Kintster Writing

Page Format

In all writing tasks, it should be:

in standard A4 pages

12 pt. New Times Romans

Double spaced

with margins 1 inch (2.5 cm from each side)

word count is at least 275 words each page

text alignment on the let and no justification

no additional spaces and empty lines between paragraphs

place page numbers at the upper right-hand corner

Avoid Plagiarism

Before writing any paper, make sure you understand how to cite:

- another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;

- any information (facts, statistics, graphs, drawings) that is not common knowledge

- quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words;

- paraphrases or summaries of another person’s spoken or written words.

To avoid plagiarism-detected papers, please read carefully the following tips.

When writing a paper, try to use your own words the majority of the time. Avoid numerous and lengthy quotations. A general rule: keep long quotes down to no more than one per page and no more than 2 short quotes per page. The more quotes you use, the less originality you display.

Do not over-rely on one or two sources. When you do use another person’s words, use quotation marks and give credit to the source, either within the text or in a footnote.

Don’t make slight variations in the language and then fail to give credit to the source. If the expression is essentially the same, the author still deserves credit.

Even if you aren’t directly quoting the material, you should still document information and ideas that you use in your paper whenever they are new to you (i.e., something that you discovered in your research).

Information taken from the World Wide Web needs to be cited just the same as information from an article or a book.

Structure

Essay, Case Study, Book Review, Movie Review

Introduction, Body, and Conclusion

Essay must be well structured and presented in a way that the reader finds easy to follow and clear: it must look tidy and not present any obstacles to the reader. It must have a clear readable interesting style. But, above all, it must consist of your ideas about literary texts. Essays are concise, and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from the purpose.

Case study presents an account of what happened to a business or industry over a number of years. It chronicles the events that managers had to deal with, such as changes in the competitive environment, and charts the managers’ response, which usually involved changing the business- or corporate-level strategy.

Book review tells not only what the book is about, but must also successfully express the message or theme of the book. Professors often assign book reviews as practice in careful analytical reading. As a reviewer, you bring together two strands of accurate, analytical reading and strong, personal response when you indicate what the book is about and what it might mean to a reader (by explaining what it meant to you). In other words, reviewers answer not only the WHAT but the SO WHAT question about a book. Thus, in writing a review, you combine the skills of describing what is on the page, analyzing how the book tried to achieve its purpose, and expressing your own reactions.

Movie review. Before you even see the movie, get to know a little about it. What have the actors and director worked on before? Maybe check out some of their past work. Are they Oscar winners? Are they known for a certain style? Is the movie based on a book or an historical event? Is it a remake or a sequel? Look into those kind of things. All of this information will help you understand the movie better. You’ll pick up on details, allusions, trademarks of the actor or director, and probably have more insight into important story elements. You’ll be able to tell readers how it lived up to the original, say, or the book.

Reaction Paper

This is an analytical assignment as opposed to a descriptive task. However, a small amount of description will be necessary as you answer the questions.

* Begin with a brief summary of the article (no more than one paragraph).  The first sentence should include the title of the article (i.e. In this article, _________, the author.)  The summary should include the author’s thesis and the main points that support his thesis and argument.

* Concisely re-state the main thesis made by the author in the article.  Briefly explain why you think it is the main idea.

* What information does the author provide to support his/her argument?  Is the information convincingly supportive?  Explain. Identify & explain any concepts or theories from the textbook that is pertinent to this article.  Clearly state the pertinence in each case.  Be sure to identify the concept and the textbook pages where they are discussed.

* How has this article impacted your thinking?  Did you like or dislike it?  Did it have “shock value”?  How does it relate to your life? How will you integrate the exposure of this literature into your professional path?

* Have fun with this.  If you would like to include an artistic expression, song, poem, suggest a movie, or any other appropriate element that helps you express your feelings about the subject –please share.  This addition can allow your reaction to reach a deeper level of identity.   The goal is to become impassioned about life and all that it offers.