Writing Exercise 3

Objective: The point of this exercise is simply to ensure that everyone understands the conventions for formatting writing assignments in proper "English-class fashion," following each of the guidelines listed on my simple stuff page.

Read all instructions carefully—you will need to pay attention to detail, but there is no good reason for earning anything less than an A on this assignment.

Refer carefully to all "SS" items on the Simple Stuff page as you complete the assignment.  Your grade will be determined solely on your adherence to the guidelines for formatting and presentation outlined in the Simple Stuff page.

Part I. Format your document in MS Word (or some comparable word-processing software) following MLA format as described in the simple stuff, including some appropriate title of your own choosing.  Then copy and paste the paragraph below into the body of the text as if it were the introductory paragraph in your essay:

Greg Maddux was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in July 2014.  Maddux, whose career included eleven years with the Atlanta Braves, may be the greatest pitcher of all time.  He won the NL Cy Young Award for the league's most outstanding pitcher four consecutive years (three with the Braves), and he received a stunning eighteen Gold Glove awards for the best-fielding player at his position.  His 355 career victories is surpassed by only one pitcher since the 1920s, Warren Spahn, who also pitched for the Braves.  What makes Maddux's accomplishments all the more amazing is that he was not an overpowering fastball pitcher, but a spectacularly accurate control pitcher in an insurance salesman's body.  Beyond having obvious natural talent, the secret to Maddux's success lay in his intelligence, his uncanny memory, and his careful studying of opposing hitters and his keeping them guessing as to pitch selection and location.  One after another of the era's most outstanding hitters tell stories of being baffled and looking like overmatched amateurs as they swung and missed at 87 m.p.h. fastballs or swung for the fences and dinked soft rollers to second base or shortstop.  Among the countless tales of Maddux's wizardry on the mound are such gems as this: one time on a dare, a San Diego Padres coach caught Maddux pitching from the bullpen mound with his eyes closed.  Maddux didn't miss his target even once.  In short, we are lucky to be alive at the same time as Greg Maddux, and we ought to carve out a minute or so in our busy schedules each and every day to pause and contemplate his greatness.  I am serious.  We should honor and worship Greg Maddux, all of us, on a daily basis for as long as we live.

Part II. On a separate page, with the words "Works Cited" centered at the top, copy and paste the two works cited entries below, taking care that they are formatted correctly to match the rest of your document:.

Mazzone, Leo, and Scott Freeman.  Leo Mazzone’s Tales from the Braves Mound.  Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, 2003. Print.

Rogers, Arthur L. Showing Our Appreciation for Greg Maddux: 1001 Ways to Honor Mad Dog in Our Daily Lives. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New York: Most Unlikely Books, 2014. Print.

Microsoft Word Note: to make a page break after the intro paragraph (to start a new page for the works cited page), press the control and enter keys simultaneously.

Be sure to follow all guidelines set forth on the Simple Stuff page regarding margins, fonts and font sizes, margin justification, titles, headers, listing of your name, course and section, etc.

Turning your work in: Save your work as one single document (page 1 and works cited page), and upload it into the Writing Exercise 3 Dropbox in Brightspace D2L.