Submission of Writing in a Professional and Instructor-friendly manner
No need for a cover page. Your name, course number, assignment name, and date of writing or revising must appear on the first page at the top right. (Changge the date if you submit a revision.) Subsequent pages must contain your name and the page number.
Use 1" margins, a standard 10- or 12-point font such as Geneva or Times New Roman, respectively, and (preferably) one and half line spacing.
Proofread your work for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and coherence of paragraphs—Each paragraph should have one clear topic that is supported or developed by what is in it.
If you submit work electronically, rename your file so it begins with the course number then your initials. (Otherwise, it can get lost in the typical morass of files on the instructor's computer.) Do not submit it as .docx unless you are 100% sure that the instructor and fellow students who might comment on it use WORD 2007 (or a more recent version).
If writing is difficult for you, arrange assistance from a fellow student, the Graduate writing center (S-1-03, 617-287-5708) or a professional editor—do not expect the instructor to be your writing teacher.
Recommended:
- as guides to writing and revising: Elbow, Writing with Power; Daniel, et al. Take Charge of Your Writing; Kanar, "Improving your paragraph skills"; Conlin, "The basics of writing" (on password-protected site, using password provided by instructor).
- as a guide on technical matters of writing scholarly papers: Turabian, A Manual For Writers.