The administration and secondary faculty have adopted the following basic standard for writing and research at the secondary level at Greater Houlton Christian Academy, believing that holding students to a consistent, reasonable standard honors the Lord (Colossians 3:17, 23). All students will be expected to submit work that meets these minimal levels of expectations. Teachers may, at their own discretion, increase these standards for any of their assignments. Work not meeting these standards will not be accepted by the teacher and will be considered late until turned in with corrections.
Writing Standards |
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SENTENCES |
All sentences will start with a capital letter, be complete, and end with an appropriate end mark. |
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All answers will be written in complete sentences in every course. “Short answers” will be the exception rather than the rule. Teachers may require parts of answers to be highlighted to save correction time. |
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ORGANIZATION |
Students will use IBC (introduction-body-conclusion) format with good paragraphs. |
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MECHANICS |
Students will italicize, underline, or use quotation marks for titles and demonstrate correct use of apostrophes, capitalization, and spelling. |
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APPEARANCE |
Written work will be legible and not use all capital letters. |
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Written work will be neat with few corrections. |
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There will be no scribbling or doodling on written work. |
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All papers will use the correct GHCA heading:
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Research Standards
- All research papers and projects at GHCA must conform to MLA (Modern Language Association) format; all teachers will have a copy of the MLA style book and refer to it). Basic citations state the author and page number inside parentheses: e.g., (Smith 103).
- Any specific information not derived from common knowledge must be cited, whether it is quoted or paraphrased.
- Teachers may determine the quantity of Internet sources to be used for papers and projects as well as determine which Internet sources are acceptable for assignments.
- All research work must include note cards, typed notes, or a handwritten rough draft at the discretion of the teacher.
- Students may be required to have their papers typed.
