For a Paper:

Length — If you find that your final draft is less than ten (10) pages long, you may want to consider whether you have really covered your topic as thoroughly as you should have.  It is unlikely you’ll be able to cover everything and present a could argument for your thesis in a very short paper.  Contrariwise, if you find yourself typing madly away on the twenty-eighth page of your draft, you should probably take a moment to consider if you are over-doing it.  While I don’t want to discourage you from writing a brilliant lengthy thesis, it may be worth remembering that this is a paper for a sophomore course and it is only worth thirty (30) points.  The effort of writing almost thirty pages (at a point a page) might be viewed as out of proportion.

Formatting — Yes, I really do grade for this (not much, but nevertheless…).  Please make sure that you use a serif font (Century Schoolbook, Garamond, Palatino, Bookman Old Style, Cambria, Book Antigua, etc.)  Please do not use sans-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica, and do not use decorative fonts.  In a pinch, I’ll even settle for Times New Roman, even though it’s not the right font for a full-width page.  There should be no extra spaces between paragraphs.  The first line of each paragraph should be indented no more than 1/2-inch.  Text should be fully justified.  Margins should be one inch on the left and right sides of the page as well as the bottom, and 1.5 inches on the top.  You should set up the headers to show your name in the top right corner of all pages (except for the first page).  The first page should have a blank header with the title of your paper and your name on separate lines followed by a blank line and then the start of the text.  Page numbers should be placed in the footer of all pages.

Proof-reading — Please take the time to proof your paper thoroughly.  Check to make sure you have no spelling or punctuation errors.  Also, check for less obvious problems like subject-verb agreement (especially tricky when the subject is separated from the verb by other nouns), dangling modifiers (including dangling participial phrases), pronouns with unclear antecedents, etc.  Check for style, word usage and form, etc.  And finally, avoid the use of trite phrases like “nowadays” or “In my opinion…”