Writing
Style Manual
This style manual was created by
Table
of Contents
Guidelines for Daily
Assignments
- Specifications
Use a full sheet of white, 8 ½ x 11-inch paper without spiral notebook edges. Write in blue or black ink (or pencil if approved by your teacher), and write or print legibly.
- Heading
|
Student Name
__
Due Date__ Assignment
Additional Information (optional)
______________________________________________________________________ _________Skip a line
before beginning assignment._____________________________ |
Guidelines for Formal Assignments
- Word-Processed Papers
A. Title Page (if required)
Place the title just above the center of the page. You may use a larger font size for the title (use the center align feature on MS Word).
Do not underline the title or put it in quotation marks.
Single space your name, your teacher’s name, the name of the course, and the due date in the lower, right hand side of the page.
|
Title
Student Name
Teacher
Course
Due Date |
B. First Page if a Title Page is Not Required
Single space the heading in the upper left-hand corner of the page, then skip a line before the first paragraph.
Student Name
Teacher
Course
Due Date
Assignment
Start writing here.
C. Pages following title page
Print on one side of white, 8 ½ x 11-inch paper.
Do not restate information from the title page.
Double space the body of text (use format, then paragraph for MS Word).
Indent 1 tab (or 5 spaces) for a new paragraph.
Use a standard font (like Arial or Times), size 12.
Use standard, one-inch margins, default setting on most word processors.
Number all pages starting with page two, in the lower right-hand corner (Use insert, page numbers in MS Word).
D. Order of Paper
Title Page
Table of Contents/Outline
The Composition:
Introduction,
Body,
Conclusion
Works Cited and/or Bibliography
Appendix (include graphs and charts that are not inserted in the body of the report).
- Handwritten Papers
Follow formatting rules for word-processed papers when possible.
Use a full sheet of white, 8 ½ x 11-inch paper without spiral notebook edges. Write in blue or black ink.
Write on one side of the paper only.
Write or print legibly.
Guidelines for the
Writing Process
PREWRITING
Select a topic that interests you.
Narrow the topic until it can be thoroughly
developed in a specified length according to your teacher's instructions.
Determine your purpose and audience.
Gather and list details to develop your topic.
Evaluate and organize the list of details.
Delete unrelated ideas.
DRAFTING
Begin to write, keeping your audience and
purpose in mind.
Let your thoughts flow freely. Modify your
initial plans for content and organization, if necessary.
Remember that this is an experimental stage. Do
not be too concerned with grammar and mechanics at this point
CONFERENCING
Share with your parents, peers, and teacher for
feedback.
REVISING
Ask yourself the following:
Did
you stick to the topic?
Did
you include everything you wanted?
Are
there any unnecessary or unrelated details?
Is
each main idea clearly expressed and thoroughly developed?
Do your ideas flow smoothly with the use of
transitions?
Is your writing organized logically,
with a beginning, a middle, and an end?
Are the ideas presented in an order that
makes sense?
Is your writing interesting and
lively?
Is there variety in the type and
structure of your sentences?
Is each key word vivid or precise?
Do the language and content suit your
audience?
Have you accomplished your purpose?
Revise accordingly.
EDITING Note: spell check will not catch all grammatical and usage errors!
Ask yourself the
following:
Grammar and Usage
Are there any sentence fragments or run-ons?
Have you used the correct form of each pronoun?
Have you used verb tenses correctly?
Do all verbs agree with their subjects?
Are
compound and complex sentences written and punctuated correctly?
Capitalization
Did you capitalize first
words and all proper nouns and adjectives?
Are titles capitalized
correctly?
Punctuation
Does
each sentence have the proper end mark?
Are colons, semicolons,
apostrophes, hyphens and quotation marks used correctly?
Spelling
Did
you check all unfamiliar words in the dictionary?
Are plural and possessive
forms spelled correctly?
Did you check commonly
misused words (their, they're, there, etc.)?
Have another person read the report aloud.
Edit according to responses.
PUBLISHING
Go public with the paper.
Submit the paper for teacher evaluation.
Consider other audiences (Mia Steiner Awards, Catskill
Review, School Newspaper, etc…)
Reflect on your strengths, weaknesses, and
future goals.
Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s words or ideas as your own. Plagiarism is cheating.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated at Margaretville Central School.
Common types of plagiarism are:
Directly copying material without acknowledging the source
Using an original idea without crediting the source of the idea
Inadvertently plagiarizing because of sloppy research or writing technique
Consequences for
Plagiarism
The teacher who discovers a student cheating or plagiarizing will report the incident to the principal. The work in question will receive a zero. 1st offense: Student receives a zero and parents are notified. 2nd offense: Student is suspended from school and parents are notified. Any subsequent offense may lead to dismissal. The full version of this policy can be found in the Main Office’s copy of the Code of Conduct.
Guidelines for
Acknowledging all Information Gained from Outside
Sources
You must clearly credit all information gained from outside sources when writing a paper. Generally three types of information must be declared to avoid plagiarism:
1. Direct quotations
2. Paraphrasing or summarizations
3. Author's ideas
The format used at MCS to credit
other’s work is called Parenthetical
citation (recommended by the Modern Language Association (M.L.A.)). Many people agree that this format is easy to
read and easy to type. A parenthetical
citation is used in the body of the text after quotations, summarizations and
author’s ideas, to acknowledge where the information came from. The information inside the parenthesis must
correlate with a full bibliographic citation in a Works Cited or Bibliography
page at the end of the paper. Examples
of parenthetical citations are shown below.
Use the following guidelines to use parenthetical citations to document sources in your papers.
1. Introduce the beginning of the borrowed material to distinguish it from your own writing. Typically this is done with a brief introduction of the author and some reference to his/her credentials.
Lynette and
Thomas Long, two of the foremost recog-
nized
experts on the trend of latchkey children define
latchkey as"...children who
are regularly left during
some period of the day to
supervise themselves...or for
whom care arrangements are so
loosely made they are
virtually ineffective" (Long
17).
2. Works by one author. Give the author's last name in parentheses at the end of a sentence, followed by the page number(s).
(Jones 58).
3. Works by more than one author. List all the last names in parentheses, or give one last name followed by et al.
(Smith, Jones and Wilcox 87).
or
(Smith et al. 87).
4. Works with no author listed. When citing an article that does not identify the author, use the title of the work or a shortened version of it.
("Robotics” 398).
5.Two works by the same author. If you use more than one work by the same author, give the title, or a shortened version, after the author's last name.
(Jones, Robots 398).
Titles of books should always be
underlined. Titles of articles should be
in parenthesis. Additional examples and
guidelines can be found in the book MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers (available in the library or English department) or at
(Based
on Modern Language Association Format)
WHAT IS A It is a list of books and other sources used to write a research paper or report -
BIBLIOGRAPHY? Not necessarily every work that was examined, but those that were found useful.
A bibliography is
located at the end of a report. The
sources are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name and are not
numbered. A Works Cited list uses
the same format as a bibliography but includes only those sources that were
specifically cited in a report.
BASIC FORMAT FOR Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication:
SOURCES IN PRINT : Publisher, Year of Publication.
If no author is given for a book or article, start
with and alphabetize by the title.
Specific Examples:
BOOK WITH
ONE
AUTHOR: Tillich, Paul. Systematic
Energy.
1963.
BOOK WITH
TWO AUTHORS: Houghton, Walter E., and Sally Jeffreys. Energy-Water.
BOOK WITH
NO NAMED AUTHOR: Energy-Wind.
Additional Examples:
SIGNED
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE: Chambers, Ralph. “Energy-Thermal.” The World Book Encyclopedia.
1979 ed.
UNSIGNED
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE: “Solar Energy.” Illustrated Science Encyclopedia. 1997 ed.
MAGAZINE OR
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: Johnson, Don. “Working with Solar Power.” Time.
70-71.
PAMPHLET:
PERSONAL &
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS: Jane, Patty. Telephone Interview. 7 May 1986.
SOUND RECORDING: U2. All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Interscope, 2000.
VIDEO RECORDING: Places in the Heart. Dir. Robert Benton. Perf. Sally Field, Danny Glover,
OR
BASIC FORMAT FOR
ELECTRONIC SOURCES: Author(s) Name. Name of Page.
Date of Posting/Revision.
Name
of Organization Associated with the site.
Date of
Access. <electronic address> .
If no author is given for a web page or electronic
source, start with and alphabetize by title.
Whenever the information is available you should
list both the date material was posted or revised and the date you accessed the
information.
Specific examples:
WEB
Margaretville
Central.
ARTICLE ON A
WEB
ARTICLE IN
ONLINE JOURNAL: Wheelis, Mark. “Investigating Disease Outbreaks.” Nursing. March 2000:
5 pages. 5 May 2001 <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol22.html>.
ARTICLE FROM
CD-ROM: Lonecke, William. “The Civil War.” Encarta. CD-ROM.
Microsoft, 2001.
E-
LISTSERV
POSTING: Karper, Erin. “The Problem with Teachers.” Online posting. 12 Sept.
2001. Kids complain listserv. 14 Sept. 2001 <http://mcskids.org>.
If your article does not include a piece of
information shown on this format sheet (i.e. the author or posting date) you
should go on to the next piece of information, using the same order shown
above.
More information on writing a bibliography may be
found online.
“Using Modern Language Association
Format.” Online Writing Lab. 2001.
OR ask for help from the library staff!
|
Dimensions |
Points |
5 points – proficient
response |
3 points – competent
response |
1 point – basic response |
|
Meaning: The extent to which the response exhibits
understanding and interpretation of the task and/or text(s). Answers the
question and makes connections to own life, texts or world. |
|
The response fulfills the requirements
of the task, demonstrates insight and makes connections. |
The response fulfills some
requirements of the task, and makes some connections. |
The response fulfills few
requirements of the task and makes few connections. |
|
Development: The extent to which ideas are elaborated, using
specific and relevant evidence, from the text(s), experience or imagination,
using student’s own language. |
|
Ideas are developed fully
with thorough elaboration; response makes effective use of relevant and accurate
examples to support ideas. |
The response is brief, with
little elaboration, but sufficiently developed. Provides some examples and
details but may not show how these relate to or support the ideas. |
The response may include a
few examples or details. |
|
Organization: The extent to which the response exhibits shape,
direction and coherence, with introductory and concluding paragraphs.
Restatement of question. Appropriate use of transition words. |
|
The response establishes and
maintains a clear focus; shows a logical and coherent sequence of ideas
through the use of appropriate transition or other devices. |
The response is generally
focused, though may contain irrelevant details; shows a clear attempt at
organization. |
The response focuses on
minor details or lacks focus entirely. Shows little or no organization. |
|
Language: The extent to which the response reveals an
awareness of audience and purpose through effective use of words, sentence
structure and sentence variety. Does the student sound like him/herself,
i.e., “voice”? Is the student aware of an “audience”? |
|
The writing is fluent and
easy to read, with vivid language and a sense of engagement or voice. It is
stylistically sophisticated, using varied sentence structure and challenging vocabulary. |
The response is readable,
with some sense of engagement or voice. Primarily uses simple sentences and
grade-level vocabulary. |
The writing is often
repetitive, with little or no sense of engagement or voice; uses minimal
vocabulary. |
|
Mechanics: The extent to which the response uses the
conventions of standard English punctuation, spelling and grammar (specific
conventions appropriate to grade level). |
|
Student consistently
demonstrates command of the following conventions: 1. 2. 3. 4. |
Student sometimes uses the
specified conventions, but inconsistently. Shows some command of conventions. |
Student demonstrates little
or no command of specified conventions. |
|
TOTAL POINTS (25 max) |
|
|
|
|
| Teachers’ Web Recommendations | Teacher Resources | Research Databases | |
| Bibliography Information | MCS Internet Policy |
Library Catalog (you will be directed out of this site) |
Writing Manual |
| K-6 Links | 7-12 Links | Other Web Sites |