U.S. Academic Style

• Consider your purpose and audience carefully, making sure that your topic is appropriate to both. (Chapter 5)
• State your claim or thesis explicitly, and support it with examples, statistics, anecdotes, and authorities of various kinds. (Chapter 7)
• Carefully document all of your sources. (Chapters 49–55)
• Make explicit links between ideas. (Chapter 8)
• Consistently use the appropriate level of formality. (Chapter 23)
• Use conventional formats for academic genres. (Chapters 3–4 and 61–64)
• Use conventional grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics. (Chapters 31–48)
• Use an easy-to-read type size and typeface, conventional margins, and double spacing. (Chapter 9)