Armstrong Atlantic State University
ENGLISH 1102: COMPOSITION II

FORMAT CHECKLIST
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Your Name

English 1102 (Nordquist)

Project #1

Date submitted

Title of Your Essay

        Begin your essay here, immediately following the title you've fashioned for your essay. In other words, do not provide a

separate cover page. A good introduction conventionally identifies (by title and author) the works that you'll be examining in

the body of your essay, suggests the basic approaches that you'll be taking in your analysis, and offers some indication of the

purpose of this analysis. (Remember always to put the titles of stories and poems in quotation marks ["The Lottery"] and to put

commas and periods [where needed] inside quotation marks: In his allegorical story "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne . .

. , unlike Ralph Ellison's portrayal of a depression-era Southern town in "Battle Royal."  See the sample A essay on "Miss Brill"

for a model of a well-constructed (and accurately punctuated) introductory paragraph.

        Indent each new paragraph five spaces. Double-space all lines of text in your essay, and maintain one-inch margins on all

four sides of the paper. Use a standard font (such as Times Roman or Courier) and a font size of twelve. Make sure that the

cartridge in your printer has sufficient ink, and use standard white paper (8.5" x 11"). Print on only one side of the paper.

Please don't wait until the last minute to print out your essay: reserve enough time so that if you experience problems with a

computer or a printer at home you can still visit the Armstrong computing lab or Writing Center for help in printing your essay

before the assigned deadline. If you do experience technical problems at the last minute, it's absolutely unnecessary to explain

those problems to me: the policy on deadlines for assignments is explained in the syllabus.

        When you edit the final version of your essay, try reading it aloud: you may be able to hear problems with the writing

that you haven't been able to see. Make sure that you maintain a balance--sentence by sentence and paragraph by

paragraph--of "show me" (i.e., supporting details) and "so what?" (i.e., the particular effects or implications of those details).

Never re-tell or paraphrase a story or poem for its own sake: you are writing for someone who has already read the

work(s). When analyzing a story, poem, or play, make sure that you keep consistently to the present tense: see the sample A

essay on "Miss Brill."   Heed the project guidelines regarding the Honor Code and doing your own work: lifting ideas from

mama is as much a violation of the code as lifting ideas (without attribution) from a journal article or a web site: quite simply,

do your own work. If you have any questions regarding Honor Code policies, send me an e-mail before the project due date.

         Never quote without commenting on the quotation. Keep your quotations as short as necessary: often, a single word or

phrase will work just fine. Quotations that run more than four lines long should be "blocked" (i.e., indented twice), but, then, if

you have a quotation that runs more than four lines long, it is very likely needlessly long and should be cut down. Because we

are all using the same editions for all assigned stories and poems, it is not necessary (for this assignment, at least) to put the

page numbers for your quotations in parentheses. (This guideline will change when we get to a research project.)

       Avoid the vague use of "this."  You can avoid this problem by making sure that a noun allows follows the word this: NOT

"This means that the hero . . .," BUT INSTEAD "This remark [or whatever] means that the hero . . .."  And be guided by the

grading checklist posted online.