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ENGL 201
GENERAL WRITING RESOURCES AND REQUIREMENTS
NOTE: Use this as reference for each writing assignment. Your grade may be adversely affected
if you do not follow all of these requirements. Email or call your instructor if you have questions.
The required literary essays for this course demand careful planning, drafting, revising/editing,
and correct documentation. The following resources and requirements provide instruction on
writing, documentation, and avoiding plagiarism. Review them carefully before you write your
literary essays. Plagiarism
Plagiarism encompasses more than the use of printed or online sources without giving proper
credit. It means using someone’s words, ideas, or organization without proper acknowledgement,
or handing in writing in the name of one person that another person has composed. Accordingly,
the following guidelines are set down to be avoided from the outset. The instructor will assume
that you are responsible for understanding and applying these guidelines.
1. Any fact that is not common knowledge, and any idea, phrase, or paraphrase that is taken
from a printed source, online source, radio broadcast, or from somewhere else must be
documented.
2. Any work submitted in this course will be understood to be your work and your work
alone. Using material or ideas from someone else’s previously submitted essay, or taking
credit for someone else’s ideas, words, and organization without acknowledgement is
plagiarism.
3. “Self-plagiarism” is not acceptable—this is when you submit written work from another
course or another context as if it is original work for a current writing assignment.
Documentation may follow MLA, APA, or Turabian, and writing assistance is available from the
Online Writing Center (OWC) and Tutoring Service (OTS). The staff and tutors are very helpful
in giving one-on-one advice in developing paper content, organization, grammar, and
documentation.
General Requirements for all Literary Essays
(Check the boxes to make sure every requirement is met)
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Writing style used—MLA, APA, or Turabian—is specified in the title of the essay as follows:
Title – Citation style (e.g., “Christians and the Study of American Literature-APA”).
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Thesis statement and outline page. These elements are required for every literary
essay/assignment. (Thesis statement must be a cogent, 1–2-sentence statement that gives the
main idea of essay).
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Proper essay title, headings, page numbering, and essay format. (This information will be in
any composition Handbook; acquire a good handbook that details proper format for essays).
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Each essay is double-spaced, with a ragged right edge (justify off) and a 1-inch margin on all
4 sides (including the bottom margin).
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Each essay is written in standard essay format that includes an introduction, body, and
conclusion. The introduction includes the thesis statement, and the conclusion does not
introduce new material or information.
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The title of the period or the work being discussed and the author’s full name appear in the
introduction. After that, the author’s last name (only) is used.
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ENGL 201
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Each paragraph is properly developed with textual evidence, details, and analysis.
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Present tense is used (as is required for writing about literature).
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Each essay uses third person as required in formal essays and avoids the use of first person
(such as, “In this paper, I will discuss...”).
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Each essay is formal and avoids the following:
a. Slang (e.g., kids, okay, guys, etc.),
b. Second person (e.g. you),
c. Contractions (e.g., can’t, wouldn’t, etc.), and
d. Glaring errors (e.g., sentence fragments, comma errors, subject/verb agreement,
pronoun antecedent agreement, etc.).
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Proper, current documentation format is used (current MLA or APA or CM/Turabian).
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Essay uses only academic sources. Cliff Notes, Masterplots, Wikipedia, 123HelpMe, and
other non-scholarly online material are not acceptable sources.
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Quotes, summaries, and paraphrases are all documented; otherwise, they will be regarded as
plagiarism and will result in a failing grade.
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Works cited page includes all sources cited in the paper.
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