Remember you must develop a clear thesis and support it from your observations or your reading with quotations, paraphrase or summary that is appropriate and convincing. 

Develop your introduction and conclusion with care. Your introduction should include the thesis statement and a general idea of the scope of your discussion (the points you will offer), but avoid the deadly and boring announcement of purpose: "In this essay I will discuss. . . ." When writing about another piece of writing, the title of the piece(s), the author's name must be included also and all comments are made in the present tense. Your conclusion should provide closure for your readers by bringing your points to a satisfactory end; do not introduce any new topics or ideas. 

Every sentence in your essay must contribute to developing your thesis and hold your reader's attention. Carefully organize and arrange your material so your ideas are presented in logical order (ideally following the general statement of scope offered in the intro). The five paragraph, three point essay, although basic, works wonders (except in the research paper), if you have difficulty organizing your thoughts. Don't forget to make use of transitional words and phrases--these aid the reader in following your reasoning. 

In submitting essays, fold final and rough drafts together lengthwise and write (1) your name, (2) date, and (3) section on the outside. When your essay is returned, place all materials in folder, including the rough draft, with the final draft on top. Fill in the inside cover with the appropriate information. Submit a neat, legible, presentation that you have taken great pains to revise and proofread. It would be a waste to lose merit over minor errors. 

Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in your paper being returned ungraded, hence, treated as late and subject to the appropriate penalties (see "Syllabus--Course Policies"). It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with all these requirements.

Requirements & Guidelines Menu

A minimum of three drafts should be written for each essay: #1 reading draft for peer group response, #2--teacher's reading draft, and #3--revised draft for portfolio consideration. 

All reading drafts of the essays, including portfolio submissions, should be a min. of 1000 words in length (all words count in the tally).

For each essay, you will create a folder on your disk named for each assignment--essay 1, essay 2, etc. Insert your floppy in the A drive and Select File Open. Click on the folder icon furthest to the right at the top of the "Open" dialogue box; while there, create all the folders you will need to house your work during the whole semester.

In each folder, you will create and save separate documents (minimum of five) for each component of the composition process and name them accordingly per essay (remember to back up these files on your second disk): essay1invent--for invention strategies (share with instructor via e-mail) essay1draft1--for the peer draft (share with instructor and peer (s) via e-mail) essay1draft2--for the teacher draft also submitted in hard copy essay1draft3a (b,c, etc.)--for subsequent revisions 

You will also set up a folder for the Final Portfolio which will include the appropriate revisions. 

All drafts, except the discovery draft, must have a title (unless the writing takes the form of a letter). 

All drafts must have a coversheet--use the file shared via attachment in your D2L DB titled "Miscellaneous Forms." For each essay, you will open this file and do a "save as," renaming the file Essay x Coversheet; this retains the original for use in future essays. Coversheets should be revised if essentials change in works in progress. 

All drafts submitted for teacher feedback, including the Final Portfolio must be turned on hard copy. 

Sentence-level corrections will be made on the teacher draft hard copy and turned in for HW per the schedule. 

All writing, creating through completing, should be saved on your course disk and will serve as your record of the writing you do during the semester. Materials turned in as the Final Portfolio may not be returned to you. 

Provide some protection for your disks in the form of plastic sleeves, etc. 

All writing must be the student's original work. 

Format Matters for all documents on disk and hard copy [see the MLA Document Formatting in Study Tools]:  

The computers in the classroom use Word; the program you use outside of class must be compatible. If you have another program at home, you can save your documents in Rich Text Format, which will enable you to open them on our computers. 

With a new document open, drop "File" menu and select "Page set up." 

In "Page set up," set all margins at 1" for "whole document;" to set your page numbering, go to View, Header & Footer; click on "Insert Page Number" (first # icon), bring the cursor to the right hand margin and add your name before the number 1--Clayton 1. Subsequent pages will be paginated automatically.

Open "Format" menu and select "Paragraph"; set spacing to double. Do not stray from double spacing at anytime. 

Essays submitted to the teacher must follow the conventions for setting up the first page and numbering subsequent pages. See the example in Portfolio e-book pp. 18-20. . 

To begin the MLA style heading for the first page, return to "left-hand justify"; include all items shown in Portfolio e-book p. 18. 

Center your title, and then begin drafting. 

Use of Secondary Sources  

When secondary sources (library materials, interviews, or non-print sources) are used (paraphrased or quoted), you must cite the sources parenthetically and include a Works Cited page, following the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for documentation (Harbrace Handbook 40a1 and 3, St. Martin's pp. 703-17, and Portfolio p. 58). 

When secondary sources are used, photocopies of pages cited must be submitted along with the teacher's reading draft.

  Requirements & Guidelines Menu