Writing Cheatsheet (adapted from UCLA's Jasmine Trice "Writing Guidelines"

Style

TITLES

Always title your paper. Your title should indicate something about your perspective on the argument. In addition, it should make your reader want to read the paper.

CITING WORKS

Don't forget that if you are citing works in your paper (which you should), please indicate in the text precisely which ideas or quotes you are using from the works you list. That is to say, you should not list a work in your Reference section if you don't cite it the body of your text as well. See https://libraryguides.lanecc.edu/c.php?g=391383&p=2658142.

NUMBERS

When you use numbers, you can write anything above a ten as a number: "11." Anything below a ten should stay as a word. NOT: "1 dog was left." INSTEAD: "One dog was left."

INACTIVE STRUCTURE

Inactive verb construction = generally, you should have an active subject in your sentence.

a. NOT: The destruction of the simplistic either-or thinking is desired. (What's the verb? Preferred. What's the subject of that verb?)

b. INSTEAD: Intellectuals desire the destruction of simplistic either-or thinking.

c. NOT: The Benton Murals can be accepted. (What's the verb? Accepted. What's the subject?)

d. INSTEAD: Faculty can accept the Benton Murals.

OUTLINES

Make sure you write an outline before you start writing your paper! This is your skeleton; it holds your ideas up and structures them. If you don't write an outline, your paper will be structurally weak. This is an example of one way to structure your essay. It's not meant to be the only way to write an outline:

a. Introduction

i. Attention-getting introduction of topic: state the key elements that matter to your essay in as interesting a way as possible. Often writers use introductions as places to include personal experience that sheds light on the matter at hand.

ii. Statement of thesis: Should be clear and succinct.

iii. Preview of main points (each body paragraph will be a main point).

b. Point 1

i. Transition sentence (brings the previous paragraph into the next paragraph)

ii. Argument

iii. Conclusion of Point 1

iv. Transition sentence

c. Point 2

i. Transition sentence

ii. Argument

iii. Conclusion of Point 2

d. Point 3

i. Transition sentence

ii. Argument

iii. Conclusion of Point 3

iv. Transition sentence

e. Conclusion

i. Summary of main points

ii. Outcome for the future

iii. Possible return to personal anecdote from introduction, viewed from a different perspective based on your arguments.

TRANSITIONS

When you move from idea to idea, set up guideposts for your reader with phrases like "in addition," "furthermore," and "moreover" if you're building on the same position. Use words like "conversely" or "on the other hand" if you're moving to an opposing position. Also, if you're moving into another idea that shares features with the first, use words like "similarly" and "likewise."

But don't attempt to link two completed unrelated sentences together! Transitions will not save a poorly planned paragraph.

Malls have replaced public spaces such as parks and town squares. Moreover, catching a jeep from the mall can be very difficult at the end of the day.

(Both sentences are about malls, but what does the lack of public spaces have to do with trying to catch a jeep?)

Know who your audience is

If you have been asked to discuss, say, the history of a particular type of digital device, remember that you are writing a critical paper about the device. What you shouldn't be doing is promoting the product and selling it to your reader.

NOT: Palm Company takes pride in presenting Bluetooth Wireless technology built in to Treo 755p.

INSTEAD: The first Bluetooth-enabled Palm device to be released in the market was the Treo 755p.

Try to write economically

Don't feel that a longer sentence means a better sentence.

Try removing words to make your sentence leaner and stronger.

WORDY: Hypertext documents can also be interlinked forming a web of information which defines what the World Wide Web is.

LEAN: Hypertext documents can also be interlinked forming a web of information which defines the World Wide Web.

EVEN LEANER: Interlinked hypertext documents define the World Wide Web.

ATTEMPTS AT ERUDITION (I.E., SOUNDING SMART)

Don't try to use words that you found in a thesaurus unless you know exactly what they mean and are choosing the word because of its particular definition, not because you think it looks smart. Just because a word is more unusual doesn't mean it's more appropriate.

SPECIFICITY AND PRECISION

Be as specific as possible. There's nothing worse than reading meaningless generalities that could apply to anything. This could be as simple as replacing words like "people" with "students," "laptop-users," or "minorities." Instead of words like "good" or "bad," use something more particular to the topic at hand. Ex:

NOT: The people were good at it.

INSTEAD: The students were skilled at boxing.

Still a little wordy. EVEN BETTER: The students were surprisingly skilled boxers.

NOT: I've used hard work, determination, and willpower to arrive to where I am today.

INSTEAD: My experience as an unwed mother, my long nights at the library, and my willingness to sacrifice my weekends have helped pave my road to success.

("Pave my road to success" still sounds a little clichéd, and the sentence is somewhat flabby. How could you reword this?)

NOT: The Nikon D40 is an affordable camera.

Affordable for whom? Certainly not for everyone.

INSTEAD: The Nikon D40 costs between P16000 and P28000.

Avoid statements that give little or no new insight to your target reader

In particular, you should avoid grand, sweeping, or over-general statements that you do not justify with sufficient arguments. Consider the following:

• "Since the beginning of time..." or, "Throughout history..."

• "This website is a product of technology."

  • Anything human-made can be described as "a product of technology".

• "All these types of technology make way for what this website would be in the years and decades to come."

  • The author of this statement didn't actually discuss what the website will be like "in the years and decades to come". So this statement not only needs substantiation but also reveals no new information.

In addition, those statements do not follow the recommendation on specificity and precision.

Avoid excessive or inappropriate personification

Personification is "a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities" [source]. Avoid overusing or misusing it. Consider the following paragraph, taken from one of the TMA 1 submissions:

"This paper relives the history of Flickr.com as it looks into the prior technologies involved. It also intends to look at how it upholds its popularity as it checks on the supporting technologies. Finally, it aims to find out how it keeps up with rivalries as it scrutinizes its competitors."

This paragraph is full of awkward uses of personification. An essay could be said to recount history, but can it "relive" it? A website can be said to compete with other similar services, but does it really "scrutinize its competitors" or "keep up with rivalries"? The paragraph sounds too much like a soap opera gone bad.

Avoid clichés

Avoid clichés (see above). Metaphors and visual writing are great, but you need to make sure you use them well.

REPETITION

Avoid repeating words or phrases several times within one paragraph, unless you are doing this for stylistic or rhetorical reasons:

a. OK: Her supervisors refused to listen. Her family refused to listen. The media refused to listen. Finally, she turned to the one person who would: her secret lover, Manny Pacquiao.

Avoid "a lot," "etc," and "many more"

Avoid using "a lot." It sounds too conversational for writing and is often used incorrectly. You should use "a lot" to refer to things that you can't separate into individual units. Use "many" or "several" for things that you can differentiate.

a. NOT: There were a lot of people at the demonstration. INSTEAD: There were hundreds of people at the demonstration.

b. OK: She used many potatoes to prepare the dish. There were many kind of sisig to choose from. Note that this sentence ends in a preposition (see 28). If it sounds awkward to reword the sentence ("There were many kinds of sisig from which to choose"), go ahead and end the sentence with the preposition.

Avoid using "many more" and "etc". Like "a lot", they suggest that you don't actually know all the facts but you're pretending that you do.

NOT: All these technologies and more are all worth being praised.

NOT: The advent of the internet has enabled the whole social networking thing possible.

Related concepts:

• Know the difference between countable nouns and uncountable nouns

• Be precise and specific

PREPOSITIONS

Try to avoid ending sentences with a preposition (at, with, in, of, around etc.). For writing, it sounds more formal.

a. NOT: It's the language she was born with.

b. INSTEAD: It's the language with which she was born.

Prepositions are some the trickiest words in the English language. Often, there are no rules that can tell you which preposition to use for a particular instance. Often you have to just "feel the correctness of the sentence structure".

Examples from MMS 100 submissions:

NOT: Facebook and Beyond: A Backward Look on Social Network Sites

INSTEAD: Facebook and Beyond: A Backward Look at Social Network Sites

NB: It's a confusing title, anyway---is the paper looking "beyond" (into the future) or "backwards" (into the past)?

COMMAS

Students often have problems with commas. If it's a compound sentence (Two sentences that could stand alone, joined by "and"), then you need a comma. Most likely, if you use a prepositional phrase, you need commas around it (as in this sentence).

a. EX: The dog went into the house, and he ate his lunch.

b. EX: The dog went into the house and ate his lunch. In the first example, "he ate his lunch" includes a subject and a verb ("he" and "ate"); therefore, it's a compound sentence. In the second example, "ate his lunch" uses the subject from the first half of the sentence, "dog." Therefore, we don't need a comma; one subject shares two verbs: the dog went and ate.

SEMICOLONS

Make sure you include a semicolon (;) or " , and" if you have two autonomous sentences.

a. NOT: The cat played with yarn, he was very tired.

b. INSTEAD: The cat played with yarn; he was very tired.

c. OR: The cat played with yarn, and he was very tired.

i. Notice that the two different correct sentences imply different meanings. In the first example, the semicolon indicates that the cat was already tired while he played with the yarn. The second sentence, with the addition of "and," suggests that he became tired because he played with the yarn. Be aware of these nuances as you write.

SPELLCHECK

Computers can be your friends. If the word processing program underlines something in green (grammar) or red (spelling), it is worth checking to see what the computer suggests. However, keep in mind that the computer is not always the best judge. If you are unsure, have someone look at it.

TITLES

Underline or italicize the titles of books, movies, albums, and television shows. Put songs, article titles, headlines, poems, and television episodes in parentheses.

a. Ex: "The Moth" is her favorite episode of Lost.

b. Ex: "Rollercoaster" is his favorite song from Sleater-Kinney's new album, The Woods.

TENSES

Sometimes students use tenses randomly. Make sure you know the differences between

a. "He was writing"

b. "He is writing"

c. "He wrote"

d. "He had written"

e. "He would have written"

NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTION

Avoid using negatives as descriptors if there is another way to articulate the sentence. It's tidier:

a. NOT: Charkha also believes that empowering information is not about sensationalizing the suffering of others for media mileage.

b. INSTEAD: Charkha also believes that empowering information avoids sensationalizing the suffering of others for media mileage.

or

c. INSTEAD: Charka also believes that empowering information is understated in its coverage of suffering.

List items properly

Use lists to enumerate ideas that would sound awkward if put in a paragraph.

NOT: First, where is the dog from? Second, what breed is it? Third, why are there so many dogs in this community? Fourth, are dogs better than cats?

INSTEAD:

• Where is the dog from?

• What breed is it?

• Why are there so many dogs in this community?

• Are dogs better than cats?

Use numbered lists if the order that the material is presented matters. Use unnumbered lists if order doesn't matter.

1. Connect all the cables.

2. Flip the switch.

3. Wait until the welcome message appears.

   • Suman

   • Bibingka

Generally, numbered lists are unreadable when they are embedded in a paragraph. If a simple, comma-separated list will get your point across, use it instead.

NOT: Zoommr.com is very similar to Flickr.com although it has more features: 1) SMS support; 2) Widget support; 3) Instant messaging similar to Twitter; 4) email addresses may be searched; and 5) photos may be sold (Riley, 2008, n.p.).

INSTEAD: Zoommr.com supports SMS, widgets, instant messaging, email address searching, and photo sales.

Some say that when you have a series of nouns listed, you don't need to put a comma after the second to last noun. Either way is fine, but I prefer a comma, so:

NOT: "books, movies, albums and television shows."

INSTEAD: "books, movies, albums, and television shows."

PARALLEL STRUCTURES

"Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level," says Purdue's Online Writing Lab . Learn how to use parallel structures properly.