What effect did Industrialization have on urban spaces in the United States in the late 19th Century (1870 to 1900)?

1. Do not use the phrase “a lot”. Ever.

1. Paragraphs, paragraphs, paragraphs. Each paragraph should have a thesis sentence; that is, it should have an opinion. Paragraphs, like sentences should be short. If your paragraph takes up the entire page, it is too long.

1. Do not confuse “of” and “have”: for example “must of had” is wrong; “must have had” is correct.

1. Never, ever, ever start a sentence with a conjunction. A conjunction is a word that joins two sentences or phrases. The three conjunctions are “and”, “but”, and “or”. If you can say “this and that”, “this or that”, “this cat but that dog”, you CANNOT start a sentence with the conjunction.

1. Speaking of “this” and “that”, if your pronouns outnumber your concrete nouns, you are in trouble. Limit your pronoun usage.

1. Never use contractions in an essay. Always write out numbers (thirteen, not 13), except for dates.

1. In an essay, you want to be as specific as possible, and always define your terms. In other words, assume the reader is an idiot.

1. Do NOT parrot my lectures. Each paragraph should have at least one original thought /idea/analysis supported by facts.

1. Watch your word choices, read your paper in your head to see if it “flows” and to catch grammatical mistakes and in history essays write in the past tense.

1. Articles that are used with nouns are “a”, “an”, and “the”. Not all nouns are modified by articles. A good rule to follow is nouns that can be counted are modified by articles (one student, two students, three students, ahh ahh ahh….so “a student” or “the student”). Uncountable nouns generally do not take articles: for example, we don’t say three homeworks, therefore we don’t write “a homework”.

11. Write an introduction AND a conclusion. Always.

12. Do NOT use sources such as Wikipedia, answers.com, essay.com, ezessays.com, ask.com, etc. They are almost always wrong.

13. PROOFREAD!

Sample Outline

1. Introduction
2. Thesis Statement for Essay
3. Point One
4. Point Two
5. Point Three
6. Emphasize Thesis for Essay

1. Paragraph One
2. Thesis Statement for Paragraph One
3. Point One
4. Point Two
5. Point Three
6. Wrap up paragraph one and introduce paragraph two

1. Paragraph Two
2. Thesis statement for Paragraph Two
3. Point One
4. Point Two
5. Point Three
6. Wrap up paragraph two and introduce paragraph three

1. Paragraph Three
2. Thesis statement for Paragraph Three
3. Point One
4. Point Two
5. Point Three
6. Wrap up paragraph three

1. Conclusion
2. Restate essay thesis statement
3. wrap up essay