General Issues from Opinion Essay Two

As you prepare your future opinion essays, there are a few things to keep in mind that came up as I graded the second batch.

• Check formats for titles.  When you give the title of an essay or news article, you should put quotation marks around it.  When you give the title of a book or newspaper, you should italicize it.  See the bottom of this webpage for further information.
• Check uses of quotations.  Do not just drop a quotation into a sentence.  Instead, integrate your quotations into your sentences as smoothly as possible.  Any quotation you use needs to be used in such a way that the entire sentence, including your introductory phrase, is grammatically correct so readers do not get confused.  Also, a quotation within a quotation needs to be surrounded by single quotation marks, not double ones.  This webpage offers more guidance.
• Mention articles as smoothly as possible.  Several people had rather awkward phrases like, "In an article by Joseph Stanton called 'Racism Still a Problem,' he writes, 'blah, blah, blah."  It's much simpler to write, "In 'Racism is Still a Problem,' Joseph Stanton writes, 'blah, blah, blah."  Often people take more words than necessary to say something rather simple.  Keep it simple.