STYLE SHEET

 

First things first:  in formal essays never use YOU, since it assumes a familiarity with the reader you can't assume.

QUOTATIONS

Page References

In the middle of a sentence:

Andre Gide said Wilde "spent his genius on this life" (124), not his art.

At the end of a sentence:

Then Porky Pig said, as always, "th-th-that's all folks" (323).

Using two quotations in one sentence:

Lady Bracknell's "ignorance" is equal to her fear of "revolutionary outrage" (15, 57).

Long Quotations

For prose quotations over four lines in length (on your page), or poetic ones over three lines in length (in the poem), you double indent and don't use quotation marks.

In "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" Alice Walker writes:

through years of listening to my mother's stories of her life, I have absorbed not only the stories themselves, but something of the manner in which she spoke, something of the urgency that involves the knowledge that her stories--and her life--must be recorded. (514)

Your analysis will then begin at the left-hand margin (not indented) so that both quotation and analysis are connected.

PUNCTUATION

Period: Periods always go inside quotes, unless there is a page ref. In that case, see above.

Comma: Commas are the same as periods.

	"My mother comes from Down Under," she said.
	"My mother comes from Down Under" (111), says Sheila Roo in her autobiography.

Comma-splice:  This is a particular form of run-on sentence, where two independent clauses (a subject-verb combination) are linked only by a comma.  Instead, they should be separated with either a period or semi-colon (see below)

	Incorrect:  "Most people would like to have more money, it would make living more fun."  (Subject-verb 1 = people would like; subject-verb2 = it would make)
	Corrected:  "Most people would like to have more money; it would make living more fun."

Commas can only be used to separate parts which could not stand on their own.

Colon: Colons never go inside quotes. When used, there are always two spaces following the colon itself.

Semi-Colon: These are really judgment calls. Most of the time they won't go inside the quote, but sometimes, if they go with the quotations itself, they will. There is only one space after a semi-colon and you don't capitalize the first word after it. Also remember, and this is most important, that the second half of a semi-coloned sentence must be able to be a sentence on its own, too.

Dash: A typed dash is two hyphens (--). When used, there is one space left on either side of the hyphens.

Ellipses: Ellipses (...) are used only when leaving something (words, phrases, even sentences) out of a quotation. Do not lead into or exit a quotation with ellipses; it's simply not necessary.

PRONOUNS

Who/That:  People are "who"s; things are "that"s.  Always.

	The book that I read was intriguing.
	The man who wrote the book was a genius.

 

This:  Used at the start of a sentence (or as a sentence's subject), "this" is a demonstrative pronoun.  As such, you need to make sure that what it "demonstrates" is absolutely clear; the best way to do this is to attach a noun to it.

	NO:  Playing with fire is bad.  This can get you hurt.
	YES:  Playing with fire is bad.  This activity can get you hurt.

Generalizations:  It's better to keep your generalizations in the plural  ("readers/ they") rather than the singular (a reader/ he/she).

UNDERLINING

Short Works (short stories, essays and poems) are put in quotations marks.  Long Works (novels, plays, films) are underlined.  Italics are equivalent to underlining and thus may not be used for short works.