Download Mrs

Mrs. Sykes’ Picky Rules of Writing
Sentence Rules:
1. Do not begin sentences in any of the following ways: There are/is..,
This is.., It is.., etc.
2. Do not use this, these, that, those, which or it unless the word has a
clear and unmistakable antecedent nearby. Never begin a sentence with
this unless you follow it immediately with a noun that re-identifies the idea
to which you are referring.
3. Never publicly dangle a participle or misplace a modifier. DO NOT WRITE:
“The student did not persuade his professor, showing unmistakable signs
of stupidity.” Instead, WRITE: “Showing unmistakable signs of stupidity,
the student did not persuade his professor.”
4. Never write an incomplete sentence. Participles, or “-ing” words, cannot
stand as verbs. A verb must agree with its subject in person and number.
5. Know these three rules about commas:
a. Join independent clauses (clauses with a subject and a verb) either
by using (1) a comma with a conjunction (Right-handers
predominantly use the left side of the brain, so left-handers are the
only ones in their right minds.) OR (2) a semicolon without a
conjunction (Right-handers predominantly use the left side of the
brain; left-handers are the only ones in their right minds.)
b. Separate items in a series by using a comma after every item
before the conjunction. (The teacher was hateful, arrogant, and
nasty.)
c. Never use a comma between the subject and the verb or between
the verb and its object (except for interrupting clauses that use two
(2) commas.)
6. Be consistent when you have two or more parallel structures in a
sentence. With adjectives: “He was pompous, picky, and terrorized
freshmen” is wrong. Instead: “He was pompous, picky, and mean.” With
prepositions: “A student could count on his bad tember and
arbitrariness” is wrong. “A student could count on his bad temper and on
his arbitrariness” is right.
7. Do not end a sentence with a preposition.
8. Do not use the passive voice. DO NOT WRITE: Careless students are
failed by the ruthless teacher. Use the active voice. WRITE: The
ruthless teacher fails careless students. Because the active voice is direct
and clear, this rule is the most important of style, but it has serious
consequences for your meaning as well.
9. Adverbs should be adverbs. Do not do it differently.
10. Every pronoun should have a clear antecedent to which it agrees in
person, number, and gender.
11. Be consistent with verb tenses. When writing about literature, stick to the
present verb tense.
12. Vary your sentence structure. Weave a combination of simple,
compound, and complex sentences throughout your writing.
Paragraph and Thesis Rules:
13. Each paragraph must stick to the subject introduced by the first sentence
in that paragraph. Most importantly, the first sentence must establish the
context of your paragraph. Consider your topic sentence as a contract
with your reader. Do not discuss/write about anything that is not
expressly mentioned in the topic sentence. Do not use one or two
sentences as a paragraph.
14. Make the transition between your sentences and your paragraphs clear
and logical.
15. Give your paper a clear thesis statement at the end of your first
paragraph. If you can remember only one rule, this rule is the one you
must remember. The first paragraph should also demonstrate how the
rest of the paper is organized.
16. Avoid using quotes to begin or end a paragraph. Your own words are the
most important in those places.
17. Remember to include an essay map. Not only will the essay may help
clarify your main points, but it will also help you organize your thoughts
throughout the body of your paper.
18. In longer papers, remind the reader of your thesis throughout the body of
your paper.
Rules Concerning Argumentation:
19. Never just summarize or paraphrase. Assume your reader has read/seen
it. I do not want to know what happened; I want to know your ideas
about what happened.
20. Support your assertions and ideas with concrete examples, with brief
quotes from the story, book or film you are discussing, or with a short
citation from some reliable authority.
21. DO NOT HEDGE. Words like “maybe,” “seem,” “perhaps,” and “might”
do not keep you from being wrong; they merely alert the reader to the
fact that you are worried about the facts.
22. Avoid vague generalizations: “As we all know,” “people say,” “since the
beginning of time,” etc. Gratuitous claims such as “mankind would not
exist without the heart” are equally lamentable.
23. Avoid rhetorical questions.
Diction Rules:
24. Do not misspell words. Use a dictionary or a literate friend to check your
spelling. On your computers, always use spell check, but do not trust it.
Spell check is no substitute for proofreading. Spell out one and two digit
numbers.
25. A possessive without an apostrophe is a misspelled word. One exception
is the possessive of it: its. It is contracts to it’s.
26. Choose the best word for the context. Poor word choice shows lack of
effort on the writer’s part. Worse examples involve words that mean
something else entirely; one former basketball player explained his ability
to shoot with either hand by saying, “Yeah, I’m amphibious.”
27. More egregious violations of Rule #26 to avoid are: jargon (say library;
do not say instructional media center), cliché (say the teacher is a
conservative grouch; do not say the teacher is an old fogey), slang (say
the teacher is foolish; do not say the teacher is a dork), gobbledygook (
say now; do not say at this point in time), and malapropism (confusion
of idioms; one former NFL player commented, “I really cleaned his bell; I
rang his clock”).
28. Lose the word very from your written vocabulary.
29. Good is bad. Do not tell me something is good. What is good? Answer
that question and use that adjective instead.
Format Rules:
30. Give your paper an informative title. The name of the work you are
dealing with is NOT the title of your paper. “Shakespeare’s Use of Time in
Hamlet” is a thoughtful title: Hamlet is by Shakespeare.
31. Italicize or underline all full length films, plays, and books. Do
likewise with magazine and newspaper titles. Short stories, film shorts,
one-act plays, and articles go in quotation marks (“ “). Do not underline
or put your part of your own title in quotation marks.
32. Before handing in your final copy, have an intelligent friend read your
paper to you; fix the things you do not like.
33. Do not hand in a paper unless you have come to care about it. Just as
bad writing and lazy thinking can make any subject boring, good writing
and a fresh point of view can make any subject entertaining and
important. The trick is to care about your material and to believe in the
importance of saying things well.
Final Thoughts:
Now that you have these rules, what do you do with them? I will be giving you
a correction sheet with every essay. For every mistake I have marked, you are
to write the number of the corresponding rule you have violated. You will then
fix the mistake in your final draft of the essay. You will turn in your first draft,
correction sheet, checklist and completed second draft for every essay. Failure
to turn in all components of the writing process for this class will result in a
grade deduction. Happy Writing!