Transcript
Dr. Melody M. Miyamoto Walters
Rules for Writers, Grammar and Chicago Manual of Style
1. Use a 12 point font.
2. Set your margins to one inch- top, bottom, left and right.
3. Use “Times New Roman.”
4. Submit in a black font.
5. Do not use contractions.
6. Write in third person. Use “one” or “he/she” instead of “I” and “you.”
7. Double space between text lines, do not double return (but do also remove extra space) between paragraphs.
8. Quotations longer than four lines should be presented as a block quotation: indented, single-
spacing between lines, and with no quotation marks. Anchor your quotations with a signal phrase.
9. Your text should start near the top of your page—headers should be kept to a minimum and single-spaced.
10. Spell out centuries, instead of writing them as numbers. Centuries, as nouns, are not
hyphenated, but as adjectives, they are.
Ex. “The seventeenth century saw increased warfare between the colonists and the Iroquois.” And, “The nineteenth-century economy expanded with the increased production of cotton.”
11. Do not use “wiggle words” like “things,” “interesting,” and “important.”
12. Be aware of homonyms.
13. Do not end your sentences with prepositions.
14. Each paragraph should be about ½ page long. It should include a topic sentence that
supports your thesis, evidence to back it up, and a transitional sentence to go onto
your next paragraph. Indent the first line of each paragraph ½ inch.
15. Limit your use of passive-voice.
16. Avoid run-on sentences.
17. Use parallel construction for your sentences.
18. Watch for subject and verb agreement and noun/pronoun agreement.
19. Be aware of past and present tense verbs.
Ex. “The designers of the website give historically accurate information-- it corresponds to the facts provided in the textbook.” Or “Pocahontas did not
marry John Smith.”
20. Numbers below one hundred should be spelled out. Numbers including 100 and
above can be written with Arabic numerals.
Ex. “Most Southerners owned fewer than five slaves. Only a few great
planters had more than 100 slaves.”
Dates (but not centuries) should be written as numbers.
21. Punctuation marks should be placed on the inside of the closing quotation mark.
22. North, South, East and West are capitalized when referring to places, not direction.
23. Use proper footnotes or endnotes (Chicago Manual of Style), not MLA (parenthetical)
citations.
24. The United States as a noun should be written out. It can be abbreviated as an adjective.
25. After running spell-check and grammar-check, proofread!
GRAMMAR RULES SAMPLES:
Contractions
Do not vs. Don’t
Would not vs. Won’t
Use of “I”- Write using Third Person
I think this topic is worth writing about because… (Incorrect)
This topic is worthy of historical note because… (Correct)
Homonyms
Sight, site, cite
Access, excess
Then, than
You’re, your
It’s, its
Do not end sentences with prepositions
Who did they get the information from? (Incorrect)
From whom did they get the information?
Avoid passive voice
The union was started by Samuel Gompers. (Incorrect)
Samuel Gompers started the union.
Passive voice and past tense are not the same.
Avoid run-on sentences
The subject was sixteen years old in 1969 and she was living in Dallas with her mother and father and brother who was drafted into military and did not want to see the changes in society that were happening, but did not have much of choice. (Incorrect).
Use parallel construction
Dr. King preached, wrote, and led protesters.
Dr. King preached, wrote, and was leading the protesters. (Incorrect)
Check for subject-verb agreement and noun-pronoun agreement.
Singular subject and singular verb.
The website provide accurate historical facts. (Incorrect)
The website provides accurate historical facts.
Plural Subjects and Plural Verbs
The captions provide helpful information because …
The captions provides helpful information … (Incorrect)
Singular nouns with singular nouns and plural nouns with plural pronouns.
A student should proofread their paper. (Incorrect)
A student should proofread her paper. (Correct)
Wiggle Words
The subject had a lot of interesting things to say so the interview was important. (Incorrect)
The subject provided insight into the topic and made contributions to history by sharing her information.
Capitalization
Growing up in the South gave her first-hand experience with the Civil Rights movement.
She moved north after graduation and went to the University of Iowa.
Both examples are correct.
Anchor your quotations and properly cite them using Chicago Manual of Style.
“A thrill of horror flashed through every soul on the plantation,” (Douglass, Chapter V). (Incorrect)
Douglass wrote, “A thrill of horror flashed through every soul on the plantaion.”1
Abbreviation
The U.S. sent men overseas to fight in World War II. (Incorrect- spell it out.)
Citizens from all over the United States joined the war effort.
The U. S. citizens joined the war effort.
The U.S. economy suffered during the Great Depression.
CITATION EXAMPLES:
Endnotes or Footnotes Format using Chicago Manual of Style
BOOK:
1 Author’s First Name Author’s Last name, Title in Italics or Underlined (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Copyright), page number that you are citing.
1Wendy Doniger, Splitting the Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 65.
TEXTBOOK:
2Author’s First Name Author’s Last name, Title in Italics or Underlined, volume (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Copyright), page number that you are citing.
2Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: A History of the United States, volume 2 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2014), 116.
2Jacqueline Jones, et. al., Created Equal: A History of the United States, volume 2 (Boston: , 2014), 116.
WEBSITE:
3Author’s First Name Author’s Last Name, “The title of the Webpage,” Organization that owns the site in italics, the access date, the URL, page or chapter number if available.
3Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, January 22, 2019 to April 19, 2019, http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DouNarr.html, Chapter 3.
MAGAZINE:
4First Name Last Name of Author, “Title of the Article,” Title of the Magazine Underlined or Italicized, Date of the Publication, page number that you are citing.
4 Steve Martin, “Sports-Interview Shocker,” New Yorker, May 6, 2002, 84.
NEWSPAPERS:
5First Name Last Name of Author, “Title of Article,” Name of Newspaper Underlined or Italicized, Date of Publication, Name of section of newspaper, Location of edition used.
5 William S. Niederkorn, “A Scholar Recants on His ‘Shakespeare’ Discovery,” New York Times, June 20, 2002, Arts section, Midwest edition.
INTERVIEW
6First Name Last Name of Interviewee, interview by Your First Name Your Last Name, Place of the Interview, Date of the Interview.
6Henrietta Jones, interview by Melody Miyamoto Walters, Dallas, TX, March 26, 2019.
MOVIE:
7 Title of Movie, Format of film, directed by First Name Last Name (Original Year of Release; City of Production Company, State of Production Company: Production Company, Year of Release for format you viewed).
7 The Patriot, DVD, directed by Roland Emmerich (2000; Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures Corporation, 2006).
EDITED WORK IN A COLLECTION:
8 First Name Last Name of author who wrote the work, “Title of the Work,” in Title of the Book or Collection, ed. First Name of Editor Last Name of Editor (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year Published,) page of quotation.
8 Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia,” in Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume I: to 1877, ed. Michael P. Johnson (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009), 151.
Direction for inserting footnotes or endnotes with Microsoft Office 2007:
To insert a footnote or endnote, go to “References,” then “Insert Endnote.” It will automatically insert the subscripted number for you at the end of your last page. Indent that number five spaces then begin your footnote. If you want to change the Roman numeral to an Arabic number, click on the corner of the “Reference” tab, next to “Footnotes.” When the pop-up window pops up, click on “Number Format” and change the Roman numerals to Arabic numerals. Click on “apply.” If you would like to use footnotes instead of endnotes, click on the “Reference” tab. Then, click on the corner of section of the “Reference” tab next to “Footnotes.” When the window pops up, click next to “Footnotes” so that the bullet is marked. Then, click “Insert.” This will automatically insert the superscripted number at the bottom of your page. Be sure to indent the number five spaces before you begin entering in your information. You should single space within each footnote or endnote, but double space between consecutive footnotes and endnotes.
The website:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
contains examples of various sources for which you might need a footnote or endnote. “N” is the style for your endnotes or footnotes. “B” is the style for a bibliography or works cited page. Be sure you pay attention to proper punctuations.
