Standards for Formal Written Work

FOR STUDENTS AT MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY

Most courses at Montclair State University require written assignments, because writing is one of the best ways to explore, refine, and demonstrate knowledge. The following statement describes the mental operations and the writing skills that the faculty expects
in your formal written work. (You should assume that an assignment requires formal preparation unless your instructor states otherwise.) College Writing I: Intellectual Prose and College Writing II: Writing and Literary Study provide a solid foundation in these abilities, but that is only the beginning.  The written work that you will do in all your
courses will build on the foundation established in College Writing I, developing your
ability to think and communicate your thoughts in writing.

In the academic world, as in the world at large, readers will judge your written work primarily on the basis of its content; that is, on the quality of the information and opinions it contains. However, the careful organization and the clear, concise expression of that content are essential if your readers are to grasp your full meaning. The faculty will therefore evaluate the organization and expression of your written assignments along with the content. Grammar, mechanics, and style will also be considered, because weaknesses in these areas can interfere with readers' comprehension of your work, or even prevent them from giving it their serious attention.
Individual departments and instructors may add their own requirements to this statement, and each instructor will decide how the various elements will influence grading in a particular course. However, in the course that you will take to satisfy your graduation requirement in writing, you will be given a grade of Incomplete and referred to the Writing Center if your writing has severe problems. This will apply regardless of grades received for other work completed for this course.
If you have questions about this document, you may seek clarification from your instructors, from the English Department, or from the Writing Center staff. The Writing Center (Dickson 285, 655-7442) offers consultation and tutorial support to all students, ideally through regularly weekly appointments, but also on a drop in-basis. There is no charge for this service.

Writing and Thinking

You should be able to perform with college-level competence the mental operations on which written work depends. These include:
·  Generalization: Finding the common element that relates particular examples or to each other, abstracting.
·  Inference: Drawing out meanings that are implied but not stated explicitly, reading between the lines.
·  Analysis: Examining parts of the whole, such as causes, effects, and processes.
·  Synthesis: Forming new ideas into new relationships; creating.
·  Evaluation: Making judgments according to criteria.
You should be able to apply to new situations the knowledge you have gained from your classes, your reading, and your investigations.
You should be able to draw your own conclusions, rather than to simply restate or summarize the ideas of others.
You should be able to state a thesis clearly and support it with reasoning and evidence.
You should be able to organize the parts of a paper in an orderly sequence, governed by a controlling purpose that is clear to the reader. Paragraphs and subsections should also have their own internal order.
You should be able to adapt what you write to the needs and expectations of your intended audience, whether it is your peers, your teacher, other scholars in a discipline, or the general public.

The Writing Process

Successful writing is seldom merely the recording of the writer's first thoughts. More often it is the result of a process involving several stages. You should know how to use strategies that will help you to:
Choose and limit a topic
Collect information
Develop ideas
Produce rough and polished drafts
Revise and edit
Proofread

Library Research and Documentation

You should be able to locate, evaluate, and use materials published in various formats, including books, periodicals, newspapers, government documents, indexes, abstracts, microforms, websites, electronic mail and discussion groups, and other media materials.

You should be able to summarize or paraphrase the written work of others. Paraphrased material must be completely restated in your own words, and should blend smoothly into your style.
You should be able to identify your source material according to the method your instructor requires. Data or distinctive ideas taken from sources must be identified by the methods of an approved citation system (i.e., MLA, APA, etc.), even if those ideas are not quoted directly. Direct quotations must be identified by a citation as well as by quotation marks or block indentation.

Failure to treat source material properly will be constructed as plagiarism, a serious academic offense.  (See Plagiarism under Academic Policies and Procedures, in the Student Handbook.)

Standard English, Grammar, Style

Your papers should be written in formal, Standard English. They should be free from nonstandard constructions (such as double negatives) and of informal usage (such as "The experiment went O.K.")

Your sentence structure should be free of significant grammatical problems, such as sentence fragments, subject-verb disagreement; inconsistent verb tenses, unclear pronoun references, and misplaced modifiers.

Your sentences should be clear and concise, showing capable use of the tools necessary to a mature writing style, such as coordination, subordination, parallelism, and transitional devices.

Your choice of words should be precise and appropriate to your subject. You may sometimes find it essential to use technical terms, but you should avoid unnecessary jargon.

Mechanics and Appearance

Your paper should contain no errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or typing. Spell-check is not a substitute for careful editing and proofreading.

You should show careful attention to matters of appearance, including legibility, neat corrections, and suitable presentation.
The use of a word processor is highly encouraged.

If your instructor does not specify how you are to present your paper, you may follow these recommendations:
On the top of the first page include:

• Your name
• The title of your paper
• Title and section number of the course
• The name of your instructor
• The date

Number the pages.
Formal papers should be carefully proofread and typed. Last minute corrections should be clear and papers should be neat.

Approved May 1984; last updated August 2007