Writing papers for college is drastically different than writing papers for high school, and accordingly you should take note of this difference when constructing your essays for college courses. These statements do not mean that your essays have to be complex arguments discussing that fate of the free world, manifestos on how to change the world, or filled with language that only the Rhodes Scholar with four PhDs will understand. No, you should keep your papers short and simple—meaning to the point and pertinent to the assignment—and fully address what you are discussing. Leave nothing in your argument for the reader to question, and tell him or her exactly what you want him/her to know. College writing is formal—meaning you are writing for an educated audience. Using slang language, curse words, and internet slang is inappropriate. Actually, it is not even inappropriate... It is just bad form.

With those pretenses in mind, use these simple steps when writing your essay to avoid many of the common pitfalls of students. Your professors will be elated, and your grades will reflect it!

Common Paper Problems

• Paper titles are not italicized or underlined—they are to be typed in bold, with title capitalization.
• Do not say America—rather, say the United States when a noun and US when and adjective.

Example: US Congress

Political parties of the United States

• Always use first and last name on first usage of an author or historical figure. Then, on the reference after use the last name or another word to denote authorship, ownership, or the subject.

• Years do not have apostrophes in them.

Example: 1920’s—wrong—1920s—correct

The reason that you do not put an apostrophe after a plural year is because apostrophes denote ownership and possession. Accordingly, decades and years can not possess themselves.

• Place page numbers on every page of your essay.

Page numbers are an act of common curtesy. They let your reader know how many pages are in the essay, and they prevent your essay pages from getting rearranged if the staple is removed.

• When writing about the past, you the past tense. Always proofread your papers for correct, and consistent, tense form.

Tense changes are common problems of all writers. General rules of thumb state that when writing about the past use the past tense, when writing about the present use the present tense, and when writing about the future use the future tense. Sometimes the timeline of your essay will change, and then you should adjust your tense accordingly. But, do not change tenses every sentence or paragraph. Tense change distracts the flow of your writing, and it disturbs the reader’s understanding of your piece.

• Book titles are underlined, and article titles are placed in quotations.

Using the correct markers for titles of works enables your reader to know where to look for further information.

• Novels are works of fiction, and historical works are not. Do not refer to a historical work as a novel, unless it is historical fiction. Then, and only then, do you refer to the book as historical fiction or a historical novel.

This notation is a pet peeve of most college professors, particularly because many of them have non-fiction books out. Accordingly, only call a book a novel if it is a work of fiction (Stephen King and Clive Barker are examples of fiction writers).

• Do not use contractions in formal writing.

Contractions are representations of how we talk, and your college essays should be a step or two above everday speech. Remember, your essay audience is for a scholarly audience—not the cats you hang with at the local bar.

• Avoid chatty and colloquial phrases in formal writing.

Example of colloquial: “back in the 20s” “by this time” “in the olden days” “some form of flag art” “In short” Example of chatty: “in addition to that” “in a way”

Again, these phrases are markers of everyday speech. Also, they are distracting from essay content, they take up space, and they rarely add concrete evidence to an essay.

• Avoid the first person in formal writing. The first person is the use of the word I or me, or in the more colloquial sense “one” or you.

Removing the first person from your writing will give it a more objective feel, even if you are writing an argumentative piece, and your reader is more likely to connect with the piece because it will convey a sense of research, knowledge, and expertise.

• Do not end sentences with prepositions.

Read any grammar book... this technique is just bad form, and it often leads to awkward and unclear statements.

• Do not use the word this as a preposition.

Example: “With this comes inevitable backlashes from critics...”

What does this mean? See the point?

• When using the word it the pronoun must always have a preceding subject.

Example: “It is important to also note how much time . . .”

Correction: “Another important element to note is the time spent . . .”

This pronoun rule also applies to gender and plural pronouns. Additionally, check to make sure that your pronouns agree in gender and number.

• Rule of thumb for citations: “when in doubt cite it!”

Always cite anything that comes directly from a reading—a quotation or paraphrase, and anything that is not your own. Most college professors would rather you over cite your paper than under cite it, and in the age of the “information superhighway” professors are getting highly irritable with uncited essays. More often than not, they will assume that you withheld citations because you plagiarized the piece and are trying to hide your evidence.

Hang on . . . There’s a Few More

• Do not use semicolons (;) to separate sentences—that is the function of periods (.).

Furthermore, semicolons are the hardest element of the English language to properly use, and they are often considered archaic in formal writing. Think about the grammatical markers you see in the readings for the class and the material you read on the daily basis. Rarely do you see a semicolon (or colon for that matter). So, do not use them.

• Avoid the use of rhetorical questions in formal writing.

Questions are a weak way to state a point. He/she can not stop and ask you questions for clarification as they read. Thus, always turn rhetorical questions into direct statement. This writing technique will prevent your reader from drawing a different conclusion than yours.

• Do not use clichés in formal writing.

Example: “that life is not a bowl of strawberries and cream”

• Always introduce and explain quoted material.

The “drive by” use of quoted material . . . When using quoted material you must always introduce a quote. Furthermore, a quote must also be explained. Leaving your reader to decipher the meaning of a quote, and to insert its flow into the paper, is highly dangerous. Just as rhetorical questions often lead the reader to a different meaning than your own, so will not introducing and explaining quotes.

Piecing It Together

Now that you have these key hints for what college professors are looking for in essays, use them to your advantage. Awe your professors, make them gleeful and happy to read a your error-free, or virtually error-free, paper, and snicker at your friends as they ponder, cry, and agonize over the bounty of reds marks on their papers.