Academic Writing Cheat Sheet Academic Writing: A Cheat Sheet This guide is designed for Courtney Kings ENGL

101 course. Word-Level Issues Avoid meaningless modifiers (just, like, so, ever, totally.) You are not having a conversation. Do not write like you are. Never say never, every, all, none, or always. Generalizations are unacceptable. Only capitalize proper nouns (names, titles, cities, countries, holidays, etc.) and the first letter of your sentence. Avoid passive voice and weak overuse of be verbs. Limit your rhetorical questions (e.g. What is the meaning of this? and Why do I write?) Pet Peeves: o Aspect of / Amount of / Quantity of o Pretty much o Basically o In my opinion o I mean (Some) Parts of Speech Noun People, places, things, or ideas. Nouns are able to enact or receive actions (dog, person, Lewiston.) Verb - Action word. Nouns perform actions via verbs (bark, love, pick, have driven.) Adjective Modifies the noun (beautiful, interesting, boring, dull.) Adverb Modifies the verb. Often looks like an adjective with an +ly ending (boldly, excitedly, quickly.)

Preposition These words are used to describe location in relation to another thing. Often used in a phrase (on, at, with, below.) (Some) Parts of a Sentence Subject- (noun) Performs the action of the sentence Object (noun) The recipient of the action. Verb (verb) The action of the sentence. Often accompanied by helping verbs in a verb phrase. Object Complement (adjective) An adjective that follows a passive verb and describes the subject.

Academic Writing Cheat Sheet S+V+O I love writing. S+V+Adj+O I want nice things. S+V+OC You look pretty. These are the essentials of communication. Take the time to energize your verbs and personalize your nouns so your reader can vividly understand your message. Tacking modifiers onto weak S+V+O equations is the syntactical equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Pardon my Southernism.

Find the subject, verb, and object of your sentence. Are they buried in meaningless modifiers and superfluous phrases? Can you even dig them out? Do you have more than one S+V+O equation floating around in your sentence? Why? Would your sentence be better if split into two sentences? Try replacing your be verb (is, was, were) with an active verb. Which is more exciting: o My sentence is alive. o My sentence lives. Write boldly! Personify simple objects! Compose with drama! Punctuation

Avoid semi-colons (;). Few use them correctly and they are an inessential punctuation form. If youre not sure about how to use a form of punctuation, DONT TRY. Often when you think you need a comma, you actually need a period. Test your lengthy sentences. Are there two distinct subjects and two distinct actions? Do they rely on one another? Avoid exclamation marks. They make you seem silly! Try short declarative sentences. They work. Citations

Your MLA in-text citations should show that you understand and have processed the text (King 45). Provide an in-text citation every time you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source. Always provide a lead-in for your quotes. It should seem as if the quote was seamlessly incorporated in your sentence (King 43). Plagiarism is not the misuse of quotes. The misuse of quote is ignorance. Plagiarism is the abuse of outside sources masked as the authors own voice.

Academic Writing Cheat Sheet Instructors recognize when your voice suddenly shifts. Plagiarism is detectable (and despicable.) If you plagiarize on a paper I will not feel bad about failing you. You will simply lighten my workload. Editing

Follow AFOSP: Assignment, Focus, Organization, Support, and Proofreading. Edit in this order: o A: Do you answer the assignments prompts? Make sure you do everything required. o F: Do you stay on topic or do you stray to other ideas during your essay? o O: Is it easy for the reader to see why your paper is structured like it is? Does your paragraphing make sense? o S: Do you provide the necessary textual evidence to support your claim? Do you cite that evidence? o P: Do you have any technical errors? (HINT: You do. Just look harder.) Some tricks for better proofreading o Print your paper out and read it upside down o Highlight all of the verbs in your paper. Are they strong? Do they convey whats happening in the sentence, or are they passive? o Read your paper aloud. You will be surprised what you hear that you might miss by reading.