FAI: Notes on Writing
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After students had turned in the first writing assignment, I sat down with each student and did a live edit - reading through the papers and commenting on matters small and large. Since different students wrote differently, they naturally received different pieces of advice. In this document, we attempt to document some of those key ideas. -- SamR
Contents |
Goals
I have one primary goal in working on your writing this semester - I want to encourage you to think more actively about what you are writing. That means that I want you to think about what argument you are making, how you structure that argument, and the words you choose when writing.
In many of the initial edits I made, I focused on word choice. Why did you choose word X rather than word Y? Do you think about the other meaning attached to a word? Are your metaphors appropriate? Strong writers think carefully about the words they use, so you should, too.
Matters Large and Small
Advertising
One of your responsibilities as a writer is to convince others to read your paper, and to convince them to continue reading your paper once they have started. Your title and introduction serve as the advertising that helps convince them of this.
One strategy you might use in choosing a title is to do the Google Test. Suppose someone has googled the primary terms in your paper. (For the first paper, you might guess that someone was looking for papers about dispute resolution in virtual communities.) In general, the primary thing they will use to decide whether or not to click on the link to your paper is whether or not the title attracts them. Of course, the Google test is not perfect; sometimes people will prefer things like "Everything you need to know about X", and such titles are not very interesting.
Once you have convinced someone to start reading your paper, you must draw them into the paper. The introduction serves that purpose - it shows them that you can think well, and makes them want to read more. In part, you put your thesis at the end of the introduction so that they can use that as one of the criteria by which they decide whether or not to read, so you need a creative thesis.
Form
It appears that a number of you need to be reminded about the appropriate form of papers.
If you expect that someone will be editing your paper, you do your editor (and yourself) a great favor if you double-space the text, so that there is room to insert comments.
If your paper has more than one page, you help your reader keep the pages in order if you number the pages.
Most faculty members want some indication of who wrote the paper, when they wrote the paper, what assignment the paper was written for, and so on. Please include such identifying information at the top of the paper. (I prefer the information in the upper-right; you should certainly have your name, course name, assignment name and number, and date.)
Citation
Make sure to cite the ideas you take from elsewhere.
It can be valuable to find sources that support your global claims.
It is certainly acceptable to cite in the middle of a sentence, if the idea you are citing ends in the middle of the sentence.
Word Choice
You've already heard a bit about word choice. Here are a few more tips.
Be careful about using cliche' phrases.
Make sure that you use appropriate metaphors. That is, realize when you use metaphors, make sure that they match the domain. If you do use a metaphor, think about continuing it throughout the paper. For example, one of you discussed the "weight" of certain actions. We were able to find similar metaphors that worked well throughout the paper - words like load, burden, and such.
Make sure that it's clear what your pronouns reference. In fact, once it's clear what your pronouns reference, you may find that you can replace the pronouns with the short-hand version of what they reference. So, for example, don't write "this", write "this ____".
Practice applying Williams' strategy: Identify the actors and actions, and make sure that the actions are verbs and the actors are the subjects of those verbs. (In some cases, I simply asked you to identify actions, and to then think about who is doing those actions.)
Avoid contractions in academic writing.
Structure
Make sure that each paragraph has its own central focus.
Make sure that there is a logical transition from one paragraph to the next. In very few cases, the transitions will be obvious, and you need not say anything. In others, the relationship between two paragraphs will be unclear, and you will need to write a sentence or two to bridge them.
Etc.
Avoid "meta-writing", writing about your writing. Things like "Although it may seem odd that I just compared A and B" or "Here is another argument". In general, meta-writing encourages the reader to step back from the essay.
Think about what is implicit in your writing or argument, and decide whether it should be explicit.
