Guidelines for Academic Papers

1. Adopt a formal, respectful, intelligent tone: - do not use personal pronouns (I, we, you, us, me, my); - avoid exclamation points (it seems as if you are shouting); - do not use sland; - avoid emotional words and phrases; - DO NOT USE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS. This type of questioning technique undermines your arguement.

2. Let your reader know immediately what your topic and position is by writing an EXTRACTABLE THESIS.: - an ET contains 4 parts: author's name, work's title, writer's (you) position or point to be proven, and how position will be proven (main points); - placement of ET varies according to purpose: full paper- ET at end of introduction paragraph, short essay- FIRST sentence

3. Never refer to either your reader or yourself in your paper.: - do not use phrases such as "In this essay I will show" or "as the reader may already know" or "in my opinion"; - All these references waste time, take up space, and insult the reader's intelligence. They know it's your opinion, it is your paper.

4. Avoid trite, overused transitions such as "in conclusion", "first", ect.

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