Essay Formatting Guidelines

Formatting

All essays (except those written in class) must be typed in 12pt Times New Roman font, and double-spaced with one-inch margins on all sides. This may not be the default in Microsoft Word, so you will have to manually change this.

Cover pages are NOT necessary. Please make sure to include your name, the essay assignment (and whether it is a first draft or final draft), my name (Professor Ostiz), and the date in the top left corner of your paper.
Be sure to include your last name and page number in the top right corner of each page in the header (does not need to be included on the first page).

Always include a title for your essay. Center but do not underline, italicize, or use quotation marks or bold/larger font for the title.

Use parenthetical documentation (MLA format) to cite any quotations.
- Example: When quoting a text, you will want to show that “this is a quoted sentence from hypothetical page twenty-five” (Author 25).
- When necessary, make sure to include a “Work(s) Cited” page that gives the bibliographic information for your texts as well as in-text citations (for page numbers) within the body of your essay. All citations should be in the correct MLA format. You can learn more about MLA in the Purdue OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide.

Staple your papers before coming to class (do not paperclip them or leave the papers loose).

Your writing, at all stages, will be accompanied with a “Reflective” Cover Letter that discusses your writing for that assignment. This is an essential part of the assignment, and submissions without it will not be accepted.

Final Drafts of your work must be accompanied with all prior work including freewriting, pre-drafts, first drafts, final drafts; any comments you have received from me; and peer review comments and worksheets.

General Guidelines

You should carefully proofread your essay to eliminate spelling, grammatical, syntactical, and organizational errors. Do not rely simply on a computer spelling/grammar check to do your proofreading. Read your essay out loud – you are much more likely to catch errors this way.

If you do not have a computer or a printer at home (or if they temporarily do not work), you should use the resources that City Tech offers you: there are Computer Labs throughout campus where you can work and print your writing. Do not wait until the afternoon a draft is due to write, proofread, or print it (assignments are due at 6pm, at the start of class, and will not be accepted later if you are late to class or miss class.

In class discussions, during peer review of assignments, and on our blogging on our course OpenLab site, everyone has access to everyone’s writing/work. While discussion, sharing ideas, and collaboration is encouraged in this course, everyone is responsible for producing his/her own original work on all assignments (unless otherwise indicated).

Your writing may be submitted to SafeAssign, which is a software that checks writing for plagiarism (instructors regularly do this when you submit assignments to Blackboard). Any assignment that involves plagiarism (in any form) will automatically fail the assignment and may result in failure of the course.

For more information on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, refer to the City Tech Academic Integrity Policy and the resources on our syllabus/course site (you may also wish consult additional resources such as the UNC Writing Center’s handout on plagiarism), and please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions about academic integrity in this course or beyond. If you have any questions/concerns about plagiarism beyond what we discuss in class, it is your responsibility to notify me immediately so I can provide further clarification.

English Composition I