Quotation marks: as written on the board in class, “quotation marks look like this” as opposed to ‘quotation marks look like this.’ The single mark quote mark in American English is reserved for quotes within quotes.
Rhetorical use of questions: questions should be used sparingly. Once or twice a paper – and the answer should be clearly provided. I generally don’t like the technique. I loathe the common habbit of stacking 2 to 3 questions in a row. This is likely from early drafts which are written before the writer has a clear idea for themselves of what they think. That’s fine for a rough draft – but by the final draft papers should have a point of view and take a position. Commit to a statement.
The word “controversy”: I’m not sure why this word is used so often, and I’m not sure why I cringe so often when I read it – but it is definitely overused.
“Someone once said”: this is a red flag for unsubstantiated opinions and disguising uninformed personal opinions. I’ve seen a couple examples where “someone said” is followed with a quote with parenthetical citation. if Smith said something, say “Smith said, ‘blah blah blah.'” Probably just padding for word count – but that’s anti-social at best. As a reader, it puts me in a bad mood.
Spell out acronyms the first time you use them. I like to use the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) developed by Jacques Cousteau as an example in class. You gotta spell out acronyms – and it just makes sense that we won’t know what it means until it’s spelled out.
Our consistent goal as writers is to avoid confusion
