Here are some guidelines and tips about writing an undergraduate essay. Most of these are things that we who grade essays have to correct over and over and over again.

To impress your grader/reader, you want to produce an essay that is as error-free as possible. You want your grader to focus on your argument, on your content, and not spend his/her time correcting all the minor things that can go wrong.

Note that most of what follows are not nearly as important as having well-written sentences that constitute an interesting and clear and detailed and well-argued analysis (that responds properly to the essay assignment).

Basics

Always make sure you have included your instructor’s name and have spelled it correctly. While few (if any) instructors will deduct marks from your essay for spelling his/her name wrong, such carelessness with such a detail will be taken to indicate that you have committed similarly careless errors throughout your essay.

Always get the title of the work or works you are writing about correct and the names of their authors correct. Making mistakes with them reveals sloppiness.

The date on your essay should be the date you hand in the essay. If you hand in the essay before the due date, you should usually use the due date. If you hand in the essay after the due date, you should use the date you submit the essay.

Try to include an interesting (or, at least, a descriptive) title for your essay. Avoid using the essay assignment topic or question as your title. That is, if the essay assignment is to “Analyse the physical features of Dickens’s characters as a reflection of personal characteristics”, do not title your essay: “An Analysis of the Physical Features of Dickens’s Characters.”

As a general rule, all paragraphs should have at least two sentences -- preferably, at least three.

Short essays (of less than twelve pages) should usually not have sub-sections. That is, do not include sub-titles to the various parts of your essay: let the writing itself indicate when it enters a new section.

All sentences must have a finite verb in the main clause. A finite verb is one that is not an infinitive verb nor a participle (past or present). If the sentence does not have a finite verb in the main clause, then it is a sentence fragment (regardless of how long the sentence actually is).

Do not skip extra lines anywhere in your essay. As a general rule, the essay is “double-spaced” -- there is no need to add an extra space between paragraphs or before your conclusion. Most readers of your essay will find these “quadruple-spacings” very annoying.

Speak about literature and the action described in literature using the present tense. Do not say, “When Pip met Estella at Satis House ...” Instead, say, “When Pip meets Estella at Satis House ...” It makes for easier and more enjoyable reading.

Quotation marks and italics

Single quotation marks (‘ ’) and double quotation marks (“ ”) are equivalent. North Americans as a general rule use only double quotation marks -- in such cases, single quotation marks are used only for quotations within quotations.

It is popularly assumed that double quotation marks are used for direct quotations, while single quotation marks are used for indirect quotations or, more commonly, for the purpose of drawing attention to a particular word or phrase, usually for the purposes of irony. It is best to avoid “ironic” quotations altogether. If you wish to treat a word as word, use italics. If you must use quotation marks, use double quotation marks.

Note: This is one of my losing battles. It seems the popular usage of single quotation marks as “ironic” quotation marks will win. Even the major academic presses are now allowing for this. In my opinion, it is still wrong.

Learn the difference between an apostrophe (’) and a closing single quotation mark (’). They look identical, but serve different purposes. An apostrophe in English always serves to stand in for omitted letters or to indicate possession.

Current word processing programs have a feature, usually called “smart quotes”. This will automatically replace the straight quotation marks (") with “curly” quotation marks (“). The computer program will attempt to decide whether to use opening quotation marks (“) or closing quotation marks (”), depending on where the quotation marks actually occur in your typing. The word processing programs routinely make mistakes. Carefully observe what the computer is doing to your typing, and don’t assume it knows better than you what to do. Try typing the following into your word processor: “’Cause I said so!” You’ll notice that it will change the apostrophe into an opening single quotation mark: “‘Cause I said so!” If you see this, you should fix it. You are smarter than the computer!

Italics and underlining are the same thing. Never use both italics and underlining in the same essay. As a general rule, only use italics. Underlining is really just for hand-writing -- one cannot hand-write using italics.

The MLA guidelines suggest you underline the titles of books. This piece of information is way, way out of date. It was introduced for type-writters and kept to compensate for the dot-matrix printers which could not produce or could not produce well italic fonts. Printers today can (I believe) all produce italic fonts well. Only use underlining if you are reproducing a quotation that uses underlining.

Note: I should never say anything that goes against what the MLA says. I’m going to be severely punished.

Commas

I usually tell students that nothing conveys your own ability to write well as clearly as a masterful use of commas. You should spend some time learning the proper way to use a comma -- where it belongs and where it doesn’t. Note that a comma is NOT used to indicate a pause in a sentence (or even in poetry). Commas have a much more useful purpose than that. There are many resources that will explain comma usage: it is too long to explain here.

Comma splices are the most common serious error with comma usage.

Also, learn the proper usage of colons (:) and semi-colons (;).

Possessives

People are increasingly having trouble with possessives. This is probably due to email and texting.

Always indicate possessives properly. Usually, it means adding an apostrophe and an s (’s) after the noun.

The big confusion comes with the possessive of plural nouns and the possessive of nouns ending with an s. If a noun ends with an s and is a plural noun, then form the possessive with an apostrophe after the final s. For example: the cars’ speeds were high, the poets’ verses were good. When the noun ends with an s but is a singular noun, including proper names, continue to add an apostrophe and an extra s. Thus: Dickens’s novels, Wells’s Ann Veronica, Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony. There are a few exceptions to this -- ask me about them.

Note: when you form the plural of an abbreviation, an acronym, or a number, do not use an apostrophe. Do not write: the 1960’s; write instead: the 1960s. Do not write: the TA’s are nice; do write: the TA’s pen.

Be careful with possessives of pronouns. Most do not need an apostrophe: his, hers, its.

Quotations

When you quote something, you quote it for a purpose. Make sure that purpose is explicit in your essay.

Quotations should not exist on their own -- they should always form part of one of your sentences. Usually, you introduce a short quotation or one that integrates will into your own sentence with a comma. To introduce a longer quotation or one that departs a bit from your sentence, use a colon. Never use a semi-colon to introduce a quotation.

As a general rule, do not quote something without commenting upon that quotation. Do not use a quotation to illustrate a point without actually discussing how the quotation illustrates the point you are making.

Longer quotations should be displayed as “block quotations”. After such a “block quotation”, you must decide whether or not your paragraph continues or if you want to start a new paragraph. If you want to start a new paragraph, indent the line after the block quotation; if you want to continue the paragraph, do not indent the line after the block quotation. Note that Microsoft Word often automatically indents the line after a block quotation.

Conclusions

Avoid starting your conclusion with the phrase, “In conclusion” (or something similar).

Avoid restating your thesis from your introduction, especially if you use the same words. This is what many of us were taught in high-school. It is a gross over-simplification of what an essay should do.

Ideally, you do not have to mention your thesis at all in your conclusion, because your essay has sufficiently discussed, examined, and proven your thesis.

Ideally, your conclusion should discuss the implications of your study. Now that you have proven your conclusion, how does your reading of the text change? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your thesis and essay in general? What might be the next steps, if you were to write another ten pages on the same topic?

Your conclusion is usually an acceptable place to become more personal -- how does your study relate to your personal opinions? to your view of the world? (This approach can often lead to a bad conclusion, but sometimes it works very well.)

Stylistics

Use plain and precise vocabulary at all times.

Avoid using usage when the word use is the better word.

Know the difference between: its and it’s, ones and one’s, etc.

Avoid using archaic words that are often used to make your writing sound more formal. Instead of using amongst, whilst, and amidst, use among, while, and amid. HINT: Use the search feature of your word processing program to find any of these words and change them where appropriate. (I do not recommend a global search and replace.)

Avoid broad, over-general statements. Always be precise.

Avoid using statements like: “It could be argued that ...” Teachers use this type of statement in class in order to stimulate the students: it is an invitation to the students to contemplate how it could be argued (or counter-argued). In an essay, it is your duty to argue, not to point out what could be argued. Only when something is tangential to your main argument, to the main purpose of your essay, is it acceptable to point out what could be argued; otherwise, argue. Similar statements to avoid are: “It could be suggested that ...,” “It could be inferred that ...,” etc.

Avoid passive constructions. This occurs when the action of the verb is not being performed by the subject. For example: “The characters were well portrayed by the author.” Here, “the author” is what is doing the portraying and thus should be the subject of the sentence: “The author portrays the characters well.” This is more direct and precise. Note that passive construction is sometime -- but only sometimes -- the better option. Do not confuse passive construction with the past tense.

The verb “to impact” is used transitively only in a very limited sense. It has become very common to use this verb transitively when a more idiomatic English phrase should be used. “The incident impacted the students greatly” is wrong. This should instead be: “The incident had a great impact upon the students.” This is another one of my losing battles.

Do not attempt to use gender-neutral language when gender-neutral language is a bit ridiculous. For example, “When a woman is pregnant, they often glow.” The word “they” should not be used here (see the next point) -- and it is ridiculous to attempt to make the pronoun gender-neutral, since only females get pregnant. Instead, say, “When a woman is pregnant, she often glows.” This makes much more sense and is much more precise.

Avoid using the third person plural pronouns as a gender-neutral reference to a singular referent. That is, don’t say things like: “If a person is happy, they will radiate happiness.” “They” here is meant to refer to a singular “a person”, but “they” is a plural pronoun. Change the sentence to one of the following: “If a person is happy, he or she will radiate happiness,” “If people are happy, they will radiate happiness,” or “If one is happy, one will radiate happiness.” The English impersonal pronoun “one” is an ideal candidate for gender-neutral language.

Preaching the ills of using “they” as an attempt at gender-neutral language is also one of my losing battles.

Advanced

Split infinitives
Split infinitives occur when you place one or more words between the to part of an infinitive verb and the present participle (such as, to go and to play). Sometimes, a single adverb that splits the infinitive is grudgingly acceptable, such as to boldly go. Extreme cases get to be a bit ridiculous: “We all agree that to knowingly and unabashedly and without any reservation whatsoever split an infinitive is wrong.”

Dashes and hyphens
You should learn the difference between a hyphen (-) and a dash (—). The first is usually used for compound words and to separate words into syllables. The second is used much like a comma, but with a difference. With both, there should usually be no space before or after. This sentence—a sentence with a dash—is illustrative. If you want more advanced stuff, learn the difference between an em-dash (—) and an en-dash (–).

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This page is written by Marc R Plamondon. It may be updated from time to time, especially as I grade yet another batch of undergraduate essays.