All papers shouldfollow MLA format.

            Times, size 12, double-spaced

            Heading: left side—name, teacher,class, date

Things to Avoid

·      Personalpronouns (I, we, you) keep the essay formal

·      Big,Huge, and Large—you can’t have a big theme or a huge image. Use more effectivewords like important, significant, meaningful etc. (use a thesaurus)

·      Redundancyor repetition—no need to say the same idea multiple times in a slightlydifferent format.

·      Emptywords—very, nice, good, etc.

·      Startinga sentence with but or and

·      Plotsummary

·      Obviously,clearly, easy to see, etc. If something is obvious or clear then why are youanalyzing it?

Quote Use

·      Blending—quotesshould flow w/ your own writing

He had to “drive the nails down and trim the edges” out of his life sothat he could make a comfortable living (234).

·      Avoidusing lengthy quotes. Cut the quote to fit your needs. Quotes shouldn’t belonger than your own writing

·      Try touse at least one quote per body paragraph and explain it

·      Citation:for one author put the page number only in (parenthesis) at the end of thesentence followed by the period

·      If yourquote is over four lines format as follows:

Indent 1” from the left and don’t use “quotation” marks

EDIT….EDIT…EDIT…EDIT…EDIT!

·      Semicolon—functionsas a period. Anything following a semicolon must be a complete sentence.

·      Apostrophesare used to show ownership. Please use them if the word is possessive and don’tuse them when it is not.

·      Capitalization—pleasecapitalize proper nouns. (Hint: names)

·      Usecomplete sentences—must have a subject and a verb

·      Underline or Italicstitles of longer works—novels, movies,

·      Use“Quotes” on title of shorter works—poems, songs

·      Numbers1-10 should be written out and so should ok (okay)

·      Whenwriting about literature always use present tense

·      Whenreferring to an author mention their full name the first time and after thatonly use their last name

Introductions

·      Need tobe engaging and not formulaic

·      Includetitle and author of the work

·      Mustinclude a clear thesis

Explain yourexamples instead of just labeling them. Yes the sentence is a polysyndeton butso what...? Explain importance
 

Focus on a specifictheme, image, device, idea, etc. In a short essay stick with one idea and fullydevelop it.