proper

1

ChapterOne

BasicWritingFormat

Paper

Forthefirstdraftofyourwriting,

thefinalone,theregularofficepaper,sizeB5orA4,isusuallyrequired.

s

Adequatewhitespaceonyourpagesmakesyourwritingmoreattractiveandeasierto

startingyourwriting,leaveabout2.5centimetersforthetop,bottom,leftand

writingisyourhomeassignment,theright-handmarginshouldbea

littlelarger,aboutfivecentimeters,sothatadequatespacewillberervedfortheinstructorto

writecomments,corrections,andnotesandsoon.

Thefirstlineofeachparagraphshouldbeindented,leaving5spacesor1.25centimeters.

Ifyouucomputerstoprocessyourpaper,youcanauto-indentabout1/3ofaninchor2/3of

acentimeter.

Indentalllinesofablockquotationtenspacesor2.25centimetersfromtheleftmargin.

WordsandLineSpace

Chooastandard,easilyreadabletypeface,suchasTimesNewRoman,ina12-point

ckink,ordarkblueifyouarewritingbyhand.

Unlessyouareinstructedotherwi,

arewritingbyhand,writeoneveryotherline,

areusingcomputerstoprocessyourpaper,tyourlinespaceto25pounds.

ationMark

Leaveonespaceafteranypunctuationmark:acomma,aperiod,aquestionmark,andan

exclamationmark,erthatthereisnospacebetweenpunctuationmarkand

theletterbeforeit.(FortheuofpunctuationmarkspleaeChapterThree.)

age

Unlessyouarerequired,d,atthetopoftheleft

marginofthefirstpageofyouressay,onparatelines,writeyourname,thenameofthe

cour,theinstructor’sname,esdowninthecenterofyourpaper,write

thetitleofyourcomposition.

WritingTitle

2

rethreewaysofwritingthe

title,withthefirstwaybeingcommonlyandwidelyud.

stletterofeachwordiscapitalizedexceptarticles,shortprepositions

(prepositionunderfourletters),andco-ordinatingconjunctionssuchasand,or,but,

nor,for,stwordinthetitle,ofcour,isalways

capitalized.

yoftheEnglishLanguage

AClean,Well-LightedPlace

SecretWealthvs.“forRicher,forPoorer”

TheValuesAmericansLiveby

ARoomWithoutWindows

“ICanWorkLikeAnyGuy”

WaltWhitmanandHisLeavesofGrass

WhatWillBetheFutureofEnglish?

lettersinthetitlearecapitalized.

YOFTHEENGLISHLANGUAGE

ACLEAN,WELL-LIGHTEDPLACE

SECRETWEALTHVS.“FORRICHER,FORPOORER”

WALTWHITMANANDHISLEAVESOFGRASS

AROOMWITHOUTWINDOWS

WHATWILLBETHEFUTUREOFENGLISH?

stletterofproper

nounsshouldalsobecapitalized

yoftheEnglishlanguage

Aclean,well-lightedplace

Secretwealthvs.“forricher,forpoorer”

ThevaluesAmericansliveby

Aroomwithoutwindows

“Icanworklikeanyguy”

WaltWhitmanandhisLeavesofGrass

WhatwillbethefutureofEnglish?

Ascanbeenfromtheabove,atitlecanbefollowedbyaquestionmarkifitisa

question,andquotationmarkesareudtoencloadirectspeech,butnoperiodisneededat

ionmarksarealsoexpectedfortitlesofarticles,butfortitlesofbooks,

theyshouldappearinitalics.

ls

8.1Capitalizethefirstwordinantence.

8.2Capitalizepropernouns,properadjectivesandwordsudasntialpartsofproper

nouns.

3

Propernouns:specificpersons,places,andthings

,Europe,Shakespeare,theFirstWorldWar.

Properadjectivesareformedfromsomepropernouns:

e,European,Shakespearean,

fpersons,places,orthingsgenerallyarenotcapitalized.

However,capitalizethecommonnounsstreet,avenue,park,river,ocean,lakecompany,

college,county,andmemorialwhentheyarepartofpropernounsnamingspecific

placesorinstitutions.

venue,LakeSuperior,PacificOcean,theGreatWall,YellowRiver,etc.

8.4Capitalizeallwordsintitlesandsubtitles,exceptforsmallwords(articles,coordinating

conjunctions,andprepositions)iclesarea,an,the;the

co-ordinatingconjunctionsareand,but,or,nor,for,yet,so.(SeeTitleinPartI,Chapter

One)

s/underlining

Whenworkingwithaword-processingprogram,youcanuitalicstoindicatecertain

writtenortypewrittendocuments,indicateitalicsby

underlining.

9.1Italicize/underlinethetitlesofworksthatappearindependently.

Thetitleofanessayassignment(unlessitincludesthetitleofabook)shouldnotbe

italicizedorunderlined.

anyoftheperiodicals:Time,Newsweek,Reader'sDigestorTheNew

Yorker.

JulieNoremisapsychologyprofessoratWellesleyCollegeandtheauthorofThe

PositivePowerofNegativeThinking.

9.2Italicize/underlineforeignwordsandphrasthathavenotbeenabsorbedintoEnglish.

e.g.“Youwantanothercopita?”thebarmanasked.(copita:Spanishwordfor“little

cup”.)

Icontinuedtotrytolookworldlyandaufaitwiththesituation.(aufait:French

wordfor“familiar”)

9.3Italicize/underlinethenamesofships,aircraft,spacecraft,andtrains.

c

Eurostar

Challenge

theAniksatellite

9.4Italicize/underlinethenamesoflegalcas.

4

n

9.5Italicize/underlinewords,letters,orfiguresappearingasillustrations,statistical

symbols,orvariablesinalgebraicexpression.

e.g.e=mc2

Carvedintothecolumn,sixmetersup,wasamysterious7.

Somepeoplesayth,asinthought,withafaintsorfsound.

9.6Occasionally,italics/s/underliningcan

stressanimportantwordorphra,especiallyinreportinghowsomeonesaid

hemphasisisnotoftenud.

arthwouldyoudothat?

Thehuntershadnofoodandnofirewood.

ation

Ahyphens(-)isrequiredinthreedistinctwritingsituations:1)aspartofthecorrect

spellingofaword,suchasmother-in-law,lf-esteem;2)todivideawordattheendofaline;

and3)lowingrulesmustbe

obrved.

10.1Uahyphentodivideawordattheendofawrittenortypedline.

Toavoidshortlinesinyourdocuments,you’llprobablywanttodividesomewords

uua

word-processingprogram,tthedefaulttoallownohyphenation,oryoucantthe

programtodividewordsautomaticallyatappropriatebreaks(intheToolsmenu,lect

LanguageandthenHyphenation).Ifyouwritebyhand,followtherulesbelow.

ivideveryshortwords,one-syllablewords,orwordspronouncedasone

rydivisionbetweensyllablesisanappropriateplacefordividinga

word.

-ke—like,he-alth—health,work-ed—worked

reateone-lettersyllables

putthelasttwolettersofawordatthebeginningofaline.

e.g.a-void—avoid,obrv-ed—obrved,usual-ly—usually

wordsonlybetweensyllables.

-cess,for-get,uni-versity,univer-sity,

betweenconsonants.

-less,begin-ning,

5

ahyphenatedwordonlyatthehyphen,anddivideaclodcompoundword

onlybetweencompletewords.

-per—news-paper,

lf-con-scious—lf-conscious,

mo-ther-in-law—mother-in-law,

stom-achache—stomach-ache

phenattheendofthefirstline,neveratthebeginningofthecondline.

rningthepage,thereadermay

forgetthebeginningoftheword.

atnotallsyllablebreaksareappropriateplacesforworddivision.

10.2Uahyphentoparateaprefixfromthemainwordwhentwoofthesamevowels

cometogether.

-ordinate,re-echo,pre-empt

Nohyphenisrequiredwhentwovowelsaredifferent.

st,reorganize,preoccupied,prearrange

10.3Uahyphenwithcompoundnumbersfromtwenty-onetoninety-nine,withfractions,

andwithdimensions.

-five,two-thirds,six-by-eight

10.4Uahyphentojointwoormorewordsthatrveasanadjectivebeforeanoun.

st-bornchildisoftenthebestloved.

Thebest-lovedchildisoftenthefirstborn.

10.5Uahyphentoavoidambiguity.

ernment’splanprovidedfornursing-homecare.(careinanursinghome)

Thegovernment’splanprovidedfornursinghome-care.(careathomebynurs)

Exercis

ions:

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occurredin1867.

memberofthenewdemocraticparty,sheisquiteconrvativeinher

6

thinkingonEconomicsandsocialissues.

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islandsintheWinter.

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wifeofoneofthebeatles.

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ofthe40sand50s.

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examinchemistry.