guidance for essay writing

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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• Links to  high-quality video  tutorials
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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

WRITING CHECKLISTS FOR ALL TEXT TYPES

ESSAY WRITING video tutorials

Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principle tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

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• June 2, 2022

• What is an essay? 

What makes a good essay?

Typical essay structure, 7 steps to writing a good essay, a step-by-step guide to writing a good essay.

Whether you are gearing up for your GCSE coursework submissions or looking to brush up on your A-level writing skills, we have the perfect essay-writing guide for you. 💯

Staring at a blank page before writing an essay can feel a little daunting . Where do you start? What should your introduction say? And how should you structure your arguments? They are all fair questions and we have the answers! Take the stress out of essay writing with this step-by-step guide – you’ll be typing away in no time. 👩‍💻

What is an essay?

Generally speaking, an essay designates a literary work in which the author defends a point of view or a personal conviction, using logical arguments and literary devices in order to inform and convince the reader.

So – although essays can be broadly split into four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive – an essay can simply be described as a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. 🤔

The purpose of an essay is to present a coherent argument in response to a stimulus or question and to persuade the reader that your position is credible, believable and reasonable. 👌

So, a ‘good’ essay relies on a confident writing style – it’s clear, well-substantiated, focussed, explanatory and descriptive . The structure follows a logical progression and above all, the body of the essay clearly correlates to the tile – answering the question where one has been posed. 

But, how do you go about making sure that you tick all these boxes and keep within a specified word count? Read on for the answer as well as an example essay structure to follow and a handy step-by-step guide to writing the perfect essay – hooray. 🙌

Sometimes, it is helpful to think about your essay like it is a well-balanced argument or a speech – it needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question in a coherent manner. ⚖️

Of course, essays can vary significantly in length but besides that, they all follow a fairly strict pattern or structure made up of three sections. Lean into this predictability because it will keep you on track and help you make your point clearly. Let’s take a look at the typical essay structure:  

#1 Introduction

Start your introduction with the central claim of your essay. Let the reader know exactly what you intend to say with this essay. Communicate what you’re going to argue, and in what order. The final part of your introduction should also say what conclusions you’re going to draw – it sounds counter-intuitive but it’s not – more on that below. 1️⃣

Make your point, evidence it and explain it. This part of the essay – generally made up of three or more paragraphs depending on the length of your essay – is where you present your argument. The first sentence of each paragraph – much like an introduction to an essay – should summarise what your paragraph intends to explain in more detail. 2️⃣

#3 Conclusion

This is where you affirm your argument – remind the reader what you just proved in your essay and how you did it. This section will sound quite similar to your introduction but – having written the essay – you’ll be summarising rather than setting out your stall. 3️⃣

No essay is the same but your approach to writing them can be. As well as some best practice tips, we have gathered our favourite advice from expert essay-writers and compiled the following 7-step guide to writing a good essay every time. 👍

#1 Make sure you understand the question

#2 complete background reading.

#3 Make a detailed plan 

#4 Write your opening sentences 

#5 flesh out your essay in a rough draft, #6 evidence your opinion, #7 final proofread and edit.

Now that you have familiarised yourself with the 7 steps standing between you and the perfect essay, let’s take a closer look at each of those stages so that you can get on with crafting your written arguments with confidence . 

This is the most crucial stage in essay writing – r ead the essay prompt carefully and understand the question. Highlight the keywords – like ‘compare,’ ‘contrast’ ‘discuss,’ ‘explain’ or ‘evaluate’ – and let it sink in before your mind starts racing . There is nothing worse than writing 500 words before realising you have entirely missed the brief . 🧐

Unless you are writing under exam conditions , you will most likely have been working towards this essay for some time, by doing thorough background reading. Re-read relevant chapters and sections, highlight pertinent material and maybe even stray outside the designated reading list, this shows genuine interest and extended knowledge. 📚

#3 Make a detailed plan

Following the handy structure we shared with you above, now is the time to create the ‘skeleton structure’ or essay plan. Working from your essay title, plot out what you want your paragraphs to cover and how that information is going to flow. You don’t need to start writing any full sentences yet but it might be useful to think about the various quotes you plan to use to substantiate each section. 📝

Having mapped out the overall trajectory of your essay, you can start to drill down into the detail. First, write the opening sentence for each of the paragraphs in the body section of your essay. Remember – each paragraph is like a mini-essay – the opening sentence should summarise what the paragraph will then go on to explain in more detail. 🖊️

Next, it's time to write the bulk of your words and flesh out your arguments. Follow the ‘point, evidence, explain’ method. The opening sentences – already written – should introduce your ‘points’, so now you need to ‘evidence’ them with corroborating research and ‘explain’ how the evidence you’ve presented proves the point you’re trying to make. ✍️

With a rough draft in front of you, you can take a moment to read what you have written so far. Are there any sections that require further substantiation? Have you managed to include the most relevant material you originally highlighted in your background reading? Now is the time to make sure you have evidenced all your opinions and claims with the strongest quotes, citations and material. 📗

This is your final chance to re-read your essay and go over it with a fine-toothed comb before pressing ‘submit’. We highly recommend leaving a day or two between finishing your essay and the final proofread if possible – you’ll be amazed at the difference this makes, allowing you to return with a fresh pair of eyes and a more discerning judgment. 🤓

If you are looking for advice and support with your own essay-writing adventures, why not t ry a free trial lesson with GoStudent? Our tutors are experts at boosting academic success and having fun along the way. Get in touch and see how it can work for you today. 🎒

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Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

UPchieve connects you with knowledgeable and friendly college advisors—online, 24/7, and completely free. Get 1:1 help brainstorming topics, outlining your essay, revising a draft, or editing grammar.

Writing a strong college admissions essay

Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes

Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

Student Stories

Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org.

Tips for Reading an Assignment Prompt

Asking analytical questions, introductions, what do introductions across the disciplines have in common, anatomy of a body paragraph, transitions, tips for organizing your essay, counterargument, conclusions.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Essay Writing

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Modes of Discourse—Exposition, Description, Narration, Argumentation (EDNA)—are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. Although these genres have been criticized by some composition scholars, the Purdue OWL recognizes the wide spread use of these approaches and students’ need to understand and produce them.

This resource begins with a general description of essay writing and moves to a discussion of common essay genres students may encounter across the curriculum. The four genres of essays (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. Although these genres, also known as the modes of discourse, have been criticized by some composition scholars, the Purdue OWL recognizes the wide spread use of these genres and students’ need to understand and produce these types of essays. We hope these resources will help.

The essay is a commonly assigned form of writing that every student will encounter while in academia. Therefore, it is wise for the student to become capable and comfortable with this type of writing early on in her training.

Essays can be a rewarding and challenging type of writing and are often assigned either to be done in class, which requires previous planning and practice (and a bit of creativity) on the part of the student, or as homework, which likewise demands a certain amount of preparation. Many poorly crafted essays have been produced on account of a lack of preparation and confidence. However, students can avoid the discomfort often associated with essay writing by understanding some common genres.

Before delving into its various genres, let’s begin with a basic definition of the essay.

What is an essay?

Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere , which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.

Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.

The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting.

This handout should help students become familiar and comfortable with the process of essay composition through the introduction of some common essay genres.

This handout includes a brief introduction to the following genres of essay writing:

• Expository essays
• Descriptive essays
• Narrative essays
• Argumentative (Persuasive) essays

H 1 . Introduction

This handbook is a brief yet comprehensive reference for you to consult as you write papers and other assignments for a college course. You can refer to it as you draft paragraphs and polish sentences for clarity, conciseness, and point of view. You can read it to learn how to identify and revise common sentence errors and confused words. You can use it to help you edit your writing and fine-tune your use of verbs, pronouns, punctuation, and mechanics. And you can have it open as you integrate and cite quotations as well as other source material in your papers in MLA or APA style.

Designed as a reference tool, the handbook is organized to help you get answers to your questions. You do not need to read the entire handbook to get helpful information from it. For example, if your instructor has noted that you need to work on comma splices, you can refer to Sentence Errors , before you turn in a final draft of your writing. If you know you frequently misuse commas, refer to Punctuation , and check your sentences against the advice there. And if you, like many writers, can’t remember which punctuation marks go inside and outside quotation marks, refer to Quotations . Becoming familiar with the handbook and the various topics will allow you to use it efficiently.

H 2 . Paragraphs and Transitions

Paragraphs help readers make their way through prose writing by presenting it in manageable chunks. Transitions link sentences and paragraphs so that readers can clearly understand how the points you are making relate to one another. (See Editing Focus: Paragraph and Transitions for a related discussion of paragraphs and transitions. See Evaluation: Transitions for a related discussion of transitions in multimodal compositions.)

Effective Paragraphs

Paragraphs are guides for readers. Each new paragraph signals either a new idea, further development of an existing idea, or a new direction. An effective paragraph has a main point supported by evidence, is organized in a sensible way, and is neither too short nor too long. When a paragraph is too short, it often lacks enough evidence and examples to back up your claims. When a paragraph is too long, readers can lose the point you are making.

Developing a Main Point

A paragraph is easier to write and easier to read when it centers on a main point. The main point of the paragraph is usually expressed in a topic sentence . The topic sentence frequently comes at the start of the paragraph, but not always. No matter the position, however, the other sentences in the paragraph support the main point.

Supporting Evidence and Analysis

All the sentences that develop the paragraph should support or expand on the main point given in the topic sentence. Depending on the type of writing you are doing, support may include evidence from sources—such as facts, statistics, and expert opinions—as well as examples from your own experience. Paragraphs also may include an analysis of your evidence written in your own words. The analysis explains the significance of the evidence to the reader and reinforces the main point of the paragraph.

In the following example, the topic sentence is underlined. The supporting evidence discussed through cause-and-effect reasoning comes in the next three sentences. The paragraph concludes with two sentences of analysis in the writer’s own words.

underline Millions of retired Americans rely on Social Security benefits to make ends meet after they turn 65. end underline According to the Social Security Administration, about 46 million retired workers receive benefits, a number that reflects about 90 percent of retired people. Although experts disagree on the exact numbers, somewhere between 12 percent and 40 percent of retirees count on social security for all of their income, making these benefits especially important (Konish). These benefits become more important as people age. According to Eisenberg, people who reach the age of 85 become more financially vulnerable because their health care and long-term care costs increase at the same time their savings have been drawn down. It should therefore come as no surprise that people worry about changes to the program. Social Security keeps millions of retired Americans out of poverty.

Opening Paragraphs

Readers pay attention to the opening of a piece of writing, so make it work for you. After starting with a descriptive title, write an opening paragraph that grabs readers’ attention and alerts them to what’s coming. A strong opening paragraph provides the first clues about your subject and your stance. In academic writing, whether argumentative, interpretative, or informative, the introduction often ends with a clear thesis statement , a declarative sentence that states the topic, the angle you are taking, and the aspects of the topic the rest of the paper will support.

Depending on the type of writing you’re doing, you can open in a variety of ways.

• Open with a conflict or an action. If you’re writing about conflict, a good opening may be to spell out what the conflict is. This way of opening captures attention by creating a kind of suspense: Will the conflict be resolved? How will it be resolved?
• Open with a specific detail, statistic, or quotation. Specific information shows that you know a lot about your subject and piques readers’ curiosity. The more dramatic your information, the more it will draw in readers, as long as what you provide is credible.
• Open with an anecdote. Readers enjoy stories. Particularly for reflective or personal narrative writing, beginning with a story sets the scene and draws in readers. You may also begin the anecdote with dialogue or reflection.

The following introduction opens with an anecdote and ends with the thesis statement, which is underlined.

Betty stood outside the salon, wondering how to get in. It was June of 2020, and the door was locked. A sign posted on the door provided a phone number for her to call to be let in, but at 81, Betty had lived her life without a cell phone. Betty’s day-to-day life had been hard during the pandemic, but she had planned for this haircut and was looking forward to it: she had a mask on and hand sanitizer in her car. Now she couldn’t get in the door, and she was discouraged. In that moment, Betty realized how much Americans’ dependence on cell phones had grown in the months she and millions of others had been forced to stay at home. underline Betty and thousands of other senior citizens who could not afford cell phones or did not have the technological skills and support they needed were being left behind in a society that was increasingly reliant on technology end underline .

Closing Paragraphs

The conclusion is your final chance to make the point of your writing stick in readers’ minds by reinforcing what they have read. Depending on the purpose for your writing and your audience, you can summarize your main points and restate your thesis, draw a logical conclusion, speculate about the issues you have raised, or recommend a course of action, as shown in the following conclusion:

Although many senior citizens purchased and learned new technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of older people like Betty were unable to buy and/or learn the technology they needed to keep them connected to the people and services they needed. As society becomes increasingly dependent on technology, social service agencies, religious institutions, medical providers, senior centers, and other organizations that serve the elderly need to be equipped to help them access and become proficient in the technologies essential to their daily lives.

Transitions

Transitional words and phrases show the connections or relationships between sentences and paragraphs and help your writing flow smoothly from one idea to the next.

A paragraph flows when ideas are organized logically and sentences move smoothly from one to the next. Transitional words and phrases help your writing flow by signaling to readers what’s coming in the next sentence. In the paragraph below, the topic sentence and transitional words and phrases are underlined.

underline Some companies court the public by mentioning environmental problems and pointing out that they do not contribute to these problems. end underline underline For example end underline , the natural gas industry often presents natural gas as a good alternative to coal. underline However end underline , according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the drilling and extraction of natural gas from wells and transporting it through pipelines leaks methane, a major cause of global warming (“Environmental Impacts”). underline Yet end underline leaks are rarely mentioned by the industry. By taking credit for problems they don’t cause and being silent on the ones they do, companies present a favorable environmental image that often obscures the truth.

Transitional Words and Phrases

Following are some transitional words and phrases and their functions in paragraphs. Use this list when drafting or revising to help guide readers through your writing. (See Editing Focus: Paragraphs and Transitions for another discussion on transitions.)

H 3 . Clear and Effective Sentences

This section will help you write strong sentences that convey your meaning clearly and concisely. See Editing Focus: Sentence Structure for a related discussion and practice on effective sentences.

The most emphatic place in a sentence is the end. To achieve the strongest emphasis, end with the idea you want readers to remember. Place introductory, less important, or contextual information earlier in the sentence. Consider the differences in these two sentences.

Less Emphatic Angel underline needs to start now end underline if he wants to have an impact on his sister’s life. More Emphatic If Angel wants to have an impact on his sister’s life, he underline needs to start now end underline .

Concrete Nouns

General nouns name broad classes or categories of things ( man, dog, city ); concrete nouns refer to particular things ( Michael, collie, Chicago ). Concrete nouns provide a more vivid and lively reading experience because they create stronger images that activate readers’ senses. The examples below show how concrete nouns, combined with specific details, can make writing more engaging.

All General Nouns Approaching the library, I see underline people end underline and underline dogs end underline milling about underline outside end underline , but no subjects to write about. I’m tired from my underline walk end underline and go inside. Revised with Concrete Nouns Approaching underline Brandon Library end underline , I see underline skateboarders end underline and underline bikers end underline weaving through underline students end underline who talk in underline clusters end underline on the underline library steps end underline . A friendly underline collie end underline waits for its owner to return. Subjects to write about? Nothing strikes me as especially interesting. Besides, my heart is still pounding from the walk up the hill. I wipe my sweaty underline forehead end underline and go inside.

Active Voice

Active voice refers to the way a writer uses verbs in a sentence. Verbs have two “voices”: active and passive. In the active voice , the subject of the sentence acts—the subject performs the action of the verb. In the passive voice , the subject receives the action, and the object actually becomes the subject. Although some passive sentences are necessary and clear, a paper full of passive-voice constructions lacks vitality and becomes wordy.

Active-voice verbs make something happen. By using active verbs wherever possible, you will create stronger, clearer, and more concise sentences.

Passive Voice On the post-training survey, the anti-harassment tutorial underline was rated end underline highly informative underline by end underline employees. Revised in Active Voice On the post-training survey, underline employees end underline underline rated end underline the anti-harassment tutorial highly informative.

Conciseness

Concise writing considers the importance of every word. Editing sentences for emphasis, concrete nouns, and active voice will help you write clearly and precisely, as will the following strategies. To be concise, eliminate wasted words and filler— not ideas, information, description, or details that will interest readers or help them follow your thoughts. (For more on conciseness, see Editing Focus: Sentence Structure .)

Use Action Verbs

Using action verbs is one of the most direct ways to cut unneeded words. Whenever you find a phrase like the ones below, consider substituting an action verb.

Cut Unnecessary Words and Phrases

Eliminate words and phrases that do not add meaning. Consider the following sentences, which say essentially the same thing.

Wordy In almost every situation that I can think of, with few exceptions, it will make good sense for you to look for as many places as possible to cut out needless, redundant, and repetitive words and phrases from the papers, reports, paragraphs, and sentences you write for college assignments. (49 words) Concise Whenever possible, cut needless words and phrases from your college writing. (11 words)

The wordy sentence is full of early-draft language in three chunks. The first chunk comes at the beginning of the sentence. Notice how In almost every situation that I can think of, with few exceptions, it will make good sense for you to look for as many places as possible is reduced to Whenever possible in the concise sentence.

The second chunk of the wordy sentence is needless, redundant, and repetitive. The concise version reduces those four words to needless because the words have the same meaning. The third chunk of the wordy sentence comes at the end. Notice how papers, reports, paragraphs, and sentences you write for college assignments is reduced to your college writing. The meaning, although expanded to all writing, remains the same.

The following phrases are common fillers that add nothing to meaning. They should be avoided.

• a person by the name of
• for all intents and purposes
• in a manner of speaking
• more or less

Some common filler phrases have single-word alternatives, which are preferable.

Avoid there is/there are and it is

Starting a sentence with there is, there are, or it is can be useful to draw attention to a change in direction. However, starting a sentence with one of these phrases often forces you into a wordy construction. Wordiness means the presence of verbal filler; it does not mean the number of words, the amount of description, or the length of a composition. (For more on these constructions, see Editing Focus: Sentence Structure .)

Wordy underline There is often uncertainty about whether or not employees end underline are required to turn on their cameras during online meetings, and underline there are end underline some employees underline who end underline don’t. However, underline it is the expectation of employers end underline that cameras underline be end underline turned on. Concise underline Employees are often uncertain whether they end underline must turn on their cameras during online meetings, and underline some don’t end underline . However, underline employers expect end underline cameras to be turned on.

Parallelism

Within a sentence, parallelism —the repetition of a word or grammatical construction— creates symmetry and balance, makes an idea easier to remember, and sounds pleasing to the ear. In the first example below, the parallelism is established by the repetition of the phrase beginning with who . In the second example, the parallelism is created by the underlined nouns.

Unparallel After 25 years, the battle over the reintroduction of wolves continues between environmental activists, underline who support it end underline , and underline hunters and people who own cattle ranches and are opposed end underline . Parallel After 25 years, the battle over the reintroduction of wolves continues between environmental activists, underline who support it end underline , and cattle ranchers and hunters, underline who oppose it end underline . Unparallel Exercises that improve core strength include underline crunches end underline , underline leg lifts end underline , and underline when you do push-ups and planks end underline . Parallel Exercises that improve core strength include underline crunches end underline , underline leg lifts end underline , underline push-ups end underline , and underline planks end underline .

Varying the length and structure of sentences makes your writing more interesting to read.

Simple Sentences

A simple sentence has one idea expressed in a single main clause (also known as an independent clause). A main clause contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a sentence. A simple sentence can be short or long, as shown in the examples below. The phrases in the long sentence add information, but the sentence remains a simple sentence nonetheless because it has only one clause.

The underline coronavirus end underline double underline spread end double underline around in the world in 2020. School-age underline children end underline and college underline students end underline double underline were pushed end double underline into virtual learning environments in March 2020, with schools closing for unspecified lengths of time.

Compound Sentences

A compound sentence contains two or more main clauses that are equally important to the meaning of the sentence. (A main clause contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a sentence.) You can create compound sentences in the following ways:

Compound Sentence Using a Coordinating Conjunction

Create a compound sentence by using a coordinating conjunction — for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so (fanboys)— to join main clauses . To remember the coordinating conjunctions, use the mnemonic device fanboys.

underline Restaurants end underline and small underline retailers end underline double underline experienced end double underline steep drops in revenue during the pandemic, and underline many end underline double underline were forced end double underline to close. underline Restaurants end underline and small underline retailers end underline double underline experienced end double underline steep drops in revenue during the pandemic, yet underline many end underline double underline survived end double underline the downturn.

Compound Sentence Using a Semicolon

A semicolon can join two main clauses that are closely related in meaning. When using a semicolon, you must have a complete sentence before and after it.

underline Restaurants end underline and small underline retailers end underline double underline experienced end double underline steep drops in revenue during the pandemic ; underline many end underline double underline were forced end double underline to close.

Compound Sentence Using a Semicolon and Transitional Word or Phrase

A transitional words or phrases such as however, in fact, meanwhile, therefore, consequently, as a result, instead, or furthermore indicates the relation of two or more equally important ideas in the main clauses.

underline Restaurants end underline and small underline retailers end underline double underline experienced end double underline steep drops in revenue during the pandemic ; however , underline many end underline double underline survived end double underline the downturn.

Complex Sentences

A complex sentence contains one main clause (a clause that contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a sentence) and one or more subordinate clauses (also known as dependent clauses). Subordinate clauses begin with a subordinating word or phrase such as although, because, even if, when, whenever, since, as though, whether, as long as, until, or while. The main clause expresses the main idea of the sentence, and the subordinate clause expresses the less important idea. Like a main clause, a subordinate clause has a subject and verb; however, unlike a main clause, it cannot stand alone as a sentence. A subordinate clause punctuated as a sentence is a type of sentence fragment. The subordinate clauses in the following sentences are underlined.

underline Although the federal government provided financial assistance end underline , the money came too late for many businesses. underline When schools and universities shut down in March of 2020 end underline , students had to learn at home, underline a situation that proved challenging for many households end underline .

Compound-Complex Sentences

A compound-complex sentence contains two or more main clauses (clauses that contain subjects and predicates and can stand alone as sentences) and one or more subordinate clauses (clauses that begin with a subordinating word such as although, because, even if, when, whenever, since, as though, whether, as long as, until, and while ). A compound-complex sentence is an effective structure to use when you want to express three or more ideas in a single sentence. The example sentence has two main clauses (double underline) and three subordinate clauses (single underline).

underline When school districts reopened end underline , double underline parents had to decide end double underline underline whether they wanted their children to attend classes in person end underline , double underline and they had to be ready for classes to move online end double underline underline if there were outbreaks of the coronavirus in their community. end underline

H 4 . Sentence Errors

These four common sentence errors can make your writing hard to read: fragments, comma splices, run-on sentences, and mixed constructions.

Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment is a group of words that lacks a subject, a verb, or both, or it is a subordinate clause (a clause that begins with a subordinating word such as although, because, since, and so on) punctuated as though it were a sentence by itself. Although most are grammatical errors, sentence fragments can be used judiciously in conventional writing so long as the purpose is clear to readers and the fragment is clearly intended.

Unintentional Sentence Fragments

Often a sentence fragment follows a complete sentence and expands on it, as illustrated in the examples below (fragments are underlined). You can correct most fragment errors by attaching the fragment to the sentence to which it belongs or by rewriting the fragment as a complete sentence.

Sentence Fragment People think that they will be happy if they are well off. underline That money will make everything better. end underline Revised by Attaching the Fragment to a Complete Sentence People think that they will be happy if they are well off underline and end underline that money will make everything better. Sentence Fragment Psychologist David Myers explains how students have increasingly chosen to attend college to make more money. Thus underline further explaining his point of people’s desire to use money to gain happiness. end underline Revised by Attaching the Fragment to a Complete Sentence Psychologist David Myers explains how students have increasingly chosen to attend college to make more money, underline thus further explaining his point of people’s desire to use money to gain happiness. end underline Sentence Fragment Although income grew, people’s happiness did not. underline With rich people reporting that even though they had plenty of money, their happiness had not changed much. end underline Revised by Adding a Verb Although income grew, people’s happiness did not. underline Rich people reported end underline that even though they had plenty of money, their happiness had not changed much. Sentence Fragment For many people, increased income is being spent on the things that people are unable to pay less for. underline Things like taxes, childcare, transportation, and housing. end underline Revised by Adding a Subject and a Verb For many people, increased income is being spent on things that people are unable to pay less for. underline These include end underline taxes, childcare, transportation, and housing.

Intentional Sentence Fragments

Intentional sentence fragments force quick reading, inviting readers to stitch meaning to together. Intentional fragments are most common in creative writing and advertising.

The rabbit darted out of the shadows. underline A flash of movement. end underline The dog lunged and strained at the leash.

Comma Splices

A comma splice is a common error that occurs when two complete sentences are joined by a comma. You can correct a comma splice by adding a coordinating conjunction ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so), adding a period and creating two sentences, adding a coordinating conjunction and creating a compound sentence, or subordinating one clause and creating a complex sentence.

Comma Splice The author sheds light on the financial sacrifice many mothers make , they take care of their children without compensation and often lose professional status. Revised with a Coordinating Conjunction The author sheds light on the financial sacrifice many mothers make, underline for end underline they take care of their children without compensation and often lose professional status.

Comma Splice Many college students see their education as the way to become wealthy , some are sacrificing happiness to pursue high-paying careers. Revised with a Period Many college students see their education as the way to become wealthy . S ome are sacrificing happiness to pursue high-paying careers.

Comma Splice Psychologist David Myers conducted multiple surveys asking people about their attitudes about money , the results revealed that people felt they needed more regardless of how much they had. Revised with a Semicolon Psychologist David Myers conducted multiple surveys asking people about their attitudes about money ; the results revealed that people felt they needed more regardless of how much they had.

Comma Splice Love cannot be paid for , it is a gift that parents give because they love their children. Revised with a Semicolon and Transitional Word or Phrase Love cannot be paid for ; underline indeed end underline , it is a gift that parents give because they love their children.

Comma Splice Students are choosing majors to enable them to earn more money , they are under the misconception that earning money guarantees happiness. Revised with a Subordinate Clause Students are choosing majors to enable them to earn more money underline because end underline they are under the misconception that earning money guarantees happiness.

Run-on Sentences

In a run-on sentence , two or more complete sentences are not separated by any punctuation. Like comma splices, most run-on sentences can be revised in one or more of the following ways: adding a coordinating conjunction ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so ), adding a period and creating two sentences, separating the sentences with a semicolon, separating the sentences with a semicolon and transitional word or phrase (such as on the other hand, however, consequently, and so on), or turning the less important sentence into a subordinate clause starting with a subordinating word such as although, because, if, when, since , and so on.

Run-on Sentence The DNR eventually designated the area as crucial habitat the protection came too late to save the nesting birds. Revised with a Comma and a Coordinating Conjunction The DNR eventually designated the area as crucial habitat , underline but end underline the protection came too late to save the nesting birds. Run-on Sentence Most people realize that being wealthy won’t just happen many college students choose a major that will ensure they make money. Revised with a Period Most people realize that being wealthy won’t just happen . Many college students choose a major that will ensure they make money. Run-on Sentence Parents do not expect any financial reward they care for their children out of love and responsibility. Revised with a Semicolon Parents do not expect any financial reward ; they care for their children out of love and responsibility. Run-on Sentence The average American family’s expenses have risen faster than incomes they have saved less than prior generations. Revised with a Semicolon and Transitional Word or Phrase The average American family’s expenses have risen faster than incomes ; underline as a result end underline , they have saved less than prior generations. Run-on Sentence College students have the opportunity to choose any major they tend to choose those that offer immediate opportunities to earn money when they graduate. Revised with a Subordinate Clause underline Although end underline college students have the opportunity to choose any major underline , end underline they tend to choose those that offer immediate opportunities to earn money when they graduate.

Mixed Sentence Constructions

A mixed sentence contains parts that do not fit together because of grammar or meaning. In the following example, the writer needs to revise either the second part to fit with the first part or the first part to fit with the second. (See Editing Focus: Mixed Sentence Constructions for more on mixed sentence constructions.)

Mixed Sentence underline By starting my general studies classes last semester end underline underline gave me the opportunity to take classes in my major this fall end underline . Second Part Revised By starting my general studies classes last spring, underline I had end underline the opportunity to take classes in my major this fall. First Part Revised underline Starting end underline my general studies classes last spring gave me the opportunity to take classes in my major this fall.

Just because . . . doesn’t mean Constructions. Just because . . . doesn’t mean constructions are common in speech but should be avoided in writing.

Just because underline Just because end underline I want to be a doctor underline doesn’t mean end underline I will get into medical school. Revised Simply wanting to be a doctor doesn’t guarantee admission to medical school. Revised Although I want to be a doctor, I will need to work hard to get into medical school.

H 5 . Words and Language

The English language is rich and always evolving, offering you many ways and words to express yourself in writing and speech.

Language Varieties

English is not one language but many, made up of regional and social dialects. In addition, groups speak using specialized language among themselves that can be difficult for outsiders to understand. As a writer, be aware of the audience for your writing. Use language that your readers will understand directly or from context.

English dialects are distinctive versions of the language used in geographical regions and/or by particular social or ethnic groups. Standard American English, the English spoken by newscasters, is one such dialect, as are African American Vernacular English, Creole, Appalachian English, and others. English dialects have many features in common, but each has particulars of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. (For an in-depth discussion of dialects and academic writing, see Spotlight on … Variations of English .)

Groups of people with similar skills and interests often develop slang that allows them to express ideas quickly and vividly. Slang also signals knowledge about a particular topic, such as meme culture, music, sports, and more. Slang is generally considered too casual for most academic writing, but it may be appropriate for personal essays. In your papers, be aware of your purpose and audience when choosing to use slang. Avoid using slang that your readers are unlikely to understand.

Technical Expressions

Experts in many professional fields use specialized and technical expressions that allow them to communicate efficiently and clearly with each other. Such language is often incomprehensible for nonexperts and should be avoided in writing for general readers. (For tips on writing about a technical topic for an audience of nonspecialists, see Spotlight on … Discipline-Specific and Technical Language .)

Biased Language

Biased words and expressions exclude or demean people on the basis of gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, social class, or physical or mental traits.

Biased Language Based on Sex and Gender

English includes words and expressions that are considered biased based on sex and gender, such as mankind, businessman, chairman, fireman, and so on. These are commonly replaced by gender-neutral words such as humanity, businessperson, chair or chairperson, and firefighter. (See Spotlight on … Bias in Language and Research for more on language bias.)

In addition, the English pronoun he has traditionally been used as the gender-neutral pronoun. For example, the construction A underline doctor end underline should have a caring attitude toward underline his end underline patients was once common but is now widely viewed as gender biased because many doctors are not men. For a discussion of the pronoun he used as the gender-neutral pronoun, see Pronouns .

Labels and Stereotypes

Be sensitive to labels and stereotypes that may insult a group of people you are writing about. Avoid labels that don’t put people first, such as cancer victim and wheelchair-bound. Don’t make assumptions about entire groups of people that promote stereotypes, such as teenagers are rebellious, elderly people don’t hear well, conservatives are rich, or women are more emotional than men . (See Spotlight on … Bias in Language and Research for more on language bias.)

Exact Words

As a general rule, use plain, direct words in your writing. Avoid reaching for a word that sounds fancy or impressive, especially if you are unsure about the meaning. If you use a word that is only vaguely familiar to you, look it up in a dictionary to ensure you are using it correctly. (You can type the word and “def” to get a definition.) Doing so has the added benefit of building your vocabulary.

Words Commonly Confused

The words in the following list are commonly confused or misused by writers. As you write, consult this list or use a reliable online tool, such as Merriam-Webster , to check the meanings and usage of words you’re unsure of. Keep a list of words that cause you trouble as you become aware of them. Then, after you draft a document, do a search for the words on your list. (For a discussion of homonyms, homographs, and homophones, see Editing Focus: Words Often Confused .)

H 6 . Point of View

Point of view refers to the vantage point from which a story, event, report, or other written work is told. The point of view in which you write depends on the genre in which you are writing. For example, you will likely use first person in personal narrative writing. For most academic writing, you’ll use third person. (See Editing Focus: Characterization and Point of View for a related discussion of point of view in narrative writing.)

First Person

In the first-person point of view, the writer or narrator ( I, we ) is present in the writing. First person is commonly used in personal writing genres, such as literacy narratives, memoirs, and profiles, as well as in fiction.

After midnight—my paper started, my exam studied for—I leave the library and head back to my apartment. In the dark, I listen closely when I hear footsteps behind me, and I step to the edge of the sidewalk to let a man pass. At my door, I fumble for my key, open the door, turn on the light, and step inside. I am safe, ready to eat, read a bit, and return to my paper.

Second Person

Second-person point of view is used occasionally when an outsider ( you ) becomes part of a story. It should not be confused with a writer or speaker using “you” when directly addressing an audience ( you ). Nor should it be confused with giving instructions ( drive forward, add one cup of brown sugar, close the door ) or with its similar use in textbooks such as this one. However, second person is not considered appropriate in most academic writing.

Writers often slip into second person when they intend to write in third person. In the example below, the writer starts in third person and shifts by accident to second person. To check your sentences for second person, search your documents for you , and revise as needed.

Shift from Third Person to Second Person The federal government should raise the minimum wage because it has the responsibility to ensure underline people end underline earn a wage underline you end underline can live on. The current minimum wage, $7.25 per hour, is not enough to pay underline rent end underline , let alone support a family. Many people cannot lift themselves out of poverty. A higher minimum wage can help you. Revised The federal government should raise the minimum wage because it has the responsibility to ensure underline workers end underline earn a wage underline they end underline can live on. The current minimum wage, $7.25 per hour, is not enough to pay underline a single person’s end underline rent, let alone support a family. Many people cannot lift themselves out of poverty. A higher minimum wage can help them.

Third Person

The third-person point of view ( he, she, it, they ) is customary for fiction and for academic writing, such as research papers, reports, visual and textual analysis papers, argumentative essays, and the like. Third-person point of view emphasizes the information instead of the writer.

The hikers and other passive trail users argue that mountain bikes should not be allowed on narrow trails traditionally traveled by foot and horse. underline They end underline point out that the bikes’ wide, treaded tires cause erosion, that the bikers’ high speeds startle hikers and horses, and that underline their end underline presence on trails disrupts the tranquility that hikers and bird watchers seek.

H 7 . Verbs

In a sentence, a verb expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.

Subject-Verb Agreement

In many sentences, making the verb agree with the subject is straightforward: underline I end underline underline run end underline every day. My underline sister end underline underline runs end underline every other day. Sometimes our underline brother end underline underline joins end underline us, and underline all end underline of us underline run end underline together. However, subject-verb agreement gets tricky in the following circumstances. (See Editing Focus: Subject-Verb Agreement for more on subject-verb agreement.)

Agreement with Compound Subjects

Two or more subjects joined by and take a plural verb in most sentences:

underline Yoga and meditation end underline double underline are end double underline effective activities for relieving stress.

However, when the parts of the subject form a single idea or unit, the verb is singular:

underline Macaroni and cheese end underline double underline is end double underline my favorite meal.

When compound subjects are joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the word closest to it:

Either your aunts or your underline mother end underline double underline remembers end double underline where your great-grandmother’s grave is located. Neither the image nor the underline words end underline double underline convey end double underline the message of the advertisement clearly.

Agreement When Words Come between Subject and Verb

The verb must agree with the subject even when words and phrases come between them:

The underline cost end underline of the flights double underline is end double underline prohibitive. A underline box end underline of invitations with stamps and return addresses double underline was end double underline on the desk.

Agreement When the Verb Comes Before the Subject

The verb must agree with the subject, even when it comes before the subject:

double underline Are end double underline underline James and Tamara end underline at the front of the line? There double underline were end double underline three underline people end underline ahead of us in line. Under the table double underline are end double underline a underline newspaper end underline and a underline magazine end underline .

Agreement with Everyone and Other Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun is general; it does not refer to a specific person, place, or thing. Most indefinite pronouns take a singular verb, but not all. Those that take a singular verb include anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something .

underline Everyone end underline in the class double underline has prepared end double underline a research proposal. underline Nobody end underline among the accused suspects double underline admits end double underline to the crime.

The following indefinite pronouns take a plural verb: both, few many, others, and several.

underline Several end underline of the students in the class double underline have proposed end double underline researching hurricanes. underline Both end underline of the suspects double underline deny end double underline committing the crime.

Several indefinite pronouns take a singular or plural verb depending on whether the word they refer to is singular or plural. These include all, any, enough, more, most, neither, none, and some.

underline Most end underline of the class double underline has proposed end double underline researching a topic related to climate change. ( Most refers to class. ) underline Most end underline of the students in the class double underline have proposed end double underline researching a topic related to climate change. ( Most refers to students. ) underline Neither end underline the students underline nor end underline the teachers double underline have proposed end double underline a field trip. ( Neither/nor refers to students and teachers .)

Agreement with Collective Nouns

Collective nouns such as audience, band, class, crowd, family, group, or team can take a singular or a plural verb depending on the context. When the group acts as a single unit, which is the most common construction, use a singular verb:

The underline band end underline double underline rehearses end double underline every day.

When the group acts individually, use a plural verb, or to avoid confusion, add the word members and use a plural verb.

The underline jury end underline double underline do not agree end double underline on a verdict. The underline jury end underline members double underline do not agree end double underline on a verdict.

Agreement with Words Such as News and Statistics

Some nouns that end in -s , such as athletics, economics, measles, news, physics, politics, and statistics seem plural but are usually regarded as singular in meaning. In most situations, these words take a singular verb:

Day after day, the underline news end underline double underline was end double underline bad. underline Statistics end underline double underline fulfills end double underline a math requirement for many college majors.

When a word like economics, politics, or statistics refers to a specific situation, use a plural verb:

The underline economics end underline of the situation double underline are end double underline hard to comprehend.

Agreement with Titles and Words Used as Words

Whether singular or plural in form, titles and words used as words take singular verbs:

Directed by Spike Lee, underline Da 5 Bloods end underline double underline centers end double underline around four veterans returning to Vietnam to find the remains of their squad leader and the fortune they hid together. underline Children end underline double underline is end double underline the plural form of child .

Tense expresses the time of a verb’s action—the past, present, or future. Tense comes naturally in speech, but it can be tricky to control in writing. The following guidelines will help you choose the appropriate tense for your writing and use it consistently. (See Editing Focus: Verb Tense Consistency for a related discussion of consistent verb tense.)

Verb Tense in Narrative Writing

Personal experience stories, such as literacy narratives, memoirs, personal essays, or profiles, can be written in either the past or the present tense. Although the most natural way to tell a story about a past experience is to write in the past tense, the present tense can draw readers into the story and give the illusion that the experience is happening as they are reading it. In the following examples, the writer describes driving with her Native American grandfather to a tribal conference. Notice the difference between the past and present tense.

Narrative Writing Using Past Tense I double underline sat end double underline silently next to Grandfather and double underline watched end double underline him slowly tear the thin white paper from the tip of the cigarette. He double underline gathered end double underline the tobacco in one hand and double underline drove end double underline the van with the other. I double underline memorized end double underline his every move as he double underline went end double underline through the motions of the prayer, which double underline ended end double underline when he double underline blew end double underline the tobacco out the window and into the wind. Narrative Writing Using Present Tense I double underline sit end double underline silently next to Grandfather and double underline watch end double underline him slowly tear the thin white paper from the tip of the cigarette. He double underline gathers end double underline the tobacco in one hand and double underline drives end double underline the van with the other. I double underline memorize end double underline his every move as he double underline goes end double underline through the motions of the prayer, which double underline ends end double underline when he double underline blows end double underline the tobacco out the window and into the wind.

Verb Tense in Academic Writing

Academic disciplines differ in their tense preferences for signal phrases used in formal essays and reports to introduce and discuss evidence. A signal phrase is a verb that tells readers the words or ideas that follow come from another source. Signal phrases include words such as argues, asserts, claims, comments, denies, discusses, implies, proposes, says, shows, states, and suggests. (For more discussion and a more extensive list of signal phrases, see Editing Focus: Integrating Sources and Quotations .)

If you are writing for a course in English, a foreign language, or a related discipline and using MLA documentation style, you generally will use the present tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases.

Present Tense The film critic Manohla Dargis double underline claims end double underline that . . . Present Perfect Tense The film critic Manohla Dargis double underline has claimed end double underline that . . .

When you are analyzing a work of literature, common practice is to use the literary present tense in discussing both the work of the author and the action that occurs in the work:

Being cool double underline is end double underline key to the lives of the speakers in “We Real Cool,” a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks double underline uses end double underline short lines and stanzas in which speakers double underline list end double underline what it means to be cool: dropping out of school, staying out late, playing pool, drinking, carousing, and so on. Being cool double underline unites end double underline the speakers, and they double underline celebrate end double underline their lifestyle, even as they double underline acknowledge end double underline in the final line of the poem that their coolness double underline may cause end double underline them to die young.

(For more on literary present tense, see Editing Focus: Literary Works Live in the Present .)

If you are writing for a course in history, art history, philosophy, religion, or a related discipline in the humanities, you generally will use the present tense or the present perfect tense in signal phrases.

Present Tense The historian Eduardo Galeano double underline argues end double underline that . . . Present Perfect Tense The historian Eduardo Galeano double underline has argued end double underline that . . .

On the other hand, if you are writing for a course in the social sciences, such as psychology, political science, or economics; a course in the natural sciences, such as biology, chemistry, or physics; or a technical field such as engineering, you will generally use past tense or present perfect tense for most signal phrases.

Past Tense The study double underline found end double underline that individuals who identify as transgender . . . (past tense) Present Perfect Tense: Several recent studies double underline have found end double underline that individuals who identify as transgender . . .

Verb Tense Consistency

Whichever tense you choose, be consistent throughout a piece of writing. You may need to shift tenses to indicate actual changes in time, but the governing tense should remain constant. (See Editing Focus: Verb Tense Consistency for a related discussion of consistent verb tense.)

Inconsistent Blinking back tears, I double underline clutched end double underline my two-year-old son to my chest, double underline kiss end double underline his forehead, and double underline will gather end double underline my things. It double underline is end double underline 2003, and I double underline was end double underline headed to active duty in Iraq with the National Guard. I double underline hug end double underline my spouse, my mom, my dad, my brothers, and my grandma. Then I double underline turn end double underline and double underline climbed end double underline on the bus that double underline takes end double underline me to a future that, in all honesty, double underline was end double underline terrifying to me. Consistent Blinking back tears, I double underline clutched end double underline my two-year-old son to my chest, double underline kissed end double underline his forehead, and double underline gathered end double underline my things. It double underline was end double underline 2003, and I double underline was end double underline headed to active duty in Iraq with the National Guard. I double underline hugged end double underline my spouse, my mom, my dad, my brothers, and my grandma. Then I double underline turned end double underline and double underline climbed end double underline on the bus that double underline would take end double underline me to a future that, in all honesty, double underline was end double underline terrifying to me.

Irregular Verbs

Most verbs are regular and form the past tense and past participle forms by adding -d or -ed.

• I bake/I baked/I have baked
• She discovers/she discovered/she has discovered
• They shovel/they shoveled/they have shoveled

Some verbs, however, are irregular and form the past tense and participle in another way. Below are a few of the approximately 200 irregular verbs in English. For a comprehensive list of irregular verbs, see this list .

• begin/began/begun
• bring/brought/brought
• buy/bought/bought
• do/did/done
• drive/drove/driven
• fall/fell/fallen
• go/went/gone
• have/had/had
• is/was/been
• lead/led/led
• hide/hid/hidden
• ring/rang/rung
• run/ran/run
• see/saw/seen
• sing/sang/sung
• sit/sat/sat
• shake/shook/shaken
• speak/spoke/spoken
• take/took/taken
• wear/wore/worn
• write/wrote/written

Verbs have three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. Mood can be said to indicate a speaker’s attitude or intention.

Indicative Mood

Use the indicative mood to state a fact or an opinion or to ask a question:

Thousands of women currently double underline serve end double underline in the military. I double underline think end double underline college tuition double underline is end double underline expensive. The weather double underline was end double underline awful for much of the winter but double underline will improve end double underline soon. double underline Have end double underline you double underline submitted end double underline your request for time off?

Imperative Mood

Use the imperative mood to give instructions and commands. The subject, you , is often implied but not stated:

double underline (You) Use end double underline the online form to request time off. double underline (You) Submit end double underline your request for time off by Friday. double underline You must submit end double underline your request on time.

Subjunctive Mood

Use the subjunctive mood to express wishes, suggestions, or requirements or to state hypothetical or unlikely conditions:

The rules state that every member double underline be end double underline present for the vote. I wish you double underline were end double underline here to see the exhibition. The governing board could be more effective if all members double underline were end double underline active. Students who failed the class would have passed double underline had end double underline they double underline completed end double underline all assignments.

H 8 . Pronouns

A Pronouns is a word used in place of a noun. Some pronouns are I, you, he, she, we, they, who, and everyone . The noun a pronoun replaces or refers to is its antecedent . (See Editing Focus: Pronouns for a related discussion of pronouns.)

Pronoun Reference

A pronoun should refer to a clear and specific antecedent.

Clear Antecedent All nine underline members end underline of the school board voted in favor of changing the district’s mascot. underline They end underline explained their reasoning during the meeting. ( They refers clearly to members. ) Unclear Antecedent In Smith’s essay, underline she end underline explains why many American families have less money saved and more debt than families in the 1970s. Revised In underline her end underline essay, underline Smith end underline explains why many American families have less money saved and more debt than families in the 1970s.

Problems with pronoun reference occur in the following situations:

Vague this, that, which, or it . The pronouns this, that, which, and it should not refer to words expressing an idea, an event, or a situation.

Vague Reference The school board voted to change the district’s mascot without holding special meetings with the public. underline This end underline made some community members angry. ( Are community members angry about the vote or about the lack of special meetings? ) Revised The school board voted to change the district’s mascot without holding special meetings with the public. underline Their decision to avoid public discussion before the vote end underline made some community members angry.

Indefinite it, they, or you . The pronouns it, they, and you should have a definite antecedent in a sentence.

Indefinite it Crittenden explains that mothers are taken for granted and disrespected, even though our society calls underline it end underline the most important job in the world. Revised Crittenden explains that mothers are taken for granted and disrespected, even though our society calls underline motherhood end underline the most important job in the world. Indefinite they Japan has considerable wealth compared to Ireland, but underline they end underline have a low subjective well-being index. Revised Japan has considerable wealth compared to Ireland, but underline Japanese citizens end underline have a low subjective well-being index. Indefinite you The federal government should raise the minimum wage to ensure underline you end underline earn a wage underline you end underline can live on. Revised The federal government should raise the minimum wage to ensure underline workers end underline earn a wage underline they end underline can live on.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

In many sentences, making a pronoun agree with its antecedent is straightforward: My underline neighbors end underline gave me the keys to underline their end underline apartment. However, pronoun-antecedent agreement gets tricky in the following circumstances.

Agreement with Generic Nouns and Indefinite Pronouns

Generic nouns refer to a type of person or job someone performs, such as athlete, child, scientist, doctor, or hairdresser. Indefinite pronouns include words such as anyone, each, everyone, everything, many, most, and none.

All generic nouns and most indefinite pronouns are singular in meaning. Traditionally, these words took the singular pronouns he/him/his because English does not have a gender-neutral third-person pronoun that refers to people: Everyone has his own opinion or A doctor needs to show that he cares about his patients.

More recently, writers have been replacing he/him/his or his/her with they/them/their when the person’s gender is unknown or unimportant or when the person has indicated a preference for non-gendered pronouns:

Everyone has underline their end underline own opinion. A doctor needs to show that underline they end underline care about underline their end underline patients.

These plural pronouns are increasingly accepted and intentionally used by writers, teachers, and editors. Many prominent publications and style guides indicate that the plural pronoun should replace binary or singular ones in most cases. If using a plural pronoun does not fit the situation (such as in a paragraph where the pronoun they is also used several times to indicate a group), try rewriting the sentence in either of these ways:

Remove the pronoun. Everyone has underline an end underline opinion. Make the antecedent plural. underline People end underline have their own opinions. underline Doctors end underline need to show that they care about their patients.

Collective nouns such as audience, band, class, crowd, family, group, or team can take a singular or plural pronoun depending on the context. When the group acts as a single unit, which is the most common construction, use a singular pronoun. When the group members act individually, use a plural pronoun. If using the plural sounds awkward, add the word members so that the plural is clear.

The band went through underline its end underline complete playlist. The band loaded underline their end underline instruments on the bus. The band underline members end underline loaded underline their end underline instruments on the bus.

Pronoun Case

Pronouns have three cases: subjective, objective, and possessive. Pronouns change case according to their function in a sentence.

Subjective case pronouns function as subjects: I, we, you, he/she/it, they, who/whoever :

Antonio and underline I end underline share an apartment downtown in a neighborhood underline we end underline like.

Objective case pronouns function as objects: me, us, you, him/her/it, them, whom/whomever :

The manager gave underline us end underline a tour of the building.

Possessive case pronouns show ownership: my/mine, our/ours, your/yours, his/her/hers/its, their/theirs, whose :

underline Our end underline friends live in the building too.

Pronoun case gets tricky in the circumstances explained below.

Case in Compound Structures

Compound subjects use subjective case pronouns. Compound objects use objective case pronouns.

Subjective Case underline Antonio end underline and underline I end underline have occasional disagreements about the dishes. Objective Case Occasional disagreements about the dishes come up between underline Antonio end underline and underline me end underline .

Case After than or as

In a comparison, the case of the pronoun indicates which words have been left out:

Antonio cares more about having a clean kitchen than underline I end underline [do]. Sometimes I think Antonio cares more about a clean kitchen than [he cares about] underline me end underline .

Who or Whom

Use the subjective case who in place of a subject—whether it is the subject of the sentence or the subject of a clause:

underline Who end underline is going to the concert? (subject of sentence) Give the tickets to underline whoever end underline can use them. (subject of clause) She is the person underline who end underline is best qualified for the job. (subject of clause) She is the person underline who end underline I think is best qualified for the job. (subject of clause; the intervening words “I think” don’t change the subject or verb of the clause)

Use the objective case whom in place of an object, whether it is the object of a verb, preposition, or clause:

I don’t know underline whom end underline to ask. (object of verb) To underline whom end underline should I give the extra concert tickets? (object of preposition) Give the tickets to underline whomever end underline you choose. (object of clause)

We or us with a Noun

Use we with a subject. Use us with an object.

underline We end underline citizens must vote in order to make our voices heard. (subject) Legislators need to hear from underline us end underline citizens. (object)

Case Before or After an Infinitive

Use the objective case before and after an infinitive (the to form of a verb: to run, to walk, to eat ):

The agent asked Antonio and underline me end underline to write a review. We agreed to give underline him end underline a positive review.

Case Before a Gerund

Generally, use the possessive case of a pronoun before a gerund (the -ing form of a verb used as a noun: gentle underline snoring end underline , elegant underline dining end underline ):

He grew tired of underline their end underline partying late into the night. The rental agreement depends on underline your end underline approving the lease terms.

H 9 . Punctuation

This section covers the major marks of punctuation: commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons, periods, question marks, exclamation points, dashes, and parentheses. (For using brackets and ellipses, see Quotations .)

Commas alert readers to brief pauses within sentences.

Commas with Main Clauses

Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so) joining main clauses:

Businesses in the metropolitan area are growing underline , and end underline unemployment is down. Many job seekers use online sites like Indeed.com underline , but end underline a few still send traditional cover letters and résumés through the mail. A solution must be determined soon underline , or end underline the problem will continue.

Commas with Introductory Information

Use a comma after an introductory element at the start of a sentence:

underline After class is over , end underline we should get lunch and review our notes. underline Shuffling his feet nervously , end underline he waited for the train. underline However end underline , the circumstances have not changed.

Commas with Nonessential and Essential Information

(See Editing Focus: Commas with Nonessential and Essential Information for a related discussion of commas.)

Nonessential information refers to information that is usually not necessary to the basic meaning of a sentence. Nonessential information is set off by commas. In the following sentence, the word original tells readers which labs no longer meet the needs of the teachers and students. The underlined information adds information but does not change the meaning of the sentence and thus is nonessential to the basic meaning:

The original technical education labs underline , which were installed 50 years ago , end underline no longer meet the needs of the teachers and students.

Essential information , on the other hand, is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. In following example, the word original is no longer part of the sentence; the underlined words convey necessary information about the labs:

The technical education labs underline that were installed 50 years end underline ago no longer meet the needs of the teachers and students.

You can test whether information is nonessential by removing the information. If the meaning of the sentence is unchanged, the information is nonessential. If the meaning becomes too general or changes, the information is essential. In the sentence above, only the labs installed 50 years ago, as opposed to other labs, no longer meet the needs of teachers and students. Note, also, the use of which with nonessential information and that with essential information.

Commas Around Nonessential Information

Place commas around information that is not essential to the meaning of a sentence:

The entire technology department underline , which consists of nine teachers and five staff members , end underline has contributed to a report on the needed updates to the technical education labs. The technology department chair underline , who teaches welding , end underline wrote the final report. Updates to the labs will begin in June underline , when school is not in session end underline .

No Commas Around Essential Information

Do not place commas around essential information:

According to the technical education teachers, the labs need equipment underline that students are likely to encounter in the workplace end underline . Faculty underline who teach auto mechanics end underline have requested updates to their lab. The teachers are concerned about the labs underline because students are not learning the skills they need end underline . The amount of lab space underline that needs to be updated end underline is substantial. The department has consulted the industry expert underline Stacy James end underline .

Serial (Oxford or Harvard) Commas

For clarity, use a comma between items in a series:

He studied all the notes , emails , memos , and reports related to the data breach.

Be aware, however, that certain style manuals, such as the AP Stylebook, do not use the serial comma, also called the Oxford or Harvard comma.

Commas with Numbers, Dates, Titles with Names, and Addresses

The sign gave the city’s population as 122 , 887. Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison died on August 5 , 2019. Diana Wong , M.D. , is a practicing obstetrician. The mailing address for the Smithsonian Institution is 600 Maryland Avenue SW , Washington , D.C. , 20002.

Common Comma Errors

Misplaced commas can make sentences choppy and obscure the intended meaning.

No Comma after a Subject or a Verb

Anyone who was still at the party underline , end underline left when the band stopped playing. The party ended underline , end underline after the band stopped playing.

No Comma after a Conjunction Connecting Parts of a Compound Subject, Verb, or Object

Some musicians in the band underline , end underline and many of the guests danced until midnight. (compound subject) The band stopped after two hours underline , end underline and took a well-deserved break. (compound verb) Guests enjoyed the music underline , end underline and the dancing. (compound object)

No Comma after a Series

The band played 80s rock underline , end underline punk , and new wave , all night long.

No Comma before an Indirect Quotation

Online reviews say underline , end underline that the band is the best in the area.

Apostrophes

An apostrophe has two functions. It indicates possession, and it forms contractions.

Apostrophes to Show Possession

Use an apostrophe and -s to indicate possession with a singular noun or an indefinite pronoun:

underline Jack ’ s end underline brother is my underline sister ’ s end underline coworker. In their family, underline everyone ’ s end underline favorite dessert is ice cream.

If the ’s in a singular noun is pronounced, add apostrophe -s :

The underline business ’ s end underline inconsistent hours caused customers to go elsewhere. Los underline Angeles ’ s end underline airport, LAX, is one of the busiest in the United States.

If the ’s is not pronounced in a singular noun, some writers choose to add an apostrophe alone; however, MLA, APA, and Chicago use the apostrophe and s in these cases:

David underline Myers ’ end underline book, The Pursuit of Happiness , was published in 1992. David underline Myers ’s end underline book, The Pursuit of Happiness , was published in 1992.

When the noun is plural and ends in -s , place the apostrophe after the final -s :

American underline households ’ end underline incomes have grown since the 1970s because more women have entered the workforce. These underline families ’ end underline expenses have risen too.

When the noun is plural and does not end in -s, add an apostrophe and -s:

Social underline media ’ s end underline effect on contemporary life cannot be underestimated. During the pandemic, parents’ stress grew as they helped with their underline children ’ s end underline schooling.

Apostrophes to Form Contractions

Contractions are common in speech and in informal writing. Use an apostrophe in contractions:

When I say I underline can ’ t end underline , I mean I underline won ’ t end underline . underline It ’ s end underline the best option under the circumstances. “ underline You ’ re end underline the best friend anyone can have,” Mikayla said. underline They ’ re end underline driving to their favorite hangout spot.

Common Apostrophe Errors

Apostrophes are not used to form plural nouns, singular verbs, or personal or relative pronouns.

Not in Plural Nouns

How many hotel underline rooms end underline [not room’s ] should be reserved for the wedding? The Lewises and the Riveras [not Lewis’s and Rivera’s or Lewis’ and Riveras’ ] have confirmed their reservations.

Not with Verbs Ending in -s

Nikki underline runs end underline [not run’s ] every day. Jamal underline walks end underline [not walk’s ] to work.

Not with Possessive Personal Pronouns or Relative Pronouns

The book is underline yours end underline [not your’s ]. The dog was barking and wagging underline its end underline [not it’s ] tail. underline Whose end underline [not who’s ] apartment is this?

Other Punctuation

The semicolon joins main clauses (a clause that contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a sentence). A semicolon is also used to separate items in a series that contain commas.

Use a semicolon to join main clauses that are closely related in meaning and that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so ).

Originally built in 1928, the school had been remodeled multiple times underline ; end underline the result was an architectural mashup.

Use a semicolon to join main clauses that are connected by a transitional word or phrase such as for example, however, therefore, indeed, or after all :

The governor has proposed increased funding to K-12 public schools underline ; however, end underline the legislature must approve the budget.

Use a semicolon between items in a series that contain internal commas:

The candidates for the award are Michael, who won the essay competition ; Sasha, the top debater; and Giselle, who directed several student productions.

A colon introduces lists, summaries, and quotations. A colon also separates titles from subtitles.

A colon can introduce a list:

Successful athletes have the following qualities underline : physical ability, mental toughness, commitment, and optimism end underline .

A colon can also introduce a summary or an explanation, which may or may not be a main clause (a clause that contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a sentence):

The team had one goal left before the end of the season underline : to win the state championship end underline .

Book titles often include a subtitle. A colon separates the subtitle from the title:

Forcing the Spring : Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality

End Punctuation

A sentence ends with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point.

A period ends declarative (statement) and imperative (command) sentences:

The administration canceled classes . Do not attempt to drive to school this morning .

A question mark ends a direct question and indicates uncertainty in dates:

Where is Times Square ? She asked, “What time is it ? ”

An exclamation point ends an emphatic or emotional sentence:

“What a mess ! ” she blurted out. “Stop ! That hurts ! ” he shouted.

Dashes and Parentheses

Dashes and parentheses enclose nonessential information in a sentence.

Use a dash or dashes to set off nonessential information, to indicate a contrast or a pause, or to mark a change of direction.

We did not notice the rain at first — it began so softly — but soon we were soaked. Nothing is as exciting as seeing a snowy owl in a winter farm field — except maybe seeing two snowy owls.

Use parentheses to enclose nonessential information such as explanations, asides, examples, and dates.

He graduated with high honors ( magna cum laude ) and found a job immediately. The city of Madison ( home of the University of Wisconsin ) is the state capital of Wisconsin.

H 10 . Mechanics

Capital letters.

Use capital letters in the following situations.

• Capitalize the first word of a sentence: The weather is rainy today.
• Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives: Monday, New Orleans, Mexico, Florida, Halloween, United States Constitution, Department of Education, University of Texas, Native American, Islam, Italian, Freudian.
• Capitalize titles that precede a person’s name: Dr. Atul Gawande, Senator Tammy Baldwin. [But: Atul Gawande, a doctor; Tammy Baldwin, a senator]

Many online resources, such as this one , list words that should be capitalized. You can also consult a dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster , to determine whether to capitalize a word.

Titles of Works

Titles of books, articles, stories, plays, poems, films, and other works are handled differently depending on the documentation style you are using. The guidelines here follow MLA style.

Capitalization in Titles and Subtitles

Capitalize the first and last words in a title and subtitle and other important words. Do not capitalize articles ( a, an, the ), coordinating conjunctions ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so ), or prepositions ( above, with, of, in, through, beyond, under ) unless they are the first or last words in the title or subtitle.

• Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality (book)
• Judas and the Black Messiah (film)
• “American Military Performance in Vietnam: Background and Analysis” (article)

Italics for Titles of Long Works

Use italics for long works that are published, produced, or released separately from other works. These include books, long poems, plays, movies, videos, published speeches, periodicals (newspapers, magazines, and academic and professional journals), websites, long musical works, works of visual art, computer software, TV or radio programs and series, and pamphlets.

• Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food (book)
• The New Yorker (periodical)
• The Los Angeles Times (newspaper)
• American Idiot (album)
• Parasite (film)
• Saturday Night Live (TV program)

Quotation Marks for Titles of Shorter Works

Put quotation marks around the titles and subtitles of individual shorter works or those that are published or released within larger works. These include articles in periodicals (newspapers, magazines, and academic and professional journals), pages or works on a website, short stories, short poems, essays, songs, episodes of TV or radio programs and series, book chapters, and unpublished speeches.

• “Living with a Visionary” (article in a magazine)
• “A World of Fields and Fences” (work on a website)
• “New York Day Women” (short story)
• “Corson’s Inlet” (short poem)
• “Return from ISIS” (TV episode)

H 11 . Quotations

A quotation reproduces the exact written or spoken words of a person or an author, which may include a group. (See Editing Focus: Quotations for a related discussion of direct quotations and Editing Focus: Integrating Sources and Quotations for help with integrating quotations from sources.)

Quotations from Written or Spoken Sources

Put quotation marks around quotations from a written or spoken source.

Quoting a Source

When quoting the words of a source, introduce quoted material with a signal phrase so that readers know the source and purpose of the quotation. Place the quotation inside double quotation marks. When using parenthetical citations, note that the sentence period comes after the parentheses. If you include the author’s name in your signal phrase, give only the page number in parentheses (first example). If you do not give the author’s name in your signal phrase, give the name in parentheses (second example):

In Walden , Thoreau sets forth one individual’s antidote against the “ lives of quiet desperation ” led by the working class in mid-nineteenth-century America (5).

Walden sets forth one individual’s antidote against the “ lives of quiet desperation ” led by the working class in mid-nineteenth-century America (Thoreau 5).

Abraham Lincoln wrote “ that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth ” in his Gettysburg Address.

Quoting or Writing Dialogue

When quoting or writing dialogue between speakers, including characters in a fictional work, place their words in double quotation marks, and start a new paragraph for each speaker:

“ It’s good to see you—I guess, ” Brayden said, as Christopher walked up to the door. “ I thought you were gone for good. ” “ I missed you too much, ” Christopher said, looking down at his feet.

Single and Double Quotation Marks

Put single quotation marks around a quotation within a quotation, using double quotation marks around the full quotation:

Kennedy writes that after a year of teambuilding work, including improvements in communication, evaluation, and small-group quarterly meetings, morale among staff members “ improved from ‘ average ’ to ‘ excellent ’ ” (17).

Long Quotations

Introduce a long quotation (four typed lines in MLA style; 40 or more words in APA style) with a signal phrase that names the author and ends with a colon. Indent this entire block quotation one-half inch. If you quote more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph one-half inch. Do not use quotation marks. Note that the sentence period comes before the parenthetical citation:

In her memoir, Twenty Years at Hull-House , reformer Jane Addams recounts vivid stories of child labor:

public domain text The visits we made in the neighborhood constantly discovered women sewing upon sweatshop work, and often they were assisted by incredibly small children. I remember a little girl of four who pulled out basting threads hour after hour, sitting on a stool at the feet of her Bohemian mother, a little bunch of human misery. For even for that there was no legal redress, for the only child labor law in Illinois, with any provision for enforcement, had been secured by the coal miners’ unions, and was confined to the children employed in the mines. (199) end public domain text

Poetry Quotations

When you quote one, two, or three lines from a poem, use the following format, putting quotation marks around the line or group of lines and separating the lines with a slash:

The 17th-century writer Aphra Behn (1640–1689) wrote humorous poems about love and heartbreak, including “Love’s Power,” which opens with “ Love when he Shoots abroad his Darts / Regards not where they light ” (1-2).

When you quote more than three lines from a poem, set them off from your text. Indent the quotation one-half inch, and do not use quotation marks. Note that the sentence period comes before the parenthetical citation.

In the poem “The Character,” Aphra Behn (1640–1689) uses the familiar alternate rhyme scheme, also known as ABAB: Such Charms of Youth, such Ravishment Through all her Form appear’d, As if in her Creation Nature meant, She shou’d a-lone be ador’d and fear’d. (1-4)

Altering Quotations

When you alter a quotation to fit into your sentence, you must indicate the change you made.

An ellipsis [. . .] indicates that you have omitted words from a quotation. In the example below, the writer omitted words from the middle of the sentence.

In her memoir, Twenty Years at Hull-House , reformer Jane Addams explains that there were no enforceable laws against small children helping their mothers with sweatshop sewing work, and that “the only child labor law in Illinois . . . had been secured by the coal miners’ unions, and was confined to the children employed in the mines” (199).

If you omit the end of a sentence or a complete sentence, include the sentence period:

The author explains as follows: “Damage to the Broca’s area of the brain can affect a person’s ability to comprehend spoken language . . . . A person may understand speech relatively well when the sentence grammar is simple and the content familiar but may struggle when the grammar and content are more complex” (Hollar-Zwick 45).

Use brackets [ ] to indicate a change you have made to a quotation:

Abruzzi cited the study, noting that “ [ t ] he results provide hope to patients [ with muscular dystrophy ] .”

Punctuating Quotations

Place the period inside quotation marks if no source is cited:

The meteorologist said, “ Today’s weather will be sunny and mild .”

If you are citing a source in parentheses, place the quotation marks at the end of the quotation, followed by the citation and the sentence period:

In Twenty Years at Hull-House , Jane Addams recalls vivid images of child labor: “ I remember a little girl of four who pulled out basting threads hour after hour, sitting on a stool at the feet of her Bohemian mother, a little bunch of human misery ” (199) .

(See Long Quotations and Poetry Quotations above for exceptions to this rule.)

Commas go inside quotation marks:

“ Tomorrow’s weather will be cool and rainy ,” the meteorologist said.

Colons and Semicolons

Colons and semicolons go outside quotation marks:

The sign read “ Closed ”: No more films would be shown at the theater. (Note: Use a capital letter if a complete sentence follows the colon.)

Question Marks and Exclamation Points

Question marks and exclamation points go inside quotation marks if they are part of the quotation:

“ Would you like a sandwich ?” asked Adelaide.

Question marks and exclamation points go outside quotation marks if they are not part of the quotation:

“I can’t believe you haven’t read “ The Lottery ”!

H 12 . Index and Guide to Documentation

Although formal differences exist among the conventions for documenting sources, the underlying principle of all documentation systems is the same: When borrowing words, facts, or ideas from someone else, writers must indicate that the material is borrowed. They do this by providing a citation in the text of their paper that points readers to detailed publication information about the source of the material, usually at the end of the paper but sometimes in footnotes. The following examples are in MLA style:

Citation in the Text Describing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s visit to India, underline Isabel Wilkerson end underline notes that King was taken aback by the suggestion that Black Americans were the equivalent of the Dalits in the Indian caste system underline (22) end underline . Works-Cited Entry Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Penguin, 2020.

Documentation Styles by Discipline

Each discipline has its own authority or authorities that provide rules about issues such as spelling of technical terms, preferred punctuation, and editing mechanics, as well as documentation style. In addition, if you write for publication in a magazine, professional journal, book, or website, the publisher will have a “house” style, which may vary in some details from the conventions listed in the authoritative guidelines for the discipline in which you are writing. Below are the sources of style manuals for various disciplines. Always check with your instructor about which style to use in a class.

Index to MLA Documentation Models

The models, listed numerically, provide examples of in-text citations and works-cited entries (MLA). The models themselves are located in Handbook Section 13 (H13).

In-Text Citation Models

• Two or more works by the same author
• Two authors
• Three or more authors
• Authors with the same last name
• Organization, government, corporation, or association as author
• Unknown author
• Work in more than one volume
• Work with no page or other reference numbers
• One-page or entire work
• Source quoted in another source (indirect quotation)

Poetry and verse plays

Fiction and prose plays

• Two or more works in the same citation
• Sacred text

Endnotes and Footnotes (MLA)

Format of the list of works cited (mla), authors and contributors (mla).

• Book: one author
• Book: two authors
• Book: three or more authors
• Book: two or more works by the same author
• Author and editor
• Author and translator
• Author and illustrator
• Work by an organization, a government, a corporation, or an association

Articles in Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers (MLA)

• Basic format for a journal article in a database
• Editorial or letter to the editor

Books and Parts of Books (MLA)

• Basic entry for a book
• Book, anthology, or collection with an editor
• Work in an anthology or chapter in an edited collection
• Two or more works in an anthology or edited collection
• Revised or later edition
• Multivolume work
• One volume of a multivolume work
• Book in a series
• Republished work
• Introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword
• Published letter
• Conference paper

Websites and Parts of Websites (MLA)

• Basic format for a short work or page on a website
• Short work or page on a website
• Entire website

Social Media (MLA)

• Basic format for a social media post
• Social media post
• Online forum post
• Online comment

Personal Communication (MLA)

• Text message
• Personal letter

Video, Audio, and Other Media Sources (MLA)

• Online video

Original work

Reproduction

Personal interview

• Video game, software, or app

Other Sources (MLA)

• Live lecture, speech, address, or reading
• Live performance
• Letter in an archive
• Dissertation

Index to APA Documentation Models

The models, listed numerically, provide examples of in-text citations and reference entries (APA). The models themselves are located in Handbook Section 14 (H14).

In-Text Citation Models (APA)

• Work with no page numbers
• Entire work
• Personal communication

Format of the References List (APA)

Authors (apa).

• Three to twenty authors

Articles in Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers (APA)

• Basic format for an article in an academic journal

Without DOI or URL

Database or print

• Published interview

Books and Parts of Books (APA)

• Print book or e-book
• Article in an edited book, anthology, or collection
• Translated or reprinted book
• Revised edition
• Report or publication by a government agency or other organization

Web Sources (APA)

• Basic format for a page or work on a website
• Page or work on a website

Social Media (APA)

Video, audio, and other media sources (apa).

• Music recording
• Painting or other visual artwork
• Map, photograph, or other visual

H 13 . MLA Documentation and Format

MLA style is the preferred form for documenting research sources in English and other humanities disciplines. The following are general features of MLA style:

• All material borrowed from sources is cited in the text of a paper by the author’s name and page number (if available).
• A works-cited list at the end of a paper provides full publication data for each source cited in the text of the paper.
• Additional explanatory information provided by the writer (but not from external sources) goes in either footnotes or endnotes. These notes are optional.

The instruction in this section follows the MLA Handbook , 8th edition (2016). For more information on MLA style, see this site . For examples of student papers in the textbook using MLA documentation style, see Section 4 in Chapters 5, 7, 9, 12, and 16.

MLA In-Text Citations

In-text citations feature author names, page numbers, and sometimes titles, depending on what information is available. The Index located in H12 provides a listing of the models that are included below.

1. One author

When you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, include the last name of the source’s author, if known, in a signal phrase or in parentheses at the end of your sentence. Provide the page or pages on which the original material appeared. Do not include the word page or the abbreviations p. or pp. Use a hyphen [-] to indicate a number range (See Spotlight on … Citation for more on quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing sources):

Becker points out that Joe Biden’s views on same-sex marriage changed during a personal visit to a family while he was vice president (285-86). While he was vice president, Joe Biden’s views on same-sex marriage changed during a personal visit with a family (Becker 285-86).

2. Two or more works by the same author

If you cite two or more works by the same author in your paper, give the title of the specific work in your sentence or a short version of the title in parentheses:

According to Lewis Thomas in Lives of a Cell , many bacteria become dangerous only if they manufacture exotoxins (76). According to Lewis Thomas, many bacteria become dangerous only if they manufacture exotoxins ( Lives 76). Many bacteria become dangerous only if they manufacture exotoxins (Thomas, Lives 76).

See Model 18 for how to cite two works by the same author in the works-cited list.

3. Two authors

If you cite a work with two authors, include both authors’ names in a signal phrase or in parentheses:

In the preface to Half the Sky , Kristof and WuDunn explain their focus on the issues of sex trafficking and sex work, violence against women, and maternal mortality (xxi). In the preface to Half the Sky , the authors explain their focus on the issues of sex trafficking and sex work, violence against women, and maternal mortality (Kristof and WuDunn xxi).

4. Three or more authors

For works with more than two authors, give the last name of the first author followed by “et al.”:

Of the survey respondents, twenty-two percent described themselves as concerned about future job prospects (Pronkowski et al. 9).

5. Authors with the same last name

When authors of different sources have the same last name, include their initials:

Since the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, frequent use among adults has risen (J. T. Greene 21; M. Greene 30).

6. Organization, government, corporation, or association as author

When no author is given for a work published by a corporation, a government, an organization, or an association, indicate the group’s name in a signal phrase or in parentheses:

The United States Forest Service describes its mission as “sustain[ing] the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations” (8).

7. Unknown author

When the author of a work is unknown, use the work’s title in a signal phrase or a shortened version of the title in parentheses and a page number if available. Put quotation marks around article titles, and put book or journal titles in italics:

In a pointed 2020 editorial, “Don’t Let the Games Begin,” The New York Times argued that college athletic departments should support public health by canceling sports seasons until athletes and the public were vaccinated. In a pointed 2020 editorial, The New York Times argued that college athletic departments should support public health by canceling sports seasons until athletes and the public were vaccinated (“Don’t Let”).

8. Work in more than one volume

If you cite only one volume of a multivolume work, give the page number in parentheses. If you cite more than one volume of a multivolume work, give the volume number for each citation before the page number, and follow it with a colon and one space:

Hill notes that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Dancing Men was first published in the Strand Magazine and later in Collier’s Weekly (1: 332).

9. Work with no page or other reference numbers

When the work has no page numbers, give the author’s name in a signal phrase or in parentheses. If the source has paragraph, chapter, or section numbers, use them with the abbreviations par., ch., or sec. :

Chen reports that the number of Americans seeking help with mental health rose during the pandemic that began in 2020. (ch. 2) The number of Americans seeking help with mental health rose during the pandemic that began in 2020 (Chen, ch. 2).

For an audio or a video recording, give the start and stop times for the segment you are citing shown on the player in hours (if available), minutes, and seconds:

It is well known that maternity leave is available in countries around the world, including Norway, which popularized its policy in a comic YouTube video showing a pregnant woman on skis announcing the start of her one-year paid leave (01:48-02:07).

10. One-page work or entire work

When you cite a work that is one page long or an entire work, such as a book, website, single-page article, tweet, video, or film, you do not need to cite a page or give a reference number:

In Da 5 Bloods, director Spike Lee connects the Civil Rights movement to the war in Vietnam through the music, montages of the era, and characters’ stories.

11. Source quoted in another source (indirect quotation)

When a quotation or any information in your source is originally from another source, try to track down the original source. If you cannot find it, use the abbreviation “qtd. in”:

The group, which has researched global health including access to food, sounded the alarm about a potential “worldwide food crisis” in the early 2000s (qtd. in Sing 32).

12. Literary works

For poems, provide line numbers for reference, and include line or lines in the first reference:

In “The Character,” Aphra Behn describes a lovely young woman, starting with her eyes: “Her Eyes all sweet, and languishingly move” (line 4).

Cite verse plays using act, scene, and line numbers, separated by periods: ( Hamlet 4.4.31-39)

When citing a prose literary work available in various editions, provide additional information after the page number, such as the chapter, act, or scene number, for readers who may be consulting a different edition. Use a semicolon to separate the page number from this additional information: (331; ch. 5) or (78; act 2).

13. Two or more works in the same citation

When you cite more than one work in parentheses, use a semicolon between them:

Americans who resisted or ignored civil defense are often portrayed as heroic people who chose not to build fallout shelters or as marginalized people who could not afford them (Garrison 57; Mechling and Mechling 109).

14. Sacred text

When you cite passages from the Bible or another sacred text such as the Qur’an, give the title of the edition you are consulting the first time you refer to it. Then give the book (abbreviate the title if it is longer than four letters), chapter, and verse, separated by periods:

Several times in the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus comments on wealth, telling his disciples, “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” ( King James Version, Matt. 19.24).

Endnotes and Footnotes

Writers use notes to offer comments, explanations, or additional information that cannot easily be integrated into the rest of a paper. Use notes to cite several sources within a single context if a series of in-text citations will detract from the readability of the text.

Text with Superscript

The standard ingredients for guacamole include avocados, lemon juice, onion, tomatoes, coriander, salt, and pepper. 1 Hurtado’s poem, however, gives this traditional dish a whole new twist.

1. For variations see Beard 314, Egerton 197, Eckhardt 92, and Kafka 26. Beard’s version, which includes olives and green peppers, is the most unusual.

A note may be placed as a footnote at the bottom of the page on which the in-text citation appears or on a separate page of endnotes at the end of the paper. This should be titled “Notes” or “Endnotes” and appear between the last page of the paper and the works-cited list. Include all sources given in notes in the works-cited list.

MLA Works Cited

Each source cited in the text of your paper refers readers to the list of works cited, a complete list of all the sources you quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. Every source cited in the text of your paper must be included in the works-cited list, and every source in the works-cited list must be cited in the text of your paper.

After the last page of the paper, start a new page with the centered title “Works Cited” at the top. Create an entry for each source using the following guidelines and examples:

• Begin each entry at the left margin, and indent subsequent lines one-half inch. (In Microsoft Word, you can also highlight the entire page when you are finished and select “Hanging” from the Special options on the Indentation section of the Paragraph menu.)
• Alphabetize the entries according to authors’ last names. If two or more authors have the same last name, alphabetize by first name or initial. Alphabetize sources with unknown authors by the first word of the title, excluding a, an, or the.
• Double-space the entire page.

Core Elements (MLA)

Each entry in the list of works cited consists of core elements:

• Author. Who is responsible for the work?
• Title. What is the work called?

Publication information. Where can the work be found so that others can consult it? Publication information includes the date of publication and any larger work, which MLA calls a “container,” in which a shorter work is published, such as a journal, magazine, newspaper, database, streaming service, and so on.

A note on access dates. Although access dates for online sources are not required, MLA acknowledges that an access date can indicate the version of a source you consulted. If you add an access date, place it at the end of the works-cited entry in this format: “Accessed 4 Apr. 2020.” Ask your instructors whether they require access dates.

Authors and Contributors for Books and Articles (MLA)

• Authors. Give the author’s last name, a comma, the author’s first name and any middle name or middle initial, and then a period. For works with more than one author, an organization as an author, or an unknown author, see the models below.
• Contributors. People who contributed to the work in addition to the author are called contributors. Refer to them by their role in a phrase such as “adapted by,” “directed by,” “edited by,” “illustrated by,” “introduction by,” “narrated by,” “performance by,” and “translated by.” (See Models 19, 20, 21, 30, and 58 for examples.)

15. Book: one author

Sotomayor, Sonia. My Beloved World. Vintage Books, 2013.

16. Book: two authors

Kristoff, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

17. Book: three or more authors

Barlow, David H., et al. Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach. 8th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017.

18. Book: two or more works by the same author

When you cite two works by the same author, use three hyphens in place of the author’s name, and alphabetize the works by title:

Trethewey, Natasha. Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir. Ecco, 2020.

---. Native Guard: Poems. Mariner Books, 2007.

19. Book author and editor

Add the editor’s name after the title:

Hemingway, Ernest. Conversations with Ernest Hemingway , edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, UP of Mississippi, 1986.

20. Book author and translator

Add the translator’s name after the title:

Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Translated by Ann Goldstein, Europa Editions, 2012.

If you are citing the work of the translator, place the translator’s name in the author position:

Goldstein, Ann, translator. My Brilliant Friend. By Elena Ferrante, Europa Editions, 2012.

21. Book author and illustrator

Add the illustrator’s name after the title. If you are citing the work of the illustrator, place the illustrator’s name in the author position, as shown in the preceding example:

Fasler, Joe. Light in the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process. Illustrated by Doug McLean, Penguin Books, 2017.

22. Work by an organization, a government, a corporation, or an association

If the author and publisher are not the same, start with the author:

United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration. Healthy Living Resource Guide. Government Printing Office, 2020.

If the author and the publisher are the same, give the title of the work in place of the author, and list the organization as the publisher:

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016.

“This Is Who We Are.” U.S. Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Mar. 2019, www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/This-is-Who-We-Are.pdf.

23. Unknown author

If no author is given, start with the title.

“The Most Beautiful Battalion in the Army.” Grunt Magazine , 1968, pp. 12-15.

Articles, reviews, editorials, and other short works are published in journals, newspapers, and magazines. They appear in print, on databases, and on websites (though often through a paywall). As a student, you are likely to access many articles and other short research sources primarily through databases available through your library.

24. Basic format for a journal article in a database

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal , volume number, issue number, Date of Publication, page numbers. Title of Database , DOI or URL.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, the first name, and any middle name or initial. Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr . or PhD . End with a period.
• Title of the article. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. Capitalize all significant words in the title. Put the title of the article in quotation marks. End with a period inside the closing quotation mark.
• Title of the journal. Put the title of the journal in italics. Capitalize all significant words in the title. End the title with a comma.
• Volume and issue numbers. Use the abbreviations vol. and no. followed by the number and a comma.
• Publication date. Give the month or season and the year of publication, if available. Use the following abbreviations for months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.
• Page numbers. Give p . (singular) or pp. (plural) and the page number or numbers of the article, followed by a period.
• Title of the database. Put the database title in italics, followed by a comma.
• Location. Give a DOI if available, and end with a period. If there is no DOI, give a URL, preferably a permalink, without http://.

25. Article in an academic journal

Daddis, Gregory A. “Out of Balance: Evaluating American Strategy in Vietnam, 1968–72.” War & Society, vol. 32, no. 3, Oct. 2013, pp. 252-70. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1179/0729247313Z.00000000026.

Daddis, Gregory A. “Out of Balance: Evaluating American Strategy in Vietnam, 1968–72.” War & Society, vol. 32, no. 3, Oct. 2013, pp. 252-70.

Squires, Scot. “Do Generations Differ When It Comes to Green Values and Products?” Electronic Green Journal, no. 42, 2019, escholarship.org/uc/item/6f91213q.

The journal in the example numbers issues only, so no volume number is given.

26. Article in a weekly or biweekly magazine

To cite an article in a weekly or biweekly magazine, give the author, title of the article, title of the magazine, publication date (day, month, year), and page numbers. If you found the article through a database, add the title of the database and a DOI or URL. If you found the article online, add the URL.

Sanneh, Kelefa. “The Color of Money.” The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2021, pp. 26-31. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=aph&AN=148411685&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Sanneh, Kelefa. “The Color of Money.” The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2021, pp. 26-31.

Ferrer, Ada. “My Brother’s Keeper.” The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/01/my-brothers-keeper.

27. Article in a monthly or bimonthly magazine

To cite an article in a monthly or bimonthly magazine, give the author, title of the article, title of the magazine, publication month and year, and page numbers. If you found the article through a database, add the title of the database and a DOI or URL. If you found the article online, add the URL.

Sneed, Annie. “Giant Shape-Shifters.” Scientific American, Sept. 2017, pp. 20-22. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1017-20.

Sneed, Annie. “Giant Shape-Shifters.” Scientific American, Sept. 2017, pp. 20-22.

Stewart, Jamila. “A Look Inside the Black Designers of Canada Initiative.” Essence, July 2020, www.essence.com/fashion/black-designers-of-canada-digital-index/.

To cite a comment on an article, see Model 54.

28. Article in a newspaper

To cite an article in a newspaper, give the author, title of the article, title of the newspaper, publication date (day, month, year), and the page numbers. If you found the article through a database, add the title of the database and a DOI or a URL. If you found the article online, add the URL.

Krueger, Alyson. “When Mom Knows Best, on Instagram.” The New York Times, 27 Nov. 2019, pp. B1-B4. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType =aph&AN=139891108&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Krueger, Alyson. “When Mom Knows Best, on Instagram.” The New York Times, 27 Nov. 2019, pp. B1-B4.

Smith, Doug. “They’re Building Affordable Housing for the Homeless—Without Government Help.” Los Angeles Times, 10 Feb. 2021, www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-10/theyre-building-affordable-housing-for-the-homeless-without-government-help.

29. Editorial or letter to the editor

An editorial may or may not have an author’s name attached to it. If it does, give the author’s name first. If it does not, start with the title. In both situations, add the designation Editorial or Letter to the Editor after the title.

“For Better Elections, Copy the Neighbors.” Editorial. The Wall Street Journal, 16 Feb. 2021, www.wsj.com/articles/for-better-elections-copy-the-neighbors-11613518448.

To cite a review of a book, film, television show, or other work, give the name of the reviewer and title of the review, add Review of before the title of work being reviewed, and give the name of the work’s author, director, or creator after the title.

Girish, Devika. “Refocusing the Lens on Race and Gender.” Review of Test Pattern, directed by Shatara Michelle Ford. The New York Times, 18 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/movies/test-pattern-review.html.

Use the following guidelines for books and parts of books, such as a selection from an anthology, an article in a collection, a published letter, and so on.

31. Basic entry for a book

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, the first name, and any middle name or initial. Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr. or PhD. End with a period.
• Title of the book. Put the book’s title in italics. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. Capitalize all significant words in the title, even if the book’s cover does not use conventional capitalization. End the title with a period.
• Publisher. List the publisher’s name without words such as “Inc.” or “Company.” Shorten “University Press” to “UP.” End with a comma.
• Year of publication. Provide the publication date, and end with a period.

32. Print book

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Vintage Books, 2010.

33. E-book formatted for a specific reader device or service

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Kindle ed., Vintage Books, 2010.

34. Book, anthology, or collection with an editor

Add the abbreviation ed. or eds. (if more than one) after the editor’s first name:

Lunsford, Andrea, ed. Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition. U of Pittsburgh P, 1995.

35. Work in an anthology or chapter in an edited collection

After the author and title of the work, give the title of the anthology or edited collection, name of the editor, publication information, and page numbers of the work:

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. “To Call a Thing by Its True Name: The Rhetoric of Ida B. Wells.” Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition, edited by Andrea Lunsford, U of Pittsburgh P, 1995, pp. 167-84.

36. Two or more works in an anthology or edited collection

When you cite two or more selections from the same anthology or edited collection, list the anthology separately under the editor’s name. In the entries for the selections you cite, include the editor’s name and the page numbers on which the selections appear:

Lipscomb, Drema R. “Sojourner Truth: A Practical Public Discourse.” Lunsford, pp. 227-46.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. “To Call a Thing by Its True Name: The Rhetoric of Ida B. Wells.” Lunsford, pp. 167-84.

37. Revised or later edition

For a book published in an edition other than the first, give the edition number after the title:

Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The Elements of Style, 4th ed., Pearson, 2019.

38. Multivolume work

For a book published in more than one volume, give the total number of volumes after the title:

Klinger, Leslie S. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. 2 vols., W. W. Norton, 2005.

39. One volume of a multivolume work

Klinger, Leslie S. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 2, W. W. Norton, 2005.

When each volume of a multivolume set has an individual title, list the volume’s full publication information first, followed by series information (number of volumes, dates). When separate volumes were published in different years, give inclusive dates:

Churchill, Winston S. Triumph and Tragedy. Houghton Mifflin, 1953. Vol. 6 of The Second World War. 6 vols. 1948-53.

However, if the volume you are using has its own title, you may cite the book without referring to the other volumes as if it were an independent publication.

40. Book in a series

Add the title of the series at the end of the entry:

Thaiss, Christopher. Language across the Curriculum in the Elementary Grades. WAC Clearinghouse, 2011, wac.colostate.edu/books/landmarks/thaiss/. Landmark Publications in Writing Studies.

41. Republished book

Give the original publication date after the title and the date the book was republished after the publisher:

Evans, Elizabeth E. G. The Abuse of Maternity. 1875. Arno, 1974.

42. Sacred text

Give the complete title of the version you consulted followed by the name of the editor and/or translator, the edition, the publisher, and the publication date:

The Bible. Authorized King James Version . Edited by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett, Oxford UP, 2008.

The Koran. Translated by N. J. Dawood, rev. ed., Penguin Books, 2015.

43. Introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword

Start with the author of the introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword, followed by a description of the work you are citing, such as “Foreword.” Give the author of the work after the title:

Offill, Jenny. Foreword. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, Penguin Classics, 2021, pp. vii-xiv.

44. Published letter

Roosevelt, Theodore. Letter to Upton Sinclair. 15 Mar. 1906. Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, edited by Louis Auchincloss, 2004, pp. 310-11.

45. Conference paper

Killi, Stainer, and Andrew Morrison. “Could the Food Market Pull 3D Printing Appetites Further?” Industry 4.0—Shaping the Future of the Digital World: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable & Smart Manufacturing, edited by Paulo Bartolo et al., CRC Press, 2021, pp. 197-203.

Use the following guidelines for works that are published only online and do not have an overarching publication, such as a journal, newspaper, magazine, or database.

46. Basic format for a short work or page on a website

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Short Work.” Title of Website, Publisher, Publication Date, URL.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, the first name, and any middle name or initial. Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr . or PhD. End with a period.
• Title of the short work. Put the title in quotation marks. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. Capitalize all significant words in the title. End with a period inside the closing quotation mark.
• Title of the website. Put the title of the website in italics. Capitalize all significant words in the title. End the title with a comma.
• Publisher. If the publisher of the website is different from the title of the website (as shown in Model 48), give it next, followed by a comma. If they are the same (as shown in Model 47), give only the title of the website.
• Publication date. Give the day, month, and year the work was posted, if available. Use the following abbreviations for months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Do not abbreviate May, June, and July.
• URL. Give the URL, without “http://.”

47. Short work or page on a website

Shetterly, Margot Lee. “Katherine Johnson Biography.” NASA , 24 Feb. 2020, www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography.

If the source you are citing has no author listed, start with the title. If the page has no title, give the name of the site and a descriptive label, such as “Home page” or “Blog post.”

48. Blog post

Blazich, Frank A. “The Cold Morning of the Day After.” Smithsonian Voices , Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Feb. 2021, www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-history/2021/02/05/cold-morning-day-after/.

49. Entire website

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Yale U, 2021, beinecke.library.yale.edu/.

If the website lists an editor, give the person’s name as you would an author, followed by a comma and ed.

“Coronavirus.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus.

Social media include posts made to various platforms and forums, comments made by individuals to posts, and online articles.

51. Basic format for a social media post

Author. “Text of untitled post” or “Title of post” or Descriptive label. Title of Site , Date of Post, Time of Post, URL.

• Author. Give the author’s handle and name. End with a period.
• Text, title, or description of post. Match the capitalization exactly, add quotation marks, and end with a period inside the closing quotation mark.
• Title of the social media site. Put the title of the site in italics, ending with a comma.
• Publication date and time. Give the day, month, year, and time of the post. Use the following abbreviations for months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. Do not abbreviate May, June, and July.

52. Social media post

@Holleratcha (James Holler). “People go out and vote tomorrow!” Twitter, 2 Nov. 2020, 2:08 p.m., twitter.com/holleratcha/status/1270432672544784384.

Death Valley National Park. “What does it mean to protect something you love?” Facebook, 23 Feb. 2021, 5:01 p.m., www.facebook.com/DeathValleyNPS/posts/4108808255810092.

See Model 54 for how to cite a comment.

53. Online forum post

@Duckpond318. “Turkeys in the arboretum.” Reddit, 15 Mar. 2021, 11:22 a.m., www.reddit.com/r/Wildlife/comments/lqlbo3/turkeys_in_the_arboretum/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

54. Online comment

AKJersey. Comment on “Can We Stop Fighting about Charter Schools?” The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/opinion/charter-schools-democrats.html#commentsContainer.

Use the following guidelines to cite email, text messages, and letters that you sent or received.

Roberts, Jeffrey. “Study results.” Received by Kenneth Berg, 21 Oct. 2020.

56. Text message

Igoe, Beverlee. Text message. Received by Alison McGrath, 2 Apr. 2020.

57. Personal letter

Atwood, Margaret. Letter to the author. 11 Mar. 2007.

Use the following guidelines to cite various media sources.

Begin with the title, followed by the director, the studio, and the year released.

Casablanca. Directed by Michael Curtiz, Warner Brothers, 1942.

You may also cite other contributors and their roles after the title (as illustrated below). If your paper is concerned with a particular person’s work on a film, such as the director, an actor, or someone else, begin with that person’s name and arrange all other information accordingly. For a film you stream, add the title of the streaming service and the URL:

Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins, performances by Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, and Trevante Rhodes. A24, 2016. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80121348?trackId=13752289&tctx=8%2C.

59. Online video

NASA. “Apollo 11 Moonwalk – Original NASA EVA Mission Video.” 20 July 1969. YouTube, 17 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9HdPi9Ikhk.

60. Television series or episode

The Good Place. Michael Schur, creator. NBC, 2016-20.

Streamed TV episode

“Jason Mendoza.” The Good Place, season 1, episode 4, NBC, 2016. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80191852?trackId=13752289&tctx=%2C%2C.

61. Advertisement

XOFLUZA. Flu medication advertisement. The New Yorker, 8. Feb. 2021, pp. 5-6.

General Motors. “Will Ferrell Super Bowl Ad.” YouTube, 3 Feb. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsPvbSpB2Y&t=24s.

62. Cartoon or comic

Davis, Jim. “Garfield.” Cartoon. Courier [Findlay, OH], 17 May 1996, p. 18.

If the source you cite appears in a local newspaper, as it does here, give the city and state in brackets after the name of the newspaper if the city is not part of the newspaper’s name.

Gauld, Tom. “Waiting for Godot to Join the Zoom Meeting.” You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, 31 Jan. 2021, myjetpack.tumblr.com/.

63. Painting or other visual artwork

Rivera, Diego. Detroit Industry Murals. 1932-33. Detroit Institute of Art.

If the city is not part of the name of the museum, add it after museum. For example, if the work you viewed was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, you would end the entry as follows: Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Neel, Alice. Elenka. 1936. Alice Neel: People Come First, by Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021, p. 142.

Basquiat, Jean-Michel. Untitled. 1983. Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/works/63997?artist_id=370&page=1&sov_referrer=artist. Accessed 24 Sept. 2020.

64. Map, chart, or diagram

Everglades National Park. National Geographic Society Maps, 2019.

“Map: Expedition of Lewis and Clark.” National Park Service, 2 Jan. 2018, nps.gov/subjects/travellewisandclark/map.htm.

65. Sound recording

Sound recordings include songs, albums, and spoken word. If you stream a sound recording or watch a performance online, add the name of the streaming service, such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music, after the date. If you access the recording online, add the name of the website and the URL after the date.

Prince. Purple Rain. Warner Brothers, 1984.

The Supremes. “Baby Love.” Where Did Our Love Go, Motown, 1964. Spotify.

Gorman, Amanda. “The Hill We Climb.” 20 Jan. 2021, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ055ilIiN4.

The Road to Higher Ground. Hosted by Jonathan Overby. WPR, 9 Jan. 2021.

If you listened to the radio program online, add the URL after the date.

67. Podcast

McEvers, Kelly, host. “This Is Not a Joke.” Embedded, season 9, episode 2, NPR, 7 Nov. 2019, Apple Podcasts.

If you listened to the podcast on the web, add the URL instead of the podcast service.

68. Interview

Wilkerson, Isabel. Interview. Fresh Air, NPR, 4 Aug. 2020.

Sowell, Thomas. Interview. Hoover Institution , 3 Jan. 2015, www.wsj.com/video/uncommon-knowledge-thomas-sowell-basic-economics/51837CB6-9FF2-305AE55D179A.html.

Wong, Diana. Personal interview. 12 Sept. 2020.

69. Video game, software, or app

Houser, Dan, et al., writers. Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar Games, 2013. Xbox 360.

70. Live lecture, speech, address, or reading

Diaz, Shanna. “Your Dazzling Brain: The Symphony of Sleep.” Community Lecture Series, University of New Mexico Health Science and the City of Albuquerque, 13 Mar. 2018, Albuquerque Academy.

71. Live performance

Hamilton. By Lin-Manuel Miranda, directed by Thomas Kail, 11 Mar. 2018, CIBC Theater, Chicago.

If you watch a video of a performance online, cite it as you would cite an online video.

72. Letter in an archive

Mucklestone, Ada. Letter to Maj. Gen. Ralph J. Olson. 6 Nov. 1958. Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Alphabetical Subject File, 1950-66, 1715, Box 13.

73. Dissertation

Park, Eun Jung. Korean American Artists and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. 2013. U of California, San Diego, PhD dissertation. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/doc-view/1425303659.

Boothby, Daniel W. The Determinants of Earnings and Occupation for Young Women. 1978. U of California, Berkeley, PhD dissertation.

74. Pamphlet

“Facts about Fallout.” Civil Defense Administration, 1961.

MLA Paper Format

Follow your instructor’s formatting guidelines or those indicated here. For sample papers with MLA format and works-cited pages, visit this site .

• Margins. Use one-inch margins on all sides.
• Spacing. Double-space throughout the paper, including the works-cited page.
• Paragraph format. Indent paragraphs one-half inch.
• Page numbers. Start numbering on the first page of your paper and continue to the end of the works-cited page. Place page numbers in the upper-right corner, and add your last name before the page number: “Coleman 3.”
• Identifying information. Put your name, your instructor’s name, the course title, and the date in the left corner of the first page of the body of the paper, not in the header. Double-space this information.
• Title. Center the title on the first page. Do not use italics, boldface, all capitals, or quotation marks. Do not add extra space below the title.
• Long quotations and quotations from poetry. See Quotations for how to cite long quotations and poetry quotations.

H 14 . APA Documentation and Format

Disciplines in the social sciences—psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, social work, and often education—use the APA name-and-date system of documentation. APA style highlights authors and dates of publication because timeliness of published material is of primary importance in these disciplines. The following are general features of APA style:

• All material borrowed from sources is cited in the text of a paper by the author’s name, date of publication, and page numbers (if available).
• A list of references at the end of a paper provides full publication data for each source cited in the text of the paper.

The instruction in this section follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). For more information on APA style, visit this site . For examples of student papers in the textbook using APA documentation style, see Section 4 in Chapters 6, 8, and 15.

In-text citations feature author names, dates of publication, and page numbers, depending on what information is available. The Index located in H12 provides a listing of the models that are included below.

75. One author

When you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, include the last name of the source’s author, if known, in a signal phrase or in parentheses at the end of your sentence. Give the publication date after the author’s name. Provide the page or pages on which the original material appeared preceded by p. or pp. See Spotlight on … Citation .

According to Thomas (1974), many bacteria become dangerous only if they manufacture exotoxins (p. 76). Many bacteria become dangerous only if they manufacture exotoxins (Thomas, 1974, p. 76).

If you cite two or more works by the same author, published in the same year, use letters after the year to distinguish them: (Gallivan, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c).

76. Two authors

Smith and Hawkins (1990) confirmed that bacteria producing exotoxins are harmful to humans (p. 17). The study confirmed that bacteria producing exotoxins are harmful to humans (Smith & Hawkins, 1990, p. 17).

77. Three or more authors

The results indicate that alcohol use rose during the period of the study (Dominic et al., 2021, p. 16).

78. Authors with the same last name

When authors of different sources have the same last name, include their initials: Since the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, frequent use among adults has risen (J. T. Greene, 2019, p. 21; M. Greene, 2020, p. 30).

When authors of the same source have the same name, do not include their initials: (Kim & Kim, 2018, p. 47).

79. Organization, government, corporation, or association as author

When citing a well-known organization, government agency, corporation, or association, introduce an abbreviation of the name in the first reference and use it in subsequent references:

On multiple occasions, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA, 2018) reported that formal efforts to reintegrate combat veterans into civilian life were beneficial.

80. Unknown author

When the author of a work is unknown, use the work’s title in a signal phrase, or put the title in parentheses. Put quotation marks around article titles, and put book or journal titles in italics:

In a pointed editorial, The New York Times argued that college athletic departments should support public health by canceling sports seasons until athletes and the public were vaccinated (”Don’t Let the Games Begin,” 2020). In its pointed editorial, “Don’t Let the Games Begin” (2020), The New York Times argued that college athletic departments should support public health by canceling sports seasons until athletes and the public were vaccinated.

81. Two or more works in the same citation

When you cite more than one work in parentheses, put the works in the same order that they appear in your list of references, and use a semicolon between them:

Americans who resisted or ignored civil defense were later cast as heroic people who chose not to build fallout shelters or as marginalized people who could not afford them (Garrison, 2006; Mechling & Mechling, 1991).

82. Work with no page numbers

If the work you are citing has no page numbers, help readers find the quotation by providing a heading, a section name, and/or a paragraph number (using the abbreviation para. or paras. ):

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2019), research on PTSD includes gene research and brain imaging technologies (Next Steps for PTSD Research section, para. 6).

For audio or visual works, give the time stamp of the beginning of the source: (Wong, 2020, 34:16).

83. Source quoted in another source (indirect quotation)

When a quotation or any information in your source is originally from another source, try to track down the original source. If you cannot find the original, use the words “as cited in”:

The research collective, which has studied global health including access to food, sounded the alarm about a potential “worldwide food crisis” in the early 2000s (as cited in Sing, 2018, p. 32).

84. Entire work

When you cite an entire work, you do not need to give a page number. See Models 79 and 80. When you mention an entire website, link to the website directly or give the URL. You do not need to include the website in the references list:

The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a website for PTSD, which contains resources and help for families and healthcare providers as well as veterans (https://www.ptsd.va.gov/).

85. Personal communication

Because personal communications such as emails, letters, personal interviews, and the like cannot be found by other researchers, cite them in the text only:

During our interview, Morales explained that she had quit her job to help her children with their schooling (personal communication, January 4, 2021).

APA References

Each source cited in the text of your paper refers readers to the list of references, a complete list of all the sources you quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. Every source cited in the text of your paper must be included in the references list, and every source in the references list must be cited in the text of your paper.

After the last page of your paper, start a new page with the centered, boldfaced title References at the top. Create an entry for each source using the following guidelines and examples.

• Alphabetize the entries according to authors’ last names. If two or more authors have the same last name, alphabetize by the initials of their first and middle names. Alphabetize sources with unknown authors by the first word of the title, excluding a, an, or the.

Core Elements (APA)

Each entry in the list of references consists of core elements:

• Date of publication. When was the work published?
• Publication information. Where can the work be found so that others can consult it?

Sometimes core elements are unknown or missing. In such cases, the entry in the reference list entry must be adapted:

• No author? If the source has no known author, cite it by the title. See Models 90 and 98.
• No date of publication? If the source has no publication date, write n.d . instead of the publication date. See Model 110.
• No title? If the work has no title, put a brief description in square brackets.
• No publication information? If the source is a personal communication that only you have a record of, cite the source in your text, not in the references, because it cannot be retrieved by other readers. See “Personal communication” above.

A note on retrieval dates: APA recommends adding a retrieval date for sources that are not archived or are likely to change over time, such as a developing news story. If you add a retrieval date, place it at the end of the references entry in this format: “Retrieved April 4, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com.” Ask your instructors if they require retrieval dates.

Give the author’s last name, comma, and first and middle initials if available. For works with more than one author, put a comma and an ampersand (&) before the final author’s name, even when there are two authors.

86. One author

Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization. Harvard UP.

87. Two authors

Kristoff, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. Alfred A. Knopf.

88. Three to twenty authors

Provide last names and initials for up to and including 20 authors.

Barlow, D. H., Durand, V. M., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach. Cengage Learning.

For more than 20 authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis, and then add the final author’s name.

89. Work by an organization, a government, a corporation, or an association

Works published by organizations often have the same author and publisher, which is frequently the title of a website. When the author and publisher are not the same, give the author and the title of the website:

National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). Post-traumatic stress disorder. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml.

When the author and the publisher or title of the website are the same, omit the latter:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, February 17). Variants of the virus. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/index.html.

90. Unknown author

If no author is given, start with the title:

The most beautiful battalion in the army. (1968). Grunt magazine, 12-15.

91. Two or more works by the same author

List two or more works by the same author (or the same author team listed in the same order) chronologically by year in the reference list, with the earliest first. Arrange works published in the same year alphabetically by title, placing lowercase letters after the publication dates:

Bandura, A. (1969). Principles of behavior modification. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Bandura, A. (1977a). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

Bandura, A. (1977b). Social learning theory. Prentice Hall.

Articles, reviews, editorials, and other short works are published in journals, newspapers, and magazines, and they appear in print, on databases, and on websites (though often through a paywall). As a student, you are likely to access many articles and other short research sources primarily through databases available through your library.

92. Basic format for an article in an academic journal

Author’s Last Name, Initials. (Date of Publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume (number), Pages. DOI or URL.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, and the initials of the first name and middle name (if available). Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr. or PhD. End with a period.
• Date of Publication. In parentheses, give the year of publication, a comma, and the month or season of publication. End with a period outside the closing parentheses.
• Title of the article. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. For articles and book chapters, do not use quotation marks or italicize the title. Capitalize only the first word of the title and the first word of a subtitle and any proper nouns.
• Title of the journal. Put the journal title in italics. Capitalize all significant words in the title. End the title with a comma.
• Volume and issue numbers. Italicize the volume number, and follow it with the issue number in parentheses (not italicized). End with a comma.
• Page numbers. Give inclusive page numbers without p. or pp . End with a period.
• DOI or URL. Provide a DOI (if available) or a URL. Include “http://,” and do not add a period at the end. The preferred format for a DOI is “https://doi.org/” followed by the number. You may encounter older formats for DOI; if so, change them to this format. If the article is online and does not have a DOI, give the URL instead.

93. Article in an academic journal

Gawande, A. A. (2017, April). It’s time to adopt electronic prescriptions for opioids. Annals of Surgery, 265 (4), 693-94. https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000002133

Squires, S. (2019). Do generations differ when it comes to green values and products? Electronic Green Journal, 42 . http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6f91213q

The online journal in the example numbers issues only, so no volume number or page numbers are given.

Lowther, M. A. (1977, Winter). Career change in mid-life: Its impact on education. Innovator, 8 (7), 9-11.

An older journal article you consult in print may not have a DOI. In that case, end with the page numbers.

94. Article in a magazine

For a magazine article you read on a database or online, give the DOI if the article has one; otherwise give the URL. For a magazine article you consulted in print, end the entry after the page number unless a DOI is provided.

Sneed, A. (2017, September 19). Giant shape-shifters. Scientific American, 317 (4), 20. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1017-20

Sneed, A. (2017, September 19). Giant shape-shifters. Scientific American, 317 (4), 20.

Myszkowski, S. (2018, October 10). On the trail of missing American Indian women. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/trail-missing-american-indian-women/571657/

95. Article in a newspaper

For a newspaper article that you read on a database or in print, end the entry after the page numbers. For a newspaper article that you read online, give the URL instead of page numbers.

Krueger, A. (2019, November 27). When mom knows best, on Instagram. The New York Times, B1-B4.

Healy, J. (2021, January 12). Tribal elders are dying from the pandemic, causing a cultural crisis for American Indians. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/tribal-elders-native-americans-coronavirus.html

96. Blog post

Blazich, F. A. (2021, February 5). The cold morning of the day after. Smithsonian Voices. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-history/2021/02/05/cold-morning-day-after/

97. Published interview

Beard, A. (2013, May). Life’s work: An interview with Maya Angelou. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/05/maya-angelou

98. Editorial or letter to the editor

An editorial may or may not have an author’s name attached to it. If it does, give the author’s name first. If it does not, start with the title. In both situations, add Editorial or Letter to the Editor in square brackets after the title.

For better elections, copy the neighbors [Editorial]. (2021, February 16). The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-better-elections-copy-the-neighbors-11613518448

To cite a review of a book, film, television show, or other work, begin with the reviewer’s last name, followed by the first and middle (if any) initials. In parentheses, add the year, followed by the title, month, and day of the review. Then in square brackets, add Review of the and the type of work being reviewed, followed by the title and the name of the author, director, or creator and their role. Then give the publication in which the review appeared, ending with a period, and the URL:

Girish, D. (2021, February 18). Refocusing the lens on race and gender [Review of the film Test Pattern, by S. M. Ford, Dir.]. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/movies/test-pattern-review.html

Use the following guidelines for books and parts of books, such as a selection from an anthology, a chapter in a collection, a published conference paper, and so on.

100. Basic entry for a book

Author’s Last Name, Initials. (Year of Publication). Title of book. Publisher.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, and the initials of the first name and middle name (if available). Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr . or PhD . End with a period.
• Year of publication. In parentheses, give the year of publication, ending with a period outside the closing parentheses.
• Title of the book. Put the book’s title in italics. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. Capitalize only the first word of the title and the first word of a subtitle and any proper nouns.
• Publisher. Give the publisher’s name as shown on the work, omitting words such as Inc. or Company.

101. Print book or e-book

Aronson, L. (2019). Elderhood: Redefining aging, transforming medicine, reimagining life. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Use the same format for an e-book when the content is the same. If you consult a book that has a DOI, provide it after the publisher, using the format “https://doi.org/” followed by the number. (If you encounter older formats for DOI, change them to this format.) If you read a book online, give the URL.

102. Book, anthology, or collection with an editor

Schaefer, C. E., & Reid, S. E. (Eds.). (2001). Game play: Therapeutic use of childhood games (2nd ed.) . Wiley.

103. Article or chapter in an edited book, an anthology, or a collection

Burks, H. F. (2001). Using the imagine game as a projective technique. In C. E. Schaefer & S. E. Reid (Eds.), Game play: Therapeutic use of childhood games (2nd ed., pp. 39-66). Wiley.

104. Translated or reprinted book

Freud, S. (1950). The interpretation of dreams (A. A. Brill, Trans.). Modern Library. (Original work published 1900)

105. Revised edition

Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (2019). The elements of style (4th ed.). Pearson.

106. One volume of a multivolume work

Waldrep, T. (Ed.). (1988). Writers on writing (Vol. 2). Random House.

107. Report or publication by a government agency or other organization

National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). Post-traumatic stress disorder. U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, National Institutes of Health.

If you consulted the publication online, include the URL after the publisher. See Model 89.

108. Conference paper

Killi, S., & Morrison, A. (2021). Could the food market pull 3D printing appetites further? In J.D. da Silva Bartolo, F. M. da Silva, S. Jaradat, & H. Bartolo (Eds.), Industry 4.0—shaping the future of the digital world: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable & Smart Manufacturing (pp. 197-203). CRC Press.

Use the following guidelines for works published only online that do not have an overarching publication, such as a journal, newspaper, or magazine.

109. Basic format for a page or work on a website

Author’s Last Name, Initials. (Publication Date). Title of work. Title of website. URL.

• Author. Give the last name, a comma, and the initials of the first name and middle name (if available). Do not list an author’s professional title, such as Dr. or PhD . End with a period.
• Date of publication. In parentheses, give the year of publication and a comma, followed by the month and the day. End with a period outside the closing parentheses.
• Title of the work. Put the title of the work in italics. Give the full title and any subtitle, separating them with a colon. Capitalize only the first word of the title and the first word of a subtitle and any proper nouns.
• Title of the website. Give the title of the website and end with a period. If the author and the website title are the same, you can omit the title of the site.
• URL. Copy and paste the URL from your browser window.

110. Page or work on a website

Shetterly, M. L. (2020, February 24). Katherine Johnson biography. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (n.d.). What is PTSD? National Center for PTSD. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/what/index.asp

If the source you are citing has no author listed, start with the title. See Model 90.

Coronavirus. (2021, February 22). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus

When you cite a social media post as a source, use labels in square brackets to indicate the type of post and whether images were attached to it.

112. Social media post

Holler, J. [@holleratcha]. (2020, November 2). Everyone get out and vote tomorrow! [Tweet]. Twitter. http://twitter.com/holleratcha/status/1270432672544784384

Death Valley National Park. (2021, February 23). What does it mean to protect something you love? [Images attached] [Status update]. Facebook. www.facebook.com/DeathValleyNPS/posts/4108808255810092.

113. Online forum post

National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]. (2020, November 14). We’re engineers, astronaut trainers, and other specialists working to launch humans on commercial spacecraft from U.S. soil! Ask us anything about the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission! [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/jsx91g/were_engineers_astronaut_trainers_and_other/

When you cite nonprint sources, such as visual and multimedia sources, use labels in square brackets to indicate the type of source, such as a film, a TV episode, a song, a painting, a photograph, and so on.

When you cite a film that you saw in a theater or streamed, you do not need to specify how you watched it.

Jenkins, B. (Director). (2016). Moonlight [Film]. A24.

115. Online video

For an online video, give the name of the person or organization that uploaded it as the author:

TED. (2017, February 27). Sue Klebold: My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlnrFpCu0c

116. Television program

Schur, M., Miner, D., Sackett, M., & Goddard, D. (Executive Producers). (2016-20). The good place [TV series]. Fremulon; 3 Arts Entertainment; Universal Television; NBC.

Mande, J. (Writer), & Benz, P. (Director). (2016, September 29). Jason Mendoza (Season 1, Episode 4) [TV series episode]. In M Schur, D. Miner, M. Sackett, & D. Goddard (Executive Producers), The good place. Fremulon; 3 Arts Entertainment; Universal Television; NBC.

117. Music recording

For an artist whose music is available only through a website, include the URL. If the artist’s music is available on multiple platforms, you do not need to specify how you accessed it.

Prince. (1984). Purple rain [Album]. Warner Brothers.

The Supremes. (1964). Baby love [Song]. On Where did our love go. Motown.

Overby, J. (Host). (2021, January 9). The road to higher ground: World music with African roots and more. WPR.

119. Podcast

McEvers, K. (Host). (2019, November 7). This is not a joke (Season 9, Episode 9) [Audio podcast episode]. In Embedded. NPR.

120. Painting or other visual artwork

For a work of visual art, give the location of the museum or gallery. If you saw the work online, add the URL after the location:

Rivera, D. (1932-33). Detroit industry murals [Painting]. Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI, United States.

Basquiat, J-M. (1983). Untitled [Painting]. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/63997?artist_id=370&page=1&sov_referrer=artist

121. Map, photograph, infographic, or other visual

If the work you consulted names an author, start with the author. If there is no author, start with the title and a description of the work in square brackets, such as [Map], [Photograph], [Infographic], [Diagram], or another appropriate descriptor:

Expedition of Lewis and Clark [Map]. (2018). National Park Service. http://nps.gov/subjects/travellewisandclark/map.htm

122. Video game, software, or app

Benzies, L., & Sarwar, I. (2017). Grand theft auto V [Video game]. Rockstar Games. https://www.rockstargames.com/games/V

APA Paper Format

Follow your instructor’s formatting guidelines or those indicated here. For sample papers showing APA paper format, see this site .

• Title page. Give the title of the paper in bold, centered. Then, on separate lines and not boldfaced, give your name, academic department, name of your college or university, course number and name, instructor’s name, and the due date, all centered. Repeat only the title on the first page of the text of your paper.
• Spacing. Double-space throughout the paper, including the references page.
• Headings. Give headings for the major sections of your paper, such as Method, Results or Findings, and Discussion . Put the headings in bold and center them on the page. Put the next level of headings in bold and place them flush left.
• Page numbers. Start numbering on the title page of your paper and continue to the end of the references page. Place page numbers in the upper-right corner.
• Long quotations. See Quotations for how to cite long quotations.

H 15 . Further Reading

MLA Handbook , 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016.

MLA Handbook, 9 th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2020.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7th ed., American Psychological Association, 2020.

H 16 . Works Cited

Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House. Digital Public Library of America , 1910, dp.la/primary-source-sets/theodore-dreiser-s-sister-carrie-and-the-urbanization-of-chicago/.

Becker, Jo. Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality. Penguin Press, 2014.

Behn, Aphra. “The Character.” The Works of Aphra Behn. Edited by Montague Summers, vol. 6, Project Gutenberg , 2014, www.gutenberg.org/files/45777/45777-h/45777-h.htm#Page_113.

Behn, Aphra. “Love’s Power.” The Works of Aphra Behn. Edited by Montague Summers, vol. 6, Project Gutenberg, 2014, www.gutenberg.org/files/45777/45777-h/45777-h.htm#Page_113.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” Blacks , Third World Press, 1994.

Da 5 Bloods. Directed by Spike Lee. Netflix, 2020.

Eisenberg, Richard. “How to Fix Social Security for Vulnerable Americans.” Forbes , 5 July 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2018/07/05/how-to-fix-social-security-for-vulnerable-americans/.

“Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 19 June 2014, www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-natural-gas.

Garrison, Dee. Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked. Oxford UP, 2006.

Hollar-Zwick, Carol. Me, Hemorrhage: Recovery from a Ruptured Arteriovenous Malformation. Amazon, 2020.

The King James Bible. Project Gutenberg, 1989, www.gutenberg.org/files/10/10-h/10-h.htm#The_Gospel_According_to_Saint_Matthew.

Konish, Lorie. “Some Retirees Get by on Just Social Security. Experts Disagree on How Many.” CNBC, 10 Feb. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/02/10/some-retirees-live-on-social-security-experts-disagree-on-how-many.html.

Mechling, Elizabeth Walker, and Jay Mechling. “The Campaign for Civil Defense and the Struggle to Naturalize the Bomb.” Western Journal of Speech Communication, vol. 55, no. 2, Spring 1991, pp. 105-33.

Myers, David. “The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People.” American Psychologist , vol. 55, no. 1, Jan. 2000, pp. 56-67.

“This Is Who We Are.” U.S. Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Mar. 2019, http://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/This-is-Who-We-Are.pdf.

Thomas, Lewis. Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. Penguin Books, 1978.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Project Gutenberg, 1995, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm.

University of Agder. “Sorry (not sorry).” YouTube , 6 Feb. 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi3JQa1ynDw.

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Random House, 2020.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Tips for writing engaging travel essays

As a college student with a passion for exploring the world, few things are as exhilarating as writing a captivating travel essay that transports readers to the destinations they’ve visited, allowing them to vicariously experience the sights, sounds, and cultural mosaic through their words. Creating engaging travel essays involves crafting vivid descriptions, personal anecdotes, and cultural insights, captivating readers with immersive storytelling that transports them to distant lands, and seeking professional assistance to do my essay can refine these narratives, ensuring they resonate with authenticity and captivate audiences. Transforming mere observations into an engaging narrative that resonates with audiences is an art form that demands finesse, vivid descriptions, and a compelling storytelling prowess that draws readers in and keeps them hooked until the final period.

The power of the opening

The essay’s opening lines bear the weight of enticing readers, akin to a siren’s call luring sailors towards uncharted waters. A powerful introduction not only piques curiosity but also sets the tone and foreshadows the journey that lies ahead, much like the glow of a city skyline glimpsed from an airplane window. Resist the temptation of mundane openings; instead, crafting an intriguing hook that instantly immerses the audience in the heart of the adventure.

Painting with words

The essence of an impactful travel essay lies in your ability to vividly depict the locales you’ve explored, enabling readers to envision the scenes as if they were present themselves. Engage all five senses, for it is through the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations that you can breathe life into your words and transport your audience to the bustling markets, ancient ruins, or serene landscapes that have left an indelible mark on your memory. Descriptive and evocative language is your canvas, and your masterful brushstrokes will captivate readers’ imaginations.

Embrace the unexpected

When composing engaging travel essays, infuse descriptive language, personal experiences, and cultural reflections to immerse readers in a journey, while partnering with the best assignment writing services UK can elevate the narrative with expert guidance and ensure a captivating storytelling experience. While guidebooks and travel magazines offer a wealth of practical information, it is the unanticipated moments, the serendipitous encounters, and the unforeseen challenges that imbue your essays with an authentic and engaging narrative. Seek out the extraordinary amidst the ordinary, for it is in these unexpected instances that the true essence of travel emerges. Recount the humorous cultural misunderstandings, the chance meetings with locals that unveiled hidden gems, or the moments of personal growth that arose from navigating unfamiliar territories.

Crafting cultural narratives

Travel essays are not merely recounts of one’s physical journeys; they are windows into the rich mosaics of cultures that have captivated curiosity and broadened perspectives. One immerses in the local traditions, cuisine, and histories, and artfully crafts these strands into narratives, allowing readers to gain a deeper appreciation for the diversity that adorns our world.

Humanising the experience

While picturesque landscapes and architectural marvels undoubtedly hold their allure, it is the human element that truly elevates a travel essay from mere description to an engaging and relatable narrative. Seek out the stories of the people you encounter, for they are the living embodiments of the destinations you explore. Recount the tales of the street vendor whose culinary delights ignited your taste buds, the artisan whose intricate craftsmanship left you in awe, or the local guide whose passion for their homeland was infectious.

Structure and pacing

Akin to a symphony, an engaging travel essay demands a harmonious structure and carefully modulated pacing. Create a cohesive narrative arc that seamlessly transitions between episodes, building anticipation and releasing tension at strategic intervals. Employ varying sentence lengths and rhythms to create a dynamic reading experience, oscillating between descriptive passages that linger on vivid details and concise, punchy sentences that propel the story forward.

Embracing the personal

While impartiality and objectivity hold their merits in certain contexts, travel essays thrive on personal perspectives and introspective musings. Infuse your narratives with your unique voice, your emotional responses, and the profound lessons or realisations that bloomed amidst your journeys. It is through this vulnerability and authenticity that readers will forge a deeper connection with your experiences, empathising with your triumphs, challenges, and moments of self-discovery.

The art of storytelling

Ultimately, a compelling travel essay is a masterful mosaic of storytelling, one that intricately combines evocative descriptions, cultural insights, personal reflections, and a captivating narrative arc. Honing one’s storytelling prowess involves studying the works of celebrated travel writers, dissecting their techniques, and experimenting with diverse narrative styles. Remember, one’s words hold the power to transport readers to far-flung destinations, igniting their wanderlust and inspiring them to embark on their own journeys of self-discovery.

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Review of EssayWriter: The Best AI Essay Generator That Helps Write A+ Grade Essays

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An Exploration of EssayWriter’s Features

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• The four main types of essay | Quick guide with examples

The Four Main Types of Essay | Quick Guide with Examples

Published on September 4, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays.

Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and descriptive essays are about exercising creativity and writing in an interesting way. At university level, argumentative essays are the most common type. 

In high school and college, you will also often have to write textual analysis essays, which test your skills in close reading and interpretation.

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Table of contents

Argumentative essays, expository essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, textual analysis essays, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about types of essays.

An argumentative essay presents an extended, evidence-based argument. It requires a strong thesis statement —a clearly defined stance on your topic. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations ) and analysis.

Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation.

The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion:

• The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
• The body presents your evidence and arguments
• The conclusion summarizes your argument and emphasizes its importance

The example below is a paragraph from the body of an argumentative essay about the effects of the internet on education. Mouse over it to learn more.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a topic. It doesn’t require an original argument, just a balanced and well-organized view of the topic.

Expository essays test your familiarity with a topic and your ability to organize and convey information. They are commonly assigned at high school or in exam questions at college level.

The introduction of an expository essay states your topic and provides some general background, the body presents the details, and the conclusion summarizes the information presented.

A typical body paragraph from an expository essay about the invention of the printing press is shown below. Mouse over it to learn more.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

A narrative essay is one that tells a story. This is usually a story about a personal experience you had, but it may also be an imaginative exploration of something you have not experienced.

Narrative essays test your ability to build up a narrative in an engaging, well-structured way. They are much more personal and creative than other kinds of academic writing . Writing a personal statement for an application requires the same skills as a narrative essay.

A narrative essay isn’t strictly divided into introduction, body, and conclusion, but it should still begin by setting up the narrative and finish by expressing the point of the story—what you learned from your experience, or why it made an impression on you.

Mouse over the example below, a short narrative essay responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” to explore its structure.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

A descriptive essay provides a detailed sensory description of something. Like narrative essays, they allow you to be more creative than most academic writing, but they are more tightly focused than narrative essays. You might describe a specific place or object, rather than telling a whole story.

Descriptive essays test your ability to use language creatively, making striking word choices to convey a memorable picture of what you’re describing.

A descriptive essay can be quite loosely structured, though it should usually begin by introducing the object of your description and end by drawing an overall picture of it. The important thing is to use careful word choices and figurative language to create an original description of your object.

Mouse over the example below, a response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” to learn more about descriptive essays.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

Though every essay type tests your writing skills, some essays also test your ability to read carefully and critically. In a textual analysis essay, you don’t just present information on a topic, but closely analyze a text to explain how it achieves certain effects.

Rhetorical analysis

A rhetorical analysis looks at a persuasive text (e.g. a speech, an essay, a political cartoon) in terms of the rhetorical devices it uses, and evaluates their effectiveness.

The goal is not to state whether you agree with the author’s argument but to look at how they have constructed it.

The introduction of a rhetorical analysis presents the text, some background information, and your thesis statement; the body comprises the analysis itself; and the conclusion wraps up your analysis of the text, emphasizing its relevance to broader concerns.

The example below is from a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech . Mouse over it to learn more.

King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.

Literary analysis

A literary analysis essay presents a close reading of a work of literature—e.g. a poem or novel—to explore the choices made by the author and how they help to convey the text’s theme. It is not simply a book report or a review, but an in-depth interpretation of the text.

Literary analysis looks at things like setting, characters, themes, and figurative language. The goal is to closely analyze what the author conveys and how.

The introduction of a literary analysis essay presents the text and background, and provides your thesis statement; the body consists of close readings of the text with quotations and analysis in support of your argument; and the conclusion emphasizes what your approach tells us about the text.

Mouse over the example below, the introduction to a literary analysis essay on Frankenstein , to learn more.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.

Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”

The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.

Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:

• In a literary analysis essay, you might make an argument for a specific interpretation of a text
• In a history essay, you might present an argument for the importance of a particular event
• In a politics essay, you might argue for the validity of a certain political theory

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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2024 Ethics Essay Contest winners announced

Claire Martino , a junior from New Berlin, Wis., majoring in applied mathematics and data science, is the winner of the 2024 Ethics Essay Contest for the essay "Artificial Intelligence Could Probably Write This Essay Better than Me."

The second place entry was from Morgan J. Janes , a junior from Rock Island, Ill., majoring in biology, for the essay "The Relevant History and Medical and Ethical Future Viability of Xenotransplantation."

Third place went to Alyssa Scudder , a senior from Lee, Ill., majoring in biology, for the essay "The Ethicality of Gene Alteration in Human Embryos."

Dr. Dan Lee announced the winners on behalf of the board of directors of the Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics, sponsor of the contest. The winner will receive an award of $100, the second-place winner an award of $50, and the third-place winner an award of $25.

Honorable mentions went to Grace Palmer , a senior art and accounting double major from Galesburg, Ill., for the essay "The Ethiopian Coffee Trade: Is Positive Change Brewing?" and Sarah Marrs , a sophomore from Carpentersville, Ill., majoring in political science and women, gender and sexuality studies, for the essay "Dating Apps as an Outlet to Promote Sexual Autonomy among Disabled Individuals: an Intersectional Approach to Change."

The winning essays will be published in Augustana Digital Commons .

The Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics was established to enrich the teaching-learning experiences for students by providing greater opportunities for them to meet and interact with community leaders and to encourage discussions of issues of ethical significance through campus programs and community outreach.

Dr. Lee, whose teaching responsibilities since joining the Augustana faculty in 1974 have included courses in ethics, serves as the center's director.

If you have news, send it to [email protected] ! We love hearing about the achievements of our alumni, students and faculty.

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A Guide to the Total Solar Eclipse

By Rivka Galchen

On April 8th, the moon will partly and then entirely block out the sun. The total eclipse will be visible to those in a hundred-and-fifteen-mile-wide sash, called the path of totality, slung from the hip of Sinaloa to the shoulder of Newfoundland. At the path’s midline, the untimely starry sky will last nearly four and a half minutes, and at the edges it will last for a blink. On the ground, the lunacy around total eclipses often has a Lollapalooza feel. Little-known places in the path of totality—Radar Base, Texas; Perryville, Missouri—have been preparing, many of them for years, to accommodate the lawn chairs, soul bands, food trucks, sellers of commemorative pins, and porta-potties. Eclipse viewers seeking solitude may also cause problems: the local government of Mars Hill, Maine, is reminding people that trails on Mt. Katahdin are closed, because it is mud season and therefore dangerous. I have a friend whose feelings and opinions often mirror my own; when I told her a year ago that I had booked an Airbnb in Austin in order to see this eclipse, she looked at me as if I’d announced I was bringing my daughter to a pox party.

Altering plans because of this periodic celestial event has a long tradition, however. On May 28, 585 B.C., according to Herodotus, an eclipse led the Medes and Lydians, after more than five years of war, to become “alike anxious” to come to peace. More than a hundred years before that, the Assyrian royalty of Mesopotamia protected themselves from the ill omen of solar eclipses—and from other celestial signs perceived as threatening—by installing substitute kings and queens for the day. Afterward, the substitutes were usually killed, though in one instance, when the real king died, the stand-in, who had been a gardener, held the throne for decades. More recently, an eclipse on May 29, 1919, enabled measurements that recorded the sun bending the path of light in accordance with, and thus verifying, Einstein’s theory of general relativity .

Any given spot on the Earth witnesses a total solar eclipse about once every three hundred and seventy-five years, on average, but somewhere on the planet witnesses a total solar eclipse about once every eighteen months. In Annie Dillard’s essay “ Total Eclipse ,” she says of a partial solar eclipse that it has the relation to a total one that kissing a man has to marrying him, or that flying in a plane has to falling out of a plane. “Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it,” she writes. During a partial eclipse, you put on the goofy paper eyeglasses and see the outline of the moon reducing its rival, the sun, to a solar cassava, or slimmer. It’s a cool thing to see, and it maybe hints at human vulnerability, the weirdness of light, the scale and reality of the world beyond our planet. But, even when the moon blocks ninety-nine per cent of the sun, it’s still daylight out. When the moon occludes the whole of the sun, everyday expectations collapse: the temperature quickly drops, the colors of shadows become tinny, day flips to darkness, stars precipitously appear, birds stop chirping, bees head back to their hives, hippos come out for their nightly grazing, and humans shout or hide or study or pray or take measurements until, seconds or minutes later, sunlight, and the familiar world, abruptly returns.

It is complete earthly luck that total eclipses follow such a dramatic procession. Our moon, which is about four hundred times less wide than our sun, is also about four hundred times closer to us. For this reason, when the Earth, moon, and sun align with one another, our moon conceals our sun precisely, like a cap over a lens. (I stress “our moon” because other moons around other planets, including planets that orbit other stars, have eclipses that almost certainly don’t line up so nicely.) If our moon were smaller or farther away, or our sun larger or nearer, our sun would never be totally eclipsed. Conversely, if our moon were larger or closer (or our sun smaller or farther away) then our sun would be wholly eclipsed—but we would miss an ecliptic revelation. During totality, a thin circle of brightness rings the moon. Johannes Kepler thought that the circle was the illumination of the atmosphere of the moon, but we now know that the moon has next to no atmosphere and that the bright circle (the corona) is the outermost part of the atmosphere of the sun . A million times less bright than the sun itself, the corona is visible (without a special telescope) only during an eclipse. If we’re judging by images and reports, the corona looks like a fiery halo. I have never seen the sun’s corona. The first total solar eclipse I’ll witness will be this one.

The physicist Frank Close saw a partial eclipse on a bright day in Peterborough, England, in June, 1954, at the age of eight. Close’s science teacher, using cricket and soccer balls to represent the moon and the sun, explained the shadows cast by the moon; Close attributes his life in science to this experience. The teacher also told the class that, forty-five years into the future, there would be a total eclipse visible from England, and Close resolved to see it. That day turned out to be overcast, so the moon-eclipsed sun wasn’t visible—but Close described seeing what felt to him like a vision of the Apocalypse, with a “tsunami of darkness rushing towards me . . . as if a black cloak had been cast over everything” and then the clouds over the sun dispersing briefly when totality was nearly over. Close has since seen six more eclipses and written two books about them, the first a memoir of “chasing” eclipses (“ Eclipse: Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon ”) and the second a general explainer (“ Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know ”).

“I’ve tried to describe each of the eclipses I’ve seen, and I do describe them, but it’s not really describable. There’s no natural phenomenon to compare it to,” he told me recently. Describing an eclipse to someone who hasn’t seen one is like trying to describe the Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine” to someone who has never heard music, he said. “You can describe notes, frequencies of vibration, but we all know that’s missing the whole thing.” Total eclipses are also close to impossible to film in any meaningful way. The light level plummets, which your eye can process in a way that, say, your mobile phone can’t.

In the half hour or so before totality, as the moon makes its progress across the circle of the sun, colors shift to hues of red and brown. (Dillard, a magus of describing the indescribable, writes that people looked to her as though they were in “a faded color print of a movie filmed in the Middle Ages”—the faces seemed to be those of people now dead, which made her miss her own century, and the people she knew, and the real light of day.) As more of the sun is covered, its light reaches us less directly. “Much of the light that you will be getting is light that has been scattered by the atmosphere from ten to twenty miles away,” Close said. Thus the color shift.

He showed me the equipment that he has used to watch six eclipses: a piece of cardboard about the size of an LP sleeve, with a square cut out of the middle, covered by dark glass. “I used gaffer tape to affix a piece of welder’s glass,” he said. There are small holes at the edge of the board, so he can see how shadows change as the moon eclipses more, and then less, of the sun. When sunlight comes from a crescent rather than from a circle, shadows become elongated along one axis and narrowed along another. “If you spread out your fingers, and look at the shadow of your hand, your fingers will look crablike, as if they have claws on them,” Close said.

Each eclipse Close has seen has been distinct. On a boat in the South Seas, the moon appeared more greenish black than black, “because of reflected light from the water,” he said. In the Sahara, the millions of square miles of sand acted as a mirror, so it was less dark, and Close could see earthshine making the formations on the moon’s surface visible. At another eclipse, he found himself focussed on the appearance of the light of the sun as it really is: white. “We think of it as yellow, but of course that’s just atmospheric scattering, the same mechanism that makes the sky appear blue,” he said. When he travelled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his family, in 2017, his seven-year-old grandson said, half a minute before totality, that the asphalt road was “moving.” “It was these subtle bands of darker and lighter, moving along at walking pace. The effect it gave to your eye was that you thought the pavement was rippling,” Close said. He had never seen that before.

The moon doesn’t emit light; it only reflects it, like a mirror. In Oscar Wilde’s play “ Salomé ,” each character sees in the moon something of what he fears, or desires. The etymology of “eclipse” connects to the Greek word for failure, and for leaving, for abandonment. In Chinese, the word for eclipse comes from the term that also means “to eat,” likely a reference to the millennia-old description of solar eclipses happening when a dragon consumes the sun. If the moon is a mirror, then the moon during a solar eclipse is a dark and magic mirror.

A Hindu myth explains eclipses through the story of Svabhanu, who steals a sip of the nectar of the gods. The Sun and the Moon tell Vishnu, one of the most powerful of the gods. Vishnu decapitates Svabhanu, but not before he can swallow the sip of nectar. The nectar has made his head, now called Rahu, immortal. As revenge, Rahu periodically eats the Sun—creating eclipses. But, his throat being cut, he can’t swallow the Sun, so it reëmerges again and again. Rahu is in the wrong, obviously, but in ancient representations of him he is often grinning. To me, he looks mischievous rather than frightening.

The first story I can remember reading that featured an eclipse is Mark Twain’s “ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court .” The wizard Merlin imprisons an engineer named Hank Morgan, who has accidentally travelled from nineteenth-century America to sixth-century Camelot. Morgan, a man who dresses and acts strangely for the sixth century, finds himself, as one would, sentenced to be burned at the stake. But he gets out of it—by convincing others that he is the cause of an eclipse that he knew would occur. As seems only natural for a beloved American story, it’s the (man from the) future that wins this particular standoff, over the ancient ways of Merlin.

To Close, the beginning of an eclipse feels like “a curtains-up statement from the heavens: Science works. Come back in an hour.” He finds it particularly moving that someone, using only measurements and reason, and the laws of celestial motion, could have predicted the April 8th eclipse down to the minute, maybe to the second. The eclipse that surprised the warring Medes and Lydians into peace may not have been a surprise to all; it is said to have been predicted by Thales of Miletus.

I asked Close if he’d ever met someone on his eclipse journeys who wasn’t much impressed. He said no. Still, it’s possible that I and my mirror friend both have the right intuition about this experience we’ve never had. In the last chapter of Roberto Bolaño’s novella “French Comedy of Horrors,” the young narrator witnesses an eclipse while at a soda fountain with his friends; he also witnesses the people around him witnessing the eclipse, including a couple doing a dance “that was somehow anachronistic but at the same time terrifying.” On his way home, he answers a ringing pay phone and finds himself in a lengthy conversation with a stranger who claims to be a member of the Clandestine Surrealist Group, writers living in Paris’s sewer system. The stranger invites the narrator (who wants desperately to be a poet) to join them, at an appointed time and place, months into the future—but says that they can’t pay for his ticket.

His whole eclipse day is banal (soda fountain, pay phone, the price of things) but also tempting, literally surreal, and like a dream. When our hero finally makes it home, at dawn, he sees Achille, the local drunk. Achille tells him that “the eclipse thing wasn’t such a big deal and that people were always getting excited about nothing. In his opinion, true and incredible things happened in the sky every day.” Nature’s everyday wonders might be the more clandestine ones. ♦

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Guest Essay

José Andrés: Let People Eat

By José Andrés

Mr. Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen.

In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always.

The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity. They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war.

Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, John Chapman, Jacob Flickinger, Zomi Frankcom, James Henderson, James Kirby and Damian Sobol risked everything for the most fundamentally human activity: to share our food with others.

These are people I served alongside in Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, the Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, Gaza and Israel. They were far more than heroes.

Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need.

From Day 1, we have fed Israelis as well as Palestinians. Across Israel, we have served more than 1.75 million hot meals. We have fed families displaced by Hezbollah rockets in the north. We have fed grieving families from the south. We delivered meals to the hospitals where hostages were reunited with their families. We have called consistently, repeatedly and passionately for the release of all the hostages.

All the while, we have communicated extensively with Israeli military and civilian officials. At the same time, we have worked closely with community leaders in Gaza, as well as Arab nations in the region. There is no way to bring a ship full of food to Gaza without doing so.

That’s how we served more than 43 million meals in Gaza, preparing hot food in 68 community kitchens where Palestinians are feeding Palestinians.

We know Israelis. Israelis, in their heart of hearts, know that food is not a weapon of war.

Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli government needs to open more land routes for food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today. It needs to start the long journey to peace today.

In the worst conditions, after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up. You cannot save the hostages by bombing every building in Gaza. You cannot win this war by starving an entire population.

We welcome the government’s promise of an investigation into how and why members of our World Central Kitchen family were killed. That investigation needs to start at the top, not just the bottom.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said of the Israeli killings of our team, “It happens in war.” It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the Israel Defense Forces.

It was also the direct result of a policy that squeezed humanitarian aid to desperate levels. Our team was en route from a delivery of almost 400 tons of aid by sea — our second shipment, funded by the United Arab Emirates, supported by Cyprus and with clearance from the Israel Defense Forces.

The team members put their lives at risk precisely because this food aid is so rare and desperately needed. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative, half the population of Gaza — 1.1. million people — faces the imminent risk of famine. The team would not have made the journey if there were enough food, traveling by truck across land, to feed the people of Gaza.

The peoples of the Mediterranean and Middle East, regardless of ethnicity and religion, share a culture that values food as a powerful statement of humanity and hospitality — of our shared hope for a better tomorrow.

There’s a reason, at this special time of year, Christians make Easter eggs, Muslims eat an egg at iftar dinners and an egg sits on the Seder plate. This symbol of life and hope reborn in spring extends across religions and cultures.

I have been a stranger at Seder dinners. I have heard the ancient Passover stories about being a stranger in the land of Egypt, the commandment to remember — with a feast before you — that the children of Israel were once slaves.

It is not a sign of weakness to feed strangers; it is a sign of strength. The people of Israel need to remember, at this darkest hour, what strength truly looks like.

José Andrés is a chef and the founder of World Central Kitchen.

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