Do the Course Reading

No, you can’t write the paper without doing the reading. Ground your argument in the reading materials. When you plan your paper, use passages from the readings or materials discussed in class as the basis for your discussion.

Your content and format will depend on what sort of paper you have been assigned to write. Is it a response paper? Does the paper require original research? Is the paper a film analysis, or does it need to be written in the form of a sociology journal? If the form of the paper is unfamiliar to you, ask the instructor if there is a model paper you can read or guidelines you can follow. The Writing Workshop has a file of sample papers and writing guides from various departments. We’d be happy to discuss them with you.

Many professors will assign a specific topic for your paper. You would be amazed at how many papers fail to address the assignment. It’s helpful to keep the topic of your paper in mind or typed-up somewhere while you’re planning or writing. Read the assignment over every now and again to make sure you’re still on the right track.

But what if there isn’t an assigned topic? Make sure you anchor your paper in the course materials. Ask yourself questions about what you’ve read. What interested you? Are there two ideas or readings in the class you can compare? If you’re stuck, discuss your ideas with friends or your professor.

There are two ways you can start a paper.

1. You can begin with an argument (or thesis) in mind. If that is your method, you may want to skip to part two below.
    
2. You can write in a more exploratory way and find what you want to say. Just be sure not to hand in that draft. Many people find what they want to say after writing a rough draft.

You can take detailed notes from the reading and begin there. Or you can find quotations that interest you. You might even want to brainstorm by writing your thoughts out on paper in no particular order. It’s a good idea to try different ways of finding your ideas so that you discover what method is right for you.

• Search the text. Make a list of everything that interests you. This includes quotations and ideas.
   
• Print out what you have. In the margins of your paper, use one word to summarize each point.
   
• Think about the words that you have chosen. Challenge yourself to make connections. You will not connect every point that you have. You will connect many of them. At some point a thesis will emerge. Notice that you have not imposed a thesis onto the text; you have found a thesis within your reading of the text.
   
• Write a second draft.

You’ve just written a draft. What next? Here’s what to keep in mind:

Generally speaking, you are expected to use the expository writing format you probably learned in high school.

• Use the introductory paragraph to set out the paper’s thesis.
   
• In the body of the paper, look closely at materials (usually passages from your readings) that help you examine your thesis.
   
• In the conclusion, summarize what you’ve shown.

The structure of your paper should be predictable. Don’t try an innovative design unless the assignment invites your creativity.

Your thesis statement belongs at either the beginning or the end of your introduction, the first paragraph of your paper.

• Set out the central assertions (line of argument) that your paper will explore.
   
• Be specific in your thesis statement. The thesis predicts the sections and the order of your discussion.

If you’re studying a subject that’s new to you, it’s sometimes hard to figure out what you are supposed to talk about. This may make it hard to come up with an interesting thesis for your paper. You can find a thesis, however, if you keep asking yourself questions about your reading materials and your assignment.

Assignment: "Consider the Gettysburg Address and its relation to America’s intellectual tradition."

Compare these two thesis statements:

• "The famous Gettysburg Address states ideas that are reminiscent of some more or less traditional American political ideals."
   
• "The ideas expressed in the famous Gettysburg Address are hardly the revolutionary conclusions of an intellectual giant; rather, they are the logical continuation of a longstanding intellectual tradition which Lincoln patriotically embraced."

The second thesis is better. Why? It is specific, and it predicts the order of discussion in the paper. If the question does not provide you with a thesis statement, try jotting down some points you want to make. Do they all point to a common idea or interpretation of your materials?

Look for an important similarity or difference in the readings you’re writing about. A statement of this relation can serve as your thesis. For example, "While both Marx and Althusser argue that ideology dictates practice, their understanding of the term ‘ideology’ differs radically. It is this different understanding that is largely responsible for their conflicting understanding of historical change."

No matter what method you use to produce a first draft, you’re going to need to revise. Give yourself time to rework your drafts. Changes in your thesis or the topic sentences of your paper may demand that you revise what follows.

Jot down the main points you find in the draft. Once you see what you’re trying to say, you can rearrange the paper to make your focus and argument clear. Then you can eliminate the places where you wander or repeat yourself.

Make sure your paper takes into account competing arguments. Let’s say you’re writing a paper with the following thesis: "Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale challenges conventional medieval practices of chivalry through the devices of metaphor and word-play." How would you complicate your discussion of this argument? You could discuss examples of word play that support chivalric practice. Or you could address Chaucer’s debt to the conventions of chivalric narratives and address the issue of literary influence.

When you read your rough draft, you’ll often find that your paragraphs are jumbled together. Or maybe you’ve discussed the same point again and again, using different phrasing each time. So what do you do? Try outlining your rough draft. Next to each paragraph, write a one-sentence statement of its main point. What are the main points you are making or the key examples you are examining? What order should you discuss them in? Reorder so as to give your discussion a sense of direction or progression.

But most importantly, rework your topic sentences, the first sentences of each paragraph. They should state the main idea in the paragraph and link that discussion to your thesis. Don’t wait till the end of the paragraph to make connections.

Rushed? When desperate or out of time, edit your paper by re-writing the first sentences of your paragraphs. Say how the paragraph relates to the argument you are making.

When writing your conclusion, consider the implications of what you’ve said. Some people think the conclusion is just a rewritten version of the introduction. In a pinch, you can get away with that, but aim for something better. "Chaucer’s textual challenge of chivalric codes suggests that language has strong subversive potential in medieval society," you might say in your conclusion. Why does it matter that metaphors challenge the chivalric code? Maybe your conclusion could focus on why Chaucer’s challenge to the chivalric code had to be done through metaphor rather than direct criticism.

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