notes expectations
Please stop reinforcing bad habits. If better choices become part of your natural inclination, you will automatically write better, which saves considerable time and improves your chances of getting better grades, being offered an internship, and securing employment.
These are not listed in the order of importance. They are numbered to be user-friendly for ease in reference.
As issues come up, the list might grow or change.
1. Label sections when the assignment has multiple tasks.
Number responses when there are multiple questions, quotes, etc. within a task.
2. Provide the full title where a title normally goes.
3. Use 1.5 line spacing (which is NOT MLA essay structure).
4. Include a header – Your last name AND page number must be Times New Roman, 12 font.
MLA asks for any plain text. New Times Roman is my requirement.
5. Include a heading – Student name / Teacher name / Class name / Date
The date MUST look like this: 21 April 2021. The heading and title must be the same font and line spacing as the essay.
6. Do not add extra spaces when a length is required unless you surpass that length by enough to make your compliance obvious. Most papers should be at least 1 and ½ pages.
7. Capitalize book and movie titles. Put quotation marks around poem, story and article titles.
8. I don’t want to see “a lot,” “very,” “really,” “reader”; contractions; or first- or second-person pronouns in anything anymore. Avoid beginning analysis with “This.”
I’m OK with “to be” verbs in notes because it can sometimes take considerable time to edit those out. But when you can quickly adjust the diction or syntax around those words, please do so.
9. For the works cited entries and the titles of homework: pp. 2300-09 or p. 2300
For inside the essay: (2300) or (2300-01) or (2300; par. 17) or (2300; pars. 17-18)
10. No more typos. Google Docs has spell checker. Pay attention to it.
11. This is either a hyphen or a minus sign, not a dash -
A dash is created by using 2 minus signs. Sometimes, your word processor will change a minus sign to a dash if it interprets your intention. I don’t think Google does this.
The M-dash word—word
The N-dash word – word
If you can’t get your word processor to transform the two minus signs into a dash, include a space before and after the two minus signs, like the N-dash.
You are most certainly welcome to quote full sentences or multiple sentences for notes. But if you set a quote up as a DQ or an NQ, do so correctly.
12. Commas and periods go inside quotation marks:
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” the author presents strategic ambiguity.
Theodore Roethke presents strategic ambiguity in “My Papa’s Waltz.”
13. Semicolons and colons go outside quotation marks:
Hulme’s focus on “hard, clear, precise images” came about in response to Romanticism’s “fuzziness and fractile emotionalism”; however, some of those works provide incredible study of language.
Hulme’s focus on “hard, clear, precise images" came about in response to Romanticism's “fuzziness and fractile emotionalism”: “To Autumn,” by John Keats; “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe; “London,” by William Blake; “Kubla Khan,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Fractile = broken
Also note how to use semicolons with commas.
14. Do NOT rely on my instructions for the accurate form of page numbers or book titles. When I noticed students were copying what I wrote rather than thinking about what they were reading, I started making structural errors in the assignment titles and told everyone not to rely on me for accuracy anymore. Copying is not learning.
These are not listed in the order of importance. They are numbered to be user-friendly for ease in reference.
As issues come up, the list might grow or change.
1. Label sections when the assignment has multiple tasks.
Number responses when there are multiple questions, quotes, etc. within a task.
2. Provide the full title where a title normally goes.
3. Use 1.5 line spacing (which is NOT MLA essay structure).
4. Include a header – Your last name AND page number must be Times New Roman, 12 font.
MLA asks for any plain text. New Times Roman is my requirement.
5. Include a heading – Student name / Teacher name / Class name / Date
The date MUST look like this: 21 April 2021. The heading and title must be the same font and line spacing as the essay.
6. Do not add extra spaces when a length is required unless you surpass that length by enough to make your compliance obvious. Most papers should be at least 1 and ½ pages.
7. Capitalize book and movie titles. Put quotation marks around poem, story and article titles.
8. I don’t want to see “a lot,” “very,” “really,” “reader”; contractions; or first- or second-person pronouns in anything anymore. Avoid beginning analysis with “This.”
I’m OK with “to be” verbs in notes because it can sometimes take considerable time to edit those out. But when you can quickly adjust the diction or syntax around those words, please do so.
9. For the works cited entries and the titles of homework: pp. 2300-09 or p. 2300
For inside the essay: (2300) or (2300-01) or (2300; par. 17) or (2300; pars. 17-18)
10. No more typos. Google Docs has spell checker. Pay attention to it.
11. This is either a hyphen or a minus sign, not a dash -
A dash is created by using 2 minus signs. Sometimes, your word processor will change a minus sign to a dash if it interprets your intention. I don’t think Google does this.
The M-dash word—word
The N-dash word – word
If you can’t get your word processor to transform the two minus signs into a dash, include a space before and after the two minus signs, like the N-dash.
You are most certainly welcome to quote full sentences or multiple sentences for notes. But if you set a quote up as a DQ or an NQ, do so correctly.
12. Commas and periods go inside quotation marks:
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” the author presents strategic ambiguity.
Theodore Roethke presents strategic ambiguity in “My Papa’s Waltz.”
13. Semicolons and colons go outside quotation marks:
Hulme’s focus on “hard, clear, precise images” came about in response to Romanticism’s “fuzziness and fractile emotionalism”; however, some of those works provide incredible study of language.
Hulme’s focus on “hard, clear, precise images" came about in response to Romanticism's “fuzziness and fractile emotionalism”: “To Autumn,” by John Keats; “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe; “London,” by William Blake; “Kubla Khan,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Fractile = broken
Also note how to use semicolons with commas.
14. Do NOT rely on my instructions for the accurate form of page numbers or book titles. When I noticed students were copying what I wrote rather than thinking about what they were reading, I started making structural errors in the assignment titles and told everyone not to rely on me for accuracy anymore. Copying is not learning.