Tutor profile: Chloe C.

How much personality is too much personality for a piece of academic writing?

How much of your own personality your work should have can be easily gaged by how much it is taking away or adding to the overall intention of the work. It is also important to note who your audience is, and what type of piece of writing it is. Consider, for example, if an instructor expects lab reports filled with details of an experiment. A sense of humor may make it fun to read, but being coy about whether or not the numbers and charts are true by ending your report with "Or did it?" makes your data collecting efforts seem futile.

In her poem 'Caged Bird,' what concrete details does Maya Angelou give the reader that hint at why the caged bird in her poem sings?

Because we are only looking for concrete details about the bird's physical experience, the answers can be found in the second and fifth stanzas. His cage is narrow, his wings are clipped, and his feet are tied. It may be tempting to add being unable to see through his bars to this list, but the bars being made of "rage" qualifies this detail as an abstraction.

What is the general format of the MLA style?

-Double-spaced text in clear, 12 pt font (ie Times New Roman) -Printed on standard 8.5 x 11-inch paper -1 inch margins on all four sides -A header in the upper right-hand corner that numbers all pages consecutively