The purpose of this section is to help you understand some of the academic writing expectations at

Guidelines:

A

Contractions

F

1st Lines of Paragraphs indent 0.5”

K

Spell Check

B

Writing in 3rd person

G

Conciseness

L

Margins

C

Times New Roman 12pt Font

H

Run-on Sentences

M

Text/Slang language

D

Double Space

I

Fragmented Sentences

N

Capitalization

E

Align Left

J

Idioms

O

Essay Formatting

Guideline Descriptions:

Microsoft Word has a sophisticated "checker" to identify most spelling, grammar, and consistency errors. Remove all before submission.

An extra line between sentences accomplished by using the “Line and Paragraphing Spacing” option in Microsoft Word and selecting 2.0 Spacing.

The TAB key often makes a perfect 0.5-inch indentation by default.

All four sides of each page in your document must default to 1.0” for the top, bottom, left, and right sides.

Separates creative writing from formal academic writing including APA Style, MLA, and Turabian format and citation styles. Strict adherence is required.

Clichés, slang, or figurative language should be avoided. Instead, write out or use the definition instead of the cliché.

Avoid the shortened forms of one or two words combined. Spell out both words.

Be sure to use this appropriately for the first word in every sentence, proper nouns, and Netiquette.

LOL is an example of a term that should not be used in academic writing.

Most common standardized lettering and size in college level writing.

Microsoft Word will underline these errors with a blue line. Rewrite the sentence until the blue line disappears.

Paragraphs should be aligned to the left at the zero or null point on the Microsoft Word ruler.

Avoid extraordinarily long sentences. The word "and" can often be a place to split up a Run-on.

Avoid wordiness by deleting needless words and using Microsoft Word thesaurus for word ideas, synonyms, and antonyms.

One would, A person could, They should, She, He, It are examples of writing in this point of view.