Guidelines for Good Writing
–Titles should reveal your SPECIFIC topic: use colons, and make your title long if necessary.
–Textual support is critical. “Quote” examples from the book to defend your claims. If you make a claim about style or language, especially, you’ll need to provide a sample. Avoid generalization. Don’t use quotes to confirm a plot point unless the quote illustrates an element of your argument (tone or imagery, for example).
–When discussing multiple works, introduce as much as early as possible (a formality, but a necessary one).
–“Based off of” = “Based on”… Use the shorter phrase.
–Avoid “very” in most cases; it’s likely that you’re using “very” instead of a stronger adjective.
–Avoid “There is”and “it is” because they lack meaning. Use STRONG, ACTIVE, VIVID verbs. FOR EXAMPLE: “There is no way to define truth” could read “Truth defies definition.” A sleeker sentence packed with meaning replaces a passive sentence with meaningless words.
--Avoid linking verbs, but do not use wordy constructions in their place. “Hamlet possesses anger” is ridiculous, whereas “Hamlet is angry” is only boring. Much better would be something like “Hamlet rages against his mother,” or “Hamlet excoriates his mother.”)
--Avoid “people” or “many people” because they only lead to generalization, the enemy of good writing. If you do not know which specific people, then you are not qualified to discuss them or their beliefs.
–“A lot”… not a phrase for big boys and girls. Do better.
–Genre awareness (play, novel, short story)… Format properly, too. Novels, plays, and epic titles are underlined or italicized. Short story and poem titles are quoted.
–QUALIFY! Present terms or concepts in a context, not in a vacuum. This is an issue of clarity; if you generalize, your argument will be vague. Use definitions, text support, examples, and details to QUALIFY your claims.
--Dangling modifiers: do not end sentences with adverbs. (He threw the ball quickly.” Should be “He quickly threw the ball.) Neither should you end portions of sentences (say, the first part of a compound sentence) with a modifier.
--Dangling prepositions: do not end sentences or portions of sentences with prepositions. (“Macbeth murders Banquo, whom he has always been good friends with, simply for the sake of power.” This should read, “Macbeth murders Banquo, with whom he has always been good friends, simply for the sake of power.”)
--Who and whom: “Who” and “whoever” act as subjects or predicate nominatives (after a linking verb.) (Examples are “Whoever wants this cookie may have it,” or “The loyal thane who dearly loved his king died along with his victim, only to be replaced by a Machiavellian tyrant.” “I will be whoever you want me to be.”) “Whom” and “whomever” act as direct objects, objects of a preposition, and indirect objects. (Examples are “Macbeth kills Duncan, whom he loves, simply for the sake of power.” “Macbeth even ceases to care about Lady Macbeth, with whom he has previously had a close marriage.” “To whom am I supposed to give this book?” “You may give the extra notebook paper to whomever.” If you can substitute the pronoun “he” and have the sentence sound grammatical, use the pronoun “who” or “whoever.” If you can substitute the pronoun “him” and have the sentence sound grammatical, use the pronoun “whom” or “whomever.” (You would not say, “I want to speak to he,” so you cannot say, “Who do I need to speak to?” Say, “To whom do I need to speak?”)
–Avoid wordiness: “come into confrontation with” = “confront”. “Comes to the conclusion that” = “concludes.” “Due to the fact that” = “because”. Whenever you can, use the fewest words possible to convey meaning. Emphasize strong NOUNS and VERBS. Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.
–Conclusions: arguably the toughest part of the paper, though it shouldn’t have to be. Avoid “In conclusion” as a default entry point. Write a natural conclusion… find an apt way to, simply, conclude your argument. NO summary or re-stating of thesis (that’s boring and formulaic). TAKE RISKS. The conclusion is a good time to discuss the literary work’s relevance to the human condition, but again, to quote Ezra Pound, “Go in fear of abstraction!”
–“Who” describes people; the pronoun “that” describes objects.
–Avoid summation at ALL costs. Presume that your audience (readers of critical analysis) have read and interpreted to some degree the texts in question. No need to present catalog of events and characters.
–Avoid cliches. Examples: “snowball effect,” “the truth shall set you free,” “sly as a fox.” Rule of thumb: if you’ve heard the phrase somewhere, don’t use it. I cannot tell you how many papers I have read about Macbeth’s “downward spiral.” Yuck.
–“Word Choice” or “awkward” comments are not simply a matter of changing a word. More often than not, you will have to REWRITE the entire sentence or paragraph. Sometimes, you simply must delete the sentence (or, in some cases, the whole paragraph).
–No Webster! Bad!
–RULE FOR QUOTING: Introduce (set up) the quote, quote the quote, respond to the quote.
–Watch pronoun-antecedent agreement. Example: “If an individual is accused of witchcraft, they will surely be persecuted.” In this case, “individual” is a singular noun (antecedent), and “they” (pronoun) is plural. The number cases do not agree. The proper pronoun should be “he” or “she.” Avoid “he or she” (unless it’s applicable), and NEVER write “he/she.”
–Avoid “one.” It is really just a cheap substitute for “I,” which you should also avoid.
-Avoid “shows,” “portrays,” and “displays.” Such lackluster verbs only enable excessive abstract noun use. If your evidence truly shows the assertion made in your commentary, the reader will find it obvious.
-Comma rules: Comma is required before a coordinating conjunction (fanboys) to join two independent clauses; comma is required after an introductory prepositional phrase of 4 or more words, but a comma may be used after any introductory prepositional phrase. Comma is required to separate items in a list. Commas must surroundnonessential elements. Comma is required for introductory participial phrase. Comma is required for introductory adverb subordinate clause. Comma is required with pairs of modifiers only if the word “and” can be substituted between the modifiers (for example, “the angry old man” does not take a comma because you would not say “the angry and old man.” “It was a dark, stormy night” takes a comma because you would say “the dark and stormy night.”)
“but” does not automatically take a comma before it.
“because” does not automatically take a comma before it. If the “because” begins an adverb subordinate clause located at the end of the sentence, it does not take a comma.
-Commas go inside quotation marks.
-“Toward,” not “towards.”
-Pluralpossessives: If there is more than one witch giving the prophecy, it is “witches’ prophecy.” The verb is prophesy. Prophesize is not a word.
-“While” should not be used in place of “although.” “While” implies simultaneity.
–NEVER use “Throughout history” or “In society” to begin a paper; avoid these phrases in general.
-“Just as” is normally preferable to “just like” unless you really mean an object is just like another object. (Your umbrella is just like mine; they are identical” versus “Macbeth becomes overly ambitious just as Faustus does.”)
-Contractions are not for formal writing.
-First and second person pronouns (I and you) are not for formal writing. (Rare exceptions may be made for first person “I” pronoun, but don’t overuse it.)
-Conscience, conscious, consciousness. Conscience (n.) is the little voice inside of your head that reminds you of right and wrong. Conscious (adj.) means aware. Consciousness (n.) means awareness.
-Rationality, rationalize, reason, rationale. Rationality (n.) is the quality of being reasonable or rational. Rationalize (v. ) is to try to explain something away using faulty reasoning, usually to try to make oneself feel better about a wrong committed. Reason (n.) is the quality of being able to think clearly and objectively. Rationale (n.) is one’s reason or motive for doing something. A ration (n.)is a limited amount of something, usually a luxury item, as in the Great Depression when each family could purchase only limited rations of butter, sugar, and coffee.
–REVISE, REVISE, REVISE, REVISE, REVISE, REVISE, REVISE.