Study Guide
Writing: Grammar
To anticipate a common protestation: The course is conducted in English. Therefore, this is indeed an English class.
There's no excuse for grammatical errors because you all have grammar checkers. These grammar checkers are fairly stupid, and using one won't guarantee you won't have grammatical errors, but at least they can catch the obvious stuff.
Spelling counts. See above.
Grammar and spelling count not because they are intrinsically important. In fact, rules of grammar and spelling were (largely) made up in the 18th century by a bunch of ruling-class snobs as one way to mark off the ruling class from the common rabble. They are somewhat arbitrary.
Grammar and spelling count because if you make enough mistakes, the reader can't understand you, and the goal of anything you write is to communicate what's in your mind to someone else. Since you are asking me to grade that, it follows that you will want to be as clear as possible. While occasional mistakes do not hinder communication, when the mistakes become too frequent, the reader literally does not know what you are trying to say. That's why grammar and spelling count.
Stay in the Past Tense
Stay in the past tense. Nothing in our course transpires in the present, so the past tense is the appropriate form. Absolutely do not use the present tense; you will be marked down for it.
As with nearly all my advice on writing, there are exceptions to the above rule. It's fine to take advantage of grammar for stylistic reasons, or because you recognize that this particular case is an exception; it is not, however, fine to write in the present tense simply because you don't know any better.
I wouldn't, if I were You
Do not use conditional constructions. Do not say "King Henry was to fight the Battle of Agincourt." Say "King Henry fought the Battle of Agincourt." Do not say "The Persian army fled and some time later would rejoin Darius in the hills." Say "The Persian army fled and some time later rejoined Darius in the hills." The conditional in these cases adds nothing.
Unfortunately, this style is an affectation often heard on the History Channel, which is a source not on my short list of stylistic models worthy of emulation. The writers on the History Channel have evidently decided such a technique adds Drama. It does not. It is, plain and simple, an affection, and adds only fluff.
The Passive Voice Shall Be Avoided
Use active voice. If you use a passive construction, you are begging the question, for the passive voice leaves off the agent. It says that something was done, but it does not say by whom it was done. In the study of history, the "by whom" bit is rather the point. You are required to supply the agent. Thus, you may not say "War was declared." You must instead say "War was declared by the English."
Capitalization
Capitalize titles when they are used in conjunction with an individual, but otherwise leave them in lower case. You would refer to popes generically in lower case; e.g., "The popes were important moral figures in Christendom." The individual Pope Boniface VIII gets capitalized. The same applies to kings, dukes, bishops, and so on.
Paragraphing
No one-sentence paragraphs. A paragraph has a specific function in the structure of writing. A paragraph that has but one sentence is a paragraph that is a topic or an idea with nothing to support it. In analytical writing, that means you literally have nothing to say but have only a stray fact that you don't know what to do with but can't bear to leave out. Either find some supporting information, or leave it out.
Paragraphs are, in fact, the most important building blocks of your writing. When you learn to write good paragraphs, you will learn to think clearly about your subject. When you have learned to think clearly about your subject, you will know how to write good paragraphs. It's very Zen.
That means it's very difficult, that you will never achieve perfection, but that you must always strive to improve. The paragraph is the level of writing that most closely parallels the level of argumentation, of interpretation and analysis. It's one of the most important writing skills you will learn, and it's one of the most difficult to teach, because it's like teaching rhythm in music. The teacher can talk about it and demonstrate it, but in the end, the student must acquire a feel for it.
Numbers
For numbers that are one hundred or less, use words. He was sixty-three years old. Twelve men served as jurors. For numbers greater than one hundred, numerals are ok, though simple numbers might still be used: ten thousand soldiers marched. But don't say there were seventeen thousand eight hundred and twenty three people in the town.
Spell out numbers zero through one hundred; also one thousand, one million, etc. The rule of thumb is that if you can write the number in two words, spell it out. If the number appears at the beginning of a sentence, always spell it out.
First Use
When you first refer to a person, use his or her full name, or as much of it as your sources give you. Same goes for things like the Roman Catholic Church, and so on. In other words, on first mention, be explicit; you can use shorthand thereafter.
Dates
I accept either Christian dating system: BC/AD or BCE/CE. "CE" stands for "Common Era" but since it corresponds exactly to "anno domini" it might just as well stand for "Christian Era." Because it still derives from a christo-centric chronology, I see no reason to use it, so all my dates are given BC/AD.
When referencing decades, do not put in an apostrophe. An apostrophe indicates possessive or a contraction, and when used in a date it is neither. Thus 1430's is not correct. The correct form is 1430s.
Relative Pronouns
When referring to abstractions, such as "the Church" or "the monarchy," you must use the neuter pronouns. A common mistake is to switch over to humans. Thus, this is not correct:
The Church became much more concerned with heresy around 1200. That's when they began the Inquisition.
Since the Church is singular and is not a person, "they" cannot be the correct pronoun. The correct pronoun is "it." It's very easy to make this mistake, so be on watch in your own writing.
"Which" is always set off with commas and is used to introduce a phrase referring to non-humans. Also, you should be able to drop the whole clause and the sentence should retain its meaning. Otherwise, use "that."
Who and Whom
"Who" is used as the subject of a sentence or clause. "Whom" is used as the object of a sentence, clause, or preposition. If you don't know the different between a subject and an object, go tell your English teacher you want your money back!
Split Infinitives
In English, the infinitive form of a verb has two parts: "to" and the verb. The "to" part must always be kept with the verb. My favorite violation of this rule is the Star Trek line: "to boldly go where no one has gone before." The correct form, of course, is "to go boldly where no one has gone before."
In commercial or other writing people it's frequently okay to split the infinitive (or: it's okay to frequently split the infinitive!). In formal writing, however, it is not. This is another one that's easy to do. Sometimes it's okay to split the infinitive, but only if you know you are doing it and are doing it for effect. For my assignments, as an exercise in writing, you will not split the infinitive.
How to Affect the Effective
"Effect" is a noun; "affect" is a verb. The former is most often used in reference to the results of an action. The latter is most often used in reference to influencing an action. The swing of a bat affects the trajectory of a baseball. The effect is a home run.
Therefore, "effective" is an adjective and "affective" is an adverb. The latter deals with matters of the heart; the former speaks to how thoroughly something is done.
One device you might use is "efficiency expert." Nobody talks about an "afficiency expert." So, "efficiency" = "efficient" = "effect."
Punctuation
Quotations of four lines or more will be indented left-right (both) and will be styled as a blockquote.
Sentence punctuation belongs inside quotation marks, but footnote references belong outside.
Avoid bulleted lists. Completely.
Ellipses (...) indicate missing text. That's all they indicate. They are not another form of sentence punctuation. Where the ellipses come at the end of a sentence, use a fourth period.
It's Elementary
Since contractions should not appear in formally writing, you should never find yourself writing "it's." "It's" means "it is" and you should write out the phrase.
If you find yourself writing "it's," turn it into "it is" and see if the phrase makes sense. If it doesn't, then you probably mean "its," which is the possessive form of "it."
There, Their
The same technique can be applied to "their" and "they're." Turn it into "they are." If your sentence no longer makes sense, you meant "their."
More problematic is "there" along with "their" and "they're." "There" is either a noun or an adverb, whereas "their" is a pronoun. That probably doesn't help much.
"There" indicates place, while "their" indicates people.
A Hopeful Problem
Do not misuse "hopefully." This is an adverb and in student writing is almost never appropriate. "Hopefully, the reader will gain understanding from this essay." What this sentence means to say is "I hope the reader will gain understanding." Well of course the writer hopes this. Remove "hopefully," however, and the sentence retains its meaning, and without the distraction of an adverb that does not modify the verb.
Problem Words
Here follows a list of words that I've found cause confusion for some students. Now that you have read the list, you will not make these mistakes.
The guys riding the horsies are cavalry. The place where Jesus was crucified was Calvary.
The things that shoot are cannons. The guys who pray are canons.
Pheasants are birds; peasants are people.