our essay, of course, was an essay and so it should or could be written in an informal style. For the majority of graduate-school assignments, however, you should be writing in a formal, scholarly style. An APA Manual, a Writer 's Reference from Hacker, a Turabian, or a Strunk are all good sources for improving your writing. For most of the things you need to know, the old editions are fine, and they are inexpensive and available at flea markets, used book stores, and garage sales for next to nothing. Scholars write in a different style than journalists. When it is informal, like the essay, it is not so important, but when you are turning in a scholarly assignment to a graduate professor, ensure it is in a formal writing style and as free of …show more content…
Italics are an acceptable substitute for quotation marks.
God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight -- Reggie White
**Spell out words from 0-99. Ninety-nine bottles of beer in my refrigerator. Use numerals for 100 or more, and 103 in my garage. Do not start a sentence with a numeral.
**Do not start a sentence with a conjunction, And, But, etc. "And I drank all of them this weekend is for journalists, not scholars."
**Commas are tricky and confusing for me. Commas were invented to assist readers, but in some cases, they have to be there.
In formal writing, lists require a comma for each item before the conjunction in a series: I had toast, coffee, and a clozapine shake for breakfast.
Introductory clauses need commas: As a general rule, graduate-level-library science professors are among the most handsome.
Use a comma for transitional expressions: Stop whining, it will only hurt for a little while.
Use a coma for parenthetical expressions: The Chicago Bears, as far as I can tell, are usually a much better football team than the Ravens (or is it then the Ravens?).
Use a comma for interjections: I consider myself a reverse paranoiac, moreover, because I think people are trying to make me