"It was a dark and stormy
night"...
Good writing takes enormous
concentration.
Snoopy/C. Schulz
1988 American
Writing essays, term papers, lab reports,
etc. no matter the topic, is a process:
Establish, narrow, and define your
topic
State your
thesis or theme in a sentence or two at most
Define your audience
Is it your
instructor who grades you or a teaching assistant?
Your
classmates who will critique your work?
A conference
of professionals for review?
Keep your audience in mind as you write
Plan ahead
Set a time
line and allow for unexpected developments and planned revision
Gather
resources
People: instructor, teaching assistant, research
librarian, tutor, subject matter experts, professionals
References: text book, reference works, web sites,
journals, diaries, professional reports
Research:
Read,
interview, experiment, gather data, etc. and take notes completely as possible
and document sources.
Either use
index cards or a system in word processing...
Organize
your notes with a prewriting exercise:
focused
freewriting, brainstorming, mapping, and/or outlining
Write your first (rough) draft
Determine how
you will develop your argument: Use
good logic in a reasoned argument to develop the theme
and/or
support the thesis. Will you compare or
define? Will you criticize or describe?
Your first paragraph
Introduce the topic!
Inform the reader of your point
of view!
Entice the reader to continue
with the rest of the paper!
Focus on three main points to
develop
The first paragraph is often the most
difficult to write. If you have
trouble, just get it down with the intention of
re-writing it later, even after you
have finished with the rest. But
remember this first entry draws your audience into
your topic, your perspective, and its
importance to continue with the rest.
So:
Development
Establish flow from paragraph to
paragraph
--transition sentences,
clauses, or words at the beginning of paragraph connect one idea to
the next
--topic sentences in each paragraph, also near the
beginning, define their place in the overall scheme
--avoid one and two
sentence paragraphs which may reflect lack of development of your point
Keep your voice active
"The Academic
Committee decided..." not "It was decided by..."
Avoid the verb "to
be" for clear, dynamic, and effective presentation
(Avoid the verb "to
be" and your presentation will be effective, clear, and dynamic)
Avoiding "to be"
will also avoid the passive voice
Use quotations to support your
interpretations
Properly introduce,
explain, and cite each quote
Block (indented) quotes
should be used sparingly; they can break up the flow of your argument
Continually prove your point of
view throughout the essay
Don't drift or leave its
primary focus of the essay
Don't lapse into summary in
the development--wait until its time, at the conclusion
Conclusion
Read your first paragraph and
the development
Summarize, then conclude, your
argument
Refer back (once again) to the first paragraph(s) as
well as the development
do the last paragraphs
briefly restate the main ideas?
reflect the succession and
importance of the arguments?
logically conclude their development?
Edit/rewrite the first paragraph
to better set your development and conclusion
Take a day or two off!
Re-read your paper with a fresh mind
and a sharp pencil.
Edit, correct, and re-write as
necessary
Turn in the paper
Celebrate a job well done, with the
confidence that you have done your best.
This last is very
important.
Portions adapted with permission from K. Austin
Kerr, Some Tips on Writing Papers for History Courses, Ohio State University.
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DR. O’s WRITING CRITIQUE
In order to help students write the
best papers, I have devised this sheet listing students' most common writing
errors. These mistakes are usually the
result of a lack of training in how to construct an argument and probably do
not reflect upon the students' intelligence and ability. Please look this list over and check to make
sure you have not committed these errors.
I. Errors of presenting the argument.
Below are common mistakes that students make that weaken the argument they are
trying to construct.
1. Thesis
not clearly stated. What, exactly are
you attempting to argue?
2. Example
presented is not appropriate to thesis or point made is irrelevant to the
argument.
3.
Tangential. This is interesting and not entirely irrelevant, but it is not
altogether pertinent to the argument you are making. You could make better use
of your limited space by "cutting to the chase" more.
4. Vague
and unclear. What exactly do you mean by this?
5. Too
descriptive. Analysis needed here.
6. This
contradicts a point you made earlier.
7. This is
redundant--you have already said this.
8.
Over-generalization. You are drawing
too broad a conclusion from limited evidence.
9. Punch up
your argument here--briefly restate your thesis and link this point firmly to
it.
10. Develop
this idea more--give me an example or say exactly why you think this is
important to your argument.
11. Say
this more clearly and directly--stop waffling!
12. Be more
specific and concrete--perhaps give an example.
13. How do
you know this? Where is your evidence
for this?
II.
Errors of presentation. These errors are stylistic. Style is important
in scholarly writing because it reflects careful attention to how we use
language.
14. Verb
tense. Pick either past or present
tense and stay in it. Past tense is preferable for historical writing.
15. Unclear
antecedents. To which previous person or idea does this phrase or action or
idea refer? Example: “Ute women and government employees clashed over their use
of restraints for infants.” Whose use
of restraints, The Ute women or the government? This also happens when you list
2 or 3 ideas and then draw some sort of conclusion about one of them.
16. Rough
transition. Your argument is not flowing logically from point to point. Rather,
it is rambling without clear focus.
17. Is this
really the word you want?
18. Too
colloquial, that is, acceptable for ordinary conversation, but not appropriate
for a formal paper.
19. Passive
sentence construction--make this active. EXAMPLES: Passive: The coal was brutally
ripped from the earth by Skyline Coal Company.
Active: Skyline Coal Company brutally ripped the coal
from the earth. Making your sentence
active means someone or thing is performing an action and is, therefore,
accountable. A passive sentence has no
clear actor and thus no one is really accountable for her/is behavior. Some
passive sentences are unavoidable because making them into active sentences would
be too difficult. Still, try to avoid
too many of them.
20. Awkward
sentence construction. Read this aloud.
21. General
grammatical error--please consult a style manual. See: http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
for a copy of the style manual Strunk & White online.
22. Cliché
or overwrought prose. If you get too
melodramatic, you can make your reader tune you out.
23. Too
wordy--trim some of this out.
24. Vary
this word--consult a thesaurus.
25. Page
numbers needed.
26. Run-on
sentence--break this into 2 or more sentences.
27.
Sentence fragment, i.e. not a complete sentence. A sentence must contain a verb.
28.
Noun-verb agreement--please consult a style manual.
29. Too
many ideas in this paragraph. Your topic sentence defines the point of the
paragraph and all information therein must relate back to this.