There are strict rules that must be followed when writing the titles of full-length books, articles from periodicals and newspapers, and shorter works, such as essays, poems, plays, films, short stories, television and radio programs, etc.

The titles of full-length books should be written in italics, as in the following: The Kite Runner. The author’s name should not be italicized. In fact, the writer’s name should never be given any special treatment in terms of font, underlining, etc. It should always be presented in regular font. Although italicizing the title of a book is the preferred method, it is also acceptable to underline the name, as in the following: Moby Dick. You should not both underline and italicize a title. Neither should you use quotation marks for the titles of full-length books. The names of periodicals and newspapers should, like the titles of books, be italicized or underlined, as in The Wall Street Journal.

The titles of lengthy reports and other long documents, whether or not they have been published, should also be italicized or underlined, as in Effects of Global Warming on the Antarctic Ice Shelf.

Shorter documents may be enclosed in quotation marks, as in “Shakespeare’s Use of Humor In His Historical Plays,” or they may be written without any special notation or punctuation.

Newspaper and periodical articles should always be enclosed in quotation marks, as in “Big Money Still Learning to Lobby” by Jenny Anderson (The New York Times, March 13, 2007, page C1).

The title of a short story, play, poem, musical piece, movie, television or radio program, work of art, or other short literary composition should be enclosed in quotation marks, as in the following example: “The New Colossus.”

Even though there are situations in which these guidelines may be altered, in general, they should be followed, as explained above.

What is wrong with the following sentence?

To solve the problem of global warming, you have to develop a strategy to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels by the industrialized nations of the world.

The problem with that sentence involves the use of the personal pronoun you. The word is not being used in its true sense—as a word that is being used to refer to…you, the reader. The intent of the writer of that sentence is to suggest that the industrialized nations of the world, or, more specifically, political leaders and others in positions of prominence, should develop strategies to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere. The writer is not expecting that you, the reader, (or, for that matter, huge numbers of readers, if you is being used as a plural possessive pronoun) will be the one to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The sentence would be more correctly written as follows:

To solve the problem of global warming, political leaders and others in positions of prominence have to develop a strategy to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels by the industrialized nations of the world.

Or, the writer could have written:

To solve the problem of global warming, you, as citizen of the world, have to develop a strategy to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels by the industrialized nations of the world.

That would solve the problem of the use of the personal pronoun you, although the logic of an individual being able to solve a complex problem such as that involving greenhouse gases is weak.

The point of this discussion is the use of personal pronouns in academic papers. In general, in academic writing, it is not appropriate to refer to the reader or to the writer directly. The writer should, as much as possible, maintain distance between him or herself and the reader, and, for that matter, to the subject under discussion. The essay, report, or research paper should appear to have been written by an impersonal writer who is not directly addressing the reader. Therefore, the following pronouns should not be used, except in particular instances: you, we, I, me, and our.

This, of course, does not apply to journals, sections in research reports in which the writer discusses his or her involvement in the subject, portions of a document in which it is necessary and appropriate to directly address the reader, or in more informal types of writing.

In general, it is customary for the writer of an academic document to distance himself or herself from both the subject and the audience. That brings us to the problem of the passive voice, which college instructors warn against. The passive voice refers to sentences in which something is done to the subject, rather than the subject doing the something. The following is an example of the use of the passive voice:

Global warming needs to be immediately addressed because, not to do so, will result in climactic and other consequences which will be impossible to correct.

In a piece of informal writing, such as the blog that you are reading or a memo or an email or a letter, the sentence could be written as follows:

You and I should immediately address the problem of global warming because, not to do so, will result in climactic and other consequences which will be impossible to correct.

In a piece of academic writing, however, the way to avoid the passive voice, and still refrain from using personal pronouns, is to name a third party subject, as in the following:

The leaders of all of the nations of the world need to immediately address the problem of global warming because, not to do so, will result in climactic and other consequences which will be impossible to correct.

Remember, as the writer of a piece of academic writing, you (as I said, this blog is a type of informal writing, so I am allowed to use personal pronouns such as you) must distance yourself from both the subject and the audience.

Contractions are, of course, shortened versions of two word phrases. The meaning of “contract” is to shorten, lessen, or shrink. Contractions are used more often in conversation than in written work, and, in fact, they are considered inappropriate in most academic and business writing. Nevertheless, it is important to know how to spell and how to use them.

Contractions are generally created by dropping a letter or two from the second word of a two-word phrase, inserting an apostrophe in place of the deleted letter or letters, and then combining the two words into one. Here are some common examples:

• Do not becomes don’t
• Is not becomes isn’t
• You will becomes you’ll
• It is becomes it’s

Before I continue, let’s (a contraction of let us) consider it’s. That contraction is often incorrectly used when the possessive pronoun its should be used. Here are examples of the correct uses of it’s and its:

• We decided not to go to the beach because it’s about to rain. (contraction)
• The dog found its way home. (possessive pronoun)

The confusion involving the use of its and it’s lies in the fact that apostrophes are used for possession, as in That is my friend’s house. Therefore, it might seem logical that apostrophes should be used in possessive pronouns too. But…they are not. The following are possessive pronouns: its, his, hers, yours, theirs, and ours.

Now, to return to the use of contractions, it is important to use the correct contraction in terms of number, meaning singular or plural. For instance:

• It is incorrect to write: He don’t want to eat his dinner. It should be He doesn’t want to eat his dinner.
• They isn’t going to be ready is wrong. It should be They aren’t going to be ready.

Some contractions seem to be different from the typical ones. For instance, can’t is not derived from the contraction of two words, as in the case of other contractions. It is the contraction of one word, cannot. By the way, that is how that word should be spelled—as one word. It is incorrect to write can not. In fact, there is no such word combination as can not. Another odd one is won’t. It is a contraction of will not. Most people in the U.S. do not use shan’t, but it the correct contraction of shall not.

And, remember, while contractions are normally used in conversation, they are generally considered to be inappropriate in academic writing. In other words, during a chat, it is fine to say, Sometimes, it isn’t possible to communicate an idea to other people. However, in a college paper, you would write, Sometimes, it is not possible to communicate an idea to other people.

The homelessness situation in Chicago is the worst.

Well, you may ask, what does that mean? It does not mean anything because of two serious, fairly common mistakes. They both have to do with the use of the word worst. Worst is the superlative form of bad or troublesome or some other adjective that refers to a negative situation or condition. In order to understand what is wrong with the use of worst in that sentence, and before it can be corrected, you must first understand how and when to use comparatives and superlatives.

Adjectives and adverbs can be used to convey three levels of influence. Let’s discuss adjectives first. When you are describing a person, place, thing, or idea, you should use the regular form of an adjective, such as happy, angry, or hungry. Look at the following examples:

The boy is smart.

Florence seems to be angry.

If you want to move the expression up a notch in terms of intensity, you would use the comparative form of the adjective, as in the following:

The boy is smarter than his brother.

Florence seems to be angrier than she was before.

In both cases, the comparative form has to be weighed against someone or something. It would not be correct or meaningful to write The boy is smarter or Florence seems to be angrier.

Now, if you wanted to express the fact that the boy’s intelligence or that Florence’s anger is beyond comparison to that of everyone else’s, you would use the superlative form:

The boy is the smartest in his class.

Florence seems to be the angriest that I have ever known her to be.

When you are using a superlative, it must be compared to others—not to one other, but to at least two others or to more than one situation. Since the boy’s intelligence is being compared to that of the other children in his class, it is assumed that there are at least two other children. That is why smartest is used. Florence’s anger is being compared to more than one other instance of anger. That is why angriest is used.

The father of two children, for instance, should not say or write, She’s my oldest daughter. That implies that he has at least three children. He should say, instead, She’s my older daughter. In that case, the comparative form of the adjective old is being used in reference to his two daughters.

Comparatives and superlatives are used with adverbs also, as in the following examples:

The little boy ran quickly. (Positive form)

The little boy ran more quickly than his friend. (Comparative form)

The little boy ran the most quickly out of all of his friends. (Superlative form)

Again, the comparative form must be used in relation to one other person or instance of something, and the superlative form must be used against two or more persons or instances.

Now, let us return to the original sentence:

The homelessness situation in Chicago is the worst. It would be correctly written in either of the following ways:

The homelessness situation in Chicago is worse than it was last year. That is a correct use of the comparative form.

Or

The homelessness situation in Chicago is the worst that it has ever been. That is a correct use of the superlative form.

To sum up, something can be good; one thing can be better than another; one thing can be the best out of three or more things.