1.E.1. Neatness.

I am concerned much more with what your papers say than with how they look but, when you are given time outside of class to prepare them, as you are here, I expect something legible, at the very least typewritten. In an age of computers and keyboards the ability to type is a must in virtually every field. Even car mechanics have to type these days. If your keyboarding skills are limited, now's the time to learn.

What's "neat"? In this class, neatness entails the use of a standard format acceptable to most editors, which means your papers should be formatted in the following way:

*one-inch margins all around
*12-point character width
*Times New Roman font (or some other professional-looking font—definitely no cursives!—and please check with me before you use a font other than Times New Roman)
*double-spaced
*black ink
*indent paragraphs
*no empty line(s) between paragraphs
*and no right-margin justification.

A title page is unnecessary if the paper includes your name, the name of the assignment and the date you turned in the paper—single-space these three items—in the upper right-hand corner of the first page. Any paper of more than one page must be stapled in the upper-lefthand corner. Dog-earring is absolutely forbidden! Foreign words and the titles of literary and historical works should be italicized or underlined, including "The" or "A" if the title begins with an article.

So, before you turn it in, look your paper over for blank spaces and any general flaws in its presentation. Only papers which meet these basic professional courtesies and look formal in a way appropriate to formal education will be accepted for credit in this class.