Rules for clarity and sophistication in writing:

  • Don’t repeat words
  • No abbreviations – do not write ‘doesn’t’, write ‘does not’
  • Don’t repeat what the quotes say (paraphrase).
  • No metaphors or similes in your formal writing.
  • No questions (rhetorical or otherwise) in your writing
  • Do not use more than 2 commas per sentence. If you have, it’s too long – start a new sentence.
  • Don’t use the words ‘but’ or ‘because’. Use ‘however’ or ‘as’/’due to the fact’.
  • Do not to use first person such as ‘we’, ‘I’, ‘us’ etc. Eg. instead of saying ‘in this scene we learn about…’, instead say ‘This scene demonstrates…’
  • Don’t use second person either, such as ‘you’ etc.
  • Do not use the word ‘like’, use ‘such as’
  • Do not end sentences with ‘joining words’ eg. is, in, but, with, to.
  • Writing adverbs in essays is generally useless eg. ‘specifically evident’, ‘boldly established’
  • Never end a paragraph with a quote. If you have, then write a sentence to link back to the question
  • Never have a quote in your topic sentence
  • Do not use the word ‘quote’ in your analysis – EVER!

Rules for quotations:

  • Integrate quotes into the sentence, making them grammatically correct.
  • Never start a sentence with a quote.
  • Never make a quote its own sentence.
  • Don’t repeat quotes.
  • Do not put quotes back to back.
  • Do not quote in clumps. Quotes should only be 1½ lines MAX.
  • In order to integrate quotes, often just adding a bit of context before the quote will help you introduce it.
  • Don’t use quotes to say your points.

Different ways to quote in sentences:

Quote:

“His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated with fatigue and suffering”.

  1. Shelley uses wretched imagery to describe how Victor’s “limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated”. This illustrates the harmful ramifications of scientific endeavour on an individual who so recklessly attempts to ‘play god’.
  2. Shelley uses wretched imagery to manifest a representation of Victor, as “his limbs were nearly frozen”, after having endured significant “fatigue and suffering”. This illustrates ….