YOUR JOB AS A WRITER:
It is your responsibility as a writer to make clear what is on your mind. Your reader does not have mental telepathy. Be sure that you write exactly what you mean, and be sure that you do so in a way that will make your meaning clear and easy to follow.
 

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT YOUR WRITING:

Like it or not, people will judge your intelligence by how you write.  Everything you write is a bit of evidence about how sharp you are.  Take your graded writing as seriously as you would take a job interview--in both cases people with power over you will make a judgment about your intelligence.  You owe it to yourself to write in a way that does not invite your reader to question your intelligence.  If your writing is littered with mistakes like those you were supposed to learn to avoid in high school, you are telling your reader that you did not learn, or do not care about, the things you were supposed to learn in high school. You are inviting your reader to wonder about what other simple things you may not know, or what other parts of your education you now neglect. Think of good grammar and punctuation as the clothes your ideas dress up in to go to an interview.  Please dress your ideas appropriately.  Please keep in mind that people will judge your intelligence and the quality of your ideas by your writing.  That may not be fair, but it is a fact.

ORGANIZATION:
There is no single best way to organize every paper. The key is to think about the organization, and to find the best way to organize what you want to say. Here are two more specific rules:

1. "Tell them what you're gonna tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them." A simple formula, but an extremely effective one. Introductions and summaries should not be just fluff: They play a crucial role in making sure your reader knows what the main ideas of your paper are.

2. Always explain to your reader why you are saying what you are saying. If you are getting ready to examine and refute an objection to your position, say something like "I will now examine and refute an objection to my position." If you are explaining someone else's position, or giving an example, then say so.
 

GIBBERISH:
Gibberish is unintelligible or meaningless language. A string of words is gibberish if it simply does not mean anything at all. Obviously, this is something you want to avoid. However, it is a very common problem, even in people who are good writers. Fortunately, there is something you can do to avoid writing gibberish:  Proofread.

Proofreading is absolutely essential. If you do not proofread, you are virtually guaranteed to write things you do not mean or strings of words that do not mean anything at all. The most important single thing that separates a good writer from a bad writer is that a good writer proofreads her work. When you proofread, do the following things for each sentence:

1. Eliminate vague words or words that don't mean what you think they mean. Be sure that you know what a word means before you write it.  Many students get into trouble by trying to use words that they think sound impressive without really knowing what they mean.  Chances are that your reader will know what the word means, so it is crucial to make sure that you use it correctly.  

2. Watch out for pronouns. Make sure it is absolutely clear what each pronoun refers to. Be careful about "this," "it," and "they." Remember, the fact that YOU know who or what "it" or "they" or "this" refers to does not guarantee that your reader will know.  When in doubt, replace the pronoun with the noun.

3. Look carefully at the subject and the predicate of each sentence. If the string of words doesn't have both, then it's not a sentence and does not express a thought.

4. Put the subject and predicate into a simple sentence, and make sure that this sentence makes sense.  Make sure that each action verb names an action that can be done by the subject of the sentence.  

5. Check to make sure that you have not made any grammar, spelling, or punctuation mistakes.
 
 

COMMON WRITING MISTAKES:

Here are some of the most common writing errors students make. They are all mistakes you should have learned to avoid back in high school.  Allowing them into your writing makes your writing look like that of a high school drop-out.  That is not an impression that you want to convey to your reader.  Bad grammar and punctuation suggest to your reader either that you lack education or that you don't take your work seriously enough to spend time proofreading it.  Neither of these is an impression that you want your reader to have.   

THE RULES THAT HAVE BEEN HIGHLIGHTED ARE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT.  HABITUALLY BREAKING THEM IS SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE IN COLLEGE-LEVEL WRITING.

SPELLING:
There are spell-checkers and dictionaries. Use them. (Remember that spell-checkers don't catch everything.  So far, there is no electronic substitute for proofreading.)

COMPLETE SENTENCES:

Generally speaking, you should write in complete sentences.  A string of words that lacks a subject or a verb, or which fails to express a complete thought, is called a sentence fragment.  Fragments should be avoided in formal, educated writing.  If you are an extremely sophisticated writer, you will know that sometimes it is acceptable to have an occasional sentence fragment.  However, it is very easy (even for a sophisticated writer) to over-use fragments.   Also, if you do not know how to tell the difference between when a fragment is acceptable and when it is not, then chances are you will misuse them.  Therefore, the safest rule is always to use complete sentences.   

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT:

Subjects and verbs must agree in number and tense.  This is a very basic rule, and one that you should have learned in junior high school.  Breaking it is absolutely unacceptable in formal written English.  (In some dialects of spoken English, it is acceptable to break this rule. However, it is not acceptable to break it in formal written English, and it is unwise to break it in spoken English in many situations in which more formal, less conversational speech is expected.)

QUESTION MARKS:

Many students fail to put question marks at the end of questions. Note that rhetorical questions are still questions, and so they need question marks, too.

POSSESSIVE, PLURALS, AND APOSTROPHES:

--Possessives are made by adding apostrophe-s (except in the case of the word it; its possessive is its).

--Plurals are mostly made by adding -s without an apostrophe.

--REMEMBER THE ONE EXCEPTION: It's means it is.  The possessive of it is its.

Do not write
    I always forget the rule for apostrophe's
        (more than one apostrophe = several apostrophes)

    several category's
        (more than one category = several categories).

    the river has overflowed it's  banks
        (This means, literally, that the river has overflowed it is  banks!)
 
 

COMBINING SENTENCES:

YOU CANNOT JOIN TWO SENTENCES TOGETHER JUST BY ADDING A COMMA.  When you break this rule, it is called a "comma splice," and it is a 9th grade composition error.  There are three grammatically correct ways to join short sentences into a longer one.

1. Comma plus conjunction.

For example:  Joe hit the ball. The crowd went wild. converts to: Joe hit the ball, and the crowd went wild.

2. Semicolon:
For example:  Joe hit the ball. The crowd went wild. converts to: Joe hit the ball; the crowd went wild.

3. Subordination:
In the first two cases, we keep the two sentences in tact and join them into a single (compound) sentence with two independent clauses. In this case, we convert one of the sentences into a phrase or dependent (subordinate) clause and add it to the other sentence. There are many ways to do this, but the most common is to turn one sentence into a subordinate clause.

For example:   Joe hit the ball. The crowd went wild.  

converts to: When Joe hit the ball, the crowd went wild. 

or to:  The crowd went wild when Joe hit the ball.

Remember: If the subordinate clause comes first, a comma MUST follow it. A comma is not needed if the subordinate clause comes after the independent (main) clause. (The previous two sentences illustrate this rule.)  (This rule is sometimes waived if the introductory clause is very short, or if the writing is very informal.  However, if the introductory clause is more than a couple of words long, the comma is important and should always be included.  Since it is never wrong to include the comma after an introductory dependent (subordinate) clause, it is best to get into the habit of using it all the time.)
 

SELECTED COMMA RULES (the ones most often broken):

1. INTRODUCTORY DEPENDENT (SUBORDINATE) CLAUSES:

An introductory dependent (subordinate) clause has a subject and a verb, but does not express a complete thought. Some examples:

                        if I decide to go                                 while she worked

                        although the class is difficult              because I was busy

If a sentence begins with one of these, then you MUST put a comma after it.   Thus:
If I decide to go to the movies, then I'll let you know.

While she worked on her philosophy paper, she was thinking about how much she hates philosophy class.

Although this class is difficult, it is improving my reasoning and writing skills.

(This rule is sometimes waived if the introductory clause is very short, or if the writing is very informal.  However, if the introductory clause is more than a couple of words long, the comma is important and should always be included.  Since it is never wrong to include the comma after an introductory dependent (subordinate) clause, it is best to get into the habit of using it all the time.)

2. NEVER PUT A COMMA BETWEEN THE SUBJECT AND PREDICATE

You would never say The dog, jumped over the fence.

Therefore, do NOT write: One argument against utilitarianism, depends on the idea that there are certain actions that one must never perform.

Do NOT write:  Kant defends his position that the nothing is good but the good will, by considering people who produce good results but who have a bad will.

Do NOT write: The Kantian position, assumes that freedom and reason make human life sacred.

There is NO rule that says "Separate the subject from the predicate with a comma."
 

3. PARENTHETICALS
You may put commas around material in a sentence that can be taken out without affecting the meaning of that sentence. Make sure that you put the commas both before and after the parenthetical remarks.
The rule of thumb is that if you could put parentheses around something, then you can put commas around it.

 

PRONOUN REFERENCE:
Pay close attention to pronoun reference; if you do not, you are almost guaranteed to write something unclear or even outright false.
        The pronouns "this" and "it" are especially likely to cause confusions.  If it is not absolutely clear what the pronoun it or this stands for, then put the noun in. When in doubt--even the tiniest doubt--use the noun rather than the pronoun.

MISCELLANEOUS:

THEN AND THAN

THEN (as in if this thEn that and If it rains, thEn I'll get wet) is spelled with an E;

THAN (as in three is more thAn two and a raven is smaller thAn an eagle) is spelled with an A.
 

 

THERE, THEIR, AND THEY'RE

THERE is a demonstrative: There he goes.

THERE also occurs in there is and there are.

THEIR is the possessive of THEY. Thus: THEY should clean up THEIR apartment.

THEY'RE is a contraction of THEY and ARE. Thus, I now where they're (=they are) going.
 

 

ALTHOUGH vs. HOWEVER
Never begin a sentence with  "Although, . . .
For example:

DO NOT WRITE:  Although, a utilitarian might agree that lies usually produce bad consequences.

CORRECT: However, a utilitarian might agree that lies usually produce bad consequences.

The word ALTHOUGH [with NO COMMA] is used to create complex sentences:

Although the utilitarian and the Kantian might agree that lies are immoral, they will disagree about why lies are immoral

Thus, the word although is used to subordinate one idea to another. If we have two ideas we want to combine in a single sentence, we can use and and just join them, or we can use although, or while, or even though, or though, (etc.) and make one less important.
 

 

AVOID THE PHRASE THE REASON BEING.
There is no such noun as reason being. Also, the reason being is not a legitimate transition.
                    WRITE: The reason is that . . .
                    DO NOT WRITE: The reason being that . . .
                    DO NOT WRITE: The reason being is that . . .
The only time you can ever correctly use "the reason being" is in a subordinate adverbial clause. And even there, it is somewhat graceless. It is best to avoid this phrase entirely.
 

 

NEVER WRITE THE REASON IS BECAUSE.
Technically this is ungrammatical.  More importantly, it makes one's writing sound rather juvenile.  The correct phrasing is "The reason is" or "the reason is that . . . ".

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL:  Utilitarianism is implausible.  The reason is because it claims that the end justifies the means.

EDUCATED ADULT: Utilitarianism is implausible.  The reason is that it claims that the end justifies the means.
                                             OR:
Utilitarianism is implausible because it claims that the end justifies the
means.

 

NEVER USE "MEANING THAT" OR "MEANING" TO BEGIN A SENTENCE

Never write:  Meaning that an action could be caused and free at the same time. 

This is not a complete sentence.  Replace it with a complete sentence, such as:

In other words, an action could be free and caused at the same time.

   OR             

This means that an action could be caused and free at the same time.
 

 

AVOID WRITING DIFFERENT THAN.
One thing is never "different than" another. It is different from another.
Is different from = differs from.
You would never say differs than, so do not say is different than.
 

 

Avoid writing "So-and-so's theory on . . .".  A THEORY IS NOT "ON" SOMETHING. A THEORY IS ABOUT SOMETHING.

 

Avoid writing "amongst" or "whilst", unless you are British or Canadian.  These words are extremely formal in US English, and for this reason they come across as being very pretentious in American student work.  "Among"  and "while" work just fine.  No one is impressed by "amongst" or "whilst."  

 

Avoid writing such thins as "For this class, I chose the topic of . . . ."  or "I have decided to write my paper about  . . . . "  or "In this class, we learned that . . . . ."  or "According for my notes to this class . . . ."  Direct references to your class or the assignment of this sort give your work a junior high school quality.  They are not appropriate for college work.