Quotes and punctuation:

Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even inside single quotes. Example: As for the appeal for a “moral cleansing of the Presidency,” or legitimacy (conscience), Barber suggested that …. (Nelson 2006, 186).

Italicize newspaper titles

Capitalize words

such as Congress, President, etc.

ex.: U.S. Congress and Congress (referring to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives). Lowercase “congressional” unless it is part of a proper name.
Do not capitalize random words such as “Frown” or “Smile”

A congress is a gathering of people, but Congress is a specific legislature

A democrat supports democracy, but a Democrat identifies with or is a member of the Democratic party.

An independent is not a member of any political party and should not be capitalized.

Capitalize Democratic party or Republican party and a Democrat or a Republican, but not a republican form of government or democracy. 

Adjectives are not capitalized (unless they begin a sentence). This is why you do not capitalize words like presidential or congressional. The names of social movements are proper nouns, therefore, capitalize Civil Rights Movement, Labor Movement, and Christian Right.

Avoid the passive voice

Some problems have been observed. (That’s passive — we don’t know who is observing the problems. That’s a problem for us, since we want to know who is doing this action. The passive voice keeps us in the dark about who is conducting the action — “mistakes were made.” By who?)

When discussing what an author says, cite the author, him or herself, not the article

i.e. do not say, “the article says that … ” or “the book says that …” Say, “Smith argues that …” or “Brown contends …” or “Gregory’s main point…” etc.

Keep your verbs in the same tense

What is wrong with this sentence? Smith explains that he does not like Chex. He gave a perfect example of his dislike when …