Primul Razboi Mondial

Monica Matei-Chesnoiu
WRITING CLUES
FOR STUDENTS
CONTENTS
Introduction
Getting Started
Writing as Thinking (4) Generating Ideas Through Free
Writing (3) Mapping (6)
Finding a Topic
Having Ideas (7) Helpful Hints for Choosing a Paper Topic
(10)
Developing an Argument
13
What Is an Argument? (13) Constructing an Argument (15)
Making a Claim (18) Evidence (20) Counter-Argument (21)
Audience (23) Critical Reading (24) Helpful Hints for
Writing an Argumentative Paper (25)
Developing a Central Idea or Thesis
27
What is a Thesis? (27) Hints for Developing a Thesis (31)
Critiques (33)
Writing the Research Paper
Definitional Techniques in the Research Paper (37)
Documenting Your Sources (38) A Quick Guide to Using
Quotes (45) Taking Notes from Sources (47) How to
37
Document (49) How to Ask for and Receive Feedback on Your

Writing (83) Revising Your Paper (85) Helpful Hints for
Writing Research Papers (87)
Writing Essays
91
Writing Informal Essays (91) Writing Compare/Contrast
Essays (99) Writing Thesis/Support Essays (100) Writing
Argumentative Essays (112) Writing Exploratory Essays (122)
Writing About Literature
131
Reading Poetry (133) Analyzing a Poem (136) Analyzing a
Play (139) Analyzing Prose Fiction (141) Analyzing
Journals, Articles and Essays (144) Types of Literary Criticism
(145)
Science Writing: Scientific Report
149
Style
The Plain Style (155) Clarity (162) Concision (171)
Rhetoric (172)
155
Mechanics
Punctuation (179) Top Ten Mistakes (188) Layout and
Content Instructions (192)
179
Ten Commandments of Academic Writing
195
Annex: Helpful Books for Dissertators
197
Writing Clues for Students
INTRODUCTION
Scope. The Writing Clues for Students is a guide to
academic writing that addresses a variety of people who are
concerned with the basic rules for effective writing in English.
The term students refers to a wide range of researchers, from
high school students who are asked to write an assignment in
English, or write an application essay, to university
undergraduates who intend to write their BA thesis or a current
research paper as an exam assignment. Likewise, this guide
addresses advanced university graduates, MA or Ph.D.
candidates, who write their theses, as well as all scientists who
carry out advanced research and participate in international
conferences, or intend to publish their results in an academic
journal in English. The guidebook is directed to persons who
have a good command of English, but who need to improve
their writing skills in this language, according to the
international academic standards. This study describes and, in
most instances, evaluates the basic requirements for competent
academic writing in English. I have based decisions about what
to include in this study mainly on my own experience in
writing essays, a Ph.D. thesis, academic research papers, and
books in English. I have also relied on published surveys, the
advice of scholars, and my own research for the World
Shakespeare Bibliography, and on the impressive number of
existing guides in this domain.
Limitations. Since this guide is intended as a vademecum for students and researchers from beginning and
advanced undergraduates to experienced scholars pursuing a

topic at a more than superficial level, I have tried to maintain
an accessible style. Consequently, I have opted for the direct
address to the reader, considering her/him a friend with whom I
share some of my experience. The main purpose in writing is
effective communication, and I hope this is an expectation well
served. Because of the informal style adopted, it may seem that
precisely the academic rules described are not observed in this
study. This is a limitation and a risk I have chosen to take, with
a view to stressing the importance of intercommunication in
writing in general and academic writing in particular. In any
event, my readers will be my judges.
Organization. The guide is organized in divisions for
developing an argument, finding a topic, developing a thesis,
and documenting the sources. A substantial part of this section
refers to research and documenting sources on the Internet. In
most cases, I have focused on main objectives expressed in the
convenient form of helpful hints at the end of each section.
Various types of writing have been brought into focus:
informal essays, compare/contrast essays, thesis support
essays, argumentative essays, and exploratory essays. Readers
are informed about the specific rules for writing research
papers. Since my particular experience involves writing about
literature, a distinct chapter refers to writing about poetry,
fiction, or a play. The unit on science writing instructs on the
basic requirements for writing an adequate scientific report.
The sections on style and mechanics remind readers of the
virtues of plain and concise style. The modes and techniques of
competent writing are very important because they tell much
about who you are. If you do not know it yet, they will help
you to find out. In any situation, the reader of this apparently
prosaic book will be on the winning side.
Happy Writing!
GETTING STARTED
One of the best ways to get an idea is to wonder about
something. For many students, coming up with ideas for an
assigned paper begins with wondering about the general topic
of their paper and trying to formulate their thoughts as
questions. Writing is like sculpting rather than like archery.
You can begin with something crude and end up with
something great. Writing is a slow process that takes time and
labor; it is not like attempting to hit the bull's eye with your
first shot. So, plan and schedule yourself some time to think, to
read, to talk over your ideas, and to do some exploratory
writing. It will be easier for you to get started on a paper if you
let yourselfindeed encourage yourselfto take seriously the
things that puzzle you and the questions that occur to you in a
lecture, in your reading, or in discussions with classmates.
Writing down your questions, and then trying to answer them
in a free, unedited way may lead you to ideas that will make
for an interesting, worthwhile paper for you and your readers.
Writing as Thinking
One of the best ways to start thinking about
something is to write about it. In order to start
thinking through writing you may have to nudge yourself. Take
notes while you are talking with a classmate or professor about
a problem you have come up against in your paper.
Alternatively, think out loud into a tape recorder and then take
notes on what you hear yourself saying. The main point is to
try some form of writing as soon as you can. If you have
nothing to say about your thesis, write about why you are
having trouble, what got you interested in the topic, what you
think you ought to read, or whatever. In addition, write down
questions that you think may be worth trying to answer. The
very act of trying to formulate a question will help you think
about your topic. Remember: developing a question, like
developing a thesis, may have to happen gradually. Once you
have done the hard work of formulating an incisive question,
the answer may be easy to express. Writing will also spark
ideas that had not occurred to you and help you to confront
issues you might not see if you are just thinking about your
topic.
Generating Ideas through Free Writing

Sometimes you may not be fully aware of the ideas you
have about a topic. A good way to discover your ideas is to try
an exercise (one that you may already know) called free
writing. Sit down with pencil and paper, or at the computer,
and give yourself a short but specific amount of time (say, two
minutes) to write. The rule of the game is that you have to
keep writing throughout the time that you have given yourself.
Do not stop to think over what you have written, to change
grammar or spelling, to wonder about word choice, to think

about relations among sentences or phrases, or to worry if what
you have written is any good. Just start writing and keep
writing. You can write about whatever comes into your head,
or you can try to write about something closer to your topic.
If nothing comes to mind, then write Nothing is
coming to mind or I have nothing to say. If you keep at it,
two minutes at a time with a break in between, eventually
something will come to mind. Putting whatever comes to mind
down on paper may break your block and allow you to start
working toward expressing ideas that are relevant to your paper
topic. A variation of this exercise is to free write without
looking at what you have written. It is easiest to do this at the
computer by turning off the screen. Just write without looking
at what you are writing. You may find that, as you write
without seeing your writing, you begin to focus on the ideas
you are writing about rather than on the words.
Free writing helps ideas come to the surface, but those
ideas may come out in a confused and disorganized way. That
is fine. What matters is letting yourself explore possibilities.
After you have done some free writing see if you can say in a
more precise and orderly way what has emerged from your
writing. Then do some more free writing and see what that
produces. Some of what you write will have to be thrown
away; some of it will lead to an idea that will have to be
developed; some of it may even be usable as it is. Eventually,
you may be able to develop a thesis and the beginning of an
argument just by free writing. Free writing can also be used
after you have developed the core of your ideas. As you work
on specific parts of your paper, try beginning with free writing,
especially if you know only roughly what you want to say.
Doing so can make the producing a first draft less agonizing.
You will have opportunities to revise later. The important thing

at this stage is to get ideas down in writing.
Mapping
Some writers find it easier to express and organize
their thoughts if they use a visually interesting
method of arranging their ideas on paper. One approach is to
cluster or map your ideas. You can begin a map or cluster
by putting a key word or phrase in the center of a page. Then
brainstorm different aspects of the topic that you could write
about and record those new ideas around the first word. Fill the
page by expanding the process, naming important ideas or
questions that branch outward from the central topic or other
connected topics. Do not censor your ideas or try to make your
cluster look neat. Later you can go back and evaluate what
parts of the map are most compelling. Once you discover your
ideas through the map, you may use free writing to capture the
idea roughly and quickly in words.
FINDING A TOPIC
Having Ideas
There are a few people who always seem to have
confidence that, no matter what, they will figure out the perfect
thing to write about the day before their papers are due.
However, most of us approach deadlines with a certain amount
of insecurity. It is common for students to feel paralyzed by
paper assignments, certain that they have nothing original (or
perhaps nothing at all) to say. Fortunately, this is usually not a
genuine problem. That is to say, getting an idea about
something you read or something you hear in a lecture is not
difficult. It is next to impossible not to have ideas about those
things. If you have ever tried to meditate, you know that you
are supposed to try to clear your mind of all stray thoughts
constantly passing through it; you also know that it takes a lot
of effort and a lot of practice to achieve such a state. Writing is
a bit like that.
Then why do people feel as if they have no ideas?
When someone has this feeling, what he/she is probably
worried about is not failing to have an idea, but failing to have
a good idea. The meditation analogy applies here, too. When
you meditate, what goes through your head is rarely equations
of quantum theory, thoughts about medieval history, or new
theories about how plants grow. Mostly, what goes through
your head seems like a lot of nonsense. The worry that you
have no ideas, then, is often a worry about starting a paper that
may not be a success. In addition, your anxiety about writing
may be magnified by your concern about what is expected of
you. In fact, writing an essay is essentially taking an idea and
improving it through a process of rewriting and revision. So,
although the anxiety of starting a paper may not go awayand

you may continue to worry that you have nothing to sayyou
can remind yourself that actually you probably have lots to say,
though some of it may not be very interesting or relevant. Keep
in mind as you begin work on a paper that, if some of what you
have to say may not be interesting as it first occurs to you, it
may be very interesting by the time you get through with it.
For many people, coming up with an idea to write about
begins by wondering about something they have heard or read.
You do not have to have a clearly articulated claim in order to
write. Great ideas are often those that come out of being
puzzled or confused about something that no one else has
noticed. If you have ever wondered about something related to
your general topic, try to formulate your thought as a question.
Then think and write about that. Trying to answer the question
may lead you to an idea that will make a good paper topic, and
sometimes writing about the confusion itself can be interesting
and illuminating to others.
Assigned Topics
Often, your professor (if you are an undergraduate
student) will give you a specific assignment or ask you to
choose from among a few topics. Initially, this may seem easier
than coming up with a topic completely on your own, but that
is not always so. Sometimes students see paper topics as
challenging them to figure out what the professor wants, or
the language used in the assignment confuses them. There is
never a single, correct answer to a paper assignment. Rather,
papers are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to
explain or interpret course material. Usually, a paper
assignment will use certain key words that indicate the kind of
essay the professor expects. Read the assignment carefully and
look for directions such as summarize, argue, compare
and contrast, analyze, or discuss. These terms suggest a

particular way of structuring your ideas and choosing the
content of your essay. A term like discuss may seem vague,
however, because the appropriate content and structure of a
discussion varies from field to field. You might want to
review the texts you have been using in the course to get a
sense of what constitutes a discussion, or ask your professor
for guidance. If an assignment includes a list of questions about
a topic, you need to read the directions carefully to determine
whether you are supposed to address all of them in your paper
or only a representative few.
Many times, you may be frustrated with a paper
assignment because the choice of topics does not inspire you.
Two options in this case are to approach the assignment as an
exercise and pick the topic on which you think you can write
the best essay, or to propose a new topic. If you have an idea
for a paper that is different from the topic assigned, you should
write it down and meet with your professor to discuss whether
it is appropriate and viable.
Narrowing Your Topic
You also need to keep in mind the length of your paper
as you choose a topic. If your professor asks you to analyze the
relative merits of three specific articles on the Russian
economy in 5-7 pages, you do not have to worry about defining
the scope of your project, but frequently, assignments are not
this narrow. Suppose, for instance, that an assignment for your
history seminar asks you to explain one cause of the 1848
Revolution in Romania in 5 pages. You will have to focus your
topic so that you can discuss a single idea thoroughly in 5
pages instead of trying to gloss over all current theories about
causes of the Revolution.
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Helpful Hints for Choosing a Paper Topic

The first step in the research process for any assignment is
selecting a topic that meets two requirements:
1. The topic should be interesting to you.
Generally, writers who are interested in their topics have a
good chance of making their topics interesting to readers.
2. The topic must be viable.
Trivial topics that attract popular interest, but little serious
scholarly interest, are not appropriate for assignments in
many academic-writing courses. Your topic should have a
substantial research base. Find out how much material the
library has on the topic before you commit to it. Do not
choose a topic you cannot research. Answering the
following questions might help you to select a more
original topic:
Briefly define or describe your topic.
Answer questions reporters usually ask Who? What?
When? Where? Why?
Is this a topic that matters? Whom does this issue
affect?
What will your thesis be?
Does your thesis clearly indicate what your topic is and
your position/argument concerning the topic? Is your
topic too broad to address within the page limits set by
your instructor? See the section on Developing Your
Thesis for more information.
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What is the scope of your topic?

List the main points of your argument in order of
importance. As you find sources, group them together
to make general categories of facts and arguments.
Summarize others findings.
Give a brief account of what other people have said or
written about your topic. Reviewing the existing
literature is a part of the writing process, and you will
be expected to respond to others ideas.
Respond to the research/statements of others.
Explain why you agree or disagree with what other
people have said on your topic. Do you agree or
disagree with individual writers?
Who is your audience?
What aspects of the topic will be interesting and
relevant to your audience? Ask yourself what aspects of
the topic might not be interesting to your audience.
Why is your topic controversial?
Give a brief explanation of issues that might make your
topic controversial. Which of these issues will you
emphasize in your essay?
Are these issues relevant to your thesis?
Explain why these issues seem relevant to your thesis
and how you can explore them. 1
Source: Joanna B. Gibson and M. Jimmie Killingsworth, Academic

Writing: An Introductory Guide (Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt, 1991).
12
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DEVELOPING AN ARGUMENT
What Is an Argument?
This chapter will define what an argument is and why
you need one in most of your academic essays. A scholarly
essay is an exercise in developing and defending ideas.
Although the heart of a paper is the single idea that you want to
explore or defend, most of your paperand probably most of
the time you spend writingwill be devoted to the reason or
reasons why your reader should believe that your thesis is
valid. This analysis and explanation of your claim is called an
argument. In effect, the argument of your essay is an answer to
the question Why is the central idea or thesis of this paper
valid or plausible.
To see your paper as defending a claim is only one way
of thinking about developing an argument. A slightly different
way of thinking about the process is in terms of questions and
answers. You may choose to see your paper as an answer to a
question or a solution to a puzzle (the thesis) followed by an
explanation of why that answer or solution is a good one (the
argument). Suppose, for example, you read a novel by Russell
Banks and then hear a lecture about Mark Twain. Afterwards,
you start to wonder, Why do these writers have so many
themes in common? Having formulated this question, your
task is to answer it. The formulation of the question, the answer
to the question, and the extended analysis or explanation of
why the answer is satisfactory makes up the paper.
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There are still other variations of how to think about

argument. While most writers of academic papers use their
argument to answer a question or defend a claim, it is
sometimes possible to raise a question or a claim and simply
explore it without taking a stand on it. For example, you might
be interested in exploring the ethical issues raised by new
genetic technologies. You may have no particular view that
you want to defend. You may only want to raise questions or
speculate about possibilities. This can be a legitimate approach
to a paper, but you risk leaving the reader unsure about your
main point. Whatever format you decide on, you should
remember that you still have to present an argument. An
academic paper has to consist largely of giving reasons for
what you are saying.
Generating Ideas through Exploratory Writing
There is no formula for creating or developing a good
argument, but there are a few strategies that can help you
decide how best to defend your main idea. It is often extremely
useful to do some exploratory writing even before you have
figured out what your argument is going to be. This may seem
a surprising bit of advice, because many students assume that
writing is what you do after you have done your thinking. They
see writing as the way that thought is presenteda kind of
packagingrather than as a way of thinking. However,
consider the parallel idea that speaking is just the packaging of
thought. We know that is not true, especially if we consider all
that we can accomplish by talking through an issue in our
heads or with someone else. Exploratory writing can work like
that, too, but remember that you will have to throw away a lot
of what you write at first and hold on only to the ideas that are
gems.
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Why Do You Believe Your Thesis?

Another way to think about how to develop an
argument is to remember what made you believe or consider
your central idea in the first place. Since you thought it was a
sufficiently reasonable or interesting claim to consider, you
probably had a reason for thinking so. If that reason was
compelling enough for you, it might also be compelling enough
for your reader. For example, suppose we return to the question
of how the novelists Russell Banks and Mark Twain are
related. After hearing a lecture on Huck Finn, you might be
struck by the similarities between that novel and Bankss The
Rule of the Bone. This initial observation is a good place to
begin thinking about a thesis and an argument. If, after you go
back and review the novels, you decide that there are a
sufficient number of related themes, characters, and literary
techniques, you are on your way toward being able to make an
argument about how and why Russell Banks rewrote Huck
Finn for the late-twentieth century.
Constructing an Argument
Once you have a general sense of a potential
argument, you will go through a procedure similar to the one
that produced your thesis in the first place. You need to express
as precisely as you can what the argument is, and then refine it.
You should think about the various steps of the defense you are
going to make. Perhaps the support for the thesis is complex
and has to be developed in pieces. If you are unsure how to
proceed, think about what you have read and work up a
tentative formulation of an argument. If you are writing a
research paper, you can continue your research and read
16
material that might help you to decide whether you are right.
Your reading may suggest new arguments or refinements of
your original one.
For each step in the defense of your argument, you will
need to provide sufficient evidence and an analysis of that
evidence. What kind of evidence you provide will depend, of
course, on the type of paper you are writinga sociology
paper might require research data; a history paper might
present material from primary documents; an art history paper
might include a careful interpretation of several paintings. But
no matter what evidence you use to support your argument,
you also need to analyze the evidencethat is, explain clearly
to your readers exactly how the evidence you have offered
supports your argument. If you merely string together a series
of assertions or facts, expecting that your reader will be able to
see the connection to your central point, you are sidestepping
your responsibility to answer the question of why your thesis is
valid or plausible.
After you have constructed your argument and written a
draft of your paper, you can test the strength of your ideas by
imagining a reader looking over your shoulder and asking,
Why should I believe what I am reading? An even better way
to test your ideas is to find a classmate or friend who will read
through your draft to see what questions are begging to be
answered, what parts of your argument are not logically
developed, and where there are gaps in the evidence or
analysis. These problems are often hard for a writer to see.
Maybe you have made a few crucial steps in your head, but
you have forgotten to put on the page. A reader who is not as
caught up in the project as you are may be able to help you see
the structure of your argument clearly again.
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Outlines and Other Visual Organizers

Although students often think of outlining as a tiresome
exercise they were forced to learn in school, many writers find
it useful to chart out their ideas using outlines or plans. As
tools, outlines allow a writer to see an entire project on one or
two pages. Outlining forms a record of your essential ideas and
allows you to check the logic and completeness of your
argument. Outlines can reveal the structure of what you have
actually written and can provide a blueprint for how to revise
or develop your argument.
Taking Time
Developing a thesis and an argument takes time and
work. Therefore, you need to plan on that from the start.
Writers sometimes have revelations; they suddenly have a
terrific idea and see their whole paper clearly all at once.
However, this is very, very, rare, and even when it happens, it
still takes work to put the idea down in words and flesh it out
fully. Working out ideas on paper (or the computer) always
makes writers confront problems that were not initially
apparent. Be reassured: solving those problems is the day-today work of writing and thinking.
Arguments are Everywhere
You may be surprised to hear that the word argument
does not have to be written anywhere in your assignment for it
to be an important part of your task. In fact, making an
argumentexpressing a point of view on a subject and
supporting it with evidenceis often the aim of academic
writing. Your professors may assume that you know this fact,
and therefore they may not explain its importance to you in
class. Nevertheless, if your writing assignment asks you to
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respond to reading and discussion in class, you are likely to be

expected to produce an argument in your paper.
The majority of the material you learn at school is or
has been debated by someone, somewhere, at some time. Even
when the material you read or hear is presented as simple
information or fact, it may actually be one persons
interpretation of a set of information or facts. In your writing,
you may be called on to question that interpretation and either
defend it, refute it, or offer some new view of your own. In
writing assignments, you will usually need to do more than just
present information that you have gathered or regurgitate
information that was discussed in class. You will need to select
a point of view and forward evidence (in other words, use
argument) to shape the material and offer your interpretation
of the material.
Differences of opinion are how human knowledge
develops, and scholars, like your professors, spend their lives
engaged in debate over what may be counted as true, real,
or right in their fields. In their courses, they want you to
engage in the similar kinds of critical thinking and debate in
your writing. Argumentation is not just what your professors
do. We all use argumentation on a daily basis, and you
probably already have some skill debating an argument. The
more you improve your skills in this area, the better you will be
at thinking critically, reasoning, making choices, and weighing
evidence. You can use these practical skills in everything from
writing assignments to choosing a laundry detergent or a
president.
Making a Claim
What is an argument? In academic writing, an argument
is usually a main idea, often called a claim or thesis
statement, backed up with evidence that supports the idea.
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Ninety-nine percent of the time you will be expected to make

some sort of claim and use evidence to support it, and your
ability to do this well will separate your papers from those of
students who see assignments as mere accumulations of fact
and detail. In other words, gone are the happy days of being
given a topic about which you can write anything. It is time
to stake out a position and prove why it is a good position for a
thinking person to hold.
Basically, claims can be as simple as protons are
positively charged and electrons are negatively charged, with
evidence such as in this experiment, protons and electrons
acted in such and such a way. Claims can also be as complex
as the end of the South African system of apartheid was
inevitable, using reasoning and evidence such as, every
successful revolution in the modern era has come about after
the government in power has given and then removed small
concessions to the uprising group. In either case, the rest of
your paper will detail reasons and facts that have led you to
believe that your position is best.
When beginning to write a paper, ask yourself, what is
my point? For example, the point of this booklet is to help you
become a better writer, and I am arguing that an important step
in the process of writing argumentation is the understanding of
the concept of argumentation. If your papers do not have a
main point, they cannot be arguing for anything. Asking
yourself what your point is can help you avoid a mere
information dump. Consider this: your professors probably
know a lot more than you do about your subject matter. Why,
then, would you want to provide them with material they
already know? Readers are usually looking for two things:
Proof that you understand the material, AND
A demonstration of your ability to use or apply the material
beyond what you have read or heard.
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This second part can be done in many ways: you can critique
the material, apply it to something else, or even just explain it
in a different way. In order to achieve this second step, though,
you must have a particular point to argue.
Arguments in academic writing are usually complex
and take time to develop. Your argument will need to be more
than a simple or obvious statement such as, Frank Lloyd
Wright was a great architect. Such a statement might capture
your initial impressions of Wright as you have studied him in
class; however, you need to look deeper and express
specifically what caused that greatness. Your professor will
probably expect something more complicated, such as, Frank
Lloyd Wrights architecture combines elements of European
modernism, Asian aesthetic form, and locally found materials
to create a unique new style. Alternatively, There are many
strong similarities between Wright's building designs and those
of his mothers, which suggests that he may have borrowed
some of her ideas. Then, you would define your terms and
prove your argument with evidence from Wrights drawings
and buildings, and those of the other architects you mentioned.
Evidence
Do not stop with having a point: you have to back
up your point with evidence. The strength of your
evidence, and your use of it, can make or break your argument.
You already have the natural inclination for this type of
thinking, if not in an academic setting. Think about how you
talked your parents into letting you borrow the car. Did you
present them with lots of instances of trustworthiness on your
part from the past? Did you make them feel guilty, because
your friends parents all let them drive? Did you whine until
they just wanted you to shut up? Did you look up statistics on
driving and use them to show how you did not fit the
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dangerous-driver profile? These are all types of argumentation,

and they exist in academia in similar forms.
Every field has slightly different requirements for
acceptable evidence, so familiarize yourself with some
arguments from within that field, instead of just applying
whatever evidence you like best. Pay attention to your
textbooks and your professors lectures. What types of
argument and evidence are they using? An English professor
and a Sociology specialist are not necessarily going to be
swayed by the same type of evidence. Find out what counts as
proof that something is true in that field; is it statistics, a
logical development of points, something from the object being
discussed (art work, text, culture, or atom), the way something
works, or some combination of more than one of these things?
Be consistent with your evidence. Unlike negotiating
for the use of your parents' car, a college paper is not the place
for every type of argument. You can often use more than one
type of evidence within a paper, but make sure that within each
section that you are providing the reader with evidence
appropriate to each claim. You cannot convince a confused
person; so keep things tidy and ordered.
Counter-argument
One way to strengthen your argument and show
that you have a deep understanding of the issue you are
discussing is to anticipate and address counter-arguments or
objections. By considering what someone who disagrees with
your position might have to say about your argument, you
show that your have thought things through, and you dispose of
some of the reasons your audience might have for not
accepting your argument. To make the most effective argument
possible, you should consider all the points of view that are
likely to be issued.
22
You can generate counter-arguments by asking yourself

what someone who disagrees with you might say about each of
the points you have made or about your position as a whole. If
you cannot immediately imagine another position, here are
some strategies to try:
Do some research! It may seem to you that no one could
possibly disagree with the position you are arguing, but
someone probably has. For example, some people argue
that the Holocaust never happened. If you are making an
argument concerning, for example, the accuracy of our
knowledge of the Holocaust, you might wish to see what
some of these people have to say.
Talk with a friend or with your teacher. Another person
may be able to imagine counter-arguments that have not
occurred to you.
Consider the conclusion and the premises of your
argument, and imagine someone who denies each of them.
Then, you can see which of these arguments are worth
considering the most. For example, if you argued Cats
make the best pets. This is because they are clean and
independent, you might imagine someone saying: Cats
do not make the best pets. They are dirty and needy.
Once you have thought up some counter-arguments,
consider how you will respond to themwill you concede that
your opponent has a point but explain why your audience
should nonetheless accept your argument? Will you reject the
counter-argument and explain why it is mistaken? Either way,
you will want to leave your reader with a sense that your
argument is stronger than opposing arguments.
When you are summarizing opposing arguments, be
charitable: present each argument fairly and objectively, rather
than trying to make it look foolish. You want to show that you
have seriously considered the many sides of the issue, and that
23
you are not simply attacking or caricaturing your opponents. It

is usually better to consider one or two serious counterarguments in some depth, rather than to give a long, but
superficial, list of many different counter-arguments and
replies. Be sure that your reply is consistent with your original
argument. If considering a counter-argument changes your
position, you will need to go back and revise your original
argument accordingly.
Audience
Audience is a very important consideration in
argument. It is usually wise to think of your
audience in an academic setting as someone who is perfectly
smart, but who does not already or necessarily agree with you.
You are not just expressing your opinion in an argument (it is
true because I said so), and in most cases your audience is
knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Thus, you need better
proof. At the same time, do not think of your audience as a
genius clairvoyant. You have to come out and state both your
claim and your evidence clearly. Do not assume that, because
the professor or the reader know the material, they necessarily
understand what part of it you are using, what you think about
it, and why.
Who is My Audience?
The audience for whom we write influences how we
write. The more we know about our intended audience, the
better we can adapt our writing to communicate and persuade.
Answering these questions can help you define and identify the
audience.
24
Who will ultimately read your work?

What is your relationship to the audience?
What is their background? Education? Position? Goal?
What do they already know about your subject?
What do they want to know about your subject?
How do they feel about your subject?
Clarify and understand your purpose in writing. Do you have
clear answers to each of the following questions? If not, revise
your document to provide clarity.
What is your main purpose for writing?

What is the main point of your document?
How can you best adapt your writing to your particular
reader?
Most importantly, what do you want your readers to do after
they read your study?
Critical Reading
Critical reading is an important part of
understanding argument. Although some of the material you
read will be very persuasive, do not fall under the spell of the
printed word as authority. Very few of your professors think of
the texts they assign as the last word on the subject. Remember
that the author of every text has an agenda, something that they
want you to believe. Take notes either in the margins or on a
separate sheet as you read. Put away that highlighter! Simply
highlighting a text is only good for memorizing that text it
does not encourage critical reading. Part of the goal is to put
the author's ideas in your own words. Then you can stop
thinking of these ideas as facts and start thinking of them as
arguments.
25
When you read, ask yourself questions like what is the

author trying to prove? and what is the author assuming I
will agree with? Do you agree with the author? Does the
author adequately defend his/her argument? What kind of proof
does he/she use? Is there something he/she leaves out that you
would put in? As you get used to reading critically, you will
start to see the sometimes hidden agendas of other writers, and
you can use this skill to improve your own ability to argue.
Helpful Hints for Writing an Argumentative

Paper
Choose a topic that has at least two sides.

Choose a subject that allows for the possibility of
persuading your reader. Avoid subjects that cannot be
addressed in a logical manner and that cannot be proven
with evidence from unbiased academic sources.
Analyze your audience.
Who are your readers? What do they already know about
the subject? How are they likely to feel about it? How
impartial or prejudiced are they going to be? Can you find a
way to present your argument so that they will receive it
logically rather than emotionally? Some ideas, especially
those based on ones faith, cannot be logically challenged
or debated. Avoid topics with which you are not
comfortable.
Make a list of your main points.
Jot down a list of the main points you will use in your
argument. Analyze each piece of evidence to see how
effective it will be in proving your thesis.
26
Use unbiased sources.

Skilled writers avoid writing or referring to any ideas
which are distorted, inaccurate, or inflammatory. Argue
with solid, reasonable, fair, and relevant evidence. Be as
fair-minded as possible.
Make a list of counter arguments.
Make a list of the possible arguments your readers might
raise against you. Think of ways in which you can respond
to those objections.
Decide how you will structure your essay.
Decide how you want to structure your essay. You can
begin with a thesis and then provide evidence. You can
begin with the evidence and end with an assertion. You can
discuss your weakest point in the middle of the paper and
your strongest point at the end. Which structure seems to fit
your subject and evidence better?
Build to a memorable conclusion.
Conclusions are what listeners and readers are most likely
to remember. Repeat or restate your thesis. Drive home the
importance of your argument. Make sure that your
conclusion is the strongest, most dynamic part of your
paper by calling your reader to action or by stressing the
importance of the argument you have made.
If you would like to read more... 1
Consult these texts for further discussion of arguments and how they are
made: Leonard J. Rosen and Laurence Behrens, The Allyn & Bacon
Handbook (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997); John T Gage, The Shape of
Reason: Argumentative Writing in College (New York: Macmillan
Publishing Company, 1991); Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz,
Everything's an Argument (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999).
27
DEVELOPING A CENTRAL IDEA

OR THESIS
What is a Thesis?
Any scholarly paper is, above all, an exercise in
stating, developing and defending an idea. The heart of any
academic essay is a single idea (or perhaps a closely related set
of ideas) that you want to explore or defend. The expression of
the idea is often called the thesis. 1 Often, the thesis of a paper
is a claim you are making or the answer to a question you are
asking. Thinking of your central idea as a reasoned claim or a
compelling question will help you avoid mistaking a mere
statement of opinion for a good thesis.
A thesis statement is a single sentence that formulates
both your topic and your point of view. It is the answer to the
central question or problem you have raised. It should make the
1 For more information on this topic consult Maxine Harrison and John J.
Ruszkiewicz. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers, 4th edition (New
York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996); Andrea Lunsford and
Robert Connors, The St. Martin's Handbook, 3rd edition (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1995); Leonard J. Rosen and Laurence Behrens, The Allyn &
Bacon Handbook, 3rd edition (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997). An
important book in this domain is Umberto Eco, Come si fa una tesi di
laurea (Milano: Tascabili Bompiani, 1977) and the Spanish translation of
this guide, Cmo se hace una tesis (Barcelona: Gedisa, 1992).
28
main point of your research paper clear to the reader; your

thesis does not just state what subject you will discuss: it states
what you think or want to say about the subject. It must make a
statement toward which the reader can also take a stand you
want your thesis to make your reader think: Is that so? Tell me
more. Or I just do not believe that; prove it to me.
A thesis statement tells a reader how you will interpret
the significance of the subject matter under discussion. Such a
statement is also called an argument, a main idea, or a
controlling idea. Note that a thesis is an interpretation of a
subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay
might be World War II or Liviu Rebreanus Ion; a thesis must
then offer a way to understand the war or the novel that others
might dispute. A single sentence somewhere in your first
paragraph should present your thesis to the reader. The body of
the essay gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the
reader of the logic of your interpretation. Your thesis statement
gives the reader a preview of the essay's purpose and goal.
Coming up with your central idea is the biggest
problem you have to solve before you begin to craft a defense
of your ideas or write a draft of your essay, but this does not
mean that writing your thesis is the first thing you should do.
Good, experienced, scholarly writers do a lot of work
reading, thinking, discussing ideas, and frequently some
exploratory writing before they choose the one idea they
want to present to their readers. Even after finding a thesis,
they refine and revise their ideas as they write. It can be useful
and reassuring to keep in mind that scholars develop as well as
discover theses.
You cannot just pluck a thesis out of thin air. Even if
you have a terrific insight concerning a topic, it is not worth
much unless you can logically and persuasively support it in
the body of your essay. A thesis is the evolutionary result of a
29
thinking process, not a miraculous creation. Formulating a

thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay
assignment. Deciding on a thesis does not come first. Before
you can come up with an argument on any topic, you have to
collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships
between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or
similarities), and think about the beneath-the-surface
significance of these relationships. After this initial exploration
of the question at hand, you can formulate a working thesis,
an argument that you think will make sense of the evidence but
which may need adjustment along the way.
An Example of How One Writer Developed a Thesis
Unfortunately, there is no handy formula for asking an
interesting question or finding a claim with the sort of features
that make it a good topic for a paper; much of what you have to
do is take a reasonable guess and then adjust your plans as you
go along. The best advice is always to focus on something that
interests you, and about which you can make an argument.
For example, suppose a student is intrigued by a lecture
about the philosopher Nietzsche that makes the point that
psychology has its origins in theories of the mind. The student
then becomes particularly interested in how this might apply to
Freud. Now, the claim that the only way to understand Freud is
in the context of the history of philosophy is a very big claim
that cannot be defended in a single paper. (Just think of how
long it would take merely to sketch the views of all of the
philosophers who may have influenced Freud.) Before the
students can decide what they have to write about, they have to
articulate a claim or ask a question that is not too big to be
handled in a 15-page paper (or whatever length is required).
They also have to find a thesis that is substantial enough to
give them something to say. While the claim that Freud has to
30
be understood in the context of the history of philosophy is too

much to deal with in a single paper, the claim that Freud was
an important psychologist, for example, is not substantial
enough. That claim is not very controversial, so there is no
reason to try to defend it. Who would you try to convince?
Suppose the student narrows his/her idea down by
saying that he/she believes the best way to understand Freud's
theory of the unconscious is to see it as a development of
Nietzsche is theory of the unconscious. It may turn out that
even that is too big a claim, and perhaps he/she will have to
narrow it further. For the time being, however, his/her claim or
thesis is the following: Freud's theory of the unconscious is a
development of Nietzsche is theory of the unconscious. That is
the center of her paper, and the fact that he/she can express it
clearly in a single sentence means that he/she has a good
handle on the idea.
State Your Main Point Concisely and Early
In most cases, it is best to state your main idea in the
first paragraph of your essay, so that your reader knows right
away what it is that you are going to argue in the rest of the
paper. In academic writing, it is conventional not to keep your
audience guessing about what your point is. It is also best to
condense your claim into a single sentence. While occasionally
you will come across a thesis that is so complex it requires 2 or
3 sentences, being able to express your main idea in one
sentence is a sign that you have a good grasp of your subject.
After you have stated your thesis and explained it in your
introductory paragraph, then you are free to devote most of
your paper to explaining why your thesis is valid.
31
Hints for Developing Your Thesis

This section will help you discover the possibilities for
developing a thesis. Ask yourself questions:
Exactly what is my subject? Do I need to define it more

clearly? Has my subject been misconstrued or
misunderstood? Can my thesis help educate my audience
on this point?
Should I emphasize positive or negative aspects of my
subject? What are those aspects? How can I use my thesis
to discuss them?
Can my subject be divided up into parts? Is one aspect
more important or more relevant to my audience than
others? What do I need or want to stress in my thesis? How
should I organize these parts to achieve this emphasis?
Does my subject remind me of something? Is my subject,
whether a person, a thing, or an event, similar to another
person, thing, or event that is perhaps more familiar to my
readers? Are there any unexpected and enlightening
similarities? Is the comparison favorable or unfavorable?
Does my comparison make my subject easier to
understand? How can I make these comparisons so that
they clarify my points for my reader?
If my subject is an event or a thing, what caused/created
it? Would the understanding of the cause, or precedent,
make it easier for my audience to understand my subject?
Should I include this information in my thesis?
32
What effects has my subject had or is it likely to have?

Are the effects important or unexpected? Should my thesis
include these?
Critique
When critiquing your first draft and its working
thesis, ask yourself the following:
Do I answer the question? This might seem obvious, but
it is definitely worth asking yourself. No matter how
intriguing or dazzling, a thesis that does not answer the
question is not a good thesis! If you are being asked to
take a stand, do you? If you are being asked, what is the
most important event of the twentieth century, do you just
state why your selection is important, or do you state why
you think it is the most important when compared to other
important events? Re-reading the question prompt after
constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument
that misses the focus of the question.
Have I taken a position that others might challenge or
oppose? If not, then you probably do not have a strong
argument. Theses that are too vague often have this
problem. If your thesis contains vague words like good or
successful, see if you could be more specific: why is
something good; what makes something successful?
Does my thesis pass the 'So what?' test? Also known as
the What is the Big Deal? test, the So what? test asks
whether your thesis presents a position or an interpretation
worth pursuing. If a readers first response is, So what?
then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to
connect to a larger issue. Once a reader says, This
argument has the potential to broaden my understanding of
the significance of this topic, then you have successfully
passed this test.
33
Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without

wandering? Just as a thesis that does not answer the
question ultimately fails, so does a thesis that is not
properly supported with evidence and reasoning. If your
thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go
together, one of them has to change. Generally, this means
revising your thesis to capture more precisely the argument
in your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your
writing as necessary.
Critiques
When professors ask you to write a critique of a
text, they usually expect you to analyze and evaluate, not just
summarize. A summary merely reports what the text said; that
is, it answers only the question, What did the author say? A
critique, on the other hand, analyzes, interprets, and evaluates
the text, answering the questions How? Why? and How well?
A critique does not necessarily have to criticize the piece in a
negative sense. Your reaction to the text may be largely
positive, negative, or a combination of the two. It is important
to explain why you respond to the text in a certain way. 1
Step 1: Analyze the text
As you read the book or article you plan to critique, the
following questions will help you analyze the text:
What is the authors main point?
What is the authors purpose?
Who is the authors intended audience?
Source of information: Leonard J. Rosen and Laurence Behrens, eds., The

Allyn & Bacon Handbook (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997).
34
What arguments does the author use to support the main

point?
What evidence does the author present to support the
arguments?
What are the authors underlying assumptions, or biases?
You may find it useful to make notes about the text based on
these questions as you read.
Step 2: Evaluate the text
After you have read the text, you can begin to evaluate
the author's ideas. The following questions provide some ideas
to help you evaluate the text:
Is the argument logical?
Is the text well-organized, clear, and easy to read?
Are the authors facts accurate?
Have important terms been clearly defined?
Is there sufficient evidence for the arguments?
Do the arguments support the main point?
Is the text appropriate for the intended audience?
Does the text present and refute opposing points of view?
Does the text help you understand the subject?
Are there any words or sentences that evoke a strong
response from you? What are those words or sentences?
What is your reaction?
What is the origin of your reaction to this topic? When or
where did you first learn about it? Can you think of people,
articles, or discussions that have influenced your views?
How might these be compared or contrasted to this text?
What questions or observations does this article suggest?
What does the article make you think about?
35
Step 3: Plan and write your critique

Write your critique in standard essay form. It is
generally best not to follow the authors organization when
organizing your analysis, since this approach lends itself to
summary rather than analysis. Begin with an introduction that
defines the subject of your critique and your point of view.
Defend your point of view by raising specific issues or aspects
of the argument. Conclude your critique by summarizing your
argument and re-emphasizing your opinion.
You will first need to identify and explain the authors
ideas.
Include specific passages that support your description of
the authors point of view.
Offer your own opinion.
Explain what you think about the argument.
Describe several points with which you agree or disagree.
For each of the points you mention include specific
passages from the text (you may summarize, quote, or
paraphrase) that provide evidence for your point of view.
Explain how the passages support your opinion
36
37
WRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER

Definitional Techniques in the
Research Paper
In the course of developing a report, essay, memo,
etc. writers are often called upon to define their terms. Some of
the more common definitional techniques used in professional
and academic writing are described below.
An Aristotelian or formal definition assigns a thing to a
genus or class and then indicates the differences between
the thing and other members of the class. Example: An
explication defines the meaning of key words in an
Aristotelian or formal definition. An example that might
follow the above definition: Dice are small cubes marked
on each side with a number of small dots, varying from 1 to
6. The number of dots on opposite sides always adds up to
7.
An operational definition refers individuals to a location or
situation where they might observe a phenomenon.
Example: If you are driving south along a road, you will
experience the Doppler Effect if you listen to the sound of a
car heading north that approaches and then passes you.
An analysis separates a whole into its component parts.
Example: Air is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, gaseous
mixture containing nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, neon,
and helium.
38
An example suggests one member of a class of objects to

convey an accurate impression of the entire class. Example:
The maple is an example of a deciduous tree.
Graphics provide a pictorial representation where lines,
dots, arrows, etc. are configured into representational
patterns.
Comparisons and contrasts suggest ways in which objects
are similar to or different from one another. Example: Both
the maple and the pine are trees; but the former is
deciduous, the latter coniferous.
Elimination indicates what something is not to clarify what
it is. Example: Clear-cutting is not the removal of only a
few trees in a forest area.
An etymology explores the origin and historical
development of a word. Example: Synchronism can be
better understood if we realize that the original meaning of
syn was together, and that of chronism was time.
History records the events in the development of
something. Example: It will be easier to understand what is
meant by the discipline of technical communication if we
explore how it evolved.
Documenting Your Sources
Writing Responsibility 1
A research paper like any other type of meaningful writing
should be a personal process of discovering new information.
Once you have gathered the information, you need to go about
the business of making it part of your own thinking. Study
points on which your sources agree or disagree about related
issues, and decide which ones offer the best arguments and
1
Patrick Sebranek, Writers Inc: School to Work: A Student Handbook (New

York: D. C. Heath & Co., 1996).
39
why. Determine how these findings stand up to your own

thinking. Research will become your own when you
Believe in the subject,
Give yourself enough time to learn about it,
Get actively involved and research your topic thoroughly,
and
Make the primary voice in your writing your own!
Research will not become your own when you simply piece
together the ideas of others and call it a research paper.
Avoiding Plagiarism
When you make research your own, your writing will
sound like you. That is exactly what you want. However, what
you do not want is to mislead people into thinking that all these
ideas are your own. If you do, you may be guilty of plagiarism
the act of presenting someone elses ideas as your own.
Plagiarism from the Latin word plagiarus (kidnapper),
refers to a form of cheating that is defined as the false
assumption of authorship; the wrongful act of taking the
products of another persons mind [ideas or expressions], and
presenting them as ones own. 1 Although it may be
unintentional, to use another persons ideas or expressions in
your writing without acknowledging the source is to plagiarize.
There are three types of plagiarism:
word for word plagiarism
paraphrasing plagiarism
spot plagiarism
In word-for-word plagiarism, a researcher repeats the
exact words of a source without giving the necessary credit.
Paraphrase plagiarism occurs when a researcher says basically
1
Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality (New York: Harper, 1952),

p. 2.
40
the same thing as an original source with just a few words

changed. In spot plagiarism, a researcher uses the same thing as
an original sources key words or phrases as his or her own
without giving credit.
You owe it to your sources, your readers, and yourself
to give credit for the ideas you use, unless the ideas are widely
accepted as common knowledge. Information is considered
common knowledge if most people already know it, or if it can
be found in nearly any basic reference book on the subject.
(The fact that there are 365 days in a year is common
knowledge. The fact that it rained 210 days in Seattle during
1990 is not.)
At all times during research and writing, guard against
the possibility of inadvertent plagiarism by keeping careful
notes that distinguish between your musing and thoughts and
the material you gather from others. You may certainly use
other persons words and thoughts in your research paper, but
the borrowed material must not appear to be your own
creation. In writing your research paper, you must document
everything that you borrow not only direct quotations and
paraphrases, but also information and ideas.
Naturally, common sense as well as ethics should
determine what you document. For example, you rarely need to
give sources for familiar proverbs (You cannot judge a book
by its cover), well-known quotations (We shall overcome),
or common knowledge (George Washington was the first
president of the United States). However, you must indicate
the source of any appropriated material that readers might
otherwise mistake for your own. If you have any doubt about
whether or not you are committing plagiarism, cite your source
or sources.
41
Documenting in Context
Writers traditionally provide references for material
they quote, paraphrase, or summarize from outside sources. In
informal writing personal narratives, for instance, or
humorous pieces sources are best given in the text itself.
The essential requirements here are to keep the reference brief
yet clear. As writing contexts grow more formal academic
papers, legal documents readers increasingly expect more
care and precision about revealing sources. In such situations,
formal reference notes are handled with strict adherence to
established convention. Yet, here also, clarity and simplicity
are of the essence.
Like clarity and simplicity, the following general
guidelines apply in a broad range of writing contexts:
Cite a source to give credit where credit is due. This is
partly a matter of common courtesy. If someone has spent
time and effort on an important study and you use that
information, a reference note is your way of saying thanks
and of letting readers know about your sources
contribution. Beyond considerations of courtesy, however,
come considerations of honesty. It is dishonest to take
credit for another persons original words or ideas. To do
so would be an act of plagiarism. Do not be guilty, even
unintentionally, of plagiarism. Always give appropriate
credit to those whose original words and ideas appear in
your own writings.
Cite a source to give readers a first-hand look at materials
you have used to develop and support your ideas. A
doubting reader may question your statistics or your
mention of a scientific study. A reference note allows that
reader to check up on you, to find the same book or article
you used. Skeptical readers can make sure, for instance,
that the study was conducted responsibly and that you have
42
presented the results fairly and accurately. Even

sympathetic readers may want to access your sources. If
they have a genuine interest in your subject, they will want
to learn more. By following up on your sources, they can
access your information trail.
Keeping the above purposes of documentation in mind will
help you decide whether you need a reference note or not.
Consider, also, these more specific guidelines:
1. Use a reference citation to identify the source of all material
that has been directly quoted. Strong writers keep direct
quotations to a minimum. Include as few direct quotations from
outside sources as possible, and keep them as short as possible.
As a rule, quote directly only when the exact wording of your
source is vital to understanding the point under discussion or
when your source has said something especially eloquent or
memorable. Otherwise, paraphrase the ideas, or in the case of a
long passage, summarize the relevant points. When you use a
direct quotation, as when you paraphrase or summarize,
introduce it with a running acknowledgment, as in the
following example:
This view is clarified by Fritjof Capra, who points out that
once it is seen to be a form of energy, mass is no longer
required to be indestructible, but can be translated into other
forms of energy (187).
Here, the writer was especially interested in Capras use of

translated and so decided to quote the passage exactly.
43
2. Use a reference citation to identify the source of material

that has been paraphrased or summarized. Even when you do
not quote directly but change your sources wording and restate
the ideas in your own language, you should document your
source. You should also document your brief summary of the
main points of someone elses longer discussion. Again, as
with direct quotation, introduce summarized or paraphrased
material with a running acknowledgment.
Jung believes that one of religion's major functions is to

present humanity with a source of allegiance that transcends
any individual social or political system. Belief systems that
do not reach beyond their immediate socio-political contexts,
he refers to as mere creeds (29-31).
According to Erich Fromm, it is through the act of giving
that we experience our fullest strength and potency (19).
The first example summarizes the relevant points of a two-page

discussion in a few sentences. The second rephrases the main
idea from a brief passage and blends it smoothly into the
writer's own style. Both examples, however, acknowledge the
sources of their concepts.
44
3. Use a reference citation to direct your reader to important

background information. If a full appreciation of the point you
are making depends on familiarity with another persons work,
use a note to direct your readers to that material. Let them see
the intellectual foundation on which your essay is built. For
example,
One persuasive argument supporting this view of Satan has been
offered by C. S. Lewis (203).
Here, the writer wants readers to know there is authoritative

support for the writer's viewpoint. While the writer does not
have time to go into this support, the note tells readers where to
find it.
4. Do not use a reference citation to document information that
is common knowledge, even if you found that information in a
specific source. That is, if some information is generally
known and acknowledged as true, you do not need to provide
documentation, although the information is new to you:
When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, King James VI of
Scotland became King James I of England.
You may have uncovered this information in your research,

and you may be able to point out the exact source, but why
bother? The information is common knowledge to anyone
interested in the period and can be found in any good
encyclopedia or British history book. There is no need to
document it, anymore than there would be to document the fact
that George Washington was the first president of the United
States.
45
A Quick Guide to Using Quotations

A quotation can be a single word or an entire
paragraph. Choose quotations carefully, keep them as brief as
possible, and use them only when they are interesting,
revealing, or necessary in the development of your text. A
paper that is quotation heavy usually means a writer has not
done much independent thinking. When you do quote material
directly, be sure that the capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling are the same as that in the original work. Any changes
you make should be clearly marked for your readers.
Short Quotations. If a quotation is four typed lines or
fewer work it into the body of your paper and put quotation
marks around it.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, wrote
Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century.
Long Quotations. Quotations of more than four typed

lines should be set off from the rest of the writing by indenting
each line 1 inch and double-spacing the material. Do not use
quotation marks.
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other
boys realize the horror of their actions: The tears began to
flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now
46
for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of

grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose
under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the
island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys
began to shake and sob too. (186)
Quoting Poetry. Three lines of verse or fewer should be

worked into your writing and punctuated with quotation marks.
Use a diagonal (/) between the lines of verse in your text. For
verse quotations of four lines or more, indent each line an inch
and double space. Do not use quotation marks.
Reflecting on the incident in Baltimore, Cullen concludes,
Of all the things that happened there/ That is all that I
remember. (11-12)
In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare compares his mistresss beauty to
a glorious summer day, while considering the contradictions
inherent in nature:
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
47
And summers lease hath all too short a date.

(1-4)
Partial Quotations. If you want to leave out part of the

quotation, use an ellipsis to signify the omission. An ellipsis (. .
.) is three periods with a space before and after each one.
Anything you take out of the quotation should not change the
authors original meaning.
In surveying various responses to plagues in the Middle
Ages, Barbara W. Tuchman writes, Medical thinking . . .
stressed air as the communicator of disease, ignoring
sanitation or visible carriers. (101-02)
Adding to Quotations. Use brackets [like this] to signify

any material you add within a quotation to help clarify its
meaning.
He claimed he could provide hundreds of examples [of
court decisions] to illustrate the historical tension between
church and state.
Taking Notes from Sources

You are expected to write your notes on note cards.
What follows are some suggestions and methods for
taking notes.
48
Strategies
Read carefully through each source twice: once for
understanding and once to record information that will be
used for the paper.
In the upper left-hand corner of each card, write a subject
heading to identify the subject of the note card. You will
later use these subject headings when you develop your
detailed outline.
Write only the last name of the author in the upper righthand corner of each card.
Write only one idea on each card. This will enable you to
rearrange your cards and later organize your information
easily.
At the bottom of the card, write the number of the page(s)
from which you took the information. You will later need
the page numbers for references within your paper and for
the works cited page.
Methods
Using these methods will help you avoid plagiarism.
1. QUOTING reproducing the exact words of your source.
Use direct quotations when the author makes a point in a
significant way. Be sure you enclose the authors exact
words in quotation marks.
2. PARAPHRASING restating in your own words the ideas
in a passage. You will need to acknowledge the author as
the source of the idea.
3. SUMMARIZING condensing a passage. When you write
a summary, you should use your own words, giving just the
main points and essential details. Remember to cite the
source.
49
Sample SOURCE card:

Epstein, Rachel. Eating habits and Disorders. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers, 1990.
(book)
Sample NOTE card:

Epstein Eating
Biological changes subject heading
1. Body temperature is cold.
2. Skin is dry, cracked, and yellow.
3. Hair falls out.
page 231
How to Document
Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted form
of documentation. Different fields of study, different
institutions, and even different instructors have their own
preferences. The form presented here is that of the Modern
Language Association (MLA). It is widely used in universities
and professional publications throughout the United States and
Canada, and most professors and publications will accept it
readily. MLA too encourages parenthetical documentation, as
in the examples above. This method is much more convenient
than the old systems of footnoting or endnoting. The new
system does require you to make a bibliography (MLA calls it
a Works Cited), but that can be done quickly.
50
Joseph Gribaldis MLA Style Manual and Guide to

Scholarly Publishing 1 is an attempt to provide the language
and literature scholar with a guide to publishing in the
humanities. Besides the expected sections treating the new
MLA documentation system (including the most-current
information on citing electronic publications), MLA Style
Manual provides a helpful overview of writing and publication
and detailed advice on the preparation of manuscript. A chapter
on theses and dissertations offers a brief overview of common
graduate-school requirements. For the scholar and graduate
student, the new edition replaces Gribaldi, MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers, 2 which is addressed to the
undergraduates. Although Chicago Manual of Style 3 is more
wide-ranging and detailed in its treatment of matters of
manuscript style, MLA Style Manual is required reading for
those who submit manuscripts for publication, since so many
literature journals and some academic presses (especially in the
United States) follow it.
Internal Documentation
In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your
sources by naming the author and page number of your source
within the body of your paper. Use the following guidelines to
recognize when to cite a source.
Cite a source when you QUOTE an authors exact words.
1
Joseph Gribaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing,

2nd edition (New York: MLA, 1998).
2
Joseph Gribaldi, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,
Fourth edition (New York: The Modern Language Association of America,
1995).
3
The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition (Chicago: Chicago University
Press, 1993).
51
Cite a source when you PARAPHRASE or SUMMARIZE

an authors words. Even if you restate the idea in your own
words, you must give the author credit for the original
idea.
Cite your source when you take FACTS, FIGURES or
STATISTICS from your source.
In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your
sources by keying brief parenthetical citations in your text to an
alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of the paper.
The parenthetical citation that concludes the following
sentence is typical of MLA style.
Ancient writers attributed the invention of the monochord to
Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century BC (Marcuse
197).
The citation (Marcuse 197) tells readers that the information

in the sentence was derived from page 197 of a work by an
author named Marcuse. If readers want more information about
this source, they can turn to the works-cited list, where, under
the name Marcuse, they would find the following information:
Marcuse, Sibyl. A Survey of Musical Instruments. New
York: Harper, 1975.
This entry states that the author is Sibyl Marcuse and its title is
A Survey of Musical Instruments. The remaining information
relates, in shortened form, that the work was published in New
York City by Harper and Row in 1975. A citation in MLA
style contains only enough information to enable readers to
52
find the source in the works-cited list. If the authors name is

mentioned in the text, only the page number appears in the
citation: (197). If more than one work by the author is in the
list of works cited, a shortened version of the title is given:
(Marcuse, Survey 197).
MLA style is not the only way to document sources.
Many disciplines have their own documentation systems. MLA
style is widely used in the humanities. Although generally
simpler and more economical than other documentation styles,
it shares with most others its central feature: parenthetical
citations keyed to a works-cited list. If you learn MLA
documentation style at an early stage in your school career, you
will probably have little difficulty in adapting to other styles.
The List of Works Cited and Other Source Lists
Although the list of works cited appears at the end of
your paper, you need to draft the section in advance, so that
you will know what information to give in parenthetical
references as you write. For example, you have to include
shortened titles if you cite two or more works by the same
author, and you have to add initials of first names if two of the
cited authors have the same last name: (K. Roemer 123-24),
(M. Roemer 67). This section therefore explains how to
prepare a list of works cited, and the next section demonstrates
how to document sources and where you use them in your
text.
As the heading of Works Cited indicates, this list
contains all the works that you will cite in your text. The list
simplifies documentation by permitting you to make only brief
references to these works in the text. The list simplifies
documentation by permitting you to make only brief
references to these works in the text. For example, when you
have the following entry in your list of works cited, a citation
53
such as (Thomson 32-35) fully identifies your source to

readers (Provided that you cite no other work by an author
with the same last name).
Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. New York: Dryden, 1946.
Titles used for other kinds of source lists include

Annotated Bibliography, Works Consulted, and Selected
Bibliography. An Annotated Bibliography, also called
Annotated List of Works Cited, contains descriptive or
evaluative comments on the sources. 1
Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. New York: Dryden, 1946. A
comprehensive survey of the most popular folk tales,
including their histories and their uses in literary works.
The title Works Consulted indicates that the list is not confined
to works cited in the paper. The heading Selected Bibliography,
or Selected List of Works Consulted, is appropriate for listings
suggesting readings in the field.
Placement of the List of Works Cited
The list of works cited appears at the end of the paper.
Begin the list on a new page and number each page, continuing
the page numbers of the text. For example, if the text of your
research paper ends on page 10, the works-cited list begins on
page 11. The page number appears in the upper right-hand
corner, half an inch from the top and flush with the right
1
For more information on such listings, see James L. Harner, On Compiling

an Annotated Bibliography, rev. ed. (New York: MLA, 1991).
54
margin. Center the title, Works Cited, an inch from the top of
the page. Double-space between the title and the first entry.
Begin each entry flush with the left margin; if an entry runs
more than one line, indent the subsequent line or lines one-half
inch (or five spaces if you are using a typewriter) from the left
margin. Double-space the entire list, both between and within
entries. Continue the list on as many pages as necessary.
Petculescu 11
Works Cited
Brindle, Reginald Smith. The Search Outwards: The Orient, Jazz,

Archaisms. The New Music: The Avant-Garde since 1945.
New York: Oxford UP, 1975. 133-45.
Burnett, James. Ellingtons Place as a Composer. Gammond 7
(1998): 141-55.
Arrangement of Entries
In general, alphabetize the entries in the list of works
cited by the authors name, using the letter-by-letter system. In
this system, the alphabetical order of names is determined by
55
the letters before the commas that separate last names and first
names. Spaces and other punctuation marks are ignored. The
letters following the commas are considered only when two or
more last names are identical. The following examples are
alphabetized letter by letter.
Descartes, Ren
De Sica, Vittorio
MacDonald, George
McCullers, Carson
Morris, Robert
Morris, William
Morrison, Toni
Saint-Exupry, Antoine de
St. Denis, Ruth
If two or more entries citing co-authors begin with the same

name, alphabetize the last names of the second authors listed.
Scholes, Robert, and Robert Kellog
Scholes, Robert, and Eric S. Rabkin
Other kinds of bibliographies may be arranged

differently. An annotated list, a list of works consulted, or a list
of selected readings for a historical study, for example, may be
organized chronologically by publication date. Some
bibliographies are divided into sections and the items
alphabetized in each section. A list may be broken down into
primary and secondary sources or into different research media
(books, articles, recordings). Alternatively, it may be arranged
by subject matter (literature and law, law in literature, law as
56
literature), by period (classical utopia, Renaissance utopia), or

by area (Egyptian mythology, Greek mythology, Norse
mythology).
Citing Books
1. The Basic Entry: A Book by a Single Author
One of the most common items in students works-cited
lists is the entry for a book by a single author. Such an entry
characteristically has three main divisions:
Authors name. Title of the book. Publication information.
Here is an example:
Kaku, Michio. Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel
Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension. New
York: Oxford UP, 1994.
2. An Anthology or Compilation
To cite an anthology or a compilation (e.g., a
bibliography) that was edited or compiled by someone whose
name appears on the title page, begin your entry with the name
of the editor or compiler, followed by a comma and the
abbreviation ed. or comp. If the person named performed more
than one function serving, say, as editor and translator give
both roles in the order in which they appear on the title page.
57
Lopate, Plillip, ed. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from
the Classical Era to the Present. New York: AnchorDoubleday, 1994.
McRae, Murdo William, ed. The Literature of Science: Perspectives
on Popular Science Writing. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1993.
Nichols, Fred J., ed. and trans. An Anthology of Neo-Latin Poetry.
New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
Rueschmeyer, Marilyn, ed. Women in the Politics of Postcommunist
Eastern Europe. Armonk: Sharpe, 1994.
Sevillano, Mando, comp. The Hopi Way: Tales from a Vanishing
Culture. Flagstaff: Northland, 1986.
Spafford, Peter, comp. and ed. Interference: The Story of
Czechoslovakia in the Words of Its Writers. Cheltenham: New
Clarion, 1992.
3. Two or More Books by the Same Author

To cite two or more books by the same author, give the
name in the first entry only. Thereafter, in place of the name,
type three hyphens, followed by a period and the title. The
three hyphens stand for exactly the same name as in the
preceding entry. If the person named edited, translated, or
compiled the book, place a comma (not a period) after the three
58
hyphens, and write the appropriate abbreviation (ed., trans., or

comp.) before giving the title. If the same person served as,
say, the editor of two or more works listed consecutively, the
abbreviation ed. must be repeated with each entry. This sort of
label does not affect the order in which entries appear; works
listed under the same name are alphabetized by title.
Boroff, Marie. Language and the Poet: Verbal Artistry in Frost,
Stevens, and Moore. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.
, trans.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York:
Norton, 1967.
, ed.
Wallace Stevens: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1963.

Frye, Northrop.
Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton:
Pinceton UP, 1957.

, ed. Design for Learning: Reports Submitted to the Joint
Committee of the Toronto Board of Education and the
University of Toronto. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1962.
. The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion.
Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1991.
, ed. Sound and Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1957.
59
4. A Book by Two or More Authors

To cite a book by two or three authors, give their names
in the same order as on the title page not necessarily in
alphabetical order. Reverse only the name of the first author,
add a comma, and give the other name or names in normal
form (Wellek, Ren, and Austin Warren). Place a period after
the last name. Even if the authors have the same last name,
state each name in full (Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant). If the
persons listed on the title page are editors, translators, or
compilers, place a comma (not a period) after the final name
and add the appropriate abbreviations (eds., trans., or comps.
for editors, translators, or compilers).
Jakobson, Roman, and Linda R. Waugh. The Sound Shape of
Language. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1979.
Kerrigan, William, and Gordon Braden. The Idea of the Renaissance.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1989.
Marquart, James W. Sheldon Ekland Olson, and Jonathan R.
Sorensen. The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital
Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990. Austin: U of Texas P, 1994.
Rabkin, Eric S., Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander, eds.
No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983.
60
Welsch, Roger L., and Linda K. Welsch. Cathers Kitchens:

Foodways in Literature and Life. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P,
1987.
If there are more than three authors, you may name

only the first and add et al. (and others), or you may give all
names in full in the order in which they appear on the title
page.
Gilman, Sander, et al. Hysteria beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of
California P, 1993.
Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. London: Longman, 1985.
or
Gilman, Sander, Helen King, Roy Porter, George Rousseau, and
Elaine Showalter. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of
California P, 1993.
Quirk, Randolph, Sydney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan
Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.
London: Longman, 1985.
If the first author cited in an entry is also the first of multiple

authors in the following entry, repeat the name in full; do not
substitute three hyphens. Repeat the name in full whenever you
61
cite the same person as part of a different authorship. The three

hyphens are never used in combination with persons names.
Schooles, Robert. Semiotics and Interpretation. New Haven: Yale
UP, 1982.
. Textual Power: Literary Theory and the Teaching of
English. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985.
Scholes, Robert, and Robert Kellogg. The Nature of Narrative. New
York: Oxford UP, 1966.
Scholes, Robert, and Eric S. Rabkin. Science Fiction: History,
Science, Vision. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.
5. Two or More Books by the Same Authors

To cite two or more books by the same authors, give the
names in the first entry only. Thereafter, in place of the names,
type three hyphens, followed by a period and the title. The
three hyphens stand for exactly the same names as the
preceding entry.
Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant. The Age of Voltaire. New York:
Simon, 1965.
. A Dual Autobiography. New York: Simon, 1977.
Gilbert, Sandra M. Blood Pressure. New York: Norton, 1989.
62
. Emilys Bread: Poems. New York: Norton, 1984.

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic:
The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary
Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The
Tradition in English. New York: Norton, 1985.
6. A Book by a Corporate Author

A corporate author may be a commission, an
association, a committee, or any other group whose individual
members are not identified on the title page. Cite the book by
the corporate author, even if the corporate author is the
publisher.
American Medical Association. The American Medical Association
Encyclopedia of Medicine. New York: Random, 1989.
Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing
Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 1992.
7. A Work in an Anthology
If you are citing an essay, a short story, a poem, or another
work that appears within an anthology or some other book
collection, you need to add the following information into the
basic book entry:
63
Author, title, and (if relevant) translator of the part of the

book being cited.
Name of the editor, translator, or compiler of the book
being cited.
Page numbers of the cited piece.
Here are some sample entries for works in anthologies:
Brandes, Georg. coala romantic n Germania. Principalele
curente literare din secolul al XIX-lea. Trans. Yvette Davidescu.
Bucureti: Univers, 1978. 59-222.
Calvino, Italo. Cybernetics and Ghosts. The Uses of Literature:
Essays. Trans. Patrick Creagh. San Diego: Harcourt, 1982. 3-27.
Donne, John. To His Mistress Going to Bed. The Oxford Anthology
of English Literature. Gen. eds. Frank Kermode and John
Hollander. New York: Oxford UP, 1973. 1023-24.
Hanzlick, Josef. Vengeance. Trans. Ewald Osers. Interference: The
Story of Czechoslovakia in the Words of Its Writers. Comp. and
ed. Peter Spafford. Cheltenham: New Clarion, 1992. 54.
Sastre, Alfonso. Sad Are the Eyes of William Tell. Trans. Leonard
Pronko. The New Wave of Spanish Drama. Ed. George
Wellwarth. New York: New York UP, 1970. 165-321.
64
8. An Article in a Reference Book

Treat an encyclopedia article or a dictionary entry as
you would a piece in a collection, but do not cite the editor of
the reference work. If the article is signed, give the author first;
if it is unsigned, give the title first. If the encyclopedia or
dictionary arranges articles alphabetically, you may omit
volume and page numbers. When citing familiar reference
books, especially those that frequently appear in new editions,
do not give full publication information. For such works, list
only the edition (if stated) and the year of publication.
Azimuthal Equidistant Projection. Merriam Websters Collegiate
Dictionary. 10th ed. 1993.
Mohanty, Jitendra M. Indian Philosophy. The New Encyclopedia
Britannica: Macropaedia. 15th ed. 1987.
When citing less familiar reference books, however, especially

those that have appeared in only one edition, give full
publication information.
Brlea, Ovidiu. Probele peirii. Mic enciclopedie a povetilor
romneti. Bucureti: Editura tiinific i enciclopedic, 1976.
Brakeley, Theresa C. Mourning Songs. Funk and Wagnalls
Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend. Ed.
Maria Leach and Jerome Fried. 2 vols. New York: Crowell,
1950.
65
9. A Multivolume Work
If you are using two or more volumes of a multivolume
work, cite the total number of volumes in the work (5 vols.).
This information comes after the title or after any editors
name or identification of edition and before the publication
information. Specific references to volume and page numbers
(3: 212-13) belong in the text.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Oxford Sherlock Holmes. Ed. Owen
Dudley Edwards. 9 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Eminescu, Mihai. Poezii. Ed. D. Murrau. 3 vols. Bucureti: Editura
Minerva, 1970.
Lauter, Paul, et al., eds. The Heath Anthology of American
Literature. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Lexington: Heath, 1994.
Weinberg, Bernard. A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian
Renaissance. 2 vols. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961.
Citing Articles in Periodicals

A periodical is a publication that appears regularly at
fixed intervals, such as a newspaper, a magazine, or a scholarly
journal. Unlike newspapers and magazines, scholarly journals
usually appear only about four times a year, and the issues
present learned articles containing original research and
original interpretations of data and texts. Such journals are
intended not for general readers but for professionals and
students. Since the research you do for your papers will
66
inevitably lead you to consult scholarly journals, the entry for

an article in a scholarly journal will be among the most
common in the works-cited lists you compile. The entry for an
article in a periodical, like that for a book, has three main
divisions:
Authors name. Title of the article. Publication information.
Here are some examples:

Craner, Paul M. New Tool for an Ancient Art: The Computer and
Music. Computers and the Humanities 25 (1991): 303-13.
Scotto, Peter. Censorship, Reading, and Interpretation: A Case
Study from the Soviet Union. PMLA 109 (1994): 61-70.
Flanigan, Beverly Olson. Peer Tutoring and Second Language
Acquisition in the Elementary School. Applied Linguistics 12
(1991): 141-58.
Petrior, Marin. Transhumana pstorilor ardeleni oglindit n
hrile graiurilor. Analele tiinifice ale universitii Ovidius 2
(1991): 122-34.
Citing CD-ROMs
Researchers can find a wealth of sources in electronic
form, as well as in print. It is convenient to divide electronic
publications into two types: portable databases and online
databases. Portable databases are distributed on CD-ROMs
67
(compact discs that can store large amounts of information),

diskettes, and magnetic tapes. To be read, these media require a
computer with the proper equipment. This section explains
how to cite CD-ROMs in the list of works cited; the following
section deals with citing online databases. Entries in a workscited list for CD-ROMs are much like those for printed
sources. There are a few differences, however, the most
important of which follow:
Publication medium (CD-ROM, diskette, magnetic tape).
Vendors name.
Date of electronic publication.
Here are some examples:
Albatross. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. CD-ROM.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992.
Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford
Translation. Ed. Jonathan Barnes. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton
UP, 1984. CD-ROM. Clayton: Intelex, 1994.
Bront, Emily. Discovering Authors. Vers. 1.0. CD-ROM. Detroit:
Gale, 1992.
Biography of William Shakespeare. Exploring Shakespeare. CDROM. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994.
68
Citing Online Databases

Online databases differ from CD-ROMs and other
portable databases products in a number of ways, including
those that follow:
Online databases are not portable or even tangible; you
cannot buy them in a shop or carry them around. You
access material from them on a computer through a service
of telecommunications network.
Online databases may be continually updated, corrected,
and otherwise revised without notification to users. You
cannot generally be sure whether material you consult
online has changed since the last time you consulted it.
Documents and data derived from an online database must
therefore be considered unique.
Accordingly, citations or publications from online databases,
like citations of publications on portable databases, require
some elements that citations of printed sources do not:
Publication medium (Online).
Name of computer service or computer network (a
computer network such as Internet).
Date of updating the page.
Date of access (13 April 2004).
Be skeptical just because it is available on the Internet does
not mean it is from a reliable source. Anyone can post
information on the net. Follow these steps to help check the
credibility of your sources:
Authority (* Does the document have a title? *Who are the
authors? * What type of site is providing the information?).
Recency (*When was the data last updated? *Does the
information appear to be the most recent or current on the
subject?).
69
Accuracy (*Does the source adequately define terms? *Is

background information provided?).
Context (*Does the document provide references or links to
other information that might clarify its content? *Is the
document simply a personal opinion or can it be supported
with fact?
Here are some examples of works cited from the Internet:

Scholarly Project
Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Apr. 1997.
Indiana U. 26 Apr. 2004. http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/
Professional Site
Portuguese Language Page. U of Chicago. 1 May 1997.
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/port/. 26 April 2004.
Book
Nesbit, E[dith]. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908.
Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willet. Apr. 1997.
Indiana University. 26 June 2004.
http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html.
Poem
Nesbit, E[dith]. Marching Song. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism.
London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry
70
Willet. Apr. 1997. Indiana University. 26 Apr. 2004

http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html#p9.
Article in a Reference Database

Fresco. Britannica Online. Vers. 97.1. 1 March 1997.
Encyclopedia Britannica. 29 April 2004.
http://www.eb.com:180.
Article in a Journal
Flannagan, Roy. Reflections on Milton and Ariosto. Early Modern
Literary Studies 2.3 (1996): 16 pars. 22 Feb. 2004.
http://unixg.ubc.ca:7001/0/e-sources/emls/02-3/flanmlit.html.
Article in a Magazine
Landsburg, Steven E. Who Shall Inherit the Earth? Slate 1 May
1997. 2 May 2004. http://www.slate.com/Economics/97-0501/Economics.asp.
In short, the style recommended by the Modern

Language Association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and
student research papers concerns itself with the mechanics of
writing, such as punctuation, quotation, and documentation of
sources. MLA style has been a Documentation Guide widely
adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for
nearly half a century. The following variant of MLA citation
style is based on MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers (4th ed., New York: Modern Language Association of
America, 1995). According to this set of rules, there are two
71
basic systems of citation: (I) PARENTHETICAL

REFERENCES
IN
THE
TEXT
and
(II)
the
FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES system.
I. PARENTHETICAL REFERENCES IN THE TEXT
Parenthetical documentation tells a reader what you
borrowed from a source and exactly where in that source you
found the information. A complete reference must appear in the
list of Works Cited at the end of your paper. Parenthetical
references in both text and footnotes/endnotes, correlated with
a list of works cited at the end of the paper is the preferred
documentation style for work appearing in periodicals.
Examples of parenthetical references:
Usually, the authors last name and a page reference are
enough to identify the source and specific location from which
you borrowed the material.
The spiritual aridity of acedia is almost a precondition for a
life of eternal bliss. (Kuhn 45)
If the subject can be defined only as an effect of the
signifier, then the subject depends on the signifier and... the
signifier is first of all in the field of the Other. (Lacan,
Ecrits 305; Four 207, 205)
If there are two or three authors, include the last name of each:
(Gilbert and Gubar 127)
72
If there are more than three authors, include the last name of
the first author followed by et al without any intervening
punctuation: (Lauter et al 243-51)
If the author is mentioned in the text, only the page reference
need be inserted: Mumford has argued the point (187-235).
In The Great Gatsby characters appear under the sign of
theatricality: Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some
time before... (36)
Other examples of parenthetical references correlated with full

reference in Works Cited (from periodicals):
1) Name of author(s) is mentioned in text, page references in
brackets, correlated with full references in Works Cited.
Peter Brooks, in Reading for the Plot, uses a Sherlock
Holmes story (The Musgrave Ritual) to illustrate how the
process of mystery solving can be seen as a model of the
narrative act, citing Tzvetan Todorov and other critics who
have noted the exemplary character of detective fiction (2327).
Corresponding reference in Works Cited:

Brooks, Peter. Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in
Narrative. New York: Knopf, 1984.
73
Todorov, Tzvetan. The Poetics of Prose. Trans. Richard Howard.

New York: Cornell UP, 1997.
2) Name of authors (and specific work, if more than work is

discussed in article) appears in parenthetical reference in text:
In her close readings of the emancipatory strategies of
women poets and novelists, Yaeger makes good use of
Bakhtins theory that hybridized utterances allow for the
emergence of new internal forms for perceiving the world
in words (Yaeger, Bakhtin 16; Bakhtin 360).

Yaeger, Patricia. Bakhtin and Ye Ma Jah: Dominant Discourse and
the African Name. Unpublished essay.
. Honey-Mad Women: Emancipating Strategies in Womens
Writing. New York: Columbia UP, 1988.
Bakhtin, M. M. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael
Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin:
U of Texas P, 1981.
74
3) Parenthetical references in text and footnote/endnote

correlated with full reference in Works Cited
3a)
De Lillos fiction has certainly been read from this
perspective, particularly White Noise, with its preoccupation
with commodities as signs, and its consumerist mantras, the
consoling and disconsolate chants of what Baudrillard would
term a desertified America: Panasonic, Toyota Celica
(White Noise 241, 155). 1
All corresponding references appear in Works Cited, in

alphabetical order:
DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Viking, 1985.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e), 1983.
Frow, John. The Last Things Before the Last: Notes on White
Noise. Lentricchia 175-91.
Lentricchia, Frank, ed. Introducing Don DeLillo. Durham: Duke UP,
1991.
For specific discussion of Baudrillard and de Lillo see Wilcox, and Frow,
Last Things 181-82.
75
Wilcox, Leonard. Baudrillard, DeLillos White Noise, and the End

of Heroic Narrative. Contemporary Literature 32 (1991): 34665.
3b)
It is largely due to medieval interpretations of Aristotles
text, especially Ficinos De vita triplici that the cult of the
suffering artist emerged in the Renaissance.1
1
The most complete history of understanding melancholy from Aristotle

through the Renaissance remains Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and
Fritz Saxls Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural
Philosophy.

Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. Saturn and
Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy.
London: T. Nelson, 1964.
3c)
In Smiths Collected Poems, fairy tales invariably prove
themselves propagandistic tools for the inculcation of
76
dominant social patterns, morals, and values, without

offering the reader any right alternatives. 13
13
For a controversial feminist study of the workings of fairy tale in culture

and subsequently in womens revisionary texts, see Rose.
Corresponding references in Works Cited:

Rose, Ellen Cronan. Through the Looking Glass: When Women
Tell Fairy Tales. The Voyage In: Fictions of Female
Development. Ed. Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and
Elizabeth Langland. Hanover, MA: UP of New England, 1983.
209-27.
II FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES
The footnote/endnote number appears after punctuation
marks. The footnote gives complete reference the first time that
mention is made of a particular work. Subsequent references
are either given as below or parenthetically in the text as above.
This system is preferred in research work, chapters in volumes,
and book length publications.
Gallop for example argues the relationship between
mirroring and psychoanalysis. 9
Jane Gallop, Reading Lacan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 62.
77
As a later reference:
Along similar lines, Gallop also discusses the American
reception of Lacan.11
11
Gallop, 98.
Or, if author appears with more than one work:

11
Gallop, Humanism and Mystery, 13.
For citations from primary texts, give the full reference in

footnote/endnote the first time, with the mention that
subsequent references to this edition will be given
parenthetically in the text. For other references, give the page
number in the text in brackets.
The splendid feminine figure of The Bostonians evokes the
vales of Arcady.7
7
Henry James, The Bostonians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984),

134. All further references are to this edition and will be given
parenthetically in the text.
Later references to a primary text:

Henry Jamess journalist asks for revelations of the vie intime
of his victims with the bland confidence of a fashionable
physician inquiring about symptoms (Bostonians, 134).
78
III. LIST OF WORKS CITED/

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
A list of works cited or a complete bibliography correlated
with parenthetical references contains all the works cited in
your text. The list simplifies documentation by permitting you
to make only brief references to these works in the text.
Underlining must sometimes be used for all elements that
appear in italics in the following examples. A selected
bibliography correlated with footnotes/endnotes is a selected
list of works you have used in your paper. References for other
works mentioned in the paper should have been given as
footnotes/endnotes.
Book with one author:
Mumford, Lewis. The Culture of Cities. New York: Harcourt, 1938.
Two or more books from the same author:

Carr, Emily. The Book of Small. Toronto: Clarke, 1942.
. The House of All Sorts. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1944.
Book with two or three authors:

Conrad, Margaret, Alvin Finkel, and Cornelius Jaenen. History of the
Canadian Peoples. Missisauga: Copp Clarke Pitman, 1993.
An anthology or a compilation:
Lopate, Philip, ed. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from
the Classical Era to the Present. New York: Anchor-Doubleday,
1994.
79
Essay in a book:
Calvino, Italo. Cybernetics and Ghosts. The Uses of Literature.
Essays. Trans. Patrick Creagh. San Diego: Harcourt, 1982. 3-27.
An introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword of a book:

Sayers, Dorothy. Introduction. The Divine Comedy of Dante
Alighieri, the Florentine. By Dante Alighieri. Trans. Dorothy
Sayers and Barbara Reynolds. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1949.
9-69.
A translation:
Roy, Gabrielle. The Tin Flute. Trans. Hannah Josephson. New York:
Reynal&Hitchcock, 1947.
Article in an encyclopedia, signed:

Roche, Douglas. Peace Movement. Canadian Encyclopedia. Ed.
James Marsh. 4 vols. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988.
Article in journal:
Craner, Paul M. New Tool for an Ancient Art: The Computer and
Music. Computers and the Humanities 25 (1991): 303-13.
80
Article in a magazine or newspaper:

Rybezynski, Witold. Designs for Escape. New Yorker 16 Oct.
1995:160-63.
A Review:
Kauffmann, Stanley. A New Spielberg. Rev. of Schindlers List,
dir. Steven Spielberg. New Republic 13 Dec 1993: 30.
A Film:
Its a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Kapra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna
Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946.
If you are citing the contribution of a particular individual,

begin with that persons name:
Chaplin, Charles, dir. Modern Times. Perf. Chaplin and Paulette
Godard. United Artists, 1936.
A Television or Radio Program:

Nirvana in Nova Scotia. Narr. Arthur Kent. Man Alive. CBC
Television. 2 Feb. 1995.
Video Recordings:
By Womans Hand. By Pepita Ferrari and Erna Buffle. Prod. Merit
Jensen Carr, Pepita Ferrari, Kent Martin. Videocassette. NFB,
1994.
81
Sound Recordings:
Holiday, Billie. God Bless the Child. Rec. 9 May 1941. The
Essence of Billie Holiday. Columbia, 1991.
Musical composition, published score:

Beethoven, Ludwig van. Symphony No 8 in F. Op. 93. New York:
Dover, 1989.
Works of art, photographed, in a book:

Cassat, Mary. Mother and Child. 1890. Wichita Art Museum,
Wichita. American Painting: 1560-1913. By John Pearce. New
York: McGraw, 1964. Slide 22.
Internet:
Nesbit, Edith. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908.
Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willet. Apr. 1997.
Indiana University. 26 Apr. 2004.
http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html.
More sample entries (footnotes/ endnotes correlated with

Bibliography):
Book
- in footnotes or endnotes:
Carol Fairbanks, Prairie Women. Images in American and Canadian
Fiction (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986) 12.
- in bibliography:
82
Fairbanks, Carol. Prairie Women. Images in American and Canadian

Fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.
Article in collections of essays:

H.B. Charlton, Humanism and Mystery, Shakespeare. The
Tragedies, ed. Alfred Harbage (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1964) 10-18, 15.
in bibliography:
Charlton, H.B. Humanism and Mystery. Shakespeare. The

Tragedies. Ed. Alfred Harbage. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1964. 10-18.
Article in periodicals:
Frederick Barthelme, Architecture, Kansas Quarterly 13.3 (1981):
77-90, 80.
- in bibliography:
Barthelme, Frederick. Architecture. Kansas Quarterly 13.3 (1981):
77-90.
Students are expected to select one of the two styles of citation,

the parenthetical reference correlated with Works Cited or the
footnote/endnote system. Whatever system is selected, the
paper must be consistent throughout, following only one of the
MLA styles of citation.
83
How to Ask for and Receive

Feedback on Your Writing
Possible Writing Moments for Feedback
There is no "best time" to get feedback on a piece of writing. In
fact, it may often be helpful to ask for feedback at several
different phases of a writing project. Listed below are some
parts of the writing process and some possible kinds of
feedback you might need in each. Keep in mind, though, that
every writer is different you might think about these issues at
other stages of the writing process, and that is fine.
The beginning/idea stage: Do I understand the
assignment? Am I gathering the right kind of information
to answer this question? Are my strategies for approaching
this assignment effective? How can I discover the best way
to develop my early ideas into a feasible draft?
Outline/thesis: I have an idea about what I want to argue,
but I am not sure if it is an appropriate or complete
response to this assignment. Is the way I am planning to
organize my ideas working? Does it look like I am covering
all the bases? Do I have a clear, main point? Do I know
what I want to say to the reader?
Rough draft: Does my paper make sense and is it
interesting? Have I proven my thesis statement? Is the
evidence I am using convincing? Is it explained clearly?
Have I given the reader enough information? Does the
84
information seem to be in the right order? What can I say in

my introduction and conclusion?
Early polished draft: Are the transitions between my ideas
smooth and effective? Do my sentences make sense
individually? How's my writing style?
Late or final polished draft: Are there any noticeable
spelling or grammar errors? Are my margins, footnotes,
and formatting okay? Does the overall paper seem
effective? Is there anything I should change at the last
minute?
After the fact: How should I interpret the comments on my
paper? What else might I have done to strengthen this
paper? What can I learn as a writer about this writing
experience? What should I do the next time I have to write
a paper?
Kinds of Feedback to Ask for

Asking for a specific kind of feedback can be the best
way to get advice that you can use. Think about what kinds of
topics you want to discuss and what kinds of questions you
want to ask:
Understanding the assignment (Do I understand the task?
How long should it be? What kinds of sources should I be
using? Do I have to answer all of the questions on the
assignment sheet or are they just prompts to get me
thinking? Are some parts of the assignment more important
than other parts?)
Factual content (Is my understanding of the course
material accurate? Where else could I look for more
information?)
Interpretation/analysis (Do I have a point? Does my
argument make sense? Is it logical and consistent? Is it
supported by sufficient evidence?)
85
Organization (Are my ideas in a useful order? Does the

reader need to know anything else up front? Is there
another way to consider ordering this information?)
"Flow" (Do I have good transitions? Does the introduction
prepare the reader for what comes later? Do my topic
sentences accurately reflect the content of my paragraphs?
Can the reader follow me?)
Style (Sometimes the comments on earlier papers can help
you identify writing style issues that you might want to
look out for. Is my writing style appealing? Am I overusing passive voice? Are there too many "to be" verbs?)
Grammar (Just as with style, sometimes comments on
earlier papers will help you identify grammatical "trouble
spots" to look for. Am I using commas correctly? Do I have
problems with subject-verb agreement?)
Strategy-oriented thinking will help you go from being a writer

who writes disorganized papers and then fixes each one to
being a writer who no longer writes disorganized papers. In the
end, that is a much more positive and permanent solution.
Revising Your Paper

A Checklist to Guide Your Proofreading
Take a break. Although this may sound strange, the best

way to get a fresh look at your paper is to put it aside for a
few hours, or perhaps a full day. Allow yourself a pause
between writing the paper and revising it.
Ask someone for advice. While you are waiting, you
might seek the advice of your instructor or a friend.
Someone else might be able to spot problems that you have
not considered.
86
Reconsider your subject. Were you able to treat it

adequately in the space you had available?
Restate your thesis. State your thesis in a sentence as a
way of checking your content. Is everything in the paper
relevant to that thesis?
Check your evidence. Check to make sure that you have
given enough examples to support your argument or to
make your thesis clear. Relevant details convince and
interest the reader.
Check your papers structure. Have you organized your
paper carefully? Is its structure clear?
Define your audience. To whom are you writing? What
assumptions have you made about your audience? What
changes are necessary to make your paper clear and
interesting to that audience? Make sure your language,
tone, and argument are appropriate to the papers context.
Check for simple grammar errors. Examine each
sentence to make sure that it is complete and grammatically
correct. Try for variety in sentence structure and length.
Look at your paragraphs. Does each paragraph obey the
rules of effective paragraph construction? Does each
paragraph follow the structure of your essay?
Examine individual words. Have you avoided slang,
jargon, and clichs? Have you used words appropriate for
your intended audience? Can you find any typos/
misprints?
Read it over one more time. Check your printout briefly
for last-minute mistakes. Are there any typos? Are all the
pages there? Are they in order? Are all of your sources
adequately cited? Have you forgotten to put your name or
page numbers on the page?
87
Hints for Writing Research Papers

This unit lists some of the stages involved in writing a
library-based research paper. Although this list suggests that
there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the
actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and
recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.
Discovering, narrowing, and focusing a researchable topic
try to find a topic that truly interests you
try writing your way to a topic
talk with your professor and classmates about your topic
pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem
to be solved
Finding, selecting, and reading sources
You will need to look at the following types of sources:
card catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies,
suggestions from your professor
primary vs. secondary sources
journals, books, other documents
Grouping, sequencing, and documenting information
The following systems will help keep you organized:
a system for noting sources on bibliography cards
88
a system for organizing material according to its relative

importance
a system for taking notes
Writing an outline and a prospectus for yourself

Consider the following questions:
What is the topic?
Why is it significant?
What background material is relevant?
What is my thesis or purpose statement?
What organizational plan will best support my purpose?
Writing the introduction
In the introduction, you will need to do the following things:
present relevant background or contextual material
define terms or concepts when necessary
explain the focus of the paper and your specific purpose
reveal your plan of organization
Writing the body
use your outline and prospectus as flexible guides
build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., do
not let your sources organize your paper)
integrate your sources into your discussion
summarize, analyze, explain, and evaluate published work
rather than merely reporting it
move up and down the "ladder of abstraction" from
generalization to varying levels of detail back to
generalization
89
Writing the conclusion

if the argument or point of your paper is complex, you may
need to summarize the argument for your reader
if prior to your conclusion you have not yet explained the
significance of your findings or if you are proceeding
inductively, use the end of your paper to add your points
up, to explain their significance
move from a detailed to a general level of consideration
that returns the topic to the context provided by the
introduction
perhaps suggest what about this topic needs further
research
Revising the final draft
check overall organization: logical flow of introduction,
coherence and depth of discussion in body, effectiveness of
conclusion
paragraph level concerns: topic sentences, sequence of
ideas within paragraphs, use of details to support
generalizations, summary sentences where necessary, use
of transitions within and between paragraphs
sentence level concerns: sentence structure, word choices,
punctuation, spelling documentation: consistent use of one
system, citation of all material not considered common
knowledge, appropriate use of endnotes or footnotes,
accuracy of list of works cited
90
91
WRITING ESSAYS
Writing Informal Essays
Occasions for Informal Essays
A thoughtful letter to an old friend, a reflection on your
education or ethnic heritage, childhood reminiscence these
could all be informal essays. In writing, informality depends
less on subject or structure than on the writing context.
Informal essays assume a personal stance. They suggest close
connections among writer, reader, and subject. Whatever the
subject, and it could be almost anything, the writer is part of it,
perhaps the central figure exploring a personal ritual or an
arctic island, maybe a background figure attending a pop
concert or watching an elephant die. In any case, we enter the
writers mind. We experience the writers emotions. It is a kind
of writing that helps us learn who we are as people, helps us
define our values and clarify our vision.
Like fiction and poetry, informal essays are imaginative
excursions, and so, are sometimes called creative nonfiction.
Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, James
Baldwin, are some English and American writers of informal
essays whose work you might know already or enjoy
discovering.
92
1. Writing a Story
Informal essays are often written as stories that trace a
sequence of events from beginning to end, with occasional
intervals of description or analysis.
Narrative Techniques
A Strategy of
Disclosure
Foreshadowing and
Withholding
Information
Thickening the Plot
Compression and
Expansion
Beginning in the Using Tension and
Middle and
Opposition
Flashing Back
People and
Places
Telling and
Showing
Summary
The fundamental movement is forward in time, but with

chances along the way to pause at points of interest.
Remembering this, you are not going to feel you are getting
sidetracked when folding in some description or explanation.
Once you have finished a passage of analysis or description,
you can return to the time line and continue moving forward to
the conclusion. Sticking to a straightforward time order can
also help you sense your papers overall shape. This is
especially true early on, when you are expanding and exploring
possibilities. Later, however, as you shape and rearrange what
you have written, you may find other organizational strategies
that make your story more interesting and effective.
A Strategy of Disclosure
Whenever you write, you are presenting or disclosing
information. Besides asking how much information the reader
93
wants or needs, you should consider the sequence in which to

present it. These, then, are two major considerations:
How much information will I disclose about a particular
subject, an injury for instance, during the course of my
story?
At what points in my story will I divulge this?
These two questions combine to produce a third:
How much information do I want my reader to have at each
point in the story?
The point is to shape and control the information flow to
your readers. While the straight time line is a good starting
point, most stories can be improved by experimenting with
disclosure strategies like the following.
Compression and Expansion
Compression and expansion can help you control your
essays pacing and tempo. Actually, they are not separate
techniques so much as parts of a single technique for
controlling the time flow. Even in real life, where the clock
moves with strict regularity, minutes can seem to drag on for
hours while whole weeks vanish in an instant. This inner time
fluid, variable, and personal can be simulated in writing by
focusing on key scenes and developing them in detail, while
other, longer periods can be passed over in a few words.
Beginning in the Middle and Flashing Back
This time-tested technique goes back at least as far as
ancient Greece, where Aristotle praised it as a way of opening
stories up fast and getting readers involved. We have seen how
the readers sense of time can be compressed or expanded.
Besides compressing and expanding time, however, writers can
move time around. 1945 can come before 1939. Christmas
morning can come before Christmas Eve. Spring break can
94
arrive before midterm exams. Of course, too much disruption

of normal time order, or disruptions that are pointless or hard to
follow, can only weaken your organization and confuse
readers. The key to success lies in knowing what you are doing,
and why.
Beginning in the middle allows you to hook your
readers interest by bringing them into the story at a crucial
point. Then, once you have them hooked, you can flash back to
the beginning and fill in background information before
moving forward again to the end. When using this technique,
be sure to signal readers when you move forward or backward
in time.
Foreshadowing and Withholding Information
Experienced storytellers, whether professional writers
or old-timers around a stove, know suspense keeps attention
levels high. Creating and controlling anticipation, while never
simple, depends on a few basic concepts. As a writer, you
create expectations in your readers. Then you can satisfy those
expectations, in which case the suspense disappears, or delay
satisfaction until the last possible moment, thereby intensifying
and prolonging the suspense. This air of anticipation colored
with uncertainty is the essence of suspense. To create suspense,
you hint at, but hide, what will come. Foreshadowing is the
hinting. Withholding Information is the hiding.
Thickening the Plot
Every individual story is made up of other stories that
overlap and interconnect. If you notice these strands and see
how they relate, you can use them to add texture to your essay.
You can shift focus like a movie camera from one story to
another, letting the reader see how the stories entwine.
95
Using Tension and Opposition

Writers use tension and opposition to explore the
texture of experience. Most experience contains opposition,
which often produces tension, and not all tension is bad, and
not all opposition is conflict. In fact, the poet William Blake
went so far as to say, Opposition is true Friendship. He
meant that opposition produces energy and excitement,
sometimes even harmony. Tension in writing takes many forms
and serves many purposes. It can grow from opposition
between people, between people and their surroundings,
between hopes and realities, between tradition and change. A
single essay can use several sources of tension, exploring their
interrelationships. Learn to recognize tension, to build it, to
control and release it according to your purposes.
People and Places
A good story is made of more than events. Stories
introduce us to people we have never met, take us to places we
have never been. They show how events change people and
how people change events. They lift us, however briefly, out of
our own world and let us experience another, the world of the
story, complete with uncles, cats, blizzards, draperies, bananas
whatever the writer chooses to include. If you have a sense of
your storys overall event flow, you may see places where you
can pause to add details about the people involved and the
place where the story happens.
Telling and Showing
You can tell your reader that your uncle was a careful
and methodical person, or you can show your uncle in
coveralls, goggles, and work gloves. You can tell your reader
that your new apartment looked cold and sterile, or you can
show the bare white walls and recently shampooed carpet, the
96
uncurtained windows that looked out on a snow-crusted

parking lot. The action speaks for itself, we sometimes say,
meaning no explanation is needed. We know explanations are
useful, but we know, too, that events themselves are often more
dramatic and revealing. When you show the people, places, and
events in your story, you invite readers into the texture of
experience, to feel, see, hear, hear, taste, and smell that
experience. Often a single, well-chosen detail close-bitten
fingernails or a half-buttoned, black silk shirt will show more
than a full paragraph of explanation can tell, and will also be
more convincing and memorable.
Summary
Most stories can follow a time order. This time order
gives a good sense of direction during the early stages of
writing. This story line also serves as a departure point when
you fold in some description or explanation. Writers often
depart from this strict time order, determining the kinds and
amounts of information to give readers at each point in the
story. As you shape your story, then, remember this point: you
control the flow of information to readers.
Assembling a Montage
Seemingly disconnected thoughts and images, facts and
memories, can be juxtaposed, lifted out of their original
contexts and reassembled into a new whole a single
statement. Ezra Pound wrote poetry this way. He called his
Cantos a ragbag stuffed with bits and scraps of whatever he
found that seemed to belong there. The final effect is a sort of
verbal montage, e.g. low fade, voice-over, wide pan, jump cut,
close up. You might begin with a series of quick freewrites,
collect notes and quotations at random, then save them under
different filenames, print them out, scatter them around the
97
floor, cut them up and tape them back together. You could look
for tension and contrast in language, recurring themes,
emerging patterns of meaning. Then you could merge it all
back into a single document and continue to cut, paste, and
move. There is no right way to do it, no list of steps to
follow. If you want to push your essays beyond rational, linear
thinking, you may want to assemble a montage. The process is
intuitive and holistic. It requires imagination, improvisation,
and a willingness to experiment.
2. Following a Metaphor
A metaphor makes a comparison, and in doing so
shapes our perception. If we say, Time is a river, we are
noting a certain similarity between the two. Yet, we know they
are not identical. We may mean that time is fluid, has currents
and eddies, empties into some vast ocean, but not that it is
composed of water. If we say, Time is a stone, we may mean
it is silent, still, indifferent, but not that it is a mineral.
A metaphor has two parts: a tenor and a vehicle. The
tenor (time in the example above) is the subject of the
comparison, and the vehicle (a river, a stone) is the image
to which the subject is being compared. Though we know the
metaphors two parts are not identical, so close is their
association that something of the vehicle rubs off and
influences our perception of the tenor. For instance, instead of
merely starting a new computer program, we can now click a
mouse on a link and open a window.
Because of this power to shape perception, metaphors
are important to writers. While novice writers may see
metaphors as ornamental or decorative, more experienced
writers use them structurally, sometimes extending and
exploring a single metaphor throughout an entire work.
Occasionally such an extended metaphor will be submerged.
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That is, the vehicle will be only partially visible beneath the
surface of the writing. You might use metaphor to clarify
central concepts or to connect parts of an essay. You might also
think metaphorically about your essays overall planning and
design.
3. Openings and Closings
Beginnings serve two important purposes. The first is to
get you started writing. The second is to get your readers
started reading. Early in your writing you are concerned more
with the first purpose: getting off to a good start, maybe with
enough push to carry you into the heart of the essay. Yet, the
beginning that gets you going may not always be best for
getting readers involved. Never mind. You can take care of that
later, after you have seen how the essay is taking shape. The
important thing at the start is to get going. Remember, those
first words you write may never be seen by anyone but you.
Any starting point can be an entry into your writing process.
Just like entering a lake for a swim, there is no best way to
begin. Some people test the water and wade in slowly. Others
just plunge right in and start splashing away. Either way, you
get wet.
At the start, do not be too critical of whatever gets you
going. Later, as you revise, you will look critically and
suspiciously at your opening. Sometimes the first paragraph of
the first draft of an informal essay can be lopped off
completely with nothing much lost. Cruel and unfeeling as it
may seem, the best way to a good opening is often to take one
last long look at your original beginning and chop it. Such
radical surgery is not always the answer, however. The
essential requirement is to open smoothly and quickly, to draw
your readers into the essay itself, not into an explanation of
why you are writing or of what the essay might prove.
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If you still do not feel sure about the opening, one final
suggestion may help. The seed of a good beginning is often
contained in the ending. Think of your ending as a goal, a
destination, a place you are working toward. Ask what it is
about this point that makes you want to end here rather than
somewhere else. Now read back over the essay as a whole and
look for a possible starting point, some word, image, or
incident that connects with, anticipates, the ending.
Sooner or later, you need to ask: what makes all these
ideas and images belong in a single essay? You may not know
when you begin writing. However, as the essay takes shape,
you should start to see what you are working toward, what you
are really writing about, what point you have to make before
the essays promise is fulfilled. Having reached that point, look
back over your writing and find the beginning. If you can do
that, your readers, on reaching the end, should feel satisfaction
and closure. The point should be clear, the cycle complete.
Nothing should remain to be said.
Writing Compare/Contrast Essays

1. Choose a bite-sized topic.
Limit your topic to subjects that can be adequately developed
in a paragraph or in an essay.
2. Make sure your subjects can be compared.
The subjects you are comparing and/or contrasting must have
some basic similarities or differences. Make a list of
similarities and/or differences before you begin to write.
3. Why are these similarities/differences important?
Decide why each point of comparison or contrast is
important. What does it reveal? Make your reasons for
choosing these characteristics clear to the reader.
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4. Decide on a pattern of composition.

Decide which of the following three patterns of
comparison and contrast best fits your purpose: subject by
subject, point by point, or mixed.
Subject by Subject: Subject A [Ex. 1 Ex. 2]; Subject B
[Ex. 1 Ex. 2]
Point by Point: Point A (example) [Subject A, Subject
B]; Point B (example) [Subject A, Subject B].
5. Use Clear Transitions.
Make it clear to your reader when you switch from one subject
to another or from one point of comparison or contrast to
another.
Writing Thesis/Support Essays

Occasions for Thesis/Support Essays
Thesis/support essays convey a central idea clearly
and succinctly. Because thesis/support essays open up and
expand upon a single main point, they are suited to short
reports, position papers, and critical analyses. Because they
can, with practice, be written quickly, they are also handy for
essay exams and letters of application or recommendation. As
you become familiar with them, you will no doubt see other
uses. You may notice that the form presented here channels
your thinking and writing into a single direction. This
channeling effect is both a limitation and strength of
thesis/support essays. It is a limitation because it prevents you
from ranging widely over a field of interest, as in an informal
essay. The channeling effect is a form of strength because you
do not wander from your subject, and because your main idea
will always be supported by well-organized details. The basic
thesis/support pattern promotes clear, systematic thinking on a
single subject and can therefore be helpful whenever you want
to set forth ideas and facts in an efficient, orderly way.
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From Subject to Thesis

Often your teacher, your professor, or the writing
context itself will determine your subject. Other times you may
be free to choose your own subject. Either way, the subject
itself is only a starting point, which is not going to make or
break your paper. Many unreadable papers have been written
on exciting and important subjects, and many valuable papers
have been done on subjects that at first glance look dull and
insignificant. Whether you are given a subject or choose your
own, whether you like your subject or not, your job is to turn
that subject into a solid, well-organized paper, and the
following process can help. How you handle your subject
counts most. Think of your subject as pointing you in a
direction, providing boundaries you should stay within, telling
you in a general way where you are going and, at the same
time, where you are not going.
Focusing of attention is vital, to provide a more definite
sense of direction and purpose than the broad subject an offer.
Doing that, narrowing your subjects boundaries, often makes
the difference between a strikingly effective paper and a bland,
ineffective one. Look for ways to restrict the territory you will
be covering. Limit your broad subject to a smaller and more
manageable topic. A topic, as I am using the term here, is an
area much like a subject but more definite, more specific.
Usually the topic will be some particular aspect of the subject
that you are most interested in or know the most about, the part
your knowledge, experience, and interests make you feel
closest to.
Stating your Thesis
A thesis is a one-sentence statement about your topic. It
is an assertion about your topic, something you claim to be
true. Notice that a topic alone makes no such claim; it merely
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defines an area to be covered. The topic is seldom stated as a

complete sentence with a subject and predicate. To make your
topic into a thesis statement, you need to make a claim about it.
Look back over your materials branching charts, free
writings, investigative notes and think about what you
believe to be true. Think about what your readers want or need
to know. Then write a sentence, preferably at this point, a
simple one, stating what will be the controlling idea of your
paper.
Supporting Your Thesis
Think of your thesis as a statement that remains to be
proved. It commits you to showing your reader that it is
founded upon good evidence and sound reasoning. That is, you
want to show that you know what you are talking about, that
you have investigated the matter thoroughly, have considered
the implications of your findings, and are offering in your
thesis not mere opinion, but a carefully thought-out conclusion.
This job of uncovering and displaying your reasoning is the
next step in writing a thesis/support essay.
Getting Inside and Idea
It is not unusual to hear people say they cannot write
any more because they have run out of ideas, as though every
sentence had to present a new thought. Most experienced
writers understand, though, that a whole essay, a whole book,
can be built from a single idea that is fully explored and
developed. The writers job is not simply to list ideas, which
could be seen as mere personal opinions, but to probe and test a
single worthwhile thought, to take the reader inside that idea
rather than pass quickly over its surface.
To begin doing this, look carefully at your thesis. Try
asking: Why do I believe this statement is true? What have I
seen or done or read or heard that caused me to make this
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statement? At this point, look less for specific details than for
good reasons. Maybe you have heard the expression, Give
me three good reasons why I should believe you. If you can
do that, give at least three good reasons why a reasonable
person should believe your thesis, you are well on your way.
A Skeleton Essay
You may see that each good reason, each support
sentence is like a miniature thesis statement. It, too, is a claim
that requires support to be convincing. The next step is to
develop each good reason into a solid, detailed paragraph.
Look back over your notes, scour your memory, and squeeze
your imagination to discover what facts, details, examples, and
illustration can help your reader understand your ideas and see
the reasoning they are based on. Consider your support
sentences one at a time and show reader the specifics that have
led you to make these claims. In your essay, each good
reason will become the topic sentence of a paragraph. Each
topic sentence can be opened and developed much like a thesis
statement.
A skeleton essay makes it possible for you to see how
the various parts of your paper relate to your thesis. Much like
an outline, it can help you move ahead in your writing with the
security and assurance that come from having an overall plan.
You do not need to list three or four sentences under each topic
sentence, but since these sentences will guide you in
developing your paragraphs, you may want as many as seem
reasonable. If you cannot come up with at least one or two such
guide sentences in support of a topic sentence, you should
question whether you are able to write a solid paragraph on the
idea. You might need to rethink and reword the topic sentence
so that it offers more room for expansion.
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Developing Your Paragraphs

Your topic sentences indicate the major areas of support
for your thesis, and the guide sentences indicate the general
course of development you plan to take within each paragraph.
Still, the job of composing your paper is far from complete.
While you have opened up your main idea to expose its parts,
you have yet to get down to giving the specifics the precise
details that will help your reader feel the full weight of your
thought. You must show the foundation of specific evidence
that your general ideas are built upon. The following
suggestions for paragraph development will help you coax
forth the details that will make your writing solid and
substantial.
Developing Paragraphs
In order to develop coherent and substantial paragraphs you
could follow a number of schemes:
Give an Example
Present the Facts
Offer an Explanation
Make a Comparison or a Contrast
Give an Example
Notice how often a paragraph will say, in the second or
third sentence, for instance or for example. This is how
writers introduce an actual incident or object to prove or
illustrate the point under discussion. The example may be a
brief physical description or even a story. Either way, examples
get readers involved. Examples allow readers to see, touch,
hear, taste, and feel the actual stuff your thoughts are made of.
Examples are also easy to fold into your paper. You can often
slip a brief example in between two guide sentences in your
skeleton essay, or you might use one or two extended examples
to develop a whole paragraph.
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Offer an Explanation
Sometimes a point made in your thesis sentence, a topic
sentence, or a guide sentence needs elaboration and
clarification. That is, the reader may pick up the general outline
of what you are saying, but a second sentence or two may be
needed before the full meaning comes across. The first two
sentences of this paragraph work like that. The second one
explains the first, and the next two (including this one) carry
the process even further. Each sentence, after looking back at
the previous one to see if it tells the whole story with perfect
clarity, goes on to fill in the gaps and make the meaning more
precise. This kind of development offers refinement of your
general principles. It is usual, therefore, to see a topic sentence
followed by a brief explanation, followed by an example or
illustration. Not every topic sentence or guide sentence needs
further explanation, but if you have used any words that
readers might have trouble with, or if readers might get only a
rough idea of your real point, you could probably use a
sentence or two of clarification and elaboration.
Make a Comparison or a Contrast
Seeing an object or idea alongside similar one directs
our attention to points of likeness and difference. This gives us
a better idea of their distinctive and shared features. The
thoroughness of the comparison depends upon our purpose in
making it. Sometimes just a passing reference will be enough.
Other times you may want to be more thorough, devoting a full
paragraph to the comparison. Either way, look for definite
points of correspondence and difference. These are the
foundation of your comparison.
In an extended comparison, you can use these points as
a basis of organization (point by point structure), moving back
and forth from one item to another. Or you can discuss one
item fully and then discuss the second (item by item structure),
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being careful to cover the same points for each. Either pattern
will work although their effects are different. Point by point
emphasizes specific features. Item by item emphasizes the
items as wholes. Whichever pattern you select, be sure to keep
your attention, and your readers, on specific features that
provide a basis for comparison.
Present the Facts
Facts, like examples, show readers the concrete
particulars your ideas are built on. If readers know your
thoughts are drawn from careful and detailed observation, they
will take those thoughts more seriously than they would mere
opinion. Two valuable kinds of details are facts and statistics.
When you use facts and statistics, be sure they are accurate and
that your reader can verify them by consulting your sources or
other independent sources. Nothing destroys credibility faster
than a readers belief that you are intentionally or
unintentionally distorting facts.
Summary
The thesis-support pattern refines and systematizes
natural thought patterns. Besides offering an organizational
framework for your writing, the thesis-support pattern can also
serve as an aid to invention. It can help you probe your subject
and uncover your thoughts about it. It can also help you see the
reasons, experiences, observations, and judgments that underlie
those thoughts. The following process can help you produce
effective expository essays on a variety of subjects assigned by
another or chosen by yourself.
First: Restrict the scope of your subject by focusing on the
particular part of it (your topic) that you know the most about
and are most interested in.
Second: Make a clear, precisely worded, one sentence
statement about your topic. This thesis statement should make
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an assertion that is not obviously true, but which you believe

you can show to be true.
Third: State at least three or four good reasons for believing
your thesis. These reasons will serve as the topic sentences for
each paragraph in the body of your essay.
Fourth: Give two or three good reasons for believing each of
your topic sentences. These sentences, which we have been
calling guide sentences, will help you see a general direction of
development for each paragraph.
Fifth: Develop your guide sentences with illustrative and
supportive detail. Try using one or more of these traditional
means of development: 1. Give an example. 2. Offer an
explanation. 3. Make a comparison. 4. Supply the details.
After you have used the process a few times, it will not feel so
stiff and mechanical as it might at first. As you get more
comfortable, you may modify the process to suit your own
purposes and your composing style. That is a good start but
take your time. Do not shortcut or re-arrange the process until
you are certain you know what you are doing and why.
Revising Your Thesis: The Thesis as Predictor
One major purpose of the thesis is to predict what will
follow. It does this for both writer and reader. It provides the
writer with purpose and direction throughout the composing
process. For the reader it creates expectations about the form
and content of what is to come, and the readers satisfaction
with the final essay will depend largely upon whether these
expectations have been satisfied. Still, while we want the thesis
to set up expectations for the total paper, few of us are
prophets. Because we do not know what we want to say until
we discover it by writing, the original thesis is often only a
hunch or hypothesis about where the paper will go. It is usual
for the sentence that started the paper growing to make a
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commitment the paper does not fully honor. While writing, you
may have grown to a new awareness of your subject, so that
your original thesis now seems imprecise or misleading. If so,
you need to re-state your thesis to consider your new
understanding.
Your revised thesis becomes a distillation of your entire
paper, and because by now you have seen not just the general
outline, but the main divisions and even the supporting details,
you may want to include some of this in your thesis. For
instance, The major responsibility for preventing dental
problems lies within you, might be revised as follows:
Learning a few basic skills and practicing them in a daily
routine will help keep your dental problems to a minimum.
The second thesis not only states the main idea more precisely
but also forecasts the papers main divisions and the order of
discussion. If you can write a single sentence that clearly
indicates the relationship between the various parts of your
paper, those parts probably fit together well. Seeing this, your
reader will perceive your paper to be clear, unified, and well
organized.
Introductions and Conclusions
The beginning and end of your essay are positions of
high emphasis. They deserve careful attention. Keep them short
and purposeful. Use them to create and satisfy expectations.
Get into the habit of reading your introduction and conclusion
together, with an eye toward revision, as one of the last stages
in your writing process. If you sometimes have trouble with
introductions and conclusions, you may find the following
suggestions useful.
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Introductions and Conclusions

Introductions
Focus Your Readers Attention
Begin With a Fact or Example
Note a Common Misconception
Raise a Question
Make a Bold Assertion
Conclusions
Introductions
First impressions are often lasting impressions. This is
true in life, and especially in writing. Your readers first
judgments, even if mistaken, about the value of the topic, your
skill as a writer, and your character as a person have a strong
impact on their total response to your work. If you get off to a
good start, readers may stick with you through the rough spots,
forgiving an occasional error or concentrating extra hard when
you explain a complex idea. On the other hand, if readers do
not see your topics importance or think you are uninformed,
overly sentimental or sarcastic they will keep those impressions
until you prove them false. Your paper may even be set aside,
unread.
It might be helpful, therefore, to think of your
introduction as a first meeting between you and your readers.
The occasion at which you take the first steps toward building
a strong relationship is one that will last at least for the rest of
the paper. If you see your introduction this way, you will see
also that no single pattern or format can meet the demands of
every writing situation. For this reason, the suggestions below
should be regarded as exactly that suggestions. In some
situations, they may not be helpful, but in others they may
provide exactly the right approach for a particular purpose or
reader.
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Focus Your Readers Attention

Just because readers are people, they have individual
interests, viewpoints, preoccupations, and needs. In such a
situation, you need to try seeing things from their point of
view. You must reach beyond your personal perspective for the
common ground you share. Having shown that you are
sensitive to and perhaps even share the readers needs, you
may be well poised to state your ideas. Because this type of
introduction gradually moves from a broad concern with
general issues to a narrower range of interest stated in a thesis
sentence, it is often referred to as a funnel.
Begin With a Fact or Example
By now, you understand the importance of concrete,
specific details in your paper's body. Details can also be
excellent ways of opening and closing, as they give your reader
a concrete, specific connection to the subject.
Note a Common Misconception
If your readers were fully informed on your subject,
there would not be much need for them to read your essay. So,
whether their misconceptions are due to lack of information,
failure to draw valid conclusions from factual information, or
some other reason, it is often helpful to acknowledge
misunderstandings at the start. In doing so, you show that you
are aware of these views, and demonstrate why your paper is
important: to correct these mistaken ideas, to bring about better
understanding. The sense of opposition generated by this type
of introduction creates tension, and in doing so, sharpens and
dramatizes your ideas.
Raise a Question
Explanations often begin as a result of trying to answer
a question or solve a problem, and a thesis statement,
especially in the early stages of writing, is often a tentative
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answer to a question that you want to explore. Why not share

the question with your readers and invite them to join in the
search for an answer?
Make a Bold Assertion
Another way of saying this might be: Take a risk.
Naturally, this approach can be overdone and can lead to
exhibitionism and sensationalism, especially if you are writing
on a subject that demands caution and moderation. In those
situations, this Take risks approach could be a disaster.
Conclusions
Although some writers find them difficult, conclusions
need not be a problem, especially if you have been working
toward a goal throughout your essay. As you near the end of
your paper, you might try asking a few fundamental questions.
So what? What does all this finally have to do with anything,
anyway? What would I most like my readers to take away from
this essay? What do I hope they will do now that they have
read this? What are the last thoughts I would like to impart on
their minds before we part company?
Often your own instincts will tell you what needs to be
said, worked through, and made clear, at the end. If you
remember that endings are always a place of great emphasis,
you will not leave your reader with a mere supporting fact from
one of your subpoints. If you remember that part of your
conclusions purpose is to give a sense of finality and closure,
you are not going to open up a new subject and leave your
reader hanging. Keeping such general principles in mind and
also being careful not to needlessly repeat what you have
already discussed adequately, you should sense how best to
end, and if you do your job well, your reader should agree.
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Writing Argumentative Essays

Occasions for Argumentative Essays
Argumentation is everywhere in courtrooms, in
corporate boardrooms, and in millions of essays, reports,
theses, and dissertations written at colleges and universities
throughout the world. 1 It should not be surprising to learn that
modern argumentation theory has roots in Greek and Roman
thinking. After all, we trace our democratic form of
government to these cultures, known also for their genius in
philosophy, the fine arts, and science. The Greco-Romans saw
argument as a way to settle disputes and discover truth.
Even wise, honest, caring people do not always agree
on what is true or is fair. That is why argument is important in
academic writing, where students try to convince professors
and classmates to accept their ideas, where professors argue
with students and with each other. We argue not because we
are angry, but because arguing causes us to examine our own
and others ideas carefully. It causes us to weigh conflicting
claims; to make judgments about the nature of evidence and the
methods of investigation; to state our thoughts clearly,
accurately, and honestly; to consider, respectfully and
critically, the ideas of others.
Arguing in Context
Like other types of writing, arguments respond to
specific situations: a need is not being met, a person is being
treated unfairly, an important concept is misunderstood, an
outdated policy needs to be reexamined. Strong arguments
1
For more information on this issue, consult Maxine Hairston, A

Contemporary Rhetoric, 3rd edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982).
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respond effectively to such writing contexts. A situation

statement helps bring the writing context into focus early. A
situation statement need not be complicated. Instead, keep it
simple and concise. Focus on the interplay of writer, reader,
and purpose.
Stating Your Proposition
Sensing your arguments overall scope and direction,
you can consider stating your main point. As you do, however,
remember that your writing process has barely begun. You do
not yet need a final proposition statement for your finished
paper, but one to point you forward and help focus your efforts.
In this way, an argumentative proposition is like a thesis
statement. Besides stating your main point, both help you
direct, develop, and monitor your thinking while writing. Like
a thesis statement, an argumentative proposition should be
scrutinized and, when necessary, modified throughout your
writing process. At first, both a thesis and a proposition are
often hunches or good guesses about what you will finally
claim.
As your paper develops, you may find your first hunch
was off-target. If so, revise your proposition to show your new
understanding. Make a trial statement early and watch for
possible improvements to assure a strong proposition in your
final paper. Even at this point, however, your proposition
should define your arguments scope and make a debatable
assertion. A statement like Some people ruin things for
everyone is weak because it does not make clear what the
writer has in mind. A vague generalization provides no
direction for writer or reader. If pressed to be precise, the writer
might say, A small group of thoughtless fans is jeopardizing
the schools entire soccer program. Now we know what we
are talking about.
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Like a thesis, your proposition should not be selfevidently true (asparagus is a vegetable) or claim something
that is purely a matter of opinion (asparagus tastes great). It
should have some uncertainty, yet make a claim that your
readers will assent to in the end.
Anticipating Opposition
One essential characteristic of argument is your sense
of an adversary. You are not simply explaining a concept to
someone who will hear you out and accept or reject your idea
on its merit. Argument assumes active opposition to your
proposition. To win acceptance, then, you must not only
explain and support your proposition, but anticipate and
overcome objections that the opposition might raise. In
anticipating your opposition, consider questions like the
following:
How strong is the opposition?
What arguments might it use against my proposition?
How can I refute these arguments?
Will I have to concede any points?
Which of my arguments might the opposition try to
discredit?
How closely does my reader identify with the
opposition?
Can I see any weak links in the oppositions thinking?
Expanding Your Argument
For now, do not worry about your essays final
structure, but consider expanding and developing the points
listed on your Pro and Con Chart. Think in terms of
paragraphs, and consider developing each point as though you
planned to build a paragraph around it. Some points may
require extensive development and support, perhaps in a series
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of closely related paragraphs. Other points may be easy to

grasp and so self-evidently true that they could be grouped
together in a single paragraph.
You may already sense that developing paragraphs in
support of your proposition will be different from developing
paragraphs in opposition to it. That is because when you
develop arguments for your proposition, you are confirming;
when you develop arguments against your proposition, you are
refuting. Both kinds of development are essential. You must
show that your own ideas are clear, reasonable, and solid. You
must also show how your oppositions case is weak.
Most often you will state the paragraphs main point in
a topic sentence and go on to explain or define key terms, then
give specific details that support the topic sentence. Paragraphs
refuting the opposition, however, are usually concerned with
exploring another persons thinking, especially with pointing
out errors of logic and failures of insight. If you can show that
your case is strong and the oppositions is weak, chances are
excellent that the reader will be on your side at the end and
that is the goal.
Three Argumentative Appeals:
Reason, Ethics, Emotion
While there is no infallible formula for winning over
every reader in every circumstance, you should learn how and
when to use three fundamental argumentative appeals.
According to Aristotle, a person who wants to convince
another may appeal to that persons reason (logos), ethics
(ethos), or emotion (pathos). If we think of these three appeals
as independent and of the writer as choosing just one, however,
we miss the point. The writers job is to weave the various
appeals into a single convincing argument. As you continue to
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expand and develop your ideas, look for ways of combining the
three appeals to create a sound, balanced argument.
Reason
Much of the clear thinking we do in our everyday
lives follows logical principles, but in a less formal and
systematic way than the thinking of a research scientist. And
for most occasions, this informal reasoning is adequate.
Aristotle points out that it would be just as much a mistake to
expect certain proofs in argument as to expect only probable
proofs in mathematics. That is not to say your argument can be
illogical, only that you should not confuse formal logic with
clear thinking or good sense, the essential qualities your
argument should display. Briefly, informal reasoning requires
clearly linking your general claims with concrete, specific
data.
When our thinking begins with specifics and moves
toward a generalization, we are moving inductively. That is, if
you were to taste several hard, green apples and then draw the
general conclusion that all hard, green apples are sour, you
would be using inductive reasoning. And, of course, the more
apples tasted and the greater the variation in the times and
conditions of tasting, the greater the likelihood that your
general conclusion would be valid. In your writing, then, when
you reason inductively, ask whether you have examined the
evidence carefully, whether it justifies your general conclusion,
and whether you have given readers enough specific evidence
to persuade them that your thinking is sound and your general
conclusion is true.
The type of reasoning that moves in the opposite
direction from general to specific is called deductive
reasoning. Here, you take a general principle that you know to
be true and use it to understand a specific situation. For
instance, you may know from experience that as a rule bad
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weather reduces business at the golf course. You may also

learn that todays weather will be cold and rainy. From these
two pieces of knowledge, you can produce a third, more
specific piece: Business at the golf course will be slow today.
In writing, deductive reasoning most often appears in a
shortened version (called an enthymeme) that may be hard to
recognize. That is because one or more links in the chain of
reason have not been stated directly but only implied.
Ethics
No matter how solid your reasoning is, readers may not
accept your argument unless they are also convinced that you
are a person of wisdom, honesty, and good will. If you
misrepresent the evidence, misunderstand the implications of
your own value structure, or seek to hurt some individual or
group, you can expect to alienate your readers.
If you realize that readers are likely to analyze your
character and intentions this way, you will see that the best way
to put ethical appeal in your writing is to build a strong, healthy
relationship with your readers. Convince them that they can
trust you to be fair, honest, well informed, and well
intentioned. Then, having established that trust, do not betray
it.
Emotion
Many people believe that emotional appeals by their
very nature subvert reason and are therefore better left to TV
negotiators than to writers who want their ideas taken
seriously. Because this common view has some validity,
emotional appeals must be used with restraint and discretion, or
they may prove counterproductive. Nevertheless, while an
argument founded mostly on feelings and emotions may be
superficial and biased, an argument that is carefully reasoned
and honestly presented probably cannot be hurt by a bit of
pathos. In fact, it may be helped.
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One way to build pathos is to illustrate or dramatize an

idea. This may involve little more than folding short
descriptive and narrative examples into the argument. Are you
arguing that your city needs to take stiffer measures against
drunk drivers? Why not find a place to include a description of
the face of a child who was injured in an accident caused by
drinking? Or you might want to tell the story of a driver who
caused several accidents because the individual's license was
never revoked. Including such narrative and descriptive
passages can help readers feel the urgency of your proposition
so that it gets beyond the level of abstract intellectual
speculation and becomes a matter of immediate human
concern.
Careful word choice also influences an arguments
emotional appeal. The point here is that the overall emotional
texture of your argument is the result of many individual
choices about which word to use. Such choices, although they
must be made one at a time, cannot be seen as independent of
each other. Their force is cumulative. They communicate how
you feel and by implication how you think the reader ought
to feel about your subject. If you want the reader to identify
with you emotionally, you will choose words carefully, making
sure they are appropriate for you as a writer, for your readers,
and for your overall purpose in writing.
Form: Tradition and Innovation
By now, you have probably amassed many notes and
ideas for your argument, but you may be wondering how to
sort and organize this material into an essay. The following
pattern, which gives the traditional Latin names for each
section, may help. Like the thesis/support pattern, it offers a
basic structural framework that can be modified for various
writing contexts. The essential parts include the Introduction,
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Statement of Case, Proposition, Refutation, Confirmation, and

Conclusion.
Introduction (Exordium) Draw your reader into the

argument. Build common ground. Establish your tone and
style. Establish your credentials. Clarify why the issue is
important. Build ethos.
Statement of Case (Narratio) Tell the story behind the
argument. Give any necessary background information.
Illuminate the situational context. Clarify the issue.
Characterize and define the issue in terms that are favorable
to your point of view.
Proposition (Propositio) State your central proposition.
Present it carefully, much as you would the Thesis in a
Thesis/Support Essay.
Refutation (Refutatio) Examine and refute opposition
arguments. Wherever possible expose faulty reasoning. The
following questions will help you spot some frequent ways
in which people violate the basic principles of clear
thinking.
1. Does the evidence truly warrant the general conclusions
that the opposition has drawn?
2. Has all the evidence been considered or only evidence
that favors the opposition's position?
3. Has the opposition considered all the alternatives or
oversimplified and reduced them to two or three?
4. Are conclusions ever drawn from questionable
generalizations?
5. Are words always used clearly, accurately, and
honestly?
6. Does the argument depend on emotionally charged
language?
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7. Does the argument ever suggest that ideas or policies

are good or bad simply because they are associated with
certain individuals or groups?
8. Does the opposition ever argue by comparing one thing
to another? If so, is the comparison fair and reasonable?
9. Does the opposition try to sweet-talk and flatter the
reader?
10. Does the argument suggest that an idea or course of
action is good just because everyone else believes or is
doing it?
If you apply these questions to the oppositions case, you will
get a good idea of where the reasoning is vulnerable. In
refuting, first show that you understand the opposing argument
by summarizing or paraphrasing it in neutral language, and
then show how the argument is weak
Confirmation (Confirmatio) Develop and support your
own case, much in the manner of a traditional
Thesis/Support Essay. Use examples, facts, and statistics to
back up your claims. Avoid logical fallacies. Argue from
authority, definition, analogy, cause/effect, value, and
purpose. Base your appeal primarily on logos. Once you
have a clear vision of the confirmations main points and
supporting details, you can consider a strategy of
disclosure. Which point should come first? Which next?
Which last? One effective way of ordering the supporting
points is to rank them in order of importance and then
arrange them as follows:
1. Second most important point
2. Point of lesser importance
3. Point of lesser importance
4. Most important point
Such an arrangement offers two advantages. It places your
strongest points in positions of emphasis at the beginning and
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end of your confirmation. If you were to lead off with your best
point and then run through the rest, you might give the
impression of weakness. The reader might feel you were
gradually running out of ideas, becoming increasingly
desperate.
However, if your readers are familiar with the subject,
they will see that you have something in reserve, that you have
been scoring points steadily and consistently without even
going to your real strength. Coming in the last position, that
major point will have great emphasis.
Digression (Digressio) If you choose, this is a good time
to appear to stray briefly from the main issue into a
touching or entertaining anecdote designed to appeal to
ethos or pathos.
Conclusion (Peroration) Whatever you do, end strongly.
Finish with conviction. After all, if you are not convinced,
why should your reader be? You might end with an
amplification (ringing conclusion), a review of your main
points, a reference to something in your introduction, or a
plea for action. You might also invite and facilitate
defections from the opposition.
Adapting the Argumentative Pattern
Except for the fact that an introduction by definition
demands the first spot and a conclusion the last, other sections
can be moved around in a variety of effective ways. If the
traditional order introduction, statement of case, refutation,
confirmation, and conclusion does not suit your needs, try an
alternative.
(1) Open with the introduction. (2) Refute the strongest
opposition point. (3) State the case. (4) Confirm your
proposition. (5) Refute the weaker opposition points. (6) End
with the conclusion.
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(1) Open with the introduction. (2) Offer your proposition as an

open question. (3) State the case. (4) Examine and refute the
opposition. (5) Examine and confirm your proposition. (6)
Conclude that your proposition should be accepted
Writing Exploratory Essays

Occasions for Exploratory Essays
The exact nature of an exploratory essay cannot be
known in advance. It emerges gradually from decisions and
discoveries made along the way. Individual writers go in
different directions, depending on their interests and their
specific writing contexts. However you proceed, the strategies
presented here will help you use your writing process to
explore unfamiliar, perhaps intimidating subject areas.
Consider two views of writing. The first sees writing as
transcribing existing information, thereby giving it order and
permanence so it can be examined and understood by others. In
the second, writing is a way of coming to know what is
unfamiliar and of participating in an evolving conversation
with readers, a conversation that constantly reshapes and
redefines human experience. The first view applies best to
simple, straightforward tasks such as writing down a recipe or
writing a letter of recommendation for a former employee. Yet,
even these offer room for discovery, innovation, and growth.
Moreover, the discovery factor increases exponentially as
writing contexts grow more complex. In a sense, then, all
writing is partly exploratory.
The following activities will help you ease into your
writing process and use your uncertainty for inspiration and
motivation in the ongoing process of making meaning through
writing. For clarity, the process is presented in stages, but these
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stages do not have clear-cut beginnings and endings.

Sometimes they overlap and blend into each other. Also, in
practice, they do not always proceed in a neat linear fashion.
As you explore, feel free to "leap ahead" to a later stage or
"circle back" to an earlier one.
Immersion and Interaction
At the start, you need to get authentically and
personally involved with your subject. You need to get inside
the subject and get the subject inside of you. Let go of
preconceived notions about proper or expected ways to
respond. Instead, connect the subject with your own world of
experience and understanding. Identify issues you care about.
If your subject is not drawn from readings, try other ways of
getting involved. For instance, you could write a detailed
description of a scene from a film and then react to it. You
could write to the films director or to one of the characters. If
your subject is drawn from personal experience, you might
recount a memorable event, or describe or write to some of the
people involved. You might brainstorm a list of questions.
Your goal now is not to understand the subject or even
to focus on a specific topic. You need to immerse yourself in a
way that has personal meaning to possess the subject, and let
the subject possess you. The result may be quite chaotic.
Sometimes a dominant pattern appears, but more often multiple
perspectives emerge, suggesting several opportunities for
further investigation and exploration.
Focus and Commitment
Precisely because the immersion stage may produce a
jumble of ideas and impressions, it becomes necessary to sort
things out. Look for patterns in your early responses. Separate
major concerns from minor ones, central issues from peripheral
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ones. Consider which of the many points you have raised call
for more examination and discussion. You could sort your
ideas into groups and then rank each group according to its
level of interest. You are not looking for answers so much as
questions, not solutions but problems. You are far from
needing a thesis. In fact, this early, a thesis may be more
hindrance than help, as it can create a false sense of certainty
and prematurely shut down further inquiry.
If you do not see an emerging focus, ask some leading
questions:
Why do I want to write on gender bias?
Where would I find information on this?
Am I more concerned with the causes or the effects of this
issue?
What related issues would I have to consider in order to
examine the matter thoroughly?
Finally, you need to focus your exploration and make a
commitment to pursue your topic as the writing project
evolves.
Outside Sources
Unlike the other discovery techniques, which mostly
call on your internal powers of observation and imagination,
this one emphasizes investigation and research. However vast
your store of information and however well you can express
your ideas, you will often need to extend your knowledge by
drawing on the experience and expertise of others.
Think of this inquiry as a normal part of writing, not
just something that is reserved for a research paper. The
difference between a substantive exploratory essay and a
research paper is one of degree rather than of kind. The best
research papers grow out of original ideas or intriguing
questions that you want to explore in depth, and the best essays
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show that you are well grounded in your subject. Whether your
knowledge gathering takes place mostly at the library, in the
field, or on the web, it is good to prepare ahead.
At the Library
If you are not familiar with your librarys resources,
explain your purpose to the librarian. Even if you know the
library well, go to the Reference Room and introduce yourself.
Describe your project and ask if they have resources you might
not be aware of. Ask experts you have interviewed (including
professors) where they get their information and follow the
trail. When you find a good source, check it out or photocopy
it. If you photocopy it, be sure to copy the publication
information (date, volume number, etc.) so you can document
the source later. If the book or article you have found contains
a Bibliography or Works Cited, use it. Find and read the works
listed there. Stay on the information trail.
In the Field
Along with visits to the library, make time for direct
investigation in the field. Do not hesitate to get involved by
visiting important sites, interviewing people, and surveying
opinion.
(1) Direct observation. Though not all subjects lend themselves
to direct observation, many do. If you are writing about
competition in high school physical education classes, for
instance, you might arrange to visit a few such classes. Watch,
listen, and take notes on your observations. Perhaps use a
handheld recorder. You might want to attend a few such
classes at different grade levels and at different schools. Then
when you are finished, spend some time writing reflectively on
what you noticed.
(2) Interviews. Your younger sister might be an expert on video
games. Your father might be an expert on baking bread. A real
estate agent could give you information on recent trends in
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home prices. A horse breeder could describe modern branding

techniques. A stockbroker could explain market buying.
Experts are all around us in all ages and genders and most
will be eager to share their knowledge if you approach them
courteously and with a genuine display of interest. Before
interviewing an expert, however, you should prepare by
clarifying what you are looking for. Do some preliminary
exploration of your subject with writing the journalists
questions, and the other probing techniques. Focus your
concerns into master questions and sub-questions. Compile a
list of topics you want to cover.
Make an appointment, and tell the expert that you need
the information for a writing project. Ask if you may tape the
interview. Make clear that you will give the expert credit in the
final essay. Offer to give the expert a copy. In short, be serious
and professional in your approach. If you are, you will be
amazed at how much information you can gather. You might
also consider giving a written interview, a short list of pertinent
questions to which the interviewee can respond briefly in
writing. Somewhere between a traditional interview and a
survey, a written interview assures that you get exact quotes
and can even be conducted by email.
(3) Surveys. Like written interviews, surveys ask people to put
their ideas in writing, but surveys are distributed to groups and
are generally more highly structured. Surveys look for
patterned responses in order to gauge public opinion. Making
up, administering, and tabulating a survey can be quite
rewarding.
On the Web.
These days it is easy to forget that the Internet and the
World Wide Web began as academic research networks.
However, they did, and today the Internets potential as a
research tool is even more apparent. On listservs and in
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newsgroups, scholars informally discuss the most recent

developments in their fields. Private research centers and
government agencies accept grant applications and publish
papers online. By conducting a few effective searches, you
should be able to turn up several excellent sources on almost
any topic. But the Internet also has a lot of what scholars call
noise unreliable, misleading information that interferes
with the research effort, like static disturbing a radio station.
Besides locating sources, then, it is also important to evaluate
those sources for quality of information and for relevance to
your topic.
(1) Effective Searching. To get the most from Internet research,
you need to cast a wide net. The resources listed below are
only a few of the excellent search engines available on the
Web. Experiment with a few different ones. Even if you have a
favorite, trying some new search engines, and practicing with
your query language (read each sites instructions) will help
you get a wide-ranging search with relevant results, sorted to
your needs.
AltaVista is usually ranked highly for thoroughness and for
allowing carefully worded queries, but is sometimes
considered difficult to use.
HotBot is a powerful and highly regarded search engine
associated with Lycos. It organizes responses into
categories of relevance.
Google is a project from Stanford. It is noted for sorting
and ranking results well to match a users interests. Its
clean, simple interface may be welcome if you are feeling
overwhelmed by possibilities, but Google is not good at
allowing complex queries. In addition, it yields a large
amount of results.
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Metasearch allows you to query several search engines at

once. The results are well sorted, and precise queries are
possible.
Yahoo! contains vast categories of sites arranged
hierarchically. Besides browsing the listings, you can
search them, but the search will not be as extensive as some
others.
Northern Light organizes your results into folders to help
you find categories of response. It has a vast database and
takes a special interest in academic research.
About.com is a solid, well-organized resource that
emphasizes education and organizes sites into categories
like Yahoo! Because the categories are maintained by
people rather than web bots, About.com covers less of the
web than the big search engines, but makes up for that by
being high on quality.
(2) Sorting and Sifting. While a good search engine may return
hundreds of sites, only a few of those may prove useful.
Explore all possibilities to turn up what you can. Then sort,
prioritize, evaluate. Many sites will be rejected as low quality
or not relevant to your topic. Bookmark other sites of interest
for future reference. Pick a few of the highest quality, most
relevant sites to explore in depth.
How current is the site? Check to see when the site was last
updated. Many sites will have this information displayed in
either a header or footer on each page. Bad links, sloppy
grammar and mechanics, and poor navigation features are
other signs that a site is not up to the standard of
professionalism that you want from your sources. Compare
the quality of the sites information, design, and writing
with other sites you have visited.
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Who sponsors the site? Is the site sponsored by a

governmental agency or by a university? If so, it may have
more surface credibility than a site published by an
advocacy group or by an individual.
Who created the site, and why? Is the author identified?
Look for an About page to learn who created the site and
why. Check the authors credentials. Do you see any
advanced degrees or publications or professional
affiliations?
Trying Out Ideas

By now, your project should be well underway. You
have got a subject that genuinely interests you, and you have
found a focus to guide your explorations. Now you need to
begin systematically probing and exploring. Find a comfortable
balance between generating new ideas and fitting those ideas
into an overall pattern. Branching trees and cluster maps can be
help you spot major divisions and see how parts relate to the
whole and to each other. If you need more information, you
may want to research topic in the library or conduct some
interviews or surveys. This is also a good time for more
freewriting, focused now on specific subtopics identified in
your organizational plan.
You will almost certainly sense a need for order and
system to your inquiry. You may need to do some further
clustering, make an informal outline, or simply list important
subpoints. Probably also, you will be looking for some sort of
closure, some destination, some end to your exploring. You
may not be ready to formulate this into a clear thesis, but will
likely be moving in that direction. Rather than choosing a
thesis immediately, you might try out a few possibilities so
their strengths and weaknesses can be examined. As some of
your questions are answered, you should feel an emerging
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sense of certainty and satisfaction, a tentative recognition of

closure. To be sure, much work remains ahead, but if you
shuttle back and forth between exploring and structuring, you
should start to see a thesis emerging, and your should begin to
see how that thesis can serve as an organizational and
conceptual center for your essay.
Revising for Readers
Up to this point, most of your writing has been
informal, maybe somewhat personal. If you have produced a
draft at all, it is probably quite rough and will need revision on
both global and local levels. As you produce a working draft,
clusters, scratch outlines, pyramid charts, and other
organizational aids can help suggest major divisions and even
where to place subpoints within those divisions. However,
unless you have identified an audience from the start, you may
not have thought much about how readers will react to your
writing.
Have you looked closely at the whole writing context
and considered the amounts and kinds of information your
readers want or need? Have you thought about how to arrange
your major points, including your thesis? Should it come at the
beginning or the end? Should it be directly stated or implied?
Have you established a consistent style in terms of tone, voice,
and degree of formality? This is where cutting and pasting,
substituting and rewriting, begins in earnest.
The questions that follow should guide you in your
reading the paper:
Does one idea flow naturally into another?
Is the writer telling me what I already know?
Are examples and illustrations relevant and convincing?
Is the voice authentic?
Is the style too formal or too chummy or just right?
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WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

Below are some questions to help you begin analyzing
almost any work of literature. Your analysis should NOT
contain comments on every question below. Instead, select a
few questions as the basis of the ideas, which will lead, to a
detailed and interesting analysis of the work, which you are
studying. You should refer also to additional notes on the
specific type of literature, which you are analyzing.
What is the author attempting to do?

What are the authors purpose, scope, view, attitude, and/or
theme?
Is a picture of life presented?
What material is covered? What material is stressed?
What ideas on life, liberty, morality, society, religion, etc.
are shown? Does the authors ideology show in the work?
How?
Does the authors background influence the work? How?
You might need to check some reference works to answer
this question.
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How well does the author succeed in his/her attempt?

What stylistic faults does the work have? What stylistic
achievements does the work have? What stylistic devices
are used?
Does the works structure support the content? How?
Is the work convincing or dull? Why? Would some readers
find the work superior? Would others think that the work
was inferior? Which readers? Why?
What value does the attempt have?
Analyze and/or interpret the authors theme and purpose.
Is the work somewhat light or does it contain serious social
significance? Is this good or bad?
What are the effects of the work?
How vividly does the author write? What do you remember
most (scenes, people, ideas, etc.)?
Does it have universal appeal?
What do you feel as you read? Did you enjoy this work?
Why or why not?
What is the authors personality in writing? Does the author
have a specific style? What kind of vocabulary is used? Is it
satiric in tone and feeling? Why?
Do characters act as people really would? Do events
happen logically? If not, how do they happen? Do
characters and events grow naturally out of their settings?
Are the ideas expressed unreasonable or unbelievable?
What is the relation of this work to life as you know it?
What current ideas are presented?
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Contrast or compare this work to other similar or dissimilar

writings.
Do you think that this work makes a special contribution to
the worlds literature? Why or why not?
Reading Poetry
You have to read a poem and, what is more,
understand it. Where do you begin? Ask these questions of
your poem, and do these exercises and you should end up with
a much better understanding of any poem.
Starting Out
Read a poem with a pencil in your hand. Mark it up; write
in the margins; react to it; get involved with it. Circle
important, or striking, or repeated words. Draw lines to
connect related ideas. Mark difficult or confusing words,
lines, and passages.
Read through the poem, several times if you can, both
silently and aloud.
Examining the Basic Subject of the Poem
Consider the title of the poem carefully. What does it tell
you about the poems subject, tone, and genre? What does
it promise? (After having read the poem, you will want to
come back to the title in order to consider further its
relationship with the poem.)
What is your initial impression of the poems subject? Try
writing out an answer to the question, What is this poem
about? Then return to this question throughout your
analysis. Push yourself to be precise; aim for more than just
a vague impression of the poem. What is the authors
attitude toward his or her subject?
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What is the poems basic situation? What is going on in it?

Who is talking? To whom? Under what circumstances?
Where? About what? Why? Is a story being told? Is
something tangible or intangible being described? What
specifically can you point to in the poem to support your
answers?
Because a poem is highly compressed, it may help you to
try to unfold it by paraphrasing the poem aloud, moving
line by line through it. If the poem is written in sentences,
can you figure out what the subject of each one is? The
verb? The object of the verb? What a modifier refers to?
Try to untie any syntactic knots.
Is the poem built on a comparison or analogy? If so, how is
the comparison appropriate? How are the two things alike?
How different?
What is the authors attitude toward his subject? Serious?
Reverent? Ironic? Satiric? Ambivalent? Hostile?
Humorous? Detached? Witty?
Does the poem appeal to a readers intellect? Emotions?
Reason?
Considering the Context of the Poem
Are there any allusions to other literary or historical figures
or events? How do these add to the poem? How are they
appropriate?
What do you know about this poet? About the age in which
he or she wrote this poem? About other works by the same
author?
Studying the Form of the Poem
Consider the sound and rhythm of the poem. Is there a
metrical pattern? If so, how regular is it? Does the poet use
rhyme? What do the meter and rhyme emphasize? Is there
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any alliteration? Assonance? Onomatopoeia? How do these

relate to the poems meaning? What effect do they create in
the poem?
Are there divisions within the poem? Marked by stanzas?
By rhyme? By shifts in subject? By shifts in perspective?
How do these parts relate to each other? How are they
appropriate for this poem?
How are the ideas in the poem ordered? Is there a
progression of some sort? From simple to complex? From
outer to inner? From past to present? From one place to
another? Is there a climax of any sort?
What are the form and genre of this poem? What should
you expect from such a poem? How does the poet use the
form?
Looking at Word Choice of the Poem
One way to see the action in a poem is to list all its verbs.
What do they tell you about the poem?
Are there difficult or confusing words? Even if you are
only the slightest bit unsure about the meaning of a word,
look it up in a good dictionary. If you are reading poetry
written before the twentieth century, learn to use the Oxford
English Dictionary, which can tell you how a words
definition and usage have changed over time. Be sure that
you determine how a word is being used as a noun, verb,
adjective, or adverb so that you can find its appropriate
meaning. Be sure also to consider various possible
meanings of a word and be alert to subtle differences
between words. A good poet uses language very carefully;
as a good reader, you in turn must be equally sensitive to
the implications of word choice.
What mood is evoked in the poem? How is this
accomplished? Consider the ways in which not only the
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meanings of words but also their sound and the poems

rhythms help to create its mood.
Is the language in the poem abstract or concrete? In what
way is this appropriate to the poems subject?
Are there any consistent patterns of words? For example,
are there several references to flowers, or water, or politics,
or religion in the poem? Look for groups of similar words.
Does the poet use figurative language? Are there metaphors
in the poem? Similes? Is there any personification?
Consider the appropriateness of such comparisons. Try to
see why the poet chose a particular metaphor as opposed to
other possible ones. Is there a pattern of any sort to the
metaphors? Is there any metonymy in the poem?
Synecdoche? Hyperbole? Oxymoron? Paradox? A
dictionary of literary terms may be helpful here.
Finishing Up
Ask, finally, about the poem, So what? What does it do?
What does it say? What is its purpose?
Analyzing a Poem
Below are some questions and exercises to help
you begin analyzing a poem. Your analysis should NOT
contain comments on every question and exercise below. You
should select a few items as the basis of the ideas, which will
lead to a detailed and interesting analysis of the poem. Use this
information to construct a convincing and persuasive reading
of the piece as a whole and to suggest the significance of the
peace in increasing the readers understanding of a particular
issue, literary process, etc.
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Speaker
Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?
Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can
you know about this audience?
Setting
What is the occasion?

What is the setting in time? (hour, season, century, etc.)?
What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country,
land or sea, region, country, etc.)?
Theme
What is the central purpose of the poem?
What is the poem about? State the central idea or theme of
the poem in a single sentence.
Structure
Outline the poem to show its structure and development.
What kind of poem is it (ode, sonnet, dramatic monologue,
lyric poem, etc.)?
Why is this type of poem an appropriate means to
communicate the authors theme?
Summarize the events of the poem.
How is the poem constructed? What are its units of
organization (quatrains, paragraphs, couplets, etc.)? How
are these units linked together (continued metaphor, pro
and con, linked sound patterns, logical syllogism, train of
thought, etc.)?
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Style
Discuss the diction (the word choice) of the poem. Point
out words that are particularly well chosen and explain
why.
Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery
are used? Is there any structure to the imagery?
What is the tone of the poem? How is it achieved?
Literary Terms
Point out and explain any symbols. If the poem is
allegorical, explain the allegory.
Point out examples of metaphor, simile, conceit,
personification, metonymy, or any other literary device and
explain their significance and/or appropriateness.
Point out and explain any examples of paradox,
overstatement, understatement, and/or irony. What is their
function? Why are they used?
Point out significant examples of sound repetition and
explain their function.
Read the poem out loud. Determine if any sounds in the
poem relate to topics discussed within the poem (for
example, short, choppy syllables with repeated ee sounds
could relate to a chirping bird discussed in the poem).
Evaluation
Evaluate the poem. How well did it achieve its purpose?
How well did it communicate its central idea or theme?
How do all of the poems parts (structure, organization,
language use, meter, literary devices, etc.) contribute to the
effect of the piece as a whole? If you taught this poem in
class, what might you use to introduce and to illustrate it
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(how a metaphysical conceit works, portrait of the ideal

lover, etc.)?
Analyzing a Play
Below are some questions and exercises to help you
analyze a dramatic work. Your analysis should not contain
comments on every question and exercise below. You should
select a few items as the basis of the ideas, which will lead to a
detailed and interesting analysis of the dramatic work.
Theme
The theme is a central underlying idea enforced by the
work all men are mortal, the passage of time, man and
destiny, etc. There may be more than one theme in any given
work.
What themes does the play present? How does the dramatic
experience reflect these themes? Does the play deal with
modern issues (AIDS, unemployment, or childrens rights)?
Conventions
Does the play employ realistic or non-realistic conventions
(characterization, setting, language, etc.)?
How often does the play employ narration as a means of
exposition? Does the exposition have a purpose beyond its
usual function of communicating information about prior
events? What effects on the audience do the methods of
exposition have?
Once you have established the plays conventions,
determine if there are any departures from those
conventions. If there are departures, what dramatic effect
do they create, and are they meaningful?
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Unities (Time, Place, and Action)

What amount of time is covered in the plays action? How
much of the action is presented as a report rather than
dramatized on stage? Is there any significance behind the
selection of events to be dramatized and those to be
reported? Does that significance relate to the plays
themes?
Genre
Is the play a tragedy, tragicomedy, comedy, melodrama or
farce? Does it mingle aspects of different types of drama?
Is it important for the audience to know the type of drama?
Why or why not?
If the play is a comedy, is it primarily satiric or romantic?
Character
Identify the protagonist(s) and the antagonist(s). Are there
any foil characters?
What dramatic functions do the various minor characters
serve? Do they shed light on the actions or motives of the
major characters? Do they advance the plot by eliciting
actions by others? Do they embody ideas or feelings that
illuminate the major characters or the movement of the
plot?
How is dramatic suspense created? Contrast the amount of
information possessed by the audience as the play proceeds
with the knowledge that various individual characters have.
What is the effect of that contrast?
Staging
How do the various physical effects (sets, lights,
costuming, makeup, gestures, stage movements, musical
effects, song, dance, etc.) reinforce the themes, meanings,
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and emotional effects? How does the playwright indicate

these physical effects (directly, through stage and set
directions or indirectly, through dialogue between
characters)? Why did the playwright choose this method of
indicating the physical effects?
Analyzing Prose Fiction

Below are some questions and exercises to help you
begin analyzing almost any work of prose (novels, short
stories, most works of fiction, etc.) Your analysis need not
contain comments on every question and exercise below.
Plot
Who is the protagonist of the work?
What are the conflicts? Are they physical, intellectual,
moral, or emotional?
Is the main conflict between sharply differentiated good
and evil, or is it more subtle and complex?
Does the plot have unity? Are all of the events relevant to
the total meaning or effect of the work? How does each
event relate to and/or reinforce the works theme?
Is the ending happy, unhappy, or ambiguous? How is it
achieved?
How is suspense created? Is the interest confined to what
will happen next, or are larger concerns involved? Find
examples of mystery and/or dilemma.
Does the work have any surprise? Do they grow logically
out of the preceding incidents (If not, are they related to the
history of the character?). Do they serve a significant
purpose?
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Does the work sustain a consistent theme, or does plot and

story line shift and introduce a divergent theme?
Characters
How does the author develop his/her characters? What use
is made of contrasts between characters?
Are the characters consistent and motivated in their
actions? Are they believable? Are they stock characters
(characters used merely to serve a function in advancing
plot), or does the character reveal complexity?
Why is each character in the work? Justify his/her role and
relate his/her purpose to the works theme.
Do any of the characters develop or change throughout the
work? Is the change large or small, realistic, and/or
motivated? What is the motivation for change? Is this
change central to the development of the plot?
Theme
The theme is a central or underlying idea enforced by the
work life is futile, all things work for the greatest good,
etc. There may be more than one theme in any given work.
State the theme in a single sentence. Is it implied or frankly
stated?
Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life?
Does it provide a new insight or refresh and/or deepen an
old one? Is the theme dogmatic or complex?
Point of View
Which point of view is used? Are shifts made from one
point of view to another? If so, why?
Is the point of view used effectively? Does it provide any
clues to the works purpose? Does the author use it
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primarily to reveal or to conceal information? Does the

author ever unfairly withhold important information known
to the main character?
If the point of view is that of one of the characters, does
this character have any limitations that affect his/her
interpretation of events or others?
Literary Devices
Does the work employ symbols? If so, do they carry or
merely reinforce the theme of the work?
Does the work employ irony of situation, dramatic irony,
and/or verbal irony? What functions do the ironies serve?
Does the work aim directly at an emotional effect and/or
humor? Is the work overly sentimental at times? When?
Does the work employ fantasy? If so, what are the initial
assumptions?
Does the work operate logically from this assumption? Is
fantasy employed to express some human truth? If so,
what human truth?
Is the work an allegory or myth? Do the characters
represent general human characteristics? Does the work
chronicle a development of the human psychological
condition?
Evaluation of the Work as a Whole

Is the primary interest of the work in its plot, characters,
theme, or some other element?
What contribution to the work does the setting make? Is it
essential, or could the story have happened anywhere?
What are the characteristics of the authors style? Are they
appropriate to the nature and/or theme of the work?
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Do all the elements of the work function together to support

a central purpose and theme? Is any part irrelevant or
inappropriate?
What is the works central purpose? What is it trying to do?
How fully did it achieve its purpose? How significant is its
purpose?
Analyzing Journal Articles and Essays

Below are some questions to help you begin
analyzing a journal article or essay. Your analysis
should NOT contain comments on every question
below. Instead, select a few questions as the basis of the ideas,
which will lead, to a detailed and interesting analysis of an
article or essay.
Identify the Main Idea.
Is the first paragraph introductory?
Where is the main idea located in the article/essay?
Is the main idea implied only?
Is the placement of the main idea the best arrangement for
the article/essay?
Does the author adhere to and support the main idea?
Analyze the Structure.
Can you identify a definite plan of organization, for
example, beginning, body, ending?
Does the author analyze the subject matter? Categorize the
material? Chronologically develop ideas? Contrast and
compare? Use a combination of any of these?
Is the structure clear and logical?
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Are the transitional phrases/words adequate to keep the

reader in command?
Does the author have logical support for ideas? Does the
author use too many generalizations? Make mistakes in
logic? Use evidence to support claims?
How does the author add interest and variety? Does the
author use anecdotes, incidents, or conversations?
Descriptive or narrative materials? Actual situations or
definite places? Quotations?
Is the ending as effective as the beginning? Interchangeable
with the beginning? A restatement of a high point? A
weaving together of threads of ideas within the
article/essay? A driving home of the main idea?
Evaluate the Articles/Essays Style.
What is the authors point of view?
What techniques are used to produce style? Vocabulary
(technical words, allusions to unknown works,
descriptive/unusual inversions of works, forceful/weak
words, definitions)? Satire? Imagery and figurative
language?
Types of Literary Criticism

Literary criticism may take many forms. Sometimes
you may wish to write from one literary perspective and
sometimes you may wish to combine various types of criticism.
Below is a brief list of some of the major schools of
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contemporary criticism with an introductory definition of how

the criticism works. 1
Cultural Criticism examines how the cultural identity and/or
racial identity of an author may affect the language, subject
matter, etc. of a text.
Deconstruction criticism opposes formalist criticism because
Deconstructionists assume that the world is unknowable and
language is unstable. These critics claim that meaning in the
text is discovered by deconstructing (or breaking down) the
meaning of various terms, ideas, and words in the text. It
encourages a rigorous examination of the text and its language.
Feminist criticism examines how women are portrayed in
fiction, how the feminine response to literature may be
different than the masculine response, how the literature
women write may be different than literature written by men,
and compares the action and language of female characters to
male characters.
Formalism or New Criticism examines the work apart from
outside influences such as the authors identity, gender, social
status, and historical context. It concentrates on the parts of a
work through explication or analysis. Formalist criticism
focuses on character studies, use of imagery, style and tone,
structure, organization, etc.
1
For more information see Margaret Drabble (ed.), The Oxford Companion
to English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985;
MarionWynne-Davies (ed.), The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature
(London: Bloomsbury, 1989).
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Marxist criticism applies Karl Marxs economic theories to

literature; it perceives literature as a product of the struggle
between socio-economic classes. It may examine the various
economic situations of the characters as part of their
motivation.
New historicism (historical/biographical criticism) examines a
work against the historical surroundings and facts of the
authors life and times. It looks for relationships between
historical/political events and when the author wrote the work,
how its initial audience received the work and the significance
the work has for readers today.
Psychological or psychoanalytic criticism applies Freudian
psychology to literature (for example, the Oedipus complex).
The meaning of a work is found in the authors psyche.
Reader-response criticism holds that meaning is created as
the reader reads the text. In a sense, the reader becomes a new
author of the text as the reader interprets the gaps in the story
left by the original author.
148
149
SCIENCE WRITING:
SCIENTIFIC REPORT
The preparation of a scientific paper has almost nothing to do
with literary skill. It is a question of organization.
(Robert A. Day, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper)
This unit describes an organizational structure

commonly used to report experimental research in many
scientific disciplines, the IMRAD format: Inthroduction,
Methods, Results, And Discussion. This format is usually not
used in reports describing other kinds of research, such as field
or case studies, in which headings are more likely to differ
according to discipline. Although the main headings are
standard for many scientific fields, details may vary. If
submitting an article to a journal, refer to the instructions to
authors.
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Title
Contents
Describe contents clearly and precisely, so that readers can
decide whether to read the report.
Provide key words for indexing.
Requirements, Advice
Avoid wasted words such as studies on, an investigation
of.
Avoid abbreviations and jargon.
Avoid cute titles.
Unacceptable Title: An Investigation of Hormone Secretion
and Weight in Rats
Unacceptable Title: Fat Rats: Are Their Hormones Different?
Acceptable Title: The Relationship of Luteinizing Hormone to
Obesity in the Zucker Rat
Abstract
Contents
The whole report in miniature, minus specific details:
State main objectives. (What did you investigate? Why?)
Describe methods. (What did you do?)
Summarize the most important results. (What did you find
out?)
State major conclusions and significance. (What do your
results mean? So what?)
Do not include references to figures, tables, or sources.
Do not include information not existing in report.
Find out maximum length (may vary from 50 to 300+
words).
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Process: Extract key points from each section. Condense in

successive revisions.
Introduction
Contents
What is the problem?
Describe the problem investigated.
Summarize relevant research to provide context, key terms,
and concepts so your reader can understand the experiment.
Why is it important?
Review relevant research to provide rationale. (What
conflict or unanswered question, untested population,
untried method in existing research does your experiment
address? What findings of others are you challenging or
extending?)
What solution (or step toward a solution) do you
propose?
Briefly describe your experiment: hypothesis (hypotheses),
research question(s); general experimental design or
method; justification of method if alternatives exist.
Move from general to specific: problem in real
world/research literature --> your experiment.
Engage your reader: answer the questions, What did you
do? Why should I care?
Make clear the links between problem and solution,
question asked and research design, prior research and your
experiment.
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Be selective, not exhaustive, in choosing studies to cite and

amount of detail to include. (In general, the more relevant
an article is to your study, the more space it deserves and
the later in the Introduction it appears.)
Methods
Contents
How did you study the problem?
What did you use? (May be subheaded as Materials) What
materials,
subjects,
and
equipment
(chemicals,
experimental animals, apparatus, etc.) did you use? (These
may be subheaded Animals, Reagents, etc.)
How did you proceed? (May be subheaded as Methods or
Procedures) What steps did you take? (These may be
subheaded by experiment, types of assay, etc.)
Provide enough detail for replication. For a journal article,
include, for example, genus, species, strain of organisms;
their source, living conditions, and care; and sources
(manufacturer, location) of chemicals and apparatus.
Order procedures chronologically or by type of procedure
(subheaded) and chronologically within type.
Use past tense to describe what you did.
Quantify when possible: concentrations, measurements,
amounts (all metric); times (24-hour clock); temperatures
(centigrade).
Do not include details of common statistical procedures.
Do not mix results with procedures.
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Results
Contents
What did you observe? For each experiment or procedure
Briefly describe experiment without detail of Methods
section (a sentence or two).
Report main result(s), supported by selected data
Representative: most common; Best Case: best example
of ideal or exception.
Order multiple results logically from most to least
important; from simple to complex; organ by organ;
chemical class by chemical class.
Use past tense to describe what happened.
Do not simply repeat table data; select.
Do not interpret results.
Avoid extra words: "It is shown in Table 1 that X induced
Y" --> "X induced Y (Table 1)."
Discussion
Contents
What do your observations mean?
Summarize the most important findings.
Consider, for each major result:
What conclusions can you draw?
What patterns, principles, and relationships do your results
show?
How do results relate to expectations and to literature cited
in Introduction (agreement, contradiction, exceptions)?
What plausible explanations are there?
What additional research might resolve contradictions,
explain exceptions?
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How do your results fit into a broader context?

What theoretical implications do your results have?
What practical applications might your results have?
Can you extend your findings to other situations, other
species? Do they help us understand a broader topic?
Move from specific to general: your finding(s) -->
literature, theory, practice.
Do not ignore or bury the major issue. Did the study
achieve the goal (resolve the problem, answer the question,
support the hypothesis) presented in the Introduction?
Make explanations complete. Give evidence for each
conclusion. Discuss possible reasons for expected and
unexpected findings.
Do not overgeneralize.
Do not ignore deviations in your data.
Avoid speculation that cannot be tested in the foreseeable
future.
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STYLE
The Plain Style
An essay is an argument, though you might not think of it that
way. Are these arguments?
A critical reading of a story for an English class
An interpretation of a historical event for a history class
A presentation of experimental results for a psychology
class
A lab report with conclusions for a biology class
A review of leadership theories for a political science class
An analysis of a companys advertising strategy for a
management class
An analysis of survey data for a marketing course
Yes, they are all arguments. In each case, your job would
be to persuade your reader that your account or explanation,
rather than some other one, is an appropriate and sensible way
to look at whatever it is you are looking at. Moreover, you have
to show that you have focused on the right data, left out what
you can leave out, and ordered the remaining material in the
most sensible and useful pattern. To call an essay an argument
means more than that you are going to disagree with
something. It means more than taking a side. In the context of
writing an essay, an argument means rational persuasion. The
word rational is the key.
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A good essay-writer seeks to persuade by appealing to

the readers mind. You begin with a clear and sensible thesis,
which summarizes the argument. You break down the whole
argument into a series of logical steps that, taken together,
support the thesis. You treat each of these logical steps in turn,
in a series of cohesive paragraphs so that the reader can follow
the progress of the argument. You use evidence to support
assertions. You mix general and specific statements. You
anticipate and counter possible criticisms of your argument. In
short, a good essay-writer takes the readers step by step
through the argument, helping them over the hard parts,
pointing the way when the trail is hard to follow, changing
pace to let them rest, and always gently reminding them what
the argument is, and what each part of the essay is doing to
support the argument.
You have to be able to say what you mean. If you do
not get it right, you might end up immortalized in those joke
lists that flit around the Internet, like these selections of
mangled English from various lands:
In an Athens hotel:
Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the
hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily.
In a Zurich hotel:
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the
opposite sex in the bedroom it is suggested that the lobby be
used for this purpose.
In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon
having a good time.
In a Swiss mountain inn:
Special today: no ice cream.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
157
At the Budapest zoo:

Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food,
give it to the guard on duty.
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
Easy to Get Rid of No-Nos
You must try to avoid certain errors of usage content,
capitalization, and punctuation. They are very important for the
coherence of your essay.
YOU Do not use you in essays. Rarely does the
student mean to address me. Since the student cannot speak
for me and what I know or like, the student should not
presume to talk to you.
Omit I think, I feel, and in my opinion. If you are
writing the paper, the reader can assume that you are the
person doing the thinking, feeling, opining.
Do not abbreviate anything within the text of an essay,
such as w/ for with, & for and, b/ for because,
etc.
Avoid all slang in essay writing: examples: kids, dudes,
chums, far out, etc.
Avoid verbosity (also known as wordiness). Each word
should contribute to moving the reader along in
understanding what you are writing. Repeating needless
phraseology makes the writer appear to be only trying to
fill space.
Avoid dangling modifiers. These include the simple
ending of sentences with prepositions and the more
confusing ones of not placing a modifying phrase as closely
as possible to its owner. Example: The girl in the door
with the red hair smiled at me. How many doors with red
hair have you ever seen?
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Idioms are phrases in which the words should always be

placed side by side. For instance, instead of saying, She
picked my sister up at school, write She picked up my
sister at school. Picked up comprises an idiom; therefore,
the words belong together.
Pronouns replace nouns. That means that the writer must
have used a noun first; then, he/she may use a pronoun. It
was hard for me to work. What is the antecedent (noun)
being replaced by it?
Avoid all contractions in formal essay writing. (Hasnt
must be has not).
Be consistent in the use of a particular tense. Most papers
would be better served if the writer used past tense.
Usage
Agreement
Subject-verb agreement (Simple subjects, compound
subjects, subjects separated from the verb by an intervening
phrase, and indefinite pronoun subjects must agree with the
verb in person and number. Example of error: *Jack and
Alberto wants us to play basketball. Correction: Jack and
Alberto want us to play basketball.)
Pronoun-antecedent agreement (Pronouns must agree with
their antecedents in person and number. Example of error:
*Each woman gave their opinion. Correction: Each woman
gave her opinion.)
Verbs
Correct formation of tense (Example of error: *I have play
in the band for two years. Correction: I have played in the
band for two years.)
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Appropriate tense (Example of error: *Last year Mrs.

Smith becomes our principal. Correction: Last year Mrs.
Smith became our principal.)
Proper form of irregular verbs. (Example of error: *Have
you ever rode on a train? Correction: Have you ever ridden
on a train?)
Pronouns
Subject pronouns (A subject pronoun must be used for the
subject of a sentence or clause. Example of error: *Dorothy
and me went shopping last Saturday. Correction: Dorothy
and I went shopping last Saturday.)
Object pronouns (An object pronoun must be used for the
object of a verb or preposition. Example of error: *Were
you standing near Abe and she? Correction: Were you
standing near Abe and her?)
Possessive pronouns (A possessive pronoun must be used
to show possession and must be formed correctly. Example
of error: *Shes vacation will begin next week. Correction:
Her vacation will begin next week.)
Adjectives/Adverbs
Comparative and superlative forms (Examples of errors:
*more pretty, *most pretty. Corrections: prettier, prettiest)
Usage (Adjectives must be used to modify nouns or
pronouns, and adverbs must be used to modify verbs,
adjectives, or other adverbs. Example of error: *Walk slow.
Correction: Walk slowly.)
Double negatives (Only one negative word should be used
to negate a single thought in a sentence. Example of error:
*We did not know none of the answers. Correction: We did
not know any of the answers.)
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Odds and ends:

all throughout and throughout the entire (Redundant)
This quote by Rilke (YOU quote; Rilke writes, attests,
etc.)
Making questions of statements. Example of error: *Jane
wondered how could she make a 100 on the test? (Janes
wondering is a statement of what she was wondering; she is
not currently posing the question to the audience). Reverse
subject/verb order of the subordinate clause. Write: Jane
wondered how she could make a 100 on the test.
May used when the conditional might is needed.
(May is permissive; might expresses possibility).
Incorrect idioms: Silverman shows admiration in Poes
work. (admiration of); letters written to and from Poe
(written by).
Absolutes: Silverman wrote only truth in his book. (How
do you know?)
She went and bought a hat. (If she bought a hat, one
presumes she had to go somewhere to buy it; therefore,
went is superfluous or redundant.)
Calling every prose selection a story. (Essays, reports,
letters, journal entries, and autobiographical/biographical
pieces also exist.)
Calling every long prose piece a novel. (See above.)
Phrases, which follow clauses, following and are not set
off by commas. Example of error: *Molly went into town,
and bought a dress. (Eliminate the comma.) Another
example would be *the time that a camel enjoyed eating
Twains coat, and then choked on one of his short
stories (Omit that comma!)
The reason was because (Nouns do not equal adverbs.)
Use that.
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Another example would be when (Nouns do not equal

adverbs.) Use the time when.
Another incident was when Use occurred.
Spell small numbers. The general rule of thumb is three or
fewer syllables: one hundred (three syllables.)
The need for possessive noun forms before gerunds: He
did not like me running around with Elmer. (It was not
that he did not like YOU any more; it was that he did not
like [my] running around)
He arrived to school. (Colloquial: He arrived at school.)
Beginning sentences with There was/were/is/are (Not
wrong per se but considered weak because neither word
contributes anything meaningful to the sentence.)
Eliminate the use of progressive tenses: The author is
saying that Try The author says
Avoid vague adjectives such as nice. Be as colorful and
definitive as you can in your writing. After all, the purpose
is to communicate.
Learning to write well is learning to write plainly.

However, writing plainly is not something people like to do.
Plain writing feels more exposed. In fact it is more exposed: it
is hard to hide a stupid or simple idea (not that simplicity is
stupid, but it has a bad reputation), or even the lack of an idea,
in a clearly written paragraph. It is much easier to hide in an
ornate, heavily nominalized bit of "formal" writing. Most
people who have to write serious professional stuff laws,
reports, policy statements, applications, police reports, and so
on automatically turn to pompous, windy, opaque prose as a
kind of protective coloration. The basic skill in good academic
writing is to master a plainer style: short words, the active
voice, and relatively simple sentence structure. It is not easy to
achieve it, and people resist that.
162
Clarity
In order to assert themselves as adults, most students
tend to adopt a style that is the opposite of how they
first learned to write: instead of short sentences and
simple verbs, they write long sentences with abstract, often
confusing verbs. Instead of simple actions, they write sentences
that muffle the action. Unfortunately, so many people write
like this that it has come to be seen as a style of its own,
whether you call it college style or the official style or
bureaucratese. My advice: say it plainly, whenever you can
(unless you truly want to hide something). You will stand out
from the rest, and be amply rewarded. Here is an example of
artificial style, and a subsequent modification of the phrase.
Both texts express the same idea:
Original Text:
Machiavelli best supports republics in The Discourses. His
favorite republic is ancient Rome. He explains and supports
his admiration in this work. The two major aspects that
Machiavelli discusses are that the Romans were a great
empire and that they had a powerful army.
Revision:
Machiavelli praises republics in The Discourses. Above all
he praises the Roman republic, because it had a powerful
army and conquered and held a vast empire.
Note that the two passages have the same basic ideas, but that
the revision reorders and expands a key part of the argument.
163
ACTIONS AND VERBS

Good essay writing starts when you recognize that you
are in effect telling a story, and that you want to do the same
thing a good storyteller does: emphasize action. However, all
too often academic writers reject this notion, either
intentionally or not. That is one reason why so many students
learn to write opaquely a lot of the models they encounter are
not very good. Too many academic writers become so
burdened by the terms and concepts they wish to use that their
writing becomes a frozen total of nouns lacking action piled
one atop another. Writers frequently go astray by neglecting to
articulate the actions implicit in their ideas. Here is a weakverbed original discussing Machiavelli, and a stronger revision:
Original:
Machiavelli's view of Christianity comes from a political
standpoint. Morality is taken into little consideration when
he speaks of religion.
Revision:
Machiavelli judges religion from a political rather than a
moral standpoint.
What changed? The original flip-flops its point of view. You

do not feel that you are standing on solid ground when you
read it; it feels as if you are being yanked now here (a view is
coming), now here (something is taking morality), now there
(he is speaking). The original also treats actions as abstractions
divorced from their doers (view comes from and morality is
taken leave us fuzzy on that key question, who is doing what).
By contrast, the revision holds a consistent point of view and
tries to make a real subject perform real action (Machiavelli subject judges - active verb). Not coincidentally, the revision
164
compresses the original from two sentences of twenty words to

one sentence of eleven words. More importantly, it leaves us
wanting to hear more, unlike the repetitive and inert original.
Agency Who did it?
Not all poor writing is the result of simple ineptitude.
Sometimes a writer deliberately muddies things to avoid
having to flat-out admit who did what. When people try to
explain mistakes or problems, they frequently duck the
question of agency, of who did the action especially if they
are the one at fault. When writers cannot find any other person
to take the blame, they try to shift some responsibility to an
inanimate object:
A recent example of using language to duck questions
of agency--and thus of responsibility--comes from the Kosovo
conflict. A young Serbian man said this to an American
reporter:
We have to accept the facts. Very bad things happened in
Kosovo, and we are going to pay for that. 1
The quotation starts off with the strong we have to accept the
facts, a seemingly forthright acceptance of responsibility. But
the blurry next sentence is the real heart of the message. Do
you notice its careful lack of agency in very bad things
happened? Rhetorically separating out the bad things that
happened from we, the sentence subtly calls into question the
legitimacy of holding the particular we Serbians, presumably
responsible. Politics is full of such confusion. Official
transcripts use antiseptic phrases to cloak the action.
1
William Booth, "Collective Conscience," Washington Post (August 22,

1999).
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The Passive Voice

Overusing the passive voice is the single biggest bad
habit beginning writers have. Here I will briefly summarize the
grammar of the passive voice, consider when it is useful, and
then show when to avoid it. First, a diagram that explains some
basic terms used to describe verbs. You should study it enough
to figure out the difference between active verbs and the active
voice, and to see how the active voice and the passive voice
are, in a sense, mirror images.
VERBS
Active verbs
Express an action of some kind.
May be either transitive or intransitive
Being verbs
Express a state of being
She is from Paris.
He seems awfully young.
The coach appeared a bit
flustered.
Transitive verbs
Express action upon a direct object.
She hits the ball.
He reads a book.
They cooked dinner together.
She appealed the decision.
I dropped my backpack
Intransitive verbs
Express action without a direct object.
I looked behind the chair.
He stood there.
We ran.
She argued.
The backpack dropped in the mud
Voice
This is a property of transitive verbs only.

Voice refers to how you choose to tell the story of the action, the character
(person or thing) performing the action, and the character receiving the action.
Active voice
The subject performs the action.

I threw the ball.
The president made mistakes.
Bill Gates founded Microsoft.
I study history.
Passive voice
The subject receives the action

The ball was thrown.
Mistakes were made.
Microsoft was founded in 1975.
History is studied by me.
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As the diagram shows, voice is a property of transitive

verbs, verbs that take direct objects. There are two kinds of
voice, active and passive. Compared to the passive voice, the
active voice is a simpler and more common way of
communicating actions. Precisely for those reasons, many
students prefer the more cumbersome passive voice: it sounds
more academic, they think. In the active voice, the subject
performs the action upon the direct object. In the passive voice
this is turned around, so the subject receives the action:
Active Voice
Passive Voice
Robinson hit the ball
The ball was hit
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet around Hamlet was written around 1600.
1600.
As these examples show, when you write a sentence in the

passive voice you have the option of leaving out the doer of the
action. That is because the doer is no longer integral to the
sentences grammar. If you do wish to provide that information,
you do so in a prepositional phrase beginning with by, which
does not affect the basic subject-verb structure:
The ball was hit by Robinson.
Hamlet was written around 1600 by Shakespeare.
This quality of the passive voice allowing one to duck the

question of who did something has been relied on by
generations of politicians, who much prefer saying Mistakes were
made to I [or we] made a mistake. This is another way people
duck the question of agency, of who did what.
Sometimes writing in the passive voice makes sense. It is
the right choice when you do not know who did an action, do not
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care, or do not want your reader to know in other words, when

you want to put the focus on the thing receiving the action:
Microsoft was founded in 1975.
Earthquakes are caused by the movement of plates over the
earth's mantle.
The passive voice can also prove useful if you want to put the
doer of the action at the end of the sentence in order to create a
bridge to the next sentence:
The marathon was won by a runner from Kenya. This African
nation has produced many world-class long-distance runners.
Saturn was created in 1985 by General Motors. GM, the
world's largest automaker, was trying to learn a new way to
build and market cars.
As a rule, however, when students write in the passive they

produce prose that is harder to read than the active voice:
While reading Mill's "On Liberty," the concept of personal
freedom was discussed. (Passive Voice)
In "On Liberty," Mill discusses the concept of personal
freedom. (Active Voice)
It was discussed in this reading that it is important for us to
understand the person that we are interacting with. (Passive
Voice)
Smith argues that it is important to understand the person one is

interacting with. (Active Voice)
In the novel's early chapters, a large emphasis is placed upon
his pride. (Passive Voice)
The novel's early chapters emphasize his pride. (Active Voice)
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Nominalizations
Nominalizations are a major part of what is wrong with
the official style. A nominalization is an action expressed as a
noun. Any nominalization can be turned into a verb and the
reverse (sometimes the two forms, the noun and the verb, are
identical):
Nominalization
Explanation
Revelation
Performance
Argument
Effort, try
Nominalization
Description
Behavior
Action
Analysis
Help
Distortion
Verb
Explain
Reveal
Perform
Argues
Try
Nominalize
Describe
Behave
Act
Analyze
Help
Distort
Nominalizations are an indispensable part of writing, but

overusing them epitomizes the official style. To use them less,
express actions as verbs rather than nouns:
The play examines the conflict the conspirators face after the
assassination of Julius Caesar. (Nominalization)
The play examines the conflict the conspirators face after they
assassinate Julius Caesar. (Revision)
The love Brutus has for Cleopatra is much greater than any
love he has for his wife. (Nominalization)
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Brutus loves Cleopatra far more than his wife. (Revision)
Using Tenses Consistently

Tense refers to the time (past, present, or future) in which
actions occur. If you start a passage in one tense, do not change
the tense without reason:
Though Machiavelli has said that religion is vital to politics, he
dismisses Christianity as harmful. (Wrong)
Though Machiavelli says that religion is vital to politics, he
dismisses Christianity as harmful. (Right)
One convention in academic writing that often gives

students difficulty is what tense to use when discussing a text.
Ones first inclination is probably to use the past tense when
discussing a book written in the past. But that is not what is
usually done. Most textual analysis and commentary is written in
the present tense, a convention sometimes called the historical
present:
Machiavelli also said that Christianity made people slothful.
(Wrong)
Machiavelli also says that Christianity makes people slothful.
(Right)
Hamlet told Ophelia he never loved her. (Wrong)
Hamlet tells Ophelia he never loved her. (Right)
However, just to complicate matters, you do not always use the

present tense in discussing a work. When you are presenting facts
on its composition, you should use the past tense:
Machiavelli writes The Prince in 1513. (Wrong)
Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513. (Right)
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This also often holds if you are simply mentioning a work in

passing, as support for some other argument:
A century before the US Constitution was written, John Locke
articulates a vision of liberal government in his Second Treatise
of Government. (Wrong)
A century before the US Constitution was written, John Locke
articulated a vision of liberal government in his Second
Treatise of Government. (Right)
ADVERBS
Besides verbs, adverbs are the part of speech most often
abused in college essays. Because many writers tend to rely on
nouns, they do not trust the verbs they do use, and often tack on
adverbs in hopes of adding intensity or precision. Yet, this often
backfires. Here are several examples of adverbs that weaken
rather than strengthen sentences. In each example convincingly,
further, carefully, and successfully the adverb actually weakens
a strong verb by taking attention away from it:
Socrates convincingly explains his position to Crito. (Weaker)
Socrates explains his position to Crito. (Stronger)
Euthyphro continues to further explain his actions. (Weaker)
Euthyphro continues to explain his actions. (Stronger)
The play carefully examines the disorder brought by civil war.
(Weaker)
The play examines the disorder brought by civil war. (Stronger)
Antony plays on the crowds emotions and successfully obtains
their support. (Weaker)
Antony plays on the crowds emotions and wins their support.
(Stronger)
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In each of these examples cutting the adverb strengthens the

sentence. Note that in the last example cutting the adverb led the
writer to choose a stronger verb.
Concision
Developing an active-verb-centered style means
becoming a more concise writer. However, many of us are so
used to padding our writing that it is hard to see how to cut the
excess. Writing concisely is a constant battle. The keys are to
focus on strong verbs, prefer the active voice to the passive voice,
be suspicious of adverbs, and toss out empty words and phrases.
Here are some examples of revising for concision. In each one,
see what got reworded, and what just got tossed out:
It was discussed in this reading that . . .
Tannen argues that
Within the dialogue, the reasons are revealed by Socrates in
defense of why he will not try to escape his fate.
Socrates explains his refusal to try to escape.
The scene is very important because it helps us understand
Cleopatra early on in the play.
This early scene helps us understand Cleopatra.
What specifically about Cleopatra makes her such a captivating
character?
What makes Cleopatra such a captivating character?
This idealistic view is the only reason Brutus agrees to join the
conspiracy in the first place. Brutus joins the conspiracy out of
idealism.
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The play tells the story of a group of conspirators bound

together by the notion that their leader, Julius Caesar, is intent
on taking sole power.
The play tells the story of a group of conspirators determined to
prevent Julius Caesar from overthrowing the republic.
The last point I would like to make is that in regard to menwomen relationships, it is important to keep in mind that the
greatest changes have probably occurred in the way men and
women are working next to one another.
The greatest changes in how men and women treat each other
have probably occurred in the workplace
Sometimes revising for concision means recognizing an empty

phrase or word for what it is:
Women held an important place in social society.
Women held an important place in society.
Capitalism is accompanied by the ideal of freedom as
something to be attained.
Capitalism is accompanied by the ideal of freedom.
Rhetoric
The study of rhetoric stretches back to the ancient
Greeks. Nowadays the term is often understood pejoratively, as
meaning bombastic or exaggerated language. But the term also
has a neutral meaning, which is how I use it here rhetoric as the
art or science of persuasion by means of stylistic techniques. The
study of rhetoric is useful because it encourages us to think of
writing (and speaking, for that matter) as a series of strategic
choices. Every attempt to put words together includes choices
about which words to use and how to arrange them. In this sense
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all writers, like it or not, use rhetoric. Even simplicity is a

rhetorical choice (George Orwell, for instance, was a master of
the plain style, and worked hard at it). Rhetoric is an ancient and
well-studied field, and there are many rhetorical techniques (often
called tropes). I only cover a handful of the most important for
writing essays and research papers.
Parallelism
Parallelism is one of the most useful and flexible
rhetorical techniques. It refers to any structure, which brings
together parallel elements, be these nouns, adjectives, verbs,
adverbs, or larger structures. Done well, parallelism imparts grace
and power to passage:
The princes strength is also his weakness; his self-reliance is
also isolation.
The characters are all watching one another, forming theories
about one another, listening, contriving . . . . (C. S. Lewis)
Problems with faulty parallelism are very common, because

many people know what they mean, and do not pay attention to
what they actually write. In the following examples the parallel
elements in the revisions are emphasized:
Someone acquiring knowledge is similar to finding a new path
in a dense forest. (Wrong)
Acquiring knowledge is similar to finding a new path in a
dense forest. (Right)
Machiavelli advocates relying on ones own strength, leaving
as little to chance as possible, and the need to get rid of
sentimental attachments. (Wrong)
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Machiavelli advocates relying on ones own strength, leaving

as little to chance as possible, and ridding oneself of
sentimental attachments. (Right)
Touchstone satirizes courtly manners, woos Audrey, and he
tries to avoid marriage. (Wrong)
Touchstone satirizes courtly manners, woos Audrey, and tries
to avoid marriage. (Right)
One other problem with parallelism is common, though this is a

stylistic rather than a grammatical lapse. Writers often repeat too
much in the parallel elements, detracting from parallelisms
economical elegance:
Socrates led a private life, as opposed to a public life.
(Original)
Socrates led a private rather than a public life. (Revision)
Parallelism can be employed in many different ways. One

spin is inversion or chiasmus, in which parallel elements are
carefully reversed for emphasis. A famous example comes from
President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address (1961):
Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can
do for your country.
Inversion often gains power by focusing attention on the ends of

sentences, where readers and listeners naturally pause. Kennedys
example shows this.
Alliteration
Alliteration means beginning two or more stressed
syllables with the same letter or sound:
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Throughout the play, we are made to witness the force of

politics to shape and shatter lives.
As with any rhetorical techniques, alliteration does not make an

argument more intelligent; but done well it can please your
reader, which is likely to make him/her more receptive to your
argument. Like a strong spice, alliteration should be used
sparingly.
The rule of three
You do not usually read in books about this trick of the
trade. However, it crops up all the time in well-written essays. It
is very simple: lists tend to come across most powerfully when
they contain three items. That does not mean you should
manipulate your material to make it fit. Sometimes you may want
to put two, four, or more items in a list. But when you have got
flexibility in what to say, keep the rule of three in mind:
Coriolanus does not hide his contempt for the commoners, he
does not flatter them, and he does not try to soften his image.
A generation ago most scholars believed that an overarching
world view conservative, deeply Christian and essentially
medieval in its commitment to order and hierarchy shaped the
concerns and defined the intellectual limits of Shakespeare and
other Elizabethan dramatists.
The third term is often slightly larger in its focus than the first
two, enfolding them to make a more general point.
Humor and Other Flourishes
Humor and other flourishes like slang should be used
sparingly. Academic writing has room for wry observation and
ironic observations, but belly laughs and outright jokes do not
176
tend to go over very well. Something that seemed hilarious and

apropos in a first draft will likely seem foolish come revision
time.
First and Second Person
Are the first and second person (I, me, my; we, us, our;
you, your) appropriate in academic writing? Many academics and
teachers say no. But many others routinely write in the first and
second person. Who is right? There is no final answer, but we can
tell you what good writers do and what we allow. Most good
academic writers routinely use the first and second person. Even
in the hard sciences, scientists frequently speak of our research
and our findings. In the humanities, it is common to come
across the first person singular. However, this is something you
will need to tailor to different circumstances.
Questions and Exclamations
Many students are reluctant to punctuate with question
marks, but these are often used in academic writing and are
perfectly acceptable. In fact, good sharp questions are one of the
best ways to spark some energy in prose. Exclamation points,
however, should be avoided in academic writing.
Emphasis and the End of Sentences
Exclamation marks are a generally ineffective way (in
academic writing, at least) to attract attention. A far better way is
to take advantage of the natural rhythm of English sentences: the
end of a sentence is the most important. These two paragraphs are
identical except for their final sentences:
Capitalism distrusts governments and groups as the arbiters and
enforcers of morality. Instead, it expects individuals to manage
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their own lives and pursue happiness in their own way. A

commitment to individual freedom, thus, lies at the heart of
capitalism.
Capitalism distrusts governments and groups as the arbiters and
enforcers of morality. Instead, it expects individuals to manage
their own lives and pursue happiness in their own way. At the
heart of capitalism, thus, lies a commitment to individual
freedom.
Why choose to emphasize freedom rather than capitalism? This is

because freedom is the new idea. The whole paragraph has
centered on capitalism, but freedom has not been mentioned
before (though it connects to the second sentence). That is an
important principle to remember: start sentences with familiar
material, end with new. The bottom line is that whatever
argument you want to make, think strategically: does your
rhetoric reinforce your message?
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179
MECHANICS
Punctuation
If you mess with punctuation enough, you can turn
your meaning upside down, like in the following imagined love
letter (or not?):
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are
generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit
to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other
men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we
are apart. I can be forever happy will you let me be yours?
Gloria
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are
generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit
to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other
men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we
are apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria
Fortunately, repunctuating does not usually have such drastic

consequences. But punctuating properly is still a vital part of
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good writing, and it is something that gives students of English

fits and starts. Here I want to focus on just a few of the most
common punctuation troublespots: comma splices, semi-colons,
colons, dashes, and parentheses. Before that, a few basic rules of
punctuation in English:
End punctuation
Period
At the end of a declarative sentence (e.g. It was a
beautiful morning to take a walk.)
At the end of an imperative sentence (e.g. Write to me
soon.)
At the end of an abbreviation (e.g. Feb. for February)
Question mark at the end of a direct question (e.g. Have you
completed tomorrows assignment?)
Exclamation mark at the end of an exclamatory sentence (e.g.
Watch out for that car!)
Commas
In a series of words, phrases, or clauses, even if the last
element in the series is preceded by and. (e.g. My chores
include walking the dog, cleaning my room, and washing the
dishes.)
Between independent clauses joined by a coordinating
conjunction (e.g. I did not make the team this year, but I plan
to try out again next year.)
To separate coordinate adjectives (e.g. The elephant is a large,
powerful animal.)
To set off nonessential clauses and phrases (e.g. Paris, which
is the capital of France, is one of the most beautiful cities in
Europe.)
To set off nonrestrictive appositives (e.g. Seattle, the largest
city in Washington, borders the Pacific Ocean.)
181
After the opening of a friendly letter (e.g. Dear Margaret, )

After the closing of a letter (e.g. Yours truly, )
Between the day and year in a date (e.g. July 4, 1776)
Between city and state (e.g. Miami, Florida)
Before a direct quotation (e.g. David said, Lets go to my
favorite restaurant to eat pizza after the game.)
To set off a name in direct address (e.g. Amy, will you help
me with homework after school?)
After an introductory word (e.g. Well, I do not know how to
answer your question.)
After a series of introductory prepositional phrases (e.g. At
the end of the year, students must take a final examination in
each subject.)
After an introductory participial phrase (e.g. Frightened by a
big dog, the child began to cry.)
After an introductory dependent clause (e.g. Before Anna
began to write her history report, she went to the library to do
research.)
Semicolon
To separate independent clauses not joined by a coordinating
conjunction (e.g. I have seen that movie three times; one of
my favorite actors is in it.)
Apostrophe
In possessives (e.g. the suns rays, the babies cradles)
In contractions (e.g. wont for will not)
Colon
After the opening of a business letter (e.g. Dear Mayor
Brown:)
Before a list of words or phrases (e.g. Passengers may order
any of the following beverages: coffee, tea, juice, or milk.)
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Quotation marks
At the beginning and end of a direct quotation from a text or
speech (e.g. The coach said, We must all work together to
win this game.)
Here are the most frequent errors occurring in the use of
punctuation in English:
Comma splices
A comma splice is an error that occurs when two
independent clauses are connected by a comma. You fix comma
splices by using one of the techniques for connecting independent
clauses, or by revising one of them:
Please take pride in everything you work on, if you do not
understand something ask questions before it becomes a
problem. (Wrong)
Please take pride in everything you work on. If you do not
understand something ask before it becomes a problem. (Right)
Please take pride in everything you work on; if you do not
Please take pride in everything you work on if you do not
Some good writers defend and use comma splices. If both

independent clauses are short, and lack internal commas, you
may be able to get away with a comma splice. But since most
readers have been trained to see them as mistakes, I recommend
avoiding them altogether.
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Semi-colons
Semi-colons have two distinct functions in English
sentences. First, they allow you to connect two independent
clauses in a single sentence. Often a writer chooses to do this to
achieve a more flowing effect; the semi-colon tells the reader that
he has encountered a full stop, but implies that there is a close
connection between the two independent clauses. Using a period
to separate two independent clauses has a more conclusive effect.
It forces a bit more of a pause on the readers part. Second, semicolons replace commas when you write lists or series with
internal commas (in which commas occur within items). In such
cases, separating the items with other commas can be confusing:
Hobbes's Leviathan has many unforgettable passages: his
audacious view of human beings as mere mechanical
constructions, his evocation of a brutish, savage state of nature,
his establishment of a binding, permanent social contract to
protect individuals, and his refusal to place any limits on the
power of a duly established ruler. (Wrong)
Hobbes's Leviathan has many unforgettable passages: his
audacious view of human beings as mere mechanical
constructions; his evocation of a brutish, savage state of nature;
his establishment of a binding, permanent social contract to
protect individuals; and his refusal to place any limits on the
power of a duly established ruler. (Right)
Many inexperienced writers wrongly think that because semicolons look like fancy commas and sometimes work like
commas in lists they can be used anytime a writer needs a
comma but wants a fancy or formal effect. This is a mistake.
Commas and semi-colons have different grammatical functions.
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Writers also sometimes think semi-colons are fancy colons. They

are not.
Colons
Colons are used to connect independent clauses when the
logical link between them is immediate. Generally, the first
clause will make a general statement, or create a sense of
anticipation; the second clause will follow up with a specific
statement or fulfill the anticipation:
Machiavelli thus faces a dilemma: the appetite for power leads
to the founding of states, but it also threatens to destroy them.
You may also use colons between closely connected sentence

elements other than two independent clauses, though this should
be done sparingly:
As I saw it there was only one thing to do: get out fast.
In essays, colons are used most frequently to introduce

quotations. If you use a colon, you need to make sure that the
quotation is not integrally connected to the grammar of the
introductory sentence:
In the Apology Socrates says: The unexamined life is not
worth living . . . (39). (Wrong)
In the Apology Socrates says, The unexamined life is not
worth living . . . (39). (Right)
In the Apology, Socrates states his fundamental principle:
The unexamined life is not worth living . . . (39). (Right)
Sometimes a colon is used incorrectly to introduce a list:
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Globalization of retail trade is being encouraged by several

treaties and trade agreements such as: the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS), the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the
Andean Pact. (Wrong)
Globalization of retail trade is being encouraged by several
treaties and trade agreements such as the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS), the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), and the Andean Pact. (Right)
Several treaties and trade agreements are facilitating the
globalization of retail trade: the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS), the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the Andean Pact.
(Right)
Again, the reason the second revision works is that the words
before the colon stand by themselves as an independent clause.
Dashes
Dashes are a flexible and useful way of punctuating your
writing if not overused, they can give prose a punchy, vigorous
feel. Dashes can act as semi-colons, connecting independent
clauses. They can take the place of colons in introducing lists.
They can serve to insert an example, and allow you gracefully to
get back to the main sentence. You can also use them at any point
in a grammatical structure when you feel a pause would be
appropriate:
During Machiavellis lifetime, Italy as a single political entity
did not exist instead, there was a patchwork of little city-
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states, petty kingdoms, republics, duchies, and ecclesiastical

states, constantly at war with each other.
Hyphens (-) and dashes () are different creatures. Hyphens

connect separate words into compounds (shoo-in, a run-of-themill transaction), or break a word at the end of a line:
In Coriolanus, Sicinius and Brutus are the tribunes of the
people-the voice of the people. (Wrong)
In Coriolanus, Sicinius and Brutus are the tribunes of the
people the voice of the people. (Right)
Dashes often come in pairs. If you want to signal an interruption

in a grammatical structure with a dash, you have got to keep track
of the grammatical structure, and signal the return to the main
structure with a second dash. Some examples of the proper use of
dashes will help to make this clear:
Many 19th-century American writers Hawthorne, Melville,
Emerson, and Poe chief among them saw themselves as
pioneers discovering or inventing a new kind of literature.
The American presidency revered, historic, and powerful is
in trouble.
Machiavelli, who was obsessed with warfare an obsession
that one finds in all his writings, even his poems and plays
reflected the brutal realities of power in Renaissance Italy.
In each case, note that if we take out the dashes and all the words
they contain, what is left stands as a complete sentence (but note
that if we did this in the last sentence we would have to add a
comma after warfare). Somewhat like colons, dashes are flexible
187
enough to let you play with word order to create interesting

sentences.
Parentheses
Make sure that you put spaces outside parentheses: not(
this ), but (this). Punctuation follows parentheses without a space.
Italics and Emphasis
Italics and underlining both convey emphasis. Italics
require good printing capability, while underlining is how one
conveys emphasis in hand-written and typed work. Bold face is
not an appropriate way to show emphasis in the text of an essay,
though you may use bold for headings of sections or figures. Use
italics for foreign words used in English writing:
Machiavelli also uses virt in its traditional sense of goodness
or morality.
One also uses italics for words used as words:

Yoga and yoke derive from a common Sanskrit root.
Using italics simply to emphasize words should be avoided in

academic writing.
Emphasis with Quotation Marks
You can also emphasize words in certain situations by
means of quotation marks first, for a word you are using in a
particular sense, calling into question, or intentionally misusing.
Here is a neutral instance, in which the writer wants to signal that
she is referring to a specific word used by Rousseau:
Rousseaus freedom
comprehend.
is
difficult
for
Americans
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to
Here is a somewhat different example, scare quotes meant to

call a word into question:
The impartial jury took less than ten minutes to find the
defendant guilty.
Adjectives like supposed, so-called, would-be, ostensible, and

putative (or their adverbial forms) can replace the quotation
marks:
The supposedly impartial jury took less than ten minutes to find
the defendant guilty.
You also use quotation marks for translations of foreign words

and phrases.
Single Quotation Marks
Certain scholarly disciplines, for instance philosophy,
require the use of single quotation marks to denote a term used as
a term:
Freedom is an ambiguous term.
Top Ten Mistakes

To close this section on mechanics, I present a list of what
in my experience are ten most common mechanical and usage
mistakes in student essays. First, the single most common
mistake: confusion over apostrophes.
189
Apostrophes
Apostrophes have two functions: to show contractions (I
wont) and possession (Shakespeares tragedy). They are not
used to show the plural of a noun:
Many have criticized the degree to which Americans revere
personal freedom. (Wrong)
Many have criticized the degree to which Americans revere
personal freedom. (Right)
Machiavelli uses stories of actual princes to support his
argument. (Wrong)
Machiavelli uses stories of actual princes to support his
argument. (Right)
Contractions are now acceptable in academic writing, though

since some people disagree you may have to adapt to different
requirements. The main problem apostrophes present for students
is in showing possession. The rule is simple use an apostrophe
followed by s for singular nouns, and an apostrophe alone for
plurals:
The Euthyphro exemplifies Socrates ability to show the folly of
a supposedly wise man. (Wrong)
The Euthyphro exemplifies Socratess ability to show the folly
of a supposedly wise man. (Right)
For now, the conspirators aspirations survive. (Wrong)
For now, the conspirators aspirations survive. (Right)
"Its"/"its" and "who's"/"whose"

Because apostrophes are used for possession as well as
contraction, many students get confused about the distinction
between its and its. The solution here is to remember that it is is
190
a contraction, not a possessive: Its = it is. It, like other pronouns

(he, his; she, her) does not take an apostrophe to show
possession:
The essay's comic tone clashes with its dark subject. (Wrong)
The essay's comic tone clashes with its dark subject. (Right)
Who's and whose have the same distinction:

Sicinius, whos modern equivalent would be a congressman,
accuses the old warrior of being a traitor. (Wrong)
Sicinius whose modern equivalent would be a congressman
accuses the old warrior of being a traitor. (Right)
Nouns ending in y
Nouns ending in y often produce the same kind of
confusion as its/its. If you want to talk about something
belonging to a country, for instance, write country's not countries.
Conjunction confusion: "however" and more
Conjunctions like and, but and for join independent
clauses: I studied for hours but he never opened a book and we
both got A's. Students often use however, therefore, and thus as if
they were conjunctions, too, but they are not. They are adverbs,
and cannot connect independent clauses:
Truth, equality, and community are good things, however they
are not the highest political good. (Wrong)
Truth, equality, and community are good things; however, they
are not the highest political good. (Right)
191
It is often more graceful, however, to place however, therefore,

and similar words not right at the beginning but at some
convenient pause later on:
Truth, equality, and community are good things; however they
are not the highest political good. (Wrong)
Truth, equality, and community are good things; they are not,
however, the highest political good. (Right)
Infamous" and "notoriety"

Infamous is not a fancy way of saying famous. It means
quite the opposite: famously wicked or bad. Hitler was infamous;
Churchill was not. Likewise, notoriety does not just mean
attention it means attention for being bad.
Although point-of-sales
two decades ago it is
deserves. (Wrong)
Although point-of-sales
two decades ago it is
deserves. (Right)
(POS) equipment was introduced over

only now receiving the notoriety it
(POS) equipment was introduced over
only now receiving the attention it
"Affect"/"effect"
Many writers confuse these two words. The common
mistake is to use effect when you should use affect, typically
when using it as a verb. Effect can be used as a verb, but its
meaning is restricted, and is synonymous with produce:
She effected a change in the way the IRS conducted its audits.
For the sense of to have an effect upon, use affect:

She affected the IRSs procedures.
192
A legacy of foreign rule significantly effects a nations political

culture. (Wrong)
A legacy of foreign rule significantly affects a nations political
culture. (Right)
Criterion"/"criteria"
Criterion is singular; criteria is plural.
Layout and Content Instructions

The Eight-Sentence Paragraph
This is basically a formula to help you write in a clear, organized
fashion. You may or may not have eight sentences in each
paragraph. Some may have a few more sentences; others may be
short a sentence or two. The main point is that when you make a
statement, you MUST support it with proof. Elaborate on your
opinions. Make comments about your facts.
attention-getting
material,
background
1. Introduction:
information; topic sentence stating three reasons for your
argument.
2. Body: offer support for your topic sentence (support your
opinion or statement).
[transition] Reason # 1: Concrete detail A (comment 1,
comment 2). Concrete detail B (comment 1, comment 2).
Concluding sentence.
193
3. Conclusion: summarize your points and restate your topic

sentence.
Writing about an Authors Work
You must have a general introductory paragraph. This
might include such things as the authors name and some of the
better known writings. You might refer to a couple of particularly
influential events in the authors earlier life. Then, continue with
a final statement of introduction, making it your thesis. Do not
use such words as I am going to write about Remember,
rather, that your thesis is your hypothesis, the point you wish to
make, your argument. It is yours, it is original, and it is not a fact,
because it is up to you to prove it with the remainder of your
paper. This statement probably should be in the form of a
complex sentence, such as: Although Aldous Huxley presents a
bitter picture of the world in Ape and Essence, he nevertheless
leaves room for a bit of hope.
Begin to lay the background about what you are going to
try to show by summarizing briefly a couple of incidents from the
novel or a theme from each short story or poem. Refer to the
pieces of literature by name, properly punctuated, as you discuss
each. Internally document, by putting the page number at the end
of each point of discussion. Be sure that you provide plenty of
commentary and a conclusion. These are the parts, which show
that you can think. You are analyzing these works of literature
written by someone famous, and you have to provide your own
opinion about them.
194
195
TEN COMMANDMENTS OF
ACADEMIC WRITING
When writers get good at their craft, they can make it
appear almost effortless to write elegant and well-thought-out
prose. But writing is never as easy as it seems when you read a
polished piece of work. Hidden in the surface glitter is a long
dark history of struggle, of false starts and dead ends, of
inarticulate and dimly grasped ideas, which are laboriously
worked into clear, lucid, and lovely prose. Like all craft, good
writing is the product of training, practice, and persistence. That
can be discouraging, but it should also encourage you: if you
persist, if you work, if you try, you will become a better writer, a
good writer, able to express your thoughts with elegance and
clarity. This guide has presented a lot of material. I will sum it up
with the Ten Commandments of Effective Writing:
1. Do not jump into writing too quickly. Play with your ideas
outline them, question them, try to develop them a bit further
than most student writers do before they start writing.
2. Build your thesis on a strong verb. Develop a plain style
based on strong verbs and bold, direct expressions of action.
3. Avoid big words, nominalizations, and jargon. Listen to the
rhythm of your sentences.
4. Balance long against short, fast against slow, general against
specific.
5. Remember that an argument unfolds in steps and that for
essays these steps are paragraphs. Make sure your paragraph
structure is in synchronism with your argument.
196
6. Pay close attention to the beginnings and ends of paragraphs

these are the places you should try the hardest to write strong
and energetic sentences.
7. When you are done with the draft, compare your initial claim
with what you actually end up arguing over the course of the
essay. If your claim and the essay itself do not quite fit, figure
out how to reconcile them. You may have strayed from the
right path or you may have thought up a better approach. In
addition, go back, look at the assignment, and make sure you
are tackling a question the teacher wants you to tackle.
8. Consider your evidence. Have you ended up using the best
quotes or data? Have you pruned quotations so to use only the
most effective passages? Have you introduced your quotes
well? Are they accurate?
9. Now that you are done, polish your beginning and ending. Do
you start fast? Do you end sensibly and strongly?
10. When you are done, spell-check the document. Print out a
proof and read it, pencil in hand, expecting to find mistakes.
In the end, other peoples rules and advice can only do so
much. Over the long term, the best thing you can do to become a
better writer is to read a lot and develop your own judgment and
skill. Read stories, newspaper and magazine articles, novels,
poetry, bureaucratic forms, email, online stuff, magazine ads,
cereal boxes, movie reviews, whatever. You will find lots of good
writing and lots of bad writing and once you have a bit of a
critical eye you can learn useful lessons from both. Eventually,
you should build a storehouse of good writing that you can draw
on regularly. Above all, just read, read, read. Pay attention to
words, develop a special affection or even a passion for them, and
writing will become a part of your identity.
Happy writing!
197
ANNEX
Helpful Books for Dissertators

(American Editions)
Bolker, Joan. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A
Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis. New
York: Henry Holt and Company. 1998.
The book is written by a co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center,
now a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping dissertators.
In her words, This book is a collection of successful field-tested
strategies for writing a dissertation; it is also a guide to conducting
an experiment, with you as your own subject, your work habits as
the data, and a writing method that fits you well as the goal. It is
highly recommended by dissertators.
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The
Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Thorough and sophisticated treatment of the research process:
moving from a topic to a research problem, building a convincing
argument, drafting, and revising. Also includes a helpful chapter on
Communicating Evidence Visually.
198
Cone, John D. and Sharon L. Foster. Dissertations and Theses from

Start to Finish: Psychology and Related Fields. 2nd ed. Washington:
American Psychological Association, 2006.
Practical advice on such subjects as finding and refining topics,
selecting a committee, and managing time; overviews of the
proposal and of each dissertation chapter; material on
measurement, statistics, and data handling.
Locke, Lawrence F., Waneen Wyrick Spirdoso, and Stephen J.
Silverman. Proposals That Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations
and Grant Proposals. 5th ed. London: Sage Publications, 2007.
The book is a useful general guide for students writing proposals.
Annotated bibliography; annotated samples of experimental,
qualitative, quasi-experimental, and grant proposals.
Meloy, Judith M. Writing the Qualitative Dissertation: Understanding
by Doing. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.,
2002.
The book is based on a study of dissertations and on data collected
from faculty and students. Shares their comments and offers
questions to consider at various stages of the process in brief
chapters that include Selecting and Working with a Committee,
Preparing and Defending the Proposal, and Connecting Focus,
Literature, and Ownership.
Peters, Robert L. Getting What You Came For: the Smart Students
Guide to Earning a Masters or Ph.D. Rev. ed. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 1997.
The book is packed with practical advice ranging from choosing a
school to finding a job. Chapters on the dissertation deal with the
committee, topic, proposal, writing, and defense.
199
Rudestam, Kjell Erik, and Rae R. Newton. Surviving Your Dissertation:

A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process. 3rd ed. London: Sage
Publications, 2007.
The book deals with dissertation process from finding a topic to the
oral defense. Chapter on results gives detailed information on
presenting statistical information in tables and graphs. Section on
process, subtitled What You Need to Know to Make the
Dissertation Easier, includes practical advice on managing time
and dealing with writing anxiety, including Twelve Tricks to Keep
You Going When You Write.
Simon, Marilyn K., and J. Bruce Francis. The Dissertation Cookbook:
From Soup to Nuts, A Practical Guide to Start and Complete Your
Dissertation. 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt, 2004.
Although some readers might find the relentless cookbook
metaphor (and the sloppy editing) annoying, many graduate
students highly recommend this book and its predecessor, The
Proposal Cookbook. Contains sections on each chapter of the fivechapter dissertation common in the social and behavioral sciences,
as well as sections on getting started, choosing a topic, types of
research, instruments, statistics, sampling, and appraising data.
Most of the information is relevant for writers at the proposal stage.
There are many practical tips, hands-on exercises, and checklists.

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Document (49) How to Ask for and Receive Feedback on Your

Ten Commandments of Academic Writing

Annex: Helpful Books for Dissertators

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

advanced undergraduates to experienced scholars pursuing a

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

Generating Ideas through Free Writing

Writing Clues for Students

grammar or spelling, to wonder about word choice, to think

Writing Clues for Students

You will have opportunities to revise later. The important thing

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

although the anxiety of starting a paper may not go awayand

Writing Clues for Students

and contrast, analyze, or discuss. These terms suggest a

Writing Clues for Students

Helpful Hints for Choosing a Paper Topic

Writing Clues for Students

What is the scope of your topic?

Source: Joanna B. Gibson and M. Jimmie Killingsworth, Academic

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

There are still other variations of how to think about

Writing Clues for Students

Why Do You Believe Your Thesis?

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

Outlines and Other Visual Organizers

Writing Clues for Students

respond to reading and discussion in class, you are likely to be

Writing Clues for Students

Ninety-nine percent of the time you will be expected to make

Writing Clues for Students

Writing Clues for Students

dangerous-driver profile? These are all types of argumentation,

Writing Clues for Students

You can generate counter-arguments by asking yourself

Writing Clues for Students

you are not simply attacking or caricaturing your opponents. It

Writing Clues for Students

Who will ultimately read your work?

What is your main purpose for writing?

Writing Clues for Students

When you read, ask yourself questions like what is the

Helpful Hints for Writing an Argumentative

Choose a topic that has at least two sides.

Writing Clues for Students

Use unbiased sources.

Writing Clues for Students

DEVELOPING A CENTRAL IDEA

Writing Clues for Students

main point of your research paper clear to the reader; your

Writing Clues for Students

thinking process, not a miraculous creation. Formulating a

Writing Clues for Students

be understood in the context of the history of philosophy is too

Writing Clues for Students

Hints for Developing Your Thesis

Exactly what is my subject? Do I need to define it more