WRITING SHORT PAPERS 

This is a guide to writing short papers. It's for the moment when you stop blessing your professor for assigning only a 1-4 page paper and start wishing that you had just two or three more pages. This moment will probably happen more than once in English 201, but it could happen in just about any class. 

Having a good argument is important in every paper you write. The shorter the paper, though, the less you can do other than argue. You can't include long descriptions that show how faithfully you listened in class or read, and any displays of elegant, poetic writing you include had better help prove your thesis. A beautifully written paper that refers to details, but does not make a good argument will not impress your professor. 

Your argument is your opinion: it might not be original or deeply felt, but it simply cannot be objective. You are trying to make an argument that will convince the reader of something. In order to effectively convince someone, you should anticipate and even refer to any counterarguments that could be made, but you should then try to show why your argument is better. 

Your argument should be presented in your thesis statement, usually one long sentence at the end of your introductory paragraph. In a short paper, your argument probably won't be anything particularly exciting, which will be reflected-in your thesis statement. For instance, 

Despite these overall similarities, however, Johnson uses a number of structural techniques such as enjambment as well as language and imagery to express a more personal grief in "on My First Son" than is shown in "on My First Daughter."

This is a boring sentence, but my teacher said that it was a "good thesis - clear and specific." 

A thesis statement should state what you think about the subject and show how you're going to prove it without going into too much detail about either. The thesis needs to anticipate the body of the paper. None of your topic sentences should come as a surprise to the reader; she should be able to read each one and see exactly how it connects to the thesis. 

Again, it is true of most things you write that the thesis should anticipate the rest of the paper, but here you still have to do that as much as you would in a paper that is one or two pages longer. Each paragraph should connect to and support your thesis, most explicitly in the topic and/or concluding sentences. At the same time, the topic sentence should give the reader a good idea of what the paragraph will do, and the concluding sentence should point to the next paragraph, so that when the reader gets to that 

The topic sentence of each paragraph should refer to a specific part of your thesis. The body of the paragraph should then briefly support what the topic sentence says and set up the transition to the next paragraph. For example, a paragraph that begins: 

The difference in line length contributes to the greater emotional power of "On My First Son." It is as if tetrameter, which was adequate to express the father's loss of his daughter, could not contain his sorrow at losing his son. This sense is heightened by the more extensive use of enjambment in "On My First Son"

This begins to expand on the thesis statement and sets up the topic sentence of the next paragraph: 

By contrast, the fifth line is the only enjambment in "On My First Daughter," and "At six months' end she parted hence/With safety of her innocence" expresses little, if any, personal grief. 

The progression should be totally clear, with no information that does not relate directly to the thesis statement. The result may seem to be lacking in subtlety, but such a sacrifice is necessary if you're going to support your thesis adequately in the space allowed.

Finally, your conclusion can be quite short, possibly the shortest paragraph in the paper. For instance; 

Many things combine to make "on My First Son" a more tender and personal expression of grief than "On My First Daughter." The meter is certainly not more important than the direct address of "on My First Son" in creating a personal tone. It gives "On My First Daughter" the feel of a tombstone; by contributing to the more steadily plodding feel of that poem.

Like this paragraph, your conclusion should probably encapsulate the argument provided in the body of the paper. It should contain the idea presented in the thesis, without being a straight restatement of the thesis.