1. Rough Draft Concerns Italics Quotation Marks Numbers Contractions Abbreviations Works Cited Restate Thesis in Conclusion

2. Italics Use italics for the following kinds of titles and names of written works: Title of a BookThe Scarlet Letter Title of a MagazineSports Illustrated Title of a NewspaperThe Washington Post Title of a PlayOur Town Title of a Database Literary Reference Center

3. Italics Use italics for the following kinds of titles and names of artistic works: Title of a MovieThe Empire Strikes Back Title of a TV SeriesGossip Girl Title of a CDThe Best of Maroon Five Title of a PaintingThe Starry Night Title of a SculptureDavid Title of a Ship/BoatCommodore; Titanic Title of an AircraftApollo 13

4. “Quotation Marks” Use quotation marks for titles of short works: Titles of Short Stories“The Tell Tale Heart” Titles of Poems“O Captain! My Captain!” Titles of Articles“Crane, Stephen” Titles of Songs“Jingle Bell Rock”

5. Numbers Spelling out numbers vs. using numerals is largely a matter of writers’ preference. Two differently philosophies: According to the Associated Press Stylebook, one should spell out the numbers one through nine and use figures thereafter. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, one should spell out the numbers one through ninety-nine and use figures thereafter. *Consistency is important!* A few rules are universal: 1. Spell out all numbers beginning a sentence. Examples: Twenty-three hundred sixty-one victims were hospitalized. Nineteen fifty-six was quite a year. 2. Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine. Examples: Forty-three people were injured in the train wreck. Twenty-seven of them were hospitalized. 3. Hyphenate all written-out fractions. Examples: We recovered about two-thirds of the stolen cash. One-half is slightly less than five-eighths. 4. With figures of four or more digits, use commas. Count three spaces to the left to place the first comma. Continue placing commas after every three digits. Important: do not include decimal points when doing the counting. Example: 1,054 people

6. Contractions No use of contractions in formal writing: cannot instead of can’t does not instead of doesn’t is not instead of isn’t do not instead of don’t

7. Abbreviations No use of abbreviations in formal writing: United States instead of U.S. New York instead of NY

8. Works Cited Page Alphabetical order (ignore words like ‘the’ ‘a’ ‘an’ when alphabetizing). Example: “The Cask of Amontillado” use Cask when alphabetizing, ignoring the word The Only list sources on Works Cited Page that are actually cited in your paper (with a parenthetical citation). Four sources required for paper.

9. Restate Thesis Statement Thesis statement should be restated in your concluding paragraph—not repeated!