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.