Secondary Style Guide

Secondary Style Sheet

Our expectations of excellence across the curriculum.

Capitalize:

The beginning of every sentence, names of people and places, important words in titles, the pronoun I.

Words that you Must Spell Correctly

Their	belongs to THEM	Its	Belongs to IT
There	over THERE, not here	It’s	It is awesome.
They’re	They are awesome.	a lot	A………………………………...lot.
Your	belongs to YOU	then	(time) First I heard, THEN I spoke.
You’re	You are awesome.	than	(compare) taller THAN you.

Punctuate:

. ! ? Every sentence needs end punctuation: exclamation points for emphasis, question marks for questions, periods any other time.

, Use commas to join clauses (ideas that are not their own full sentence) or to make lists of more than two items. Ex. Once we arrived, we tried to settle in, because we knew it would be a long night.

“...” Use quotation marks around dialogue or quotes from outside sources, NEVER for emphasis. Ex. “Hey kid,” he said.

: Use colons to introduce a list or a new idea. Ex. I bought some things for his birthday: a pen, a journal, a book, and a game.

; Use semicolons to join two closely related sentences together. Ex. I hate my birthday; I always end up crying.

(...) Use parenthesis to give detail. Ex. I went to Kawaikini (a public charter school).

… Use ellipses to leave a sentence in suspense or to show you’ve taken something out.

’ Use apostrophe to show a letter is missing. Ex. Can not = can’t Or to show ownership. Ex. Mary’s hat. The cat’s color. NEVER USE AN APOSTROPHE TO SHOW PLURAL.

Okina and Kahako: The Rule is ALL or NOTHING. If you have one okina, you need them all.

Sentences:

Complete sentences need a subject and a verb to express a complete thought.

Avoid run-on sentences (sentences that are too many clauses mushed together.)

Subjects and verbs need to agree (match) in number and tense.  Ex. This are a big problems!  Ex. We went to the store and we buy a drink.

Basic Homework Format

Include all of these things when you turn in finished work:

• Title of your work
• Your Name
• Date
• In Times New Roman Font
• 12 point font
• Double Space
• 1” margins
• Dark blue or black font or Pen color
• Each paragraph begins with an indent.

Essay Format

Introductory Paragraph: give us an interesting preview of what you’re going to say

Body Paragraphs: Present your evidence and proof, organized by topic.

Conclusion: Sum up your ideas, and leave us with parting wisdom.

Works cited page: list all of the sources that you used to learn about this topic.

APA Citation Format: See https://goo.gl/ZchGcb for indepth information on styles

Book Citations: Author name, publication year, Work Title, publication city, and publisher.

Article Citations: Author name, (publication year). “Article Title.” Publication.

What is GOOD writing?

Use specific nouns (Ex. We had a snack. We ate Ritz crackers with smooth peanut butter).

Hunt down and kill your to be verbs (is, am, are, was, were) and replace them with active verbs.

Kill your darlings. Get rid of extra words.

For essays, tell me what you’re going to say, say it, tell me what you said.

6 Traits of Good Writing Rubric (this is how we judge our writing)

Skill	Look for:
Sentence Fluency	Both long sentences and short sentences Natural sounding sentences. Words like although, after, because, before, if, since, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, and while that connect your ideas Active voice, not passive voice (not “the pizza was eaten by him” but “he ate the pizza”)
Voice	An honest tone, reveals self, appropriate tone, passionate about your ideas, respectful of audience, interesting to reader
Ideas	Your point is clear, you have proof for your point, your proof is accurate, your topic is narrow and focused not scattered, go beyond the obvious, you have fresh ideas
Word Choice	Powerful vocabulary, use imagery and figurative language, natural-sounding word choice, Use sensory details (sense words), concrete nouns, specific verbs. Avoid is, am, are, was, were, be.
Organization	Your point is clear from the beginning. Each paragraph has a clear topic sentence. Your main idea is supported by the whole essay, you have an interesting hook, the order you put things in makes sense, you have a satisfying conclusion, your essay goes from one idea to the other smoothly.
Conventions	Formatting: the font and font size are appropriate, words are spelled correctly, grammar is correct, punctuation is correct.

Note Taking

Use the Cornell method to take notes in all of your classes.