Writing Tips 1
Writing Tips
Prepared by Aurora Ventour
Email: aurora.ventour@open.uwi.edu
Writing Tips 2
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 2
Writing Tips for Essays ................................................................................................................ 3
Writing Tips for PowerPoint Presentations................................................................................ 3
Formatting Text for Submissions ............................................................................................... 4
Formatting Text for Submissions: APA Style (7th Edition) ........................................................ 5
Paragraphing ........................................................................................................................ 5
Font Size ................................................................................................................................. 6
Line Spacing .......................................................................................................................... 6
Page Numbers and Headers ............................................................................................... 7
Citations and References ........................................................................................................ 7
Editing References – Hanging Indentations........................................................................ 8
Sorting References in Alphabetical Order .......................................................................... 8
Introduction
This guide gives information on how to ensure you submit well-formatted assignments.
Use this guide together with the various resources on APA Style (7th Edition) found on the
course page when typing up your assignments. Together they can help you to submit
well-presented papers.
Practice paraphrasing (rewriting sentences from the journal articles, textbooks, etc. that
you read) and writing citations and references to improve the quality of your submissions.
Writing Tips 3
Writing Tips for Essays
1. All essays must have an introduction, body and a conclusion unless otherwise
stated.
2. In academic writing, you may use appropriately named sections if your essay asks
you to address multiple parts.
3. You must also include a reference section in academic writing.
4. The references you include must coincide with the citations you use in the body of
your essay. This means that your essays must include paraphrased material from
journal articles, websites, textbooks, pamphlets, etc.
5. The format of your citations and references must conform to APA Style (7th Edition)
conventions.
6. When writing essays, it is best to use correct mechanics (spelling, grammar,
punctuation and spacing).
Writing Tips for PowerPoint Presentations
1. All PowerPoint presentations must have a title page with at least your name, and
the title of the presentation.
2. The presentation must have an agenda or table of contents.
3. Each slide must have an appropriate title. A place to type in your title (also known
as a textbox) is usually placed at the top of the slide.
4. Slides should be written using appropriate colours, font style and font size. Bright
colours and fonts that are too large or too small make the slides look untidy and
difficult to read.
5. Slides should not have more than 2-3 points. Bullet points are not always necessary
but can be useful in helping you to organize your information.
6. When using graphics or images, ensure that they are not covering the information
you want on your slide.
7. Most presentations will ask for an introduction and conclusion. Refer to the rubric
for clear information on this.
8. You will also need to use citations and include a reference section.
9. The references you include must coincide with the citations you use in the body of
your essay. This means that your essays must include paraphrased material from
journal articles, websites, textbooks, pamphlets, etc.
10. The format of your citations and references must conform to APA Style (7th Edition)
conventions.
11. When writing essays, it is best to use correct mechanics (spelling, grammar,
punctuation and spacing).
Writing Tips 4
Formatting Text for Submissions
The following are some tips on making posts in the discussion forum or writing essays:
If you know that you have difficulty with mechanics, use Microsoft Word. The software has
a built-in spelling and grammar check. You may need to adjust the Options to ensure
that these features are enabled.
In Microsoft Word, once errors are picked up, they are highlighted in three different ways.
Right click on the word that is underlined to see options for corrections. If you are certain
you have typed it correctly, ignore the options.
• Underlined in red means you have misspelled a word or failed to capitalize a
known proper noun like monday.
• Underlined in green or double blue lines means you have a grammatical error or
left too many spaces after a word, before a punctuation mark or failed to use a
capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. Punctuation marks come directly
after the word; there is no need to put a space before a full stop, comma,
semicolon, colon, or question mark. The space comes after the punctuation mark.
• Underlined with double blue lines can also mean that you have either separated
two words usually placed together like can not (cannot) or used the homophone
of a word like “their” instead of “there”.
• Underlined with broken blue lines means you need to review your sentence or list
and apply a comma. For example, “…marked on grammar and spelling, graphics,
organization and layout” is a list in a sentence. Word might recommend inserting
a comma after organization.
• Broken blue lines can also mean that you can rephrase your statement, clause,
phrase, differently using fewer words.
Sometimes Word will underline in green or double blue lines if your subject and verb do
not agree. Sometimes it will not. Be sure to re-read everything you write before posting.
Once you are satisfied with your work, you can use keyboard shortcuts to take the work
to the Learning Exchange.
• Ctrl+A will select everything on the page.
• Ctrl+C will copy the selected items.
• Ctrl+X will cut the select items. If you do this, ensure you are pasting it somewhere
right away. You can lose your work this way. Please be careful.
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• Ctrl+V will paste the items wherever you want them to go. This is the easiest way
to copy text to the discussion forum box.
• Ctrl+Z will undo the last action you did. This can save you if you accidentally cut
and forgot to paste.
• Ctrl+Y will redo the last action.
Formatting Text for Submissions: APA Style (7th Edition)
All Office Applications come with built-in Referencing features. If you are comfortable
using these, be sure that the referencing style is set to the correct edition of APA Style. At
present, Office has APA Style (6th Edition). This format is no longer used and is being
phased out by the 7th Edition.
Avoid using the built-in features at this time.
Formatting your document according to APA Style (7th Edition) requires special
consideration for:
• Paragraphing
• Font size
• Line spacing
• Page numbers and headers
Paragraphing
Indent the first line of each paragraph of your introduction, body, and conclusion. To do
this, place your cursor at the beginning of the sentence and hit Tab on your keyboard.
Justify all text to the left. To do this, select all the text in your assignment and hit Ctrl and L
on your keyboard. You can also use the paragraph toolbar. See Fig. 1 below.
Writing Tips 6
Fig. 1. The left justified button is highlighted.
Font Size
Set your font size to 12 before starting or select all your text by hitting Ctrl and A on your
keyboard, then click on the Font size drop down menu and select 12. See Fig. 2 below.
Fig. 2. The down arrow makes the font size list drop down.
Line Spacing
Set your line spacing to double (2.0) for the entire submission; this includes your reference
section as well. To do this, select all your text by hitting Ctrl and A on your keyboard, then
click on the line spacing icon and select 2.0. See Fig. 3 below.
Fig. 3. The down arrow makes the line spacing list drop down.
Writing Tips 7
Page Numbers and Headers
Include page numbers. To do this, click Insert on the menu bar, then click on the drop
down arrow for Page Number. Insert page numbers at the top right.
You should also include a header before the page number after the page number is
inserted.
This you can do by double clicking on the page number and positioning your cursor when
the header opens. Type an appropriate header (shortened title of your assignment).
Citations and References
Include citations for any information you write that you got from another source. In
academic writing, even when you are asked for your opinion, you need to use research
to answer the question and support your position.
o Citations can be written as part of the main sentence. For example: Berk (2007)
notes that the age of the mother age of the mother at conception is influential in the
development of chromosomal abnormalities. In the example, Berk is the subject of the
sentence. We put the year that she wrote the information on prenatal development in
parentheses.
o Citations can also be written as an extension of the sentence. For example: The
age of the mother at conception is influential in the development of chromosomal
abnormalities (Berk, 2007). In the example, the information is given, and a citation is
provided for the reader to see where the information comes from. The author and year
of publication are placed in parentheses just before the full stop that closes the sentence.
Ensure that all citations have an accompanying reference in the references that you
write at the end of your assignment. See the Referencing Examples on the course page
for assistance with how to write references.
Writing Tips 8
Editing References – Hanging Indentations
Use the hanging indent (0.5”) to present your references. To do this, select all of the
references you have written in the reference section, click on the corner arrow to access
the Paragraph menu. See Fig. 4 below.
Fig. 4. Clicking on the arrow opens the Paragraph menu.
Go to Special, select Hanging from the menu, and by 0.5”. See Fig. 5 below
Fig. 5. Setting the Special to Hanging and By to 0.5” will make all your references into
hanging indents.
Sorting References in Alphabetical Order
Sort your references in alphabetical order. To do this, select all of your references, then
clock on the “sort” icon in the Paragraph toolbar. See Fig. 6 below.
Writing Tips 9
Fig. 6. Clicking the sorter will alphabetize your reference list
