflect on what you have written, and then to rewrite. The first draft of a paper inevitably contains numerous factual errors, grammatical mistakes, and non-sequiturs. If you complete your first draft well ahead of time these can be eliminated, thus improving your paper.
A clean, neatly produced paper turned in on time and adhering to the stated requirements is innocent--it will be evaluated on its own merits. A late paper, sloppily-produced paper, or a paper that attempts to mask its deficiencies by an emphasis on glitzy photographs, meaningless charts, excessive quotations, or an overly-elegant font is immediately suspicious--and will be read accordingly. Turn your paper in on time, and allow your prose to speak for you. Keep a copy for your records. ("My dog ate it" is not an acceptable excuse, nor is the 21st century equivalent of "computer problems"; back up regularly, and make sure that your printer works before you start writing.)
If a paper cannot be turned in on time because of unforeseen circumstances (e.g., illness, a death in the family), suitable documentation will be required.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is intellectual theft. It is a very serious offense in the university and can result in severe sanctions against the person in question, up to, and including, expulsion. You should cite all phrases, quotations, and ideas that are not your own. Facts that are common knowledge do not need to be cited ("George Washington was the first President of the United States"), but additional details that are not self-evident must be cited.
Merely giving a citation does not absolve one of plagiarism. If an idea is presented as one's own, but in fact originated in one of your sources, that idea must be labeled plainly as belonging to your source.