This sheet must accompany all written work that you hand in to me. You must check every line and you must sign it at the bottom. I will note problems with the appropriate number or the appropriate abbreviation.

1.___I have printed my paper in a 12 point font, double-spaced (single-space indented passages; no quotation marks required) with one inch margins using only one line for my name, class, and section number. Use italics (Ctrl "i") on all foreign words, book titles, movie titles, works of art, and titles of journals.      
                                                                                                                                                                                                       
2. ___I have not used any colloquialisms and have kept my writing at an academic level. For example, one believes (not feels) something to be true. Beliefs require reasons, but feelings require nothing but their expression.  DICTION                                                                       

3. ___Although a change of persons ("I," "we," "they") is sometimes necessary, I have not switched persons (e.g., from "we" to "they") when it is not appropriate

4. ___I have checked my pronoun agreement: "everyone takes her own cup" vs. "people prefer their own cultures."                                          

5. ___In order to avoid excluding men or women in my writing, I have alternated the gender of my examples or I have pluralized my pronoun references as much as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

6.___ I have checked my writing for incoherent structure (SYN), sentence fragments (sentences without a subject and a verb) (FRAG), and run-on sentences, ones that should be broken up into several sentences (RO)

7.___ I have made my dashes with two hyphens and not just one. Most word processors will automatically make the two hyphens into a dash. Please keep the hyphen as it is!

8. ___I have used ellipses (. . .) only to show missing words from a quotation.                                                                                                                                

9.___"Which" always introduces a subordinate clause and always has a comma before it whereas "that" does not. "Who" of course always refers back to a person.

10.___I have used the following words correctly: "its" is always possessive and "it’s" is a contraction for "it is." Similarly with "their" and "they’re" (=they are); "whose" and "who’s=who is."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

11. ___I have used the following singulars and plurals correctly: criterion-criteria; phenomenon-phenomena. Further is degree and farther is distance; principal is an adjective for "main" and principle is the noun; affect is the verb and effect is the noun; compliment is praise and to complement means adding to; it is between two things but among more than two things.                     

12. ___I have followed American (not English) rules in placing periods and commas before the quotation marks; colons and semicolons go after. Examples: ." ," ": and "; In American style single quotes are used only for quoting within double quotes.   Analytic philosophers sometimes use single quotes for terms and double quotes for quoting passages. Indented quotes do not require quotation marks.  Endnotes/footnotes appear at the end of all punctuation.         

13. ___ I have given proper attribution to all work not my own. All work not attributed to others is my own creative effort.   Your instructor has the addresses for all websites that offer papers off the net and also automatically check for plagiarism, so check this one carefully                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
14. ___I have used proper citation form with in-text references (Plato, line or page), with end quotes before first parenthesis and no other punctuation and final period after the second parenthesis.  You may also use footnotes/endnotes according to Chicago Manual of Style.  Bibliography of either citation form must conform to the Chicago Manual.  Click here for this manual and navigate using links on upper right.

15. ___I have spell checked my work on the computer and I have carefully proofread my paper at least once. I have a photocopy or back-up file of my work.