The FATAL FLAW The items on the following list shall be known from now on as are “fatal flaws.” These mistakes that will make your paper DOA (dead on arrival). If you pass in a paper that contains one of the fatal flaws, your teacher may not read it. He or she may hand it back and you may be told to fix it. It will then be considered late. Keep this paper handy! All are basic proofreading errors. So…happy proofreading! FATAL FLAW 1: No mention of the full name of the text in the opening paragraph. FATAL FLAW 2: No mention of the full name in the opening paragraph. author’s FATAL FLAW 3: Misspellings of character names or proper names (of people or places) from the text. FATAL FLAW 4: Improper use of quotation marks or italics to denote the title of a text. Shorter works—like poems, stories, songs, articles—use quotation marks. Longer works—like anthologies, novels, albums, newspapers—use italics. use both italics and quotation marks, and use bold font. Don’t don’t If you have any questions, consult your teacher, Inc., Write for College, Writer’s or any other source on MLA format. FATAL FLAW 5: Improper citation of source material. If all quotes are from the same text, include just the page number in parentheses after the quotation. A passage would be cited and punctuated as follows: In the story Things “The They the narrator recognizes that the characters all they could Carried,” “carried bear, and then some” (7). Note: there is no before the page number. The period is at the end of the “p.” sentence, not inside the quote. If you are quoting more than one text, use the name either somewhere in author’s the sentence, or include it in the parenthesis before the page number put a (don’t comma after the name in parenthesis). author’s If you have any questions, consult your teacher, this guide, Inc., Write Writer’s or any other source on MLA format. for College, FATAL FLAW 6: Lack of capitalization of proper nouns. FATAL FLAW 7: Incorrect formatting (see the on “Formatting Paper” page 27).
The FATAL FLAW The items on the following list shall be known from now on as “fatal flaws.” These are mistakes that will make your paper DOA (dead on arrival). If you pass in a paper that contains one of the fatal flaws, your teacher may not read it. He or she may hand it back and you may be told to fix it. It will then be considered late. Keep this paper handy! All are basic proofreading errors. So…happy proofreading! FATAL FLAW 1: No mention of the full name of the text in the opening paragraph. FATAL FLAW 2: No mention of the author’s full name in the opening paragraph. FATAL FLAW 3: Misspellings of character names or proper names (of people or places) from the text. FATAL FLAW 4: Improper use of quotation marks or italics to denote the title of a text. Shorter works—like poems, stories, songs, articles—use quotation marks. Longer works—like anthologies, novels, albums, newspapers—use italics. Don’t use both italics and quotation marks, and don’t use bold font. If you have any questions, consult your teacher, Writer’s Inc., Write for College, or any other source on MLA format. FATAL FLAW 5: Improper citation of source material. If all quotes are from the same text, include just the page number in parentheses after the quotation. A passage would be cited and punctuated as follows: In the story “The Things They Carried,” the narrator recognizes that the characters “carried all they could bear, and then some” (7). Note: there is no “p.” before the page number. The period is at the end of the sentence, not inside the quote. If you are quoting more than one text, use the author’s name either somewhere in the sentence, or include it in the parenthesis before the page number (don’t put a comma after the author’s name in parenthesis). If you have any questions, consult your teacher, this guide, Writer’s Inc., Write for College, or any other source on MLA format. FATAL FLAW 6: Lack of capitalization of proper nouns. FATAL FLAW 7: Incorrect formatting (see “Formatting the Paper” on page 27).
hhs_writing_guide_2013_2014.docx