English Poetry Essay

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, research, and avoiding plagiarism. Carefully review them before writing your literary essays.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism encompasses more than the use of printed sources without giving proper credit. It means handing in writing in the name of one person that another person has composed, revised, edited, or proofread without the instructor's approval. Accordingly, the following guidelines are set down, and you must study and understand them from the outset. The instructor will assume, since this issue is clearly discussed, that you will be responsible for understanding and applying it.

1. Any fact that is not common knowledge, any idea, phrase, or paraphrase that is taken from a printed source, from a lecture, sermon, or radio broadcast must be documented.

2. Any work submitted in English 102 will be understood to be the work of the student submitting it and his work alone. Taking credit for someone else's proofreading ability, suggestions, ideas, or words is plagiarism. An exception to this definition is group work assigned and directed by the instructor. Unless the instructor assigns such work, students should do their own writing, revising, and proofreading.

3. If a student has availed himself of the services of a tutor, officially designated by the university or unofficially, it will be understood that the tutor will confine his services to helping a student develop and express his or her own thoughts, making suggestions to help the student fulfill the assignment guidelines, and supplementing the work that the instructor does with the student in conferences and class. A tutor in his proper role never does work for a student nor supplies specific words, phrases, or ideas. The student bears responsibility for his own work. He must not submit a tutor's work as his own, and he must not blame his errors on the tutor.

4. If the student submits a paper typed by someone other than himself, it will be understood that the typist has not changed anything from the student's script or rough draft. The student may not blame the typist for errors not corrected on the draft given to the instructor.

5. "Self plagiarism" is when a student submits written work from another course or another context as if it is original work for a current writing assignment. This is not acceptable.

Liberty Online Writing Center

The Liberty Online Writing Center also provides additional writing help, including Online Tutoring Service that is offered FREE to students! Bottom of For Yo Likewise, your instructor is an important resource. Contact him or her if you need help or do not understand something.

General Requirements for all Literary Essays

(Check the boxes to make sure every requirement is met)

· Cover Page (see sample format below; be sure to fill the cover page with all the necessary information)

· Thesis statement and outline page. This is required for each literary essay/assignment. (Thesis statement must be a cogent, one or two sentences stating the main idea of essay).

· Proper essay title, headings, page numbering, and essay format. (If you completed ENGL 101 with Liberty University, this information will be in the Prentice Hall Reference Guide. Otherwise, acquire a good Handbook that details proper format for essays. You also will find sample literary essays in your textbook, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Compact Interactive Edition)

· Each essay is double-spaced, with ragged right edge (justify off) with a 1-inch margin on all 4 sides including the bottom margin.

· Essays are written in standard essay format that includes an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction includes the thesis statement, and the conclusion does not introduce brand new material or information.

· The title of the work being discussed and the author’s full name appear in the introduction. After that the author’s last name (only) is used.

· Each paragraph is properly developed with textual evidence, details, analysis, etc.

· Present tense is used, as required for writing about literature.

· Titles of short stories and poems are placed in quotation marks; titles of books and plays are italicized, as required by MLA format (APA or CM/Turabian is acceptable).

· 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...).

· 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), and

d. Glaring errors (e.g. sentence fragments, comma errors, subject/verb agreement, pronoun antecedent agreement, etc.).

· Proper MLA documentation format is used (APA or CM/Turabian is acceptable).

· Essay uses only academic sources. Cliff Notes, Masterplots, Wikipedia, 123HelpMe and other non-scholarly online material, etc., are not acceptable sources.

· Quotes, summaries, and paraphrases are all documented; otherwise, it will be regarded as plagiarism and thus a failing grade.

· Essay is not a string or pastiche of quotes.

· Works Cited page includes all sources cited in the paper.

· Retain a copy of each essay for your own records.

Use the following template as a cover page for each written essay:

Title of Assignment

COURSE # and TITLE_________________________________________

(e.g. ENGL 102: Literature and Composition)

SEMESTER OF ENROLLMENT_______________________

(e.g. Fall D 2009)

NAME_________________________________________ID #____________

WRITING STYLE USED_____________________________________________________

(e.g. MLA)