A BRIEF STYLE GUIDE FOR WRITING

1. References

Many people think that only direct quotes must be referenced, but this is a very sad, wrong belief. In fact, whenever you use any idea or information that comes from anywhere other than your own head, you need to indicate its source.

There are a number of acceptable referencing methods, such as footnotes and endnotes. However, one very simple method that you might consider is simply putting, in the appropriate place, the author's last name and the relevant page number(s) in brackets; the full reference need only be given in the bibliography. Note that punctuation should be placed after the brackets, not before. (Also note that if only one text is being used, the author's name may be omitted.)

E.g.: It has been well documented that juggling snails leads to various types of intense foot pain (Robinson, 46).

2. Verb Tense

When referring to a text of any sort (including the "text" of movies, plays, etc.), always write in the present tense, regardless of when the action actually took place.

E.g.: In the famous Planters Sutra, the Buddha argues strongly against the practice of eating lightly roasted peanuts.

3. Quotation Marks

Use only one type of quotation mark (i.e., either " " or ' ') in your essay, not both. The only exception to this rule occurs for quotations within quotations: "So then the guy says to me, 'What do you mean, I can't raise turkeys here?' Is that crazy or what?"

I make this point because another commonly tragic misconception about writing is that changing the style of your quotation marks, say from double to single, confers a special sense of irony on a word or phrase as opposed to indicating that you are making a direct quote. In fact, this practice is generally considered simply an inconsistency in your writing style. It is understood that if you are making a direct quote you will provide its source; otherwise, the assumption is that the punctuation is being used for stylistic purposes.

4. The Use of "I"

It's perfectly fine. And it's absolutely preferable to such awkward constructions as, "this writer believes," "one feels that," "the present author maintains," etc. Often the prejudice against using "I" centres around the (mistaken) belief that essays should at least pretend to be objective; when you write, "I think that Macbeth is stupid," you betray the subjective nature of your work. However, subjectivity is absolutely unavoidable in writing interpretive papers, and you may as well be honest about it. The trick, as Timothy Corrigan notes in A Short Guide to Writing about Film, is to "try to be aware of when and how your personal perspective and feelings enter your criticism. . . . . [P]ersonal feelings, expectations and reactions can be the beginning of an intelligent critique, but they must be balanced with rigorous reflection on where those feelings and expectations and reactions come from and how they relate to more objective factors" (14-15).

5. Punctuating Titles

Titles of articles, poems, songs, and short stories (i.e., any relatively short work contained within a larger collection) should be put in quotation marks. Titles of books, movies, and record albums (i.e., a whole collection or text) should be italicized or underlined.

6. Gender Inclusive Language

The main idea here is to avoid using male references when you either don't know the gender of the person(s) involved, or when you know for sure that both men and women are concerned.

sentences

"Watching this movie, a modern spectator sees his world from a very different angle."

"Watching this movie, a modern spectator sees his or her world from a very different angle."

"Watching this movie, modern spectators see their world from a very different angle."

"Watching this movie, a modern spectator sees the world from a very different angle."

terms

7. i.e. vs. e.g.

i.e. literally, "that is" (or, "in other words")

e.g. "for example"

8. Long Quotations

When quoting longish passages (3 lines or more), the quote should be single-spaced and indented on both margins. Also, quotations marks at each end of the passage should be omitted.

9. My Comments

I realize that every time you hand in an essay to a different instructor it likely gets marked according to slightly (or maybe not so slightly!) different criteria. For this reason, I tend in general to be somewhat more lenient in grading your first essay than your second one. In this regard, the criticisms which I make concerning your first essay should be taken seriously, since I will be less forgiving of certain errors the second time around.

10. Two Handy Texts

Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Kinahan, David and Harry Heft. On Your Mark: Getting Better Grades Without Working Harder or Being Smarter. Toronto: Macmillan, 1997.

11. "What I'm Looking For"

I'm looking, broadly speaking, for your ability to do two things: write and think.

Writing as a category is relatively self-explanatory. It refers more or less to the form of the essay: its clarity, smoothness, punctuation, spelling, etc. Can you express your ideas well?, is what concerns me here.

Thinking is a bit harder to pin down. It refers to the content of your paper, to the ideas which you are presenting. What I'm concerned about in this case is your ability to think for yourself, creatively, independently, originally. This means coming to actual conclusions about something, providing a sense that you have struggled intellectually with a topic and arrived at certain insights or understandings that you did not possess previously. These insights or conclusions need not be passionately definitive, however; i.e., you don't have to side with one position on some issue and argue vehemently for it (you may if you like, of course, but I absolutely don't require this as evidence of your ability to think; often concluding that no clear answer to a problem exists is perfectly fine).

A Very Very Tiny Essay

The Myth of Disobedience:
Why Adam and Eve are Driven out of Eden

      Traditional interpretations of the story described in Gen 2:4-3:24 typically argue that Adam and Eve are exiled from Eden because they disobeyed God. Certainly this view can be supported to some extent. God does forbid Adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, explaining that "in the day that you eat it you shall die" (2:17, NRSV). Of course he and Eve eat the fruit anyway (3:6), and God is furious: "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" he demands of Adam (3:11). God then punishes the humans with various sufferings (3:16-19) before sending them out of the garden, never to return (3:23-24). Such passages as these do not suggest any interpretation of the tale other than what is usually understood.

      There are other passages, however, which tell a slightly different story. First, the serpent explains to the woman that God was not being truthful when he said that the fruit would kill them. According to him, God is in fact concerned because if Adam and Eve eat this fruit, their "eyes will be opened and [they] will be like God, knowing good and evil" (3:5). This is exactly what happens: no sooner had they eaten then "the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked" (3:7). The final evidence for this interpretation is provided by God himself:

"See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach
out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" - therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden . . . (3:22-23)

It appears then that God exiles Adam and Eve from the garden only partly because of their disobedience. At least one other reason figures very significantly in this act, God's anxiety that his stature might be usurped. Man and woman were created to be inferior beings, and any challenge to the sovereignty and omnipotence of God is met with swift and harsh retribution.