The Working Writer: An Open Composition Textbook
Overview
This is a sixteen-chapter open textbook for freshman composition.
Chapter 01: Academic Reading
Congratulations! You have started the book.
Many people do not consider themselves to be avid readers—you may think you are among their numbers—but everyday reading is incredibly common, and most people have a more well-developed literacy than they may think.
Even if you claim that you do not like to read, you still likely read more than you realize. Whether reading from a screen or a magazine—maybe walking and reading your phone at the same time, browsing episode synopses or reading the subtitles on a streaming service, or waiting in the checkout line browsing the tabloid headlines—you do a fair amount of reading every day.
Written language is only one of many ways to transmit information, though it is quite adaptable. Historically, cultures thrived after the development of written language. As societies have developed and become more complex over time, so too have the methods we use to communicate. And although written text is only a crude approximation of our thoughts, written language is the common denominator by which we communicate ideas with others.
Today, people have a variety of backgrounds and reading situations, and literacy rates vary throughout the population. The everyday reading to which we’ve become accustomed is perhaps the most-important way to share our thoughts with one another. Increased literacy rates have led to higher standards of living, as reading allows us to challenge our assumptions, assume new identities, inhabit lives different from our own, experience the unfamiliar, and widen our perspectives:
- It is unlikely that you have been followed by a uniquely persistent green eggs and ham peddler, though you may have once been reluctant to try something only to later discover that you liked it.
- Maybe you have never lived in an ancient magical castle, but you have likely spent time running through the halls of Hogwarts in your mind.
- Perhaps you have not faced off against an oppressive regime in a dystopian landscape, but you have likely read through a hero’s perilous journey and lived to tell the tale.
Reading affords us insight into the world, seen from the perspective of someone else—a person of another background, another gender, a different race, nationality, ability—written communication provides us the opportunity for shared experiences: through reading we can practice empathy. As the world becomes more interconnected, shared experiences with and empathy for others reminds us that our own perspectives are not supreme. Through histories, records, and stories, reading both connects us to each other’s pasts and helps us envision and shape our shared future.
Written communication is an efficient and effective way to disseminate information. For example, you’re reading this handbook (or a pdf of this handbook) right now. Because we have yet to find the best voice-over artist for the audiobook version, you are stuck reading the text.
Reading is common in the college classroom because it is an excellent way to discuss ideas. Embrace the pun: reading helps instructors to get everyone on the same page, which is important considering the variety of backgrounds and experiences everyone brings to class.
As a college student, reading is expected of you in your classes, and it will likely be a major component of your coursework. Many classes will carry with them a heavy reading load consisting of a variety of sources like the required textbook(s) for the course, linked online reading, or additional supplementary materials such as reports, files, essays, or stories.
As you read through your syllabi and progress through your courses, you may find that several of your assignments are simply listed or referred to as “readings.” You should not let this name instill within you a sense of complacency. Although it may not seem like it, reading just a few pages can be a time-consuming activity.
Reading for your college courses—reading for this Composition Course—may frequently be a time-consuming activity, because reading requires your participation. As you read academically, you will experience new ideas and terminology, and require time to think about and process this information.
First, reading new material takes time (more so if you prepare by first reading the headnote or embarking on some light research into the contexts surrounding the assigned reading). Understanding, analyzing, and evaluating the information—making annotations in the text, looking up any words that need definition or further clarification, asking questions of the material—all of this takes additional time. Finally, giving yourself some space and ultimately re-reading and reflecting on the text takes even more time.
When instructors ask their students to read something for class, accompanying the request is an implicit assignment of interacting with the material in a meaningful way. Assigned readings provides students with a context for entering into a larger conversation. In most cases, your instructors will not expect you to be an expert on the assigned reading, though they will seek discussion. Ask questions of the texts you read in your courses and share your thoughts with your classes.
An Exchange of Ideas
Talking about writing is important. Although readers can all agree on what words are sprinkled on the page, they might not agree on what that writing means.
Writings are like entries into an ongoing conversation. When writers choose to voice their position on a topic, they are becoming a participant in the larger discussion, offering their views in position to those who have written on the topic before them and in light of different contexts. If no one hears that writer’s voice, however—if no one reads what they have written—the conversation ends. The audience participates in this conversation by reading thoughtfully when considering the author’s points.
Most conversations are not meant to be won or lost and dominating a discussion does not provide one an advantage. It is not as if speaking for a majority of the conversation makes one victorious or precludes others from saying their piece. Thinking about topics can be recursive—thoughts may loop back on themselves time and again as new information becomes available and contexts change—and large, cultural conversations may exist in several iterations before returning to a point already made. Ideas change with time and perspective; listening to others can help clarify your own thinking on a topic.
But a conversation does not necessarily mean a solution. Writers are not always looking for reasons or answers, searching for causes or beginnings, seeking action or results; sometimes writers are simply expressing themselves, or writing for exercise, or inquiring for understanding, for sympathy, for someone to listen—looking for an audience.
It is the combination of these the text and the audience that equals criticism. The exchange of ideas looks something like a mathematical formula:
Text + You = Criticism
The word “criticism” has negative connotations—harsh judgement or otherwise bad feelings—but in this case it means interpretation. A critical reading of a text is a thoughtful consideration of its contents and construction. Just as important as what a text says is how you read that text—your experiences, biases, proclivities, the time and effort you put into considering the writer’s points—everything you bring to the conversation will influence how you read the text.
What the audience might get out of a text is influenced by what they bring into it. As a participant, the reader has an outsized interpretation in the exchange of ideas. Approach readings with an open and considerate mind. Written communication is an integral component of sharing ideas so encountering new texts with an open mind and a willingness to learn is vital to the exchange.
Before responding to something, think first about what you have read. Joining in on a conversation without first listening to what’s being said might result in a misunderstanding. Rather than hearing what is being said, listen for what others are saying. Hearing is an auditory activity, just one of the five senses. Listening means thinking about what you hear: consider the larger contexts, the presentation of the material and its implications, and what the writer is trying to communicate.
When you listen to others—really listen—you must be willing to acknowledge the validity of other viewpoints, regardless of whether you agree with them. Be thoughtful when you listen, rather than thinking of how you might respond to a certain point. Only after participating in the conversation through listening is it appropriate to add your own voice the discussion with and about the text.
Engage with the text itself, seek out discussion with other readers, read critical reviews of the work, research the topic independently, read up on the author or creator of the work and use these inquiries to inform your own opinions.
Consider the larger contexts surrounding the text:
- Who wrote this?
- When was this composed?
- Under what circumstances?
- Is there anything readers should know about this text before reading it?
Careful reading and consideration of a text leads to the ability to participate in more conversations.
Responsible engagement with writing is one of your duties as a college student. Your instructors have taken time to select the materials in their courses with their students’ education in mind. As a reader—as a participant in the exchange of ideas—it is your responsibility to show a dedicated commitment to reading and engaging with those materials. Critical readings—listening to what is being said in the conversation—can sometimes provide a great opportunity for self-reflection. Review your own thinking. Consider why you feel the way you do, and apply the skills of critical reading to your own thoughts.
Reading Critically
Have you ever read a post online then commented on it, only to realize that you misread the post in the first place?
Have you ever found yourself reading an assignment for class, and though you have read each word in every sentence for the last several paragraphs—sometimes more than once—you cannot remember anything specific about what you have just read? It can even feel like a dissociative action, as if your eyes have just been moving over the words without your brain really thinking about them. Maybe you were daydreaming or thinking about what you might have for lunch.
Or maybe instead you have been involved in a conversation with a friend or family member. Just as you are sharing with them your thoughts, you see them look up from their phone, not having listened to a word you said, and ask, “What?” Perhaps you even repeated yourself after an exaggerated sigh.
Reading—even listening to someone speak—takes effort. Critical reading is the concentrated effort of focusing on what you are reading and why it matters. Even if you read each word, if your mind is elsewhere while you are reading, you will not understand what is written or why it may be important.
The commonality of sharing and discussing ideas is valuable and thinking critically about a text can be rewarding. Take a positive interest in what you read and try to pay close attention to what you discover in the text. Ask yourself how the text affects you. If you are having trouble getting started—if you believe that the assigned reading has no bearing on your life whatsoever—consider how you might feel if the topic were directly concerned with you or someone you know.
Try to make connections between what you read and your daily life, or the lives of the people you care about.
- Think about how what you read might affect your education, your hobbies, interests, friends, family, transportation, health, environment, etc.
- Imagine how what you read may affect your future.
- Consider how past versions of yourself might respond to what you read.
- What might they think of it?
- Reflect on how you may have changed since.
Flex your awareness and envision all the different, diverse audiences may read the same text as you—imagine the unique experiences they have that might relate to the story, or the different jokes at which they might laugh—the audiences who might not share your opinions or your experiences but are still reading the same text.
A Reading Process
Before you embark upon a reading assignment, first put yourself in a good place to read and get comfortable. If you have a favorite chair or desk where you read—if you have perfected a routine which helps you study—return to those familiar places.
Mentally prepare yourself to learn by adopting a positive attitude. Limit distractions. Seclude yourself from your phone and other screens (unless you are reading on one). Find a quiet area away from friends and family. Focus on discovery.
As you approach a text for the first time, ask yourself what you know about it. Some readings will include headnotes, or important biographical information about the author and/or contextual information about the work’s publication. Other readings may require a bit of research on your end. Knowing relevant background information on the topic on which you are reading can inform your interpretation of the material.
Common questions you might ask yourself when you read a text for the first time:
- What is this topic? Is this something I should be concerned about? What are other people saying about this? Is this something I have seen in the news? In someone’s post online?
- Who is paying for this? Who is getting paid for this? Have I ever heard of this publication? Is this publication known for anything? Is it reputable?
- Who is this author? Is she known for something? Have I seen him somewhere before? How credible is this person? Does this author display a bias in their work?
When you take the time to make a commitment to reading critically, it is best to give yourself every advantage to succeed. Establishing a process for reading can help you work your way through texts of various lengths and difficulties. For example, you might begin with this basic premise: RAwR
- Read (or otherwise consume) the material [R]
- Annotate the work [Aw]
- Reflect on what you read [R]
Read the Material
Whatever it is, you will have to read it. After you have read it once, you should read it again. Reread it after that. Then read it again.
Multiple readings of a text allow for deeper critical inquiry. As you read over a text again and again, different ideas may grab your attention on each readthrough, or your focus may shift from the content to its delivery. Careful reading (and rereading) of a text will allow you to speak with greater certainty when discussing it.
If you think you have read a text enough, test yourself. Can you accurately summarize its main points? If you cannot, read the material again until you can.
Then read it once more.
When you begin reading, you should approach the text with an open mind, but without a pen in hand. Stopping to write, then restarting your reading may disrupt your rhythm, so it is best to try and avoid taking physical notes through your first read of the material, though you can certainly make mental notes of areas to which you would like to return. On subsequent readings of the text, include annotations.
Annotate the Work
Annotations are in-text notes written on the page by the reader and can be evidence of critical thinking and active reading, as making annotations means the reader is quite literally engaging with the text while reading it.
Annotations need not be comprehensive—notes you make on the page can be as simple as scribbling symbols or asking questions in the margins—but whatever notes you leave in the text should help connect your thinking to your reading.
Common annotations include:
- highlighting important information
- providing definitions of key terms or phrases
- circling or underlining words
- adding stars, bullets, or other symbols to the text to denote significant ideas
- using punctuation such as question marks and exclamation points to identify areas of inquiry or amazement.
On the following rereads of the text, update these annotations and add to them pertinent information in the margins of the page. In your writing assignments, you can return to these early annotations for ideas and inspiration, or even include and cite borrowed information from the readings as appropriate.
Reflect on What You Read
Reading is a personal act. Although your instructors may expect you to identify certain concepts in a piece of writing, the experience of reading is wholly your own, and what you may feel reading something may not be what others feel (which is expected). When you complete your first reading of a text, before you begin rereading and making annotations, consider your initial reaction. Ask yourself what you are feeling. Are you offended? Surprised? Angry? Then think about why you feel the way you do.
Next, offer an evaluation of the piece. Write in the margins of the text, on the back of the page, in your notebook, on your device—wherever—just take the time to record your initial thoughts.
- Do you agree with what the author writes?
- With how the author writes it?
- What were its strengths?
- Its weaknesses?
- Which parts did you enjoy?
- What did you dislike?
As you reread the text, you will have the opportunity to see how your thoughts about the writing can change over time.
Analyze the text through detailed examination with additional questions before rereading it.
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the author’s purpose?
- What are the larger contexts?
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 01
- If you are reading on a screen, especially for an extended amount of time, turn on dark mode (if available), close or minimize all other windows, turn off any other screens and/or music, and turn on another light beyond your computer monitor to reduce the strain on your eyes
- When beginning any assignment, carefully read its instructions. Read them again. Then read them again. Make sure you understand what is required of you before you start.
- Analyze before you synthesize: before you can incorporate a selection from a reading into your own writing, you must understand it in its larger contexts and be ready to explain them to your own readers. Providing the audience with well-reasoned analysis alongside your selections will help them to see the topic as you do.
- Test yourself to see if you can write a sentence summary after a paragraph of particularly challenging reading.
- Annotate your readings even if you are not specifically asked to by your instructor.
Chapter 02: Academic Writing
Are words really the best representation of thought? Are your thoughts limited by constraints of your language?
In an exchange of ideas, thought-to-thought communication would seem to be the least encumbered. But if you could choose to communicate telepathically, would you? It seems like an obvious choice, though opening your mind to others is a scary proposition. Have you ever thought things you have chosen not to say? Have you thought better of something before saying it aloud?
Have you ever said something out loud and immediately regretted it? Wished you had said nothing at all? Or maybe you have been on the end of an insult or cruel joke, and been unable to offer a timely retort, only to come up with the perfect comeback much later.
Written communication may not be the most-effective method of communication, but it gives you time to think before you act.
If authors were able to think their words into their texts without having to write them—without going through the process of outlining, drafting, rewriting, revising, writing again—if writers could just shortcut the process and deliver their texts into the world, would those thoughts be worth reading?
The best thoughts are not impulses but are carefully devised. The best writing is rewritten, and revision is a process of rethinking.
Because thoughts can sometimes get lost in the transfer between brain and fingertips, where handwriting and lackluster typing skills do little to help, writing can sometimes be a frustrating process. It is through this process, however, that writers can think critically about the topics on which they write.
Recall last chapter where the text asks you if you like to read. How do you feel about writing? You are in a composition course, and this is a composition textbook, after all.
How much of the last chapter do you remember? How many times have you read it? Many great thinkers organize their thoughts spatially. They construct great palaces of the mind through which they walk to help aid in memorization of concepts. If you were to adopt this process and use it not only to improve memory, but also as a way to reconsider ideas—looking at them from different angles or perspectives, prodding them and moving them around, testing them against the perceptions of the guests who you might receive in this virtual space—you might find the idea of spatial investigation an effective aid to writing for class.
If we were to all do the same, these palaces and their contents might be wildly different, each constructed and staged with familiar thoughts, informed by our distinct experiences and the limits of our imaginations. As different as each palace might be from each other, they would still share some commonalities, or conventions: walls, roofs, doors, windows, and other universal features of houses.
Just as these virtual structures of the mind have aided great thinkers for thousands of years, so too the essay is a construct to house your thoughts. Its form can be shaped and structured to meet your own specifications, though the general models of academic writing all share some similarities. The practice of writing helps one organize their thoughts.
Communicating effectively is part of a well-rounded college education. It is not enough to simply arrive at a solution without explaining your reasoning. In math and science classes, instructors expect that students show their work by writing-out the steps describing how they achieve their results.
Because you are in college, your instructors will expect you to express your ideas in writing. Academic writing demands that you support your assertions with critical thinking and reason. Composition is akin to showing your work, or how you think; it is the process through which you make your thoughts visible.
The Essay
As a college student, you are expected to be able to express yourself effectively through writing. Although your schoolwork will vary from class to class and assignment to assignment, your instructors will have high expectations when it comes to academic writing. Your work should represent your ability to think critically, organize, analyze, and evaluate concepts, and/or create work representative of your ideas. Additionally, instructors will expect you to think about how you share your thoughts, such as the presentation of your ideas, your writing style, or the correctness of your usage.
The essay is the standard form or medium for critical discussion across the disciplines. In most composition classes, drafting and revising essays is the primary process for communicating complex ideas. An essay is a detailed and focused examination of a topic. It is very likely you have written essays before. Maybe you are familiar with the fundamental five-paragraph construction common to high-school essays, or perhaps you have written narrative essays of your own for college or scholarship applications, or for publication online.
The first essayists began writing in French and English in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and the essay as a form of both communication and critical thought has been popular with thinkers ever since. The essay has been used for both professional and personal rumination on topics ranging from the objective to the abstract and has since been adopted in education as an unofficial standard by which students formally share ideas in the classroom.
As you write for your classes, you will find that different instructors focus or emphasize distinct aspects of your writing. In your composition courses, your instructors are more interested in seeing your thoughts in writing than they are a pristinely formatted document. Each instructor will have some discretion for what they see as fit or correct, though communicating your ideas through writing should be your primary goal.
An effective academic essay often represents an entry into the conversation of a topic. The majority of academic essays are formal and adhere to a set of conventions not unlike those discussed in this book. They fit well-established patterns which govern construction and formatting.
While the use of these patterns will almost certainly vary by instructor (always check both your syllabus and assignments for specific instructions), you should expect to write somewhat differently than you speak. Although informal/personal essays still have a place in the college classroom, the majority of academic writing is formal, and adheres to the appropriate conventions. Writing an academic essay is comparable to entering the conversation; each essay follows a thread in the greater conversation of academic discourse.
Entering academic discourse—actually writing those essays—can be challenging. Writing is time-consuming, but what someone learns is not measured alone by how long it takes them, or how much effort they put into it. Offering your perspective to readers means opening yourself up to critique—not only of your writing style and the correctness of your usage, but also an evaluation of how you think—and it can be difficult to listen to what others are saying if you do not like what you hear.
Listening is a means of participating in a conversation—that is no less true in this chapter than it was in the last chapter—but the purpose of this book (and your composition course in general) is to help you write. You participate in academic discourse through your writing projects.
Engaging with others in discussion does not mean you have to “win” the conversation. You can still be an active participant by asking questions of others’ ideas, analyzing the work of others, seeking clarification of their points, including additional voices in support and dissent of the original, defining vague concepts, evaluating what you have read, or in some other way interacting with the topic.
Whatever you choose to write about, in whatever medium you feel best expresses it, writing is the process of making sense of your thoughts. This process maps your thinking, or shows your work, so that others can follow you to the same conclusions. Drawing a map of your thought process allows you to retrace your steps and revise your reasoning. Think of writing as an exercise in discovery: you are not simply recording what you know, spilling knowledge from your brain to the page; rather, you are actively learning as you compose, rethink, and revise your work.
Writing Perspectives
For each writing situation you encounter, you will adopt an ethos, or an identity that embodies your perspective. An ethos is an appeal to shared values and beliefs that can act as the foundation for explaining your views to readers, as mutual feelings can make readers more receptive to your ideas.
Your perspective on the topic will shape how you write about that topic. Although you may feel strongly one way or another going into a writing project, you should remain open-minded as you work through your thoughts.
For example, if you have ever lived or worked with a friend, perhaps you have had to balance your living or working relationship with your friendship. In these particular contexts, you may have had to compartmentalize your thoughts, or adopt a different perspective when interacting with your friend.
In academic writing, your instructors may ask you to approach a topic from an assigned perspective, even one that you might not think is valuable. Such instances provide you an opportunity to challenge your own thinking and exercise your imagination. When considering how to construct and develop any writing perspective, keep in mind your authority to write on the topic, your purpose for writing, the audience to whom you are writing, and the larger contexts surrounding the topic.
Authority
The ideas you include in your essay matter because they represent your perspective, but that is not enough to warrant their inclusion in an academic writing project. It is your responsibility as a writer to demonstrate that your thoughts have value. When you engage in academic writing, you contribute to the ongoing conversation as an authority on the chosen topic.
Your authority exhibits to readers the expertise you bring to the conversation. While you may not be the foremost expert on the topic, you can still demonstrate your credibility through the inclusion of pertinent information and a careful use of the standard edited English common in composition classrooms.
In most writing situations, instructors will expect you to write formally. This means:
- using creative and clear prose
- adopting an even tone
- using words precisely
- avoiding references to yourself and the audience (such as first- and second-person pronouns, like I/me and you/your)
- writing-out contractions (cannot instead of can’t)
- and using a mix of both concrete and abstract ideas, as well as various sentence structures.
Formality and correctness in essays will go a long way in establishing your credibility.
Do you believe appearances matter? While surface-level appearance may not have as much value as what lies beneath, the presentation of your ideas is important. Have you ever found a typo in a textbook? I assure you, there are certainly some mistakes in this book, and they may detract from the message. Frequent errors or typos may send the wrong message to readers: if it appears to the audience that you have not taken the time to proofread and correct small mistakes, the audience may assume you have not been careful with your research, or the topic in general.
Even if your perspective is compelling, or your position is reasonable, if you fail to make yourself understood or give reason for the audience to doubt your credibility, you might find yourself unable to communicate your thoughts, and leave the project feeling frustrated.
As the authority in a writing situation, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Why am I writing on this topic?
- To whom am I writing?
- What additional information do readers need to know to understand my perspective?
- What does my perspective offer that others do not?
Purpose
Approach each writing situation with an idea of what you plan to achieve, what you hope to discover, or what you want the audience to know or do after having read your work.
When writing academically, you will likely be evaluated with a grade or score, but that should not be your only incentive; you should feel motivated to accomplish or learn something in each writing project. Going into a writing project with numerous questions you want to answer can help propel you through your research. Answering these questions throughout the process can help maintain momentum and direction, enriching your understanding of and reinforcing your authority on the topic.
Look at each assignment as an opportunity to discover new ideas. As you begin the writing process, review your initial questions and ask yourself what you would like to learn. Your research and organization will inform not only the content and rhetorical pattern of your final essay, but also how you think about the topic.
Here are some modes of writing and purposes:
- Expository essays inform readers
- Analytical essays explain complex ideas
- Argumentative essays assert the validity of a position
Next, ask yourself what you would like the audience to do with the information you provide. Do you want readers to learn something? Would you like readers to acknowledge your experience or your viewpoint? Do you want to convince the audience to adopt your position? Do you want them to act on what they have read? Finally, ask yourself if there is anything you must explain to the audience for them to see the topic from your perspective. Keeping this in mind throughout the writing process will help you generate audience-specific content.
Audience
Think about an advertisement. Maybe it is funny, or compelling, or its jingle gets stuck in your head all the time, or perhaps it just really annoys you on your trip to and from class each day. Ask yourself what it is about the advertisement that makes it memorable. What sticks with you—the jingle? The graphics? The message? How does the advertisement target an audience?
We are exposed to targeted advertising every day, from ads on the websites we visit, to suggested products when we make online purchases, in the applications on our phones, and even through sponsored content in our social media feeds. Advertisements are fantastic examples of advertisers knowing their audiences. Advertisements for children’s toys, for example, appear on channels that feature cartoons or other children’s programming, and are broadcast at specific times of the day when they will be seen by kids.
Or if you have ever been out sick from work or school, stuck and home and glued to the couch, you have likely endured daytime television and several commercials for life insurance plans, aging, retirement, and end-of-life considerations, advertisements for workman’s compensation or personal injury lawyers, weight-loss fads, and as-seen-on-TV products. The advertisers that air these commercials choose programs, channels, and airtimes where they believe the advertisements will have the most-effective reach.
Knowing the person to whom you are talking influences not only the way you speak to them—your attitude and the words you use—but it also informs the topic of conversation. While topics of school, work, and home lives may sometimes overlap, many of the conversations that happen within these specific contexts are localized in their respective environments.
In your own experiences, consider how the way that you might phrase a question to a family member is probably different than how you might ask the same question of a friend, and you might not even put the question to an acquaintance. Video games, television programs, and films are all rated for specific audiences based on the nature of their content. Some conversations or topics are reserved for intended audiences, just as viewer discretion is sometimes advised.
Similarly, the way that you write informally, outside of the classroom, is not only different in how you write, but also what you write about. Messages that you compose to your friends on your device will likely follow different rules and cover different topics than essays you might write in class. It is not only that the mediums are different, each with their own conventions, but also the audiences are distinct, and each have their own needs and expectations.
As part of the literary exchange, the audience has a say in the transfer of information. The listener is an integral part of the conversation, which requires the writer to anticipate and craft appropriate changes in subject matter, tone and diction.
Dramatic differences in audience are easy to notice—how you might address the president or a foreign diplomat, for example, would differ greatly than how you might greet your best friend—but subtle differences in audience may not be as easy to identify. Before any writing project, while still in the planning stage of the writing process, think about who your target readers are, what expectations they might have, and how you can best connect with them (or at least get your ideas stuck in their heads).
For each writing project, imagine the audience who will read your work. Are you writing for experts, or novices? For the general public, or a very specific audience? Maybe one special person in particular?
Although your instructors may have specific instructions for each writing project, you should consider the general audience one that is diverse. Readers are your instructor and your peers in the class, all of whom come from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. This audience is also professional, considerate, and eager to read your work; as such, they must be treated respectfully. While writing is your own exercise in thought, the medium and the audience exert some influence over the exchange of ideas.
Identifying an audience does not mean that audience agrees with your position or even understands your perspective. It is your duty as the writer to demonstrate critical thinking by showing the readers the topic as you see it. Just because you have experienced an event or held an idea does not mean that others share your experiences or beliefs, let alone accept them. If you first establish yourself as a credible and reliable authority with an explicit and meaningful purpose, the audience is likely to listen to what you have to say. In anticipating the needs of the audience, you must provide appropriate context for your perspective.
Context
Context matters. Perhaps you have done your homework on the bus ride home from school, which feels much different than doing your homework on the bus ride to school.
Or imagine, for example, planning a going-away party, buying an ice cream cake, and asking all your coworkers to sign a card for your retiring colleague. Would the party, cake, and card be appropriate if that same employee had been fired?
What happens around you—what has been said in a conversation—when and where you are when you say something influences the meaning of what it is you say and do. When thinking about the context of a topic, examine its setting, the when and where related to the topic.
Would you rather help a friend move into a new apartment on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon, or on a Wednesday in the middle of winter, during the dead of night, amid a raging sleet and snowstorm? If you were loading those boxes into the back of a truck at 3 a.m. behind a local business, would you feel differently about your actions?
When you engage with others through academic discourse, you must consider the background surrounding the conversation. Research its history and add something relevant to the discussion.
A topic will have greater meaning to an audience who is directly involved with or affected by it. Build a connection between readers and the topic. Draw the audience in by involving them with the topic. Draw connections through geography, cultural identity, or appeals to a shared ethos.
Is the topic current? If it is not, examine the historical significance of the topic. Look for examples in the cultural zeitgeist, or shared attitudes and values of its historical setting. Then explain to readers why this is an opportune time to reopen the conversation and offer them your perspective.
If you are bringing attention to an age-old problem, alert the audience to that fact. Explain that this is not going away, and without appropriate attention, will continue to be a problem. If the topic is only burgeoning, explain to readers from where it comes. Give the audience enough information to understand the topic and its place in the world.
Identify the frequency and modulation of the topic: is this something people have been discussing? Is it in the news? Does it feel like you encounter the topic no matter where you turn? If so, it may be worthy of a deeper understanding, and you can provide that to readers with appropriate contextual information.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 02
- The word essay originally comes from the French verb essayer, meaning “to try or attempt.” The essay with which you end up is only one version of a lengthy process stretching backwards to when you first began thinking about writing.
- In the context of your classes, writing an essay can be a daunting prospect. The process is time-consuming and takes considerable effort, but do not worry if you find it difficult, because all things worth doing take time.
An essay is:
- Critical thinking (your ideas)
- Collaboration (with evidence)
- Communication (for an audience)
Your writing situation/identity is:
- Your authority to write on this topic
- What you hope to achieve by writing on this topic
- Tailored to a specific audience who needs to know the larger context to appreciate your perspective
- Define specialized terminology where need be, avoid slang and words associated with those in the know
Help readers understand specialized diction or jargon
Chapter 03: A Writing Process
Do you remember learning how to tie your shoes? While you may be pretty good at it now, you were not always. It is most likely that your shoe-tying skills are the result of hours and hours of practice—even if you do not consider it that. Tying your shoes is probably not something you regard as a skill, but it is a process which you have practiced, and are unlikely to give up (at least for quite a while).
We have all wanted to give up on something because we felt we were not good at it. But quitting is rarely an effective method of improving. Would your inability to do something perfectly keep you from ever trying it again? If you do something a few times, find yourself bad at it, do you just stop trying to improve?
For example, you may be pretty good at a game. Maybe you can consistently beat your siblings and your parents, and every now and again your friends even struggle to keep pace with your scores. All in all, you win more than you lose. Perhaps you could enter a small local tournament and not embarrass yourself; heck, you might even do well.
But if you were to fail in that tournament, would that be it? Would failing be reason enough to give up the game? Would you feel content with your abilities and stop trying to improve? Instead imagine for a moment that you wanted to get even better at this game. Say you wanted to win the next tournament. What would your first step be?
Would you hire someone to rough up the competition the night before the tournament? Maybe hire someone to call in a bomb threat before the final rounds, erasing any of your potential losses from record? Even if these were your (admittedly problematic, not to mention felonious) first thoughts, accomplishing them would still be a process, and that is where this scenario is headed.
If you wanted to improve your skills so that no one could beat you, you might first begin by practicing the fundamentals of the game. You might stay up late practicing, or wake up early and play again before you go to class. You might begin training outside of the game, as well, developing sympathetic skills and strategies as you aim to improve your abilities in the game. But practicing by yourself can only take you so far. Eventually, you will likely need to expand your habits.
You might begin by doing some research, first by finding videos online, watching enthusiasts and professionals and even studying their techniques, and then visiting and reading specialized websites or even commenting on discussion boards dedicated to playing the game. You might also seek the help of others. Find people who are looking to improve, just like you, and practice alongside them. Share ideas and information, test yourself against them in practices and scrimmages. Or find a coach or other outside voice to help guide, direct, or lead you through the process of improving.
How long do you think it would take to close the gap in skill between other tournament participants and yourself? Would this be an overnight transformation? Of course not: getting better at something takes time. Going through the necessary steps to reach your goal is a process. And although processes can be time-consuming and arduous, they provide us with a framework for improvement, and ultimately, achievement.
Practice is an iterative process, which means it never truly ends. It is one iteration followed by another. After completing any stage in an iterative process, you could return to another and begin again. Each stage in the process builds on the previous, even if they are practiced out of order.
Returning to the game scenario—after having become the champion of a local tournament, would you be finished practicing? Would there not still be room for improvement? Could you win Regionals? The State Championships? Nationals? Could you become the best in the world? Even the best at what they do must continue to practice, train, or refine their skills in order to hold onto their titles. The process of practicing helps maintain some skills and progress to new ones. As state-of-the-art techniques are developed, practice helps you incorporate those skills into your own play. There is always room for improvement or refinement.
Using a process for incorporating new information into a routine aids in the absorption of that material. When you encounter new situations, you can then return to this process and apply it—maybe not perfectly—to your new situation. In doing so, you are using an established practice to aid you in discovering and consuming new data.
Outside of school, you may have to complete a written component of an application for a job, grant, or scholarship. Maybe you will have to write and deliver a speech in front of a large audience at your sister’s wedding, or perhaps a friend will ask you for a letter of recommendation or support in the application for a new job. In your own job, you may be asked to draft a letter, or assemble a report. At some point in the future, you will most likely have to write something professionally, even if it is only an email or internal memo.
It is possible that you have not had to write very often, so it would follow that you may have had very few opportunities to practice your writing process. But there are many real-world situations where you will find it advantageous to first think about the writing project, then compose multiple drafts before producing and proofreading your final copy.
Whatever your writing project, clear communication is important. Using a process to approach and dissect a writing project will help you assemble and present your perspective clearly and effectively. This process can provide you a convenient template for producing quality writing and thinking when processing new assignments.
Putting the process into action will help you move from in-class note-taking to actually composing your assignments. Practicing this process will help you develop replicable habits that you can apply in other writing situations beyond this course. The more practice you have with your own personal writing process, the more comfortable you will feel moving though its iterative stages.
A Practical Process
Rather than thinking about writing projects in terms of results, instead approach them with a sound process. Getting a good grade on an essay feels nice, but it may not be indicative of a repeatable process which you can apply to any writing situation. Additionally, results-based thinking can make it harder to identify your mistakes, or areas in need of improvement.
Having a practiced approach to writing assignments can save you time and frustration in the long run, but this writing process is not infallible. Different writing projects may require different approaches—this is not intended to be a comprehensive method to crafting perfect essays (there is always room for improvement, right?)—however, this model can provide some structure when approaching a writing assignment.
It is not this book’s goal to drill into your head any singular method of writing, because the process will vary from person to person. Instead, you should learn to understand, exert control over, and hone your own writing process. So long as you follow the directions and complete what is asked of you in your writing assignments, feel free to shuffle these stages and experiment with your own methods.
The more you practice with your own process, the more you will learn about what works for you, and what you can skip over. You may find yourself breezing through some stages for some assignments, and really struggling with other stages for different classes. Balance your approach based on the course requirements.
This writing process is as simple as it is iterative. It is a process whose stages you can return to time and time again. The recursive nature of repeating the steps of the writing process will help you think critically about the topic from many different perspectives.
Thinking about the project consists of brainstorming ideas, planning the development of your essay, and even procrastinating before completing the assignment. Drafting the project includes the many iterations of drafts you compose as you rethink and revise your work, from your first rough draft to your final copy. Improving your work involves revision, development of your main points, reflecting on your work, and editing and proofreading your final copy. And if your class is portfolio based, you may be asked to work through these steps more than once.
Step 1: Think
Thinking about what and how you might write is the first stage of any writing project. From the moment you receive the assignment, you begin thinking (or trying to put off thinking) about your work, planning how you will spend your time, and brainstorming ideas on which to write. Although this stage appears distinct from those of drafting and improving, it is also a crucial component in both. This iterative progression will help you make informed decisions about the content and style of your work throughout the writing process.
Procrastinate?
It is very easy to procrastinate. It is usually much easier to not do something than it is to do it. After you have received a writing assignment, you will have limited time to complete it. Almost every writing project you encounter for the rest of your life will have some deadline attached to it, though the writing assignments you receive in college are likely to be those with which you have the most experience (and have some of the shortest turn-around times).
It is perfectly understandable that you might use some of this time to procrastinate, though you should keep in mind that the time you spend avoiding the assignment is part of the thinking stage. While some of practices of procrastination can be beneficial—for example, straightening up one’s working space can act as a physical representation of reorganizing their thoughts in preparation for the writing task at hand—each moment you spend doing something other than working on your assignment is one that you cannot get back before the deadline.
Procrastinating can also be an exercise in creative thinking. As you avoid thinking about the assignment in innovative new ways, you still have its directions, requirements, and due date hovering around the back of your mind, reminding you that the deadline is looming ever-closer. When working through different experiments in procrastination, you may eventually—even accidentally—conjure some surprising thoughts about the topic, your perspective, or the assignment itself.
When you procrastinate before you begin your actual work, it is vital that you keep the deadline in mind. Wasting time can leave you with too little to go through the stages of the writing process multiple times. The best practice is to begin thinking about your assignment as soon as you receive it by carefully planning how you will spend your time working on the project before its due date.
Plan
After you first receive a writing assignment, read it carefully. Typically, when an instructor assigns a writing project to their class, they will take questions on the assignment. Use this as an opportunity to clarify any ambiguities you have regarding the parameters of the project, such as its instructions, requirements, components, and especially its due date(s).
Read the assignment again and make a realistic schedule which you believe you can maintain. If you are overly ambitious in your planning (or excessively rigid in scheduling), you may not leave room for improvisation when things come up in life. Furthermore, this could exhaust your enthusiasm for the project immediately, then you find yourself avoiding it until the last minute.
A large aspect of the thinking stage is planning and navigating your way through the rest of the writing process in a timely manner. Make a list of what you would like to accomplish in each stage of the process and consult a calendar to give yourself plenty of time to complete each item on your list. When allotting time to each stage of the process, break down each stage into smaller components and think about what you will still need to complete in those stages:
- Think
Plan how you will spend your time- Brainstorm a topic though exercises
- Research possible topics
- Consider your perspective
- Generate questions
- Draft
- Develop a working thesis statement
- Write a first draft, second draft, third, and so on…
- Improve
- Revise and rewrite multiple drafts
- Reflect on what you have written
- Develop your work though additional research
- Proofread for errors in style and usage and edit your work
Dividing your assignments into smaller tasks will help you maintain momentum in your writing and can contribute to a positive attitude throughout the process, as it may give you a sense of completion to check items off a list.
Outline
If you have chosen the topic and already completed research in preparation for the writing project, you can begin to plan how you might formulate and present your ideas throughout the essay. Creating an outline, or a general summary of your main points and support, will help you begin putting your essay together in the drafting stage.
Religious Symbolism in The Matrix (1999)
- Introduction
- Hook: Reincarnation
- Context: Religion, iconography, symbolism, allegory
- Working Thesis Statement: The Wachowski siblings employ Buddhist and Christian symbolism to explore the theme of rebirth in The Matrix.
- Christianity in The Matrix
- The story of the “Neo” Jesus
- Morpheus as John
- Trinity as Mary
- Cypher as Judas/Lucifer
- Dialogue
- Representation through settings and actions
- The story of the “Neo” Jesus
- Buddhism in The Matrix
- The story of the “Neo” Buddha
- The search for enlightenment as personified through other characters
- Dialogue
- Representation through settings and actions
- The story of the “Neo” Buddha
- Conclusion
- Symbolism beyond The Matrix
- Christianity
- Buddhism
- The Future of The Matrix
- Symbolism beyond The Matrix
Remember that when you outline for yourself (not an assignment), you do not necessarily need to follow the strict rules of outlines--it is ok not to use full sentences and not to use roman numerals. Find an outlining system that works best for you.
Brainstorm
If you understand the writing project and have a plan of attack squared away, and your assignment has a specific prompt, you should address that prompt in your work. Directions for choosing a topic may seem restrictive; on the contrary, they make beginning a project easier. Specific limitations on the scope of your writing project provide parameters which make selecting a topic less daunting, as there are fewer options available.
If you are free to choose the topic, however, you might face some difficulty in getting started. Choosing to write on a single idea when there is practically an unlimited number of deserving topics to select causes many writers to put off that decision until the last minute, leaving them little time to change their minds if they find their selection uninteresting. Choosing several possibilities, then asking questions about and researching those topics may be one of the best ways to generate ideas for a writing project.
If given the opportunity, write about something that you enjoy. You have a better chance to remain enthusiastic about a writing project centered around your interests and will likely spend more time on the writing process if you enjoy what you are writing about. If you have recently been consumed with a certain book, video game, television program, film, stream, hobby, activity, or whatever, use that writing project as an opportunity to explore that new passion. If there is an activity that has been taking up a lot of your time, there is a good chance that it has been occupying a lot of your thoughts, as well.
If your interests do not appeal to you as a suitable topic for a writing project, instead examine aspects of your own life about which you would like to learn more. Consider facets of your daily life—things you encounter all the time but about which you may know little detail—broad topics such as your employment, education, transportation, your environment, relationships, and personal health—talk to your friends and family about potential topics and ask them for suggestions if you find yourself unable to come up with anything.
Not only can these excerpts from your personal experiences provide you with workable topics to begin exploring in your writing projects, but going through the process of writing about your life can be an opportunity to think critically about the experiences you have had. Think deeply about the topics you like to talk about with friends. Consider if there is anything you have recently completed of which you are proud. Ask yourself if there are events from your past that you would like to examine in greater detail.
You may choose to work with topics on which you have written before. This is an especially worthwhile endeavor if you want to update your knowledge of the topic, if your position on it has changed, or if there have been recent developments in the larger conversation surrounding the topic. Read over your old work and look for ideas that interest you or that you would like to investigate further.
If you do choose a topic on which you have written before, avoid the impulse to copy and paste your old work into your new writing project. Instead, read over your original writing, return to your old sources and look for updates. Supplement these by seeking out updated information and reconsider your original position in light of what has changed since you first wrote it.
If you have your choice on the topic of your writing project, but you are still unsure of what you will write about, several brainstorming exercises can be useful in generating ideas. When planning how you will spend your time, give yourself ample opportunities to employ these techniques in selecting a topic. Not only can these brainstorming exercises help you choose a topic, they may also help you develop your perspective on that topic.
Review Your Notes
Review your notes and look for intriguing ideas that you have come across in your studies. If you have felt drawn to particular concepts or subjects in your classes, ask yourself what interests you about these ideas. Read through old essays, tests, and projects in your favorite subjects.
Raid your own writing. Review your posts online and with whom you shared them. Return to old conversations and messages with friends. If you keep a diary or journal, read over your old writing to see what has been on your mind recently. Or revisit an old entry or topic that you want to explore more. You might even begin keeping a journal in your own classes, or at least reading over and compiling your notes periodically. Reading over your own writing throughout the semester may help you generate ideas and can yield additional opportunities for critical thinking.
List
Creating lists is an effective and efficient method of organizing your thoughts. Listing what you need to buy at the grocery store, for example, might begin with a peek inside your refrigerator and pantry, followed by a mental walkthrough of the supermarket, organizing the items you need in the order you would see them in your walk through the store. Or if you were making a list of the chores or tasks that need doing, you might order your lists logically. For example, if you were cleaning the kitchen, you would sweep the floor before mopping it, then waxing or polishing it.
When using a list to brainstorm ideas for the topic of a writing project, you need not concern yourself with how you organize items on the list. Because you are trying only to generate ideas, it is common to not follow a logical pattern. You can always organize your thoughts later in the process. To begin generating ideas for the topic, open your list with a concept related to the assignment or a subject you have been studying in the course. If your instructor has assigned readings in the class, consider using the topic of one of those as the first item of your list.
Next, list all the different ideas and associated words that come to mind when you think of the opening concept or subject. For example, when thinking of creating lists, I began making the following list:
- Bullet points
- Shopping lists
- Chores & tasks
- Calendars (on the fridge and on the phone)
- To do lists
- Top-10 lists
- Top 100 Billboard
- Listicles, Buzzfeed, etc.
- End-of year countdowns
- New Year’s resolutions
- Bucket lists
- Hitlists?
- No-fly lists
- Notebooks
- Planners
- Post-it notes
- Writing in pen on the back of my hand
- Pinning notes to jackets for schoolchildren
- Sending notes home with kids
- Listsonic (a shared listing app my family uses)
- Fridge magnets
- Crossing items off the list!
- Checkmarks
- Stars
Strikethrough- Adding additional notes, or making corrections to the list on the fly
- Trying to maintain parallel construction in each entry
- Sometimes drawing lines to show connections
After generating a list, look for connections between ideas or themes within the words you have written down. It is possible that some of what you have compiled in your list is not appropriate for an academic essay or is something you have little experience with. Make a note of ideas you would like to research more as possible topics for your writing project.
If you believe your list reveals a new direction for your writing, or you have generated a specific idea, you might begin a new list opening with that word or phrase at the top, then start listing the associated words and phrases that come to mind, refining your subject more and more until you have a workable topic on which you would like to write.
Freewrite
Freewriting exercises ask you to write freely for a specified amount of time. Brainstorming ideas through freewriting can lead you to some new and sometimes unexpected outcomes, because the exercises rely heavily on stream-of-conscious thought.
To open freewriting, set a timer for a short period of time (five minutes to start), then begin the timer and write whatever comes to mind. If you can start the exercise with an idea that is somewhat related to your assignment, begin there. If not, do not worry: this technique is primarily focused on generating a substantial quantity of writing, so straying from your original intent is well within the bounds of the exercise. Do not stress about typos, common errors in style, usage, spelling, or any other mistakes while you are writing. Instead, just write as much and as fast as you can.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to freewriting, so long as you generate content while the timer counts down. If you cannot think of anything to write, write that down. Literally, “I cannot think of anything to write so I’m writing this down.” If you lose focus, begin describing the pen in your hand, or the paper on which you are writing, the glow from your screen, or the (suspect) cleanliness of the keyboard you are using. If you find yourself rolling your eyes at this very idea, express your feelings about the class, the assignment, this exercise, or the situation in general.
After your timer goes off, review your work and see if anything stands out to you. Is there a word or phrase you find repeated in your freewriting? Something which piques your interest? Can you identify common themes in your thinking? Are there ideas or emotions in your writing that you would like to explore? Have you discovered a topic when you were not thinking about it? If not, you can always reset the timer and begin again, or instead push yourself to write for longer periods of time.
Loop
Looping is a brainstorming technique that builds on freewriting. To begin looping, set a timer for a short period of time, write a controlling idea at the top of the page, then start the timer and begin freewriting on that topic. After the time has expired, read over your writing and highlight words and phrases that are related to the controlling idea at the top of the page.
For each word or phrase, begin a new freewriting session with the selected word or phrase written at the top of the page as the controlling idea. After two or three loops, you should see the ideas at the tops of your freewriting exercises becoming more-specific. Recursive loops such as these can be valuable in generating focused topics for writing projects by narrowing the scope of your selection with each iteration.
Visualize or Spatialize
If listing and freewriting do not work for you—if you consider yourself more of a visual thinker—try creating a visual design that helps you both develop and organize your thoughts.
Webbing, or clustering, is a brainstorming activity that begins with a controlling idea, only instead of opening with this idea written at the top of the page, it is located in the center of the page. Radiating out from this controlling idea are a ring of closely associated words, phrases, or other ideas. From each of these, finer lines connect to even smaller, more-specific ideas.
Organizing your ideas on the page through clustering or webbing will grant your eyes an opportunity to move over the page in search of additional connections or patterns that may not be apparent until laid out spatially.
Drawing out your ideas by hand and searching for connections between them allows you to sift through your thoughts spatially. Shaping your thoughts on a piece of paper permits you to examine their connections from a new perspective. You may even choose to color-code the lines on the page or use symbols to denote additional relationships within the network. Associating similar words, phrases, and ideas together is a good practice of critical thinking and may reveal a specific topic for your writing project.
If you are brainstorming in a word processing application, it may have additional features for visual representation. Some programs include a word cloud widget that will create an image of words that are shaped and sized by the frequency at which they appear in any given sample.
You may even design your own visual representation to develop and organize your ideas. Sometimes trying to articulate your thoughts visually may even lead to inspiration. Doodling can be an effective exercise to move past conscious thought and spur creative thinking. Working through your own ideas visually can provide an interesting perspective and may help you decide which thoughts are more prominent than others.
Question
Sometimes the best way to generate ideas or think through those you have is to talk to others. Because people tend to have more experience with verbal communication than they do written, many tend to feel more comfortable talking about ideas, rather than writing about them. Share your thoughts with friends to get honest feedback on your perspective and encounter other viewpoints. Conversations with others afford you the opportunity to listen to their thoughts on the topic, as well as their thoughts on your perspective. Having a conversation with a close friend can be a supportive place to test ideas about which you feel unsure.
Initiate a conversation with your friends or family members about some general ideas and see where the discussions lead. Ask them their perspectives on ideas and listen to what they have to say. Interview someone close to you and ask follow-up questions to their answers. If you cannot find anyone, interview yourself. Try creating a list of questions. Ask as many questions about an idea as you can, then set about answering all those you know. Start with the journalistic Ws if you do not know where to begin with this line of questioning. Ask “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “why?” and “how?” connected to this topic. The questions you are unable to answer may be a good place to begin research for your writing project.
Read and Research
Perhaps the best way to generate ideas for writing topics is to read voraciously, discovering new ideas and new ways of thinking as you do. Keeping up with the news, reading updates on your favorite subjects, even reading works of fiction—whatever it is you choose to read—the more you consume, the more perspectives and ideas you will encounter. In general, being well-read will afford you greater authority in your writing situation.
For example, if you wanted to write about current events, you might explore both your local newspaper and a variety of larger outlets like national news sources. Reading over the various headlines might narrow your focus, or even direct you toward a specific topic that intrigues you. If you find a story that piques your interest, seek out additional news stories covering that event, as well as other sources that can help provide a larger context for the information you uncover.
Of course, you could simply go to Wikipedia and type your subject into the search field. While many instructors will insist you do not use Wikipedia as a source in your work, it is a good website to consult early in the writing process. While the information posted there may not be completely verifiable, the website does provide comprehensive overviews for most every subject imaginable. Begin by reading the linked article or its closest approximation at the top of the search results. During your reading, follow any embedded links that interest you. After moving through a few dozen related pages, you may come across a topic suitable for your writing project.
If you are feeling especially adventurous, you could go to the library on campus and ask one of the wonderful reference librarians for advice in finding a topic for your writing assignment. In a last-ditch effort, you might even contact your instructor.
Step 2: Draft
Draft, used as a verb, means to compose or write. Used as a noun, draft is defined as a preliminary or rough version of something. The drafting stage of the writing process is where you will actually compose the text of your essay, although what you put down on the page is still only part of a larger plan. In your first draft you may simply add greater detail to your initial outline before returning to it later to complete your thoughts and include support.
As you sit down to write for any project, remind yourself of the time commitment inherent in the writing process. Get comfortable and give a concentrated effort to your work, but also remember to schedule time for breaks and mental relaxation. Allow yourself time to go over your thoughts as you craft them into your essay. Try setting a timer for 45 minutes, writing as much as you can, and then taking a short break of twenty minutes. Repeat this process through several iterations, as time allows.
The Pomodoro Technique is one way to work one your time management skills while drafting. Instead of staring blankly at the blinking cursor on your screen, follow these steps:
- Choose your task. Decide on a small, achievable part of your assignment to work on.
- Set a timer for 25 minutes. It’s called the “Pomodoro” because it is Italian for “tomato” and many kitchen timers are shaped like little tomatoes.
- Work without stopping for 25 minutes. Do not check your phone or the internet or stop to chat with anyone until your timer rings.
- Place a small checkmark on a piece of paper to track how many Pomodoro cycles you have been through.
- Take a small break (only 5-10 minutes) in which you do something completely unrelated to your work.
- Every 4 Pomodoro cycles, you earn a longer 20-30 minute break.
Try to use the time you give yourself efficiently and effectively. Play to your strengths and do your best to avoid your weaknesses. If you like to snack while you write, raid your pantry for treats so you avoid being distracted by hunger. If you find yourself browsing the internet absentmindedly or compulsively, try turning off or hiding your phone, or drafting first by hand. The correct amount and kind of coffee, exercise, organization, cleaning, chores, music, or whatever else you incorporate into your process can help you get through this stage by putting you in the right mindset to write.
If you are unsure of what your own process entails, a simple and solid approach to the drafting stage is to find a quiet space with no distractions (no screens or notifications) and no interruptions. If you can, devote your time only to writing, and ask friends and family for some space while you work.
While the internet is an invaluable resource—not only for finding information, but also for seeking out additional help in preparing and shaping that information—it can also be a tempting distraction, especially if you are composing online or in front of a computer. When you plan to take time in your schedule for writing, limit your use of the internet to issues related only to your work. That said, when you do take a break from reading or research to surf online, pay attention to what you read and what holds your interest. You may find an opportunity to research something which you enjoy.
Organize the resources you assemble and keep them readily available. Keep a pen on hand to jot down ideas or notes that might occur to you while writing. If you have created an outline or used some brainstorming exercises for the writing project, refer to them often as you begin drafting. If you ever find yourself at a loss or suffering from a block during the writing process, you can return to your earliest notes for inspiration or direction.
Working Thesis Statement
Just like an outline or brainstorming exercise, consider beginning your first draft by writing the topic at the top of the page, followed by a working thesis statement. Developing a working thesis statement early in the drafting stage will keep you focused throughout the writing process. The working thesis statement is an organizing principle that dictates what supporting material you might need to provide in your essay so that readers have a clear understanding of the topic and your perspective.
When you first craft a working thesis statement, you might not have a complete idea of your position, because you have yet to do a lot of in-depth research. Throughout the writing process, you will have opportunities to update your thesis statement and shape the scope of your work. The more specific your working thesis statement, the more manageable your research might be. Limiting the scope of the topic and your perspective on the topic will allow you to focus your research on only relevant information. That said, do not let your thesis or your research dictate your thoughts; make your thesis statement your own.
With both the topic and working thesis at the top of the page, you will be able to refer to them throughout the draft and compare every paragraph you write to both the topic and thesis, ensuring that you stay focused within the bounds, or scope, of your writing project throughout the drafting stage.
Everyone moves through the stages of the writing process differently. You need not necessarily write your essay in order from beginning to end. After composing the thesis statement, try writing the most-important body paragraphs first, followed by the introduction and conclusion. Knowing the content of the body paragraphs may make it easier for you to compose your introduction and prepare the audience for what they are about to read.
In the first iteration of your draft, do not give much thought to typos, mistakes in punctuation, spelling, or usage, or any other lower order concerns common to the drafting stage. Even high-order concerns like organization and analysis can be reworked later. At this stage in the writing process, it is crucial to focus on generating content and getting your thoughts down in writing.
Writing is certainly not easy, and it takes a lot of practice to be good at, for sure. But practice is the point of the writing process. Thinking, drafting, and improving is a process that is ongoing. If you sit at your computer for a few hours and hammer at the keyboard until you have a thousand or so words, you have achieved something. Just a few paragraphs make a notable accomplishment and act as evidence that you have created something. Writing is a skill you should be proud of, regardless of whether you think you are any good at it, or if someone else ever reads it. Anything you get onto the page—even if it remains unfinished—is both evidence of your hard work, and practice for improving your skills.
Step 3: Improve
The writing process is iterative because it never really ends, even if the work is published. In the thinking and drafting stages, you may be struck by a stray thought or inspiration, prompting a change in perspective. Or after having drafted several copies, while reading you may continue to find small errors or mistakes which need fixing. Or perhaps during the process, you may uncover new information which means reworking your writing at its core, rethinking your work. Or you may just be unsatisfied with the results: Walt Whitman famously revised his Leaves of Grass after its initial publication a half a dozen or so more times until his death (in fact, the last of these is sometimes known as the “deathbed edition”).
Almost everything you have ever read in a book or magazine—or watched on television, seen in a film, or played in a game—almost everything worth reading or watching or playing is not a first draft, but has gone through many iterations. Almost everything that has ever been published has gone through a similar process as this; they all began as drafts seeking improvement.
To improve your own writing, you may need to revise your work, develop your ideas in greater detail, reflect on your effectiveness in communicating a perspective, and almost certainly proofread and edit your work.
Revise, Rewrite, Rethink
Plans change. If you were to make plans today to hang out with a group of friends next week, would you feel the plans could not be changed? Would you consider the plans firm, or would you feel like you had to reconfirm them with your friends in the days leading up to the event?
Our lives are unpredictable, and plans might change for a myriad of reasons. Maybe after you have made the plans with your friends, your work or family schedules change, or you come down with an illness, or some other responsibility arises which prevents you from following through on the plans you have made. Or perhaps you and your friends had different ideas of what was meant by “hanging out,” and without specific details, none of them took the commitment seriously.
When presented with new information, you must measure that against your previous commitments or understandings. When given new data, apply it. Similarly, if you come across new information during the writing process, your initial plans may change. Because the writing process is centered around your thinking about a topic, when you discover new information, you may alter your perspective along the way. Revision is not only the action of rewriting your work, it is a way of rethinking it: rethinking is the writing process.
Rethinking happens within and between all stages, and you have been revising the whole time: trying out different topics and perspectives when procrastinating or planning, rethinking your schedule, revising your work as you draft, deleting words here or there, substituting one for another, and generally questioning the effectiveness of your choices throughout the writing project. The most successful essays go through several iterative drafts before submission. Nothing is beyond revision—everything in your draft could potentially be changed—you might even change the topic altogether.
It can be incredibly tempting to feel your work is completed after having planned and produced a draft. Writing is not easy and generating a large volume of writing is something of which to be proud. But hitting the target word or page count is only one aspect of the assignment. You should concern yourself primarily with communicating your ideas effectively. When rethinking and developing your work, focus on higher-order concerns such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis. Clarity in expressing your thoughts should be the aim of your finished product, and while an early draft will contain a number of great ideas, you may have trouble in expressing them succinctly to the audience.
Begin by revisiting your working thesis statement. Your thesis should show readers your perspective on the topic. If it does not make a point related to the topic, the audience may not understand your perspective, leading to a miscommunication. If your thesis statement is clear and specific, and your essay focused, each body paragraph will further the discussion on the topic in relation to your thesis and readers will recognize your position.
To test for unity throughout your writing, first highlight your thesis statement. Then in the margins of your draft, write a quick summary of each paragraph. Compare these summaries to the thesis statement and identify within each paragraph the topic sentence or controlling idea. Each topic sentence should both address a point connected to your thesis statement and the summary you have written in the margin. Finally, read over each paragraph once more, looking for any sentences or phrases that seem out of place with their topic sentence or the summary you have written in the margin. If you find that your essay lacks unity, you will have to rethink how you are communicating your ideas, maybe even return to your brainstorming exercises or outline.
Inspiration may strike at any time, and when it does, you might have to return to an earlier stage of the writing process and rethink and/or rewrite large sections of your work. Substantial revision of your work can lead to changes in your overall organization. Never hesitate to make sweeping changes to your document—if you ever feel hesitant to chop up your work, try saving the changes as a new file, renaming the document to note its progression—just make a new draft, leaving your initial draft intact. For example, try naming each new iteration of the file with a subsequent decimal, so that your first draft is essay 1.0, and your second is essay 1.1, the next essay 1.2, and so on. Even if you do not make large changes to your writing, saving several versions of your work is a good idea so that if one version of the file is lost or damaged, you will not lose all your work. If you write by hand, double-space your drafts (skipping a line between each line of writing) and make photocopies of each, adding notes in the margins and between the lines as you read over them and revise.
As you revise, it is important to take time off between your drafts. It is best to clear your mind and approach each session with a fresh perspective, and it is unwise to spend too much time doing anything, as it can result in stagnation of thought or burnout of enthusiasm. Return to the thinking stage of the writing process and allot yourself plenty of time for drafting, developing, and supporting your ideas, as well as time for crafting quality rewrites.
Develop
To develop what you have already written, ask yourself if your work provides readers with enough content, and if that content you include aligns with your purpose. Developing your content through revision means including more examples, analysis, and precision when returning to unfinished or disjointed thoughts, completing them so that the audience can see the topic from your perspective.
When you begin developing the content of your work, first read over your most-recent draft. Next, return to the assignment and reread it before rewriting anything. Review again the assignment’s instructions and requirements to see whether your essay fulfills them. Make sure that you have fully answered each of the writing prompt’s questions and followed all directions carefully. If you find that questions remain unanswered, or that your draft needs additional work, make note of it on the page and seek to address those areas in your next iteration.
Review the components of the writing identity that best represents your perspective: know your purpose for writing, write authoritatively in your approach to the topic, and help readers understand your position by providing the appropriate context where necessary.
At this stage of the process, focus on higher-order concerns that threaten to destabilize your essay. Look for egregious errors in organization, style, or correctness that might prevent readers from understanding your perspective. You may even try reading your work aloud to listen for any sentences that are incorrect, unclear, or just sound weird. Read your work aloud to help find errors you might otherwise miss with your eyes.
Reflect
Throughout the writing process, you should ask yourself, “how can I make this better?”
In between each draft and throughout each stage of the process, you should reflect on your writing and your efficacy at communicating your ideas. Working on a writing project for a while should lead to discovering new information about the topic. As you encounter different resources, ask yourself if your understanding of the topic has changed, and if so, how.
Even if you have not discovered anything new that you would like to add to your work, you should question the effectiveness of your communication. Although concepts and subjects may appear clear to you, the audience may not see things from your perspective. Read through your own work as if you were the audience, then revise it from that perspective. It is better to produce too many drafts than it is too few.
Begin or add to a writing journal. Reflect not only on the topic and how you feel about it, but also the process of writing it. Consider the larger context and the conversation you are entering with your work. How does your voice add to it? Are you satisfied with your contribution? What have you learned from this writing project? Has your perspective changed?
It is possible that your expectations will change during the writing process as well. Perhaps you began with a very large topic and through research and drafting have narrowed the scope of your project. Maybe your research has surprised you, or drafting takes longer than you expected, so you must amend your writing schedule.
Ask yourself if you can improve your writing habits. Take stock of your own writing process and ask yourself if there are things you might change for your next assignment. Identify successful practices to incorporate into your next writing project. Pinpoint problems you can avoid in your next endeavor.
Finally, even after you have submitted your assignment and no longer plan to work on it, keep reading up on the topic. Plan to keep learning more about, or even to write on it in another class. Save your work for future reference because you may someday return to this topic, perhaps with a new perspective.
Edit
The last component of revision is the careful copyediting and line editing of your writing. Copyediting, sometimes known as proofreading, means combing over your document seeking out and eliminating technical errors in consistency, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling. Line editing focuses on stylistic choices, or how you use language to communicate.
If you know you tend to make a particular kind of mistake—frequently misspelling a word, or using semicolons incorrectly, for example—use this stage of the writing process as an opportunity to search for those errors. Look for notes from instructors marked on your previous writing assignments and aim to prevent repeated mistakes. Read over your peer reviews and consult your notes from the writing center.
Read your essay backward, sentence-by-sentence, to identify small errors you might otherwise miss. After having written several drafts, you might find that you have more or less memorized the context and wording of your essay, or you might have several different iterations of the drafts on your mind; reading through your writing backwards will help remove the context from each sentence and paragraph, so you will be able to focus on a close line-by-line edit of your work, looking for common errors and typos.
If you are typing your work on a computer using a word processor, take advantage of the tools included within that application. Pay attention to the alerts of the program displayed on the page; many word processing applications incorporate visual warnings highlighting errors in spelling, grammar, or usage. That said, these programs will not always catch every mistake and sometimes make errant or incorrect suggestions. Read over your own work for common misspellings, especially in the names of authors and authorities, unrecognized typos, or correct spellings but incorrect usages of words that the word processor may not detect.
Most instructors have a passing familiarity with Microsoft Word, the word-processing program available at no charge to all SCC students, though many instructors will have experience with a variety of applications.
Review the assignment for requirements or standards in style or usage, such as grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling. Some instructors may ask that you refrain from using slang in your writing, abstain from using contractions, or restrain yourself from repeating forms of the verb to be.
Look over your course syllabus or assignment instructions for requirements regarding document formatting. Many will default to the current edition of MLA (Modern Language Association 8th edition) or APA (American Psychological Association 7th edition) or some other standard for style, but instructors may also have their own additional requirements. Neglecting to pay attention to all of the details of an assignment may cost you points on your writing project.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 03
- Visit your instructor during their office hours, communicate with them frequently regarding deadlines and requirements
- Use the LRC, ACE center, and other services available to you at SCC
- Make friends and ask them to review your work
- If your class has peer workshops or group editing sessions, take advantage of them
Chapter 04: Thesis
“Cool story, bro.”
Have you ever began telling a story where before you finish, you come to the realization that the story is not going anywhere? In the middle of the whole ordeal, you notice that the audience’s expectations are far too high, and that your story lacks a satisfying point or conclusion. Maybe you cannot even remember why you began telling it in the first place. Perhaps when wrapping up, you look around at the expectant faces and quickly conclude your story, mumbling quickly how you found twenty dollars on the ground. Hooray?
Without a clear point, your story may just go on until someone stops you to ask a question, or until everyone’s attention just drifts away.
Maybe you have participated in a conversation where you raised a point, but soon after forgot why you raised the point, only to change the subject. Without a well-defined purpose, information can lack relevance and the audience may lose interest in the topic. Engaging in the exchange of ideas means contributing meaningfully to the conversation by demonstrating the value of your position to the audience.
The object of both spoken and written communication is to share your ideas with others, but how you share those thoughts can be influenced by the ideas themselves. Of all your ideas on a topic, one takes preeminence over the rest. This main point of your communication is supported by smaller, parallel ideas, effectively organized over a solid contextual foundation.
The thesis statement is the central idea to any piece of writing, containing both a topic and a position on that topic. If one were to divide the essay into only two pieces—the thesis statement and everything else—everything else would be responsible for explaining, developing, or otherwise supporting the thesis statement. As the most-important element of the essay, the thesis represents a distillation of your thinking in a sentence or two. If you are unable to articulate your position succinctly, you may not be communicating effectively with the audience, inviting misunderstanding.
You will most frequently craft thesis statements when writing essays for your classes; however, all academic writing should have a main point, and you might find yourself structuring short responses centered around thesis statements in various situations. A thesis statement establishes boundaries during the construction of your work. Referring often to your main point will keep you focused throughout the writing process and direct the way you communicate your ideas.
Because the thesis is central to how you think about the topic, it is inherently subjective. Your perspective is yours alone, and making your position understood can be a worthwhile but difficult endeavor. If you are considering a topic but are unsure of how you feel about it, going through some brainstorming exercises early in the writing process can help bring additional ideas to the forefront of your mind. You can always update your thesis statement throughout the writing process but doing so will likely require you to alter the focus of your research as well as the structure and content of your writing. An explicit thesis explains to readers why your perspective on the topic is reasonable and valuable. When composing a working thesis statement, you should be able to expressly identify both the topic and your position on that topic. Your position, or perspective, is a writing identity consisting of your authority, purpose, audience, and the larger context surrounding the topic.
Topic + Your perspective on that topic (authority, purpose, audience, context) = Working Thesis Statement
- Hotdogs are gross.
topic | a perspective on that topic |
- The government should raise the minimum wage.
a perspective on a topic | that topic |
- Recycling is important.
topic | a perspective on that topic |
In writing projects for your classes, your thesis statements should be clear enough to address these and one additional point. An explicit thesis statement should explain to readers the topic, your perspective on that topic, and why they both matter. Making clear these three elements to the audience requires communication of critical thinking supported by collaboration.
- Hotdogs are gross because they are bad for your health.
topic | perspective | why this matters |
- The government should raise the minimum wage
perspective | topic |
to keep up with inflation and rising costs of living.
why this matters |
- Recycling is important.
topic | a perspective on that topic |
to cut costs when sourcing materials for manufacturing.
why this matters |
Topic
The topic of your essay is the issue on which you have an opinion or hold a position. At first glance, readers should be able to identify the topic of your essay, so it is important that you avoid generalities. If you plan for an audience to invest time in your essay, they should know what they are reading. Your goal should not be to deceive readers, but to invite them into your work with specific and precise writing.
Try to phrase the topic as something more than just one or two words. The more specific the topic, the more focused your approach to developing and supporting your position will be. Implication is the enemy of your early drafts. Beginning with an explicit, easy-to-identify thesis statement will keep you on point as you draft and revise your work.
Choosing a topic that interests you can make it easier for you to devote your time and energy to successfully completing the writing project. If you write about the topic passionately, there is a good chance that the audiences will find the topic interesting too.
Choose a topic about which you want to say something. You can practice this by crafting working thesis statements using placeholder phrases such as the following:
- “In this essay, I plan to demonstrate how…”
- “This essay will show that…”
- “I believe that…”
Your (Writing) Perspective
It is not enough to write generally on a topic; the thesis statement must say something about that topic and why it matters. Select a topic in which you are interested to help you decide how to approach your writing project. Determine your perspective by adopting a position based on your authority on the topic, your purpose for writing, the audience to whom you are writing, and the larger contexts surrounding the topic.
Embrace a writing identity, or a position on the topic, to determine the best way to explain the importance of that topic to readers. Consequently, this identity will also influence how you shape the development of your work. When fashioning this identity, explore your own connection to the topic: ask yourself what it is you wish to say about this topic, and how your unique perspective might contribute to the ongoing conversation.
Though you may be unsure of your perspective as you begin writing—especially if you are writing on a controversial topic or just discovering a subject—both your research and the iterative stages of the writing process will help you begin to shape or provide more definition to your perspective. This position should not just be a general accumulation of facts or observations that everyone can make. Identification alone adds little value to the conversation. Communicate to readers what your perspective adds to the conversation instead of what has already been written regarding the topic or your position.
Authority
Because the thesis makes an assertion about the topic, specifics matter. A vague or undefined thesis does not present an opinion, argument, or position. Offer a nuanced perspective on the topic to craft a quality thesis statement. While it is prudent to remember that your opinion is subjective, it is also true that some opinions are more informed or insightful than others.
A valuable opinion is informed, reasonable, and creative. To establish the authority of your perspective, it is imperative that you first inform yourself. Study the topic extensively before committing yourself to an opinion. Careful and thorough research will lend authority to any point you make. The writing process requires discovery, so seek out quality information. Consult credible and verifiable sources; incorporate the wisdom of others into your own position.
Be reasonable with any assertions you make. Making outrageous claims, stretching the truth, or fudging the details of the topic can undermine your position and forfeit the good faith readers bring to the work. The audience may be less-inclined to value your opinion if they have reason to believe it is duplicitous, disingenuous, or in any way less than honest. Although inciting readers to an emotional response may attract them to your perspective, earning their trust through a frank exploration of the topic will demonstrate to them your authority.
Make the thesis statement specific by saying something worthwhile. Recognizing and stating facts will do little to explain your position to the audience. Write with authority—the writing project has your name on it—show readers the value of your opinion by taking a definitive stance. Command the topic with conviction: believe in what you write.
Purpose
Knowing why you write will help you plan how you write. When establishing your perspective, ask yourself what you would like to achieve with your writing project. Writers frequently write to inform, to tell a story, to explain, to argue, to evaluate, or to corroborate. As you begin writing, you may not have a clear purpose in mind, though moving through the writing process will help you discover new ideas and may provide you with a goal for your work.
If the topic is relatively new, or there has been a recent development in the conversation, try structuring your perspective on that information. In these instances, your purpose might be to inform through description or to explain through analysis.
If you would like readers to respond to your work—if your goal is to call them to action—offer the audience direction in your perspective. Craft a thesis statement that sets forth your expectations for them from the beginning of your writing project.
As you move through the writing process, your opinion may change through the discovery of new information, and with it, your purpose. Because the thesis statement is the central idea to your writing project, if you change your thesis statement, you will need to revise your entire essay around that new idea.
Audience
As you define your perspective, it is vital that you understand for whom you are writing. This knowledge helps identify what the audience already knows, what your perspective can provide readers, and will aid you in making stylistic choices in your composition. Develop a thesis with a target audience in mind so you can express yourself appropriately and effectively.
Anticipate the needs of readers by addressing their questions, concerns, and counterarguments before they make them. Ask yourself what the audience must understand to appreciate your perspective and use precise diction to make your position specific without weakening its effectiveness. Your perspective should interest the audience but should also represent what you feel or what you want to say about the topic.
If the audience is disinterested in what you have to say, they might never learn your point. Remember, even though this essay is an extension of your thought—it is based on your opinion—you must still communicate with the audience. Consider using examples to universalize larger ideas and draw readers in. Connect with the audience by providing context which explains that your thesis statement affects them. Exert influence over readers by demonstrating yourself to be an informed and reasonable thinker.
Context
An explicit thesis statement always answers the hypothetical question, “so what?” The larger context surrounding the topic informs readers why the topic matters in the first place. Context is an additional framework, or background information necessary to understand the topic and your perspective on the topic.
- Routine maintenance of a locomotive’s braking system is important for the longevity of the engine,
especially if that locomotive is meant to have a life beyond its current uncontrolled high-speed sprint off a bridge-still-under-construction into the chasmal ravine below.
context |
Deciding what kinds of and how much context to include in your writing project means first identifying what it is that you know about the topic and what it is that you need to learn. To develop an informed opinion on a topic, you will need to research, analyze, and evaluate the current conversation about that topic.
Repeat this process when thinking about the audience: identify what you believe general audiences already know about this topic and what they need to discover to understand your perspective. Appropriate background information helps readers understand your position on the topic and come to their own conclusions. If you provide enough context, the audience should have enough information to make a reasonable evaluation of your perspective.
Thesis Development
If you have chosen the topic, but do not know how to begin defining your perspective, start by asking various questions about the topic. Return to questions you developed when brainstorming ideas for your topic. Aim to establish a working thesis statement by answering a series of specific questions about the topic, narrowing your focus with each question. The more-detailed your questions are, the more-specific their answers will be. Thoughtful questions lead to detailed answers, resulting in strong thesis statements. The thesis statement is not a question itself; it is a statement which provides resolution to a question by answering it.
No matter your perspective, every topic is approachable through questions. Although you may feel like you know a topic well, there will always be more to learn—even experts have gaps in knowledge—there will always be more/new questions to ask. It is possible to restructure almost any request, assignment, or writing situation into a question. Rephrasing your writing prompts as questions can help you begin developing your thesis statement by searching for answers. For example, you might be assigned a question that reads:
Explain the effects of long-term exposure to video game violence in young children.
You can rewrite the prompt above as a question by restructuring the command into a query:
How does long-term exposure to video game violence affect young children?
Begin your draft with a possible working thesis statement. Develop several working thesis statements—points that may change throughout the process—to weigh the value of your ideas against one another. A simple working thesis at the top of the page can keep you focused throughout the drafting stage, acting as an immediate reference against which you can compare the controlling ideas of your supporting paragraphs.
Your working thesis statement may change throughout the writing process. Writing is a map of thinking, after all. As you move through the process, you will discover new information and learn new ideas; if your thoughts on the topic change, so too should your writing. Learning is exploring, and illuminating new vistas means making changes to the map.
Your thesis should not dictate your research: do not neglect relevant information simply because it does not fit the writing identity you are trying to construct. A good thesis is informed by research, not controlled by it.
Scope
Because it is impossible to cover every detail about your chosen topic, and since many instructors impose upper-limits in word count anyway, limiting the content of your writing to only the most-pertinent information is vital to communicating effectively with readers and the overall success of your writing project.
The scope of your thesis statement refers to the level of detail you provide in choosing the topic and the extent and range of larger contexts necessary for understanding your perspective. Limit the scope of your thesis statement to narrow the focus of your writing.
Specifics in your thesis, such as spatial or temporal parameters, can outline a framework for development. While many topics are universal, if you target a specific audience, you may increase the effectiveness of your thesis statement. For example, readers might be less likely to engage with an essay on federal minimum wage regulations than they would an essay on current minimum wage laws in their own city, county, or state. Or in your own life, you may be more willing to read a review or watch a trailer for a film you plan to see, rather than read a review or watch a trailer of a film you have no interest in viewing.
Because your working thesis statement acts as a guideline during the drafting stage of the writing process, adjusting the scope of thesis will result in changes to the size, shape, and content of your work. The scope acts as the boundary of the topic. Limit the scope of your thesis statement to show readers what is important to your topic and what is not.
Knowing the audience will help you begin to determine the scope of your thesis statement. When establishing the scope of your thesis, ask yourself what the audience needs to know about the topic to understand it. It is possible that while you are somewhat familiar with it, readers may not be. This is especially true of your perspective: you probably feel very comfortable with your own ideas, although they may be completely foreign to the audience. Try to offer a reasonable, informed, and creative perspective that helps readers see the topic as you do.
- Hotdogs are gross
topic | a perspective on that topic |
and should not be sold in the school cafeteria
limited context |
because they are bad for students’ health.
why this matters |
- The federal
limited scope |
government should raise the minimum wage
a perspective on a topic | that topic |
to keep up with inflation and rising costs of living.
why this matters |
- Large-scale industrial
limited scope |
Recycling is important.
topic | a perspective on that topic |
to cut costs when sourcing materials for manufacturing.
why this matters |
Unity
Because your working thesis statement dictates the scope of your writing project, it is imperative that everything in the essay connects to the thesis statement. A well-constructed essay has no room for tangents or diversions into unrelated material. Disjointed construction threatens the unity of your work.
Unity within your writing means that everything on the page connects to your thesis statement. These body paragraphs support the thesis by providing additional information or development of the topic and your perspective on the topic. Each paragraph you write must pertain to your main idea, even if they do not support it. For example, concessions to opposing arguments and counterarguments to those positions in a persuasive argument are paragraphs that may not support the thesis, but connect to it.
Thesis Map
At its core, a thesis statement is an idea and a brief layout of information necessary for thinking about that idea from a particular perspective.
A thesis map is a conceptualization of the thesis and its support, popular in five-paragraph essays. You may be familiar with the construction of the five-paragraph essay: introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In this structure, the thesis statement is typically the final sentence of the introductory paragraph and establishes a three-point plan of development in support of the primary claim.
This three-point plan is sometimes known as a thesis map. Following the primary claim, these three points provide readers with the scope of the topic and a layout of the essay, hinting at what information the essay addresses. For this reason, thesis maps are a good tool for the writer during drafting and workshop evaluation.
Although your instructors will likely ask you to break away from the five-paragraph essay, you can use the idea of a thesis map to your advantage. Answering three specific questions in your thesis can hint at the development of your thesis statement:
- The topic
- What is your perspective?
- Why does it matter?
After you answer these three questions, ask yourself how you know your perspective is true or how you can prove that it is true. If your thesis statement answers all three of these questions explicitly, readers will have a sense of what the essay is meant to accomplish, and you will be able to return to this thesis (map) to help structure and organize your essay throughout the revisions of the drafting stage.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 04
- Often, the thesis is located within the first two paragraphs. It appears in the introduction, though some writers use an additional introductory paragraph to establish tone, or provide details on context, or otherwise grab the audience’s attention.
- Generally, it is a good idea to remove yourself from the presentation of the topic by avoiding the use of first-person pronouns such as I and my (unless writing a narrative which allows for the use of first-person pronouns).
Chapter 05: Paragraphs
It is commonly said that time flies when you are having fun. Have you ever had fun enduring a long meeting with an ambiguous agenda and no scheduled breaks? Or maybe you have sat through a class that did not have a syllabus or a clear plan for the period.
In these situations, time can drag on for what seems like forever. Finding yourself in a position similar to these can be awkward; stepping out for a moment can be challenge if you do not know whether or not you may miss important information; or if you would like to raise a point, you may be unsure if there will be an opportunity to speak up; or maybe you feel as if there is simply too much information to process in a single session.
Reading a wall of text with no paragraph breaks is very similar to this information overload. It may be that you have read a friend’s essay, and it was missing paragraph breaks. Or more commonly, you may have read a post online without any line breaks. Engaging with slabs of text like these can be disheartening and confusing. Approaching a long block of text without any paragraphs is akin to sitting through a long event with no schedule. Reading those blocks can be a chore in and of itself, as lines without paragraph breaks often ramble with only tenuous coherence from beginning to end.
In writing, paragraphs allow for mental breaks—they provide readers with an opportunity to pause for a moment, think about what they have just read, make or follow annotations, look up definitions, or read forward or backward to search out connections—paragraphs give the audience time to absorb the material they read. Because these breaks provide opportunities for engaging with the text, paragraphs are a formatting tool that aid audiences in active reading.
In academic writing, paragraphs typically act as divisions within an essay that indicate separate thoughts, themes, or subjects. Paragraphs guide readers through the content of the essay by organizing its larger ideas into digestible bite-size pieces. These smaller specialized sections develop and support the essay’s thesis statement.
Paragraphs provide the structure for a rhetorical development of your ideas. They might describe the topic, provide examples, offer definitions, or analyze processes. Paragraphs can be used to advance ideas through cause and effect, division and classification, comparison and contrast, or other generic patterns. Most of the content of essays is delivered through paragraphs.
Paragraph Construction
If writing is a map of thinking, paragraphs represent the short journeys between landmarks on the map. It is the composition and combination of these legs that reveal the larger route and mark the distance traveled. Paragraphs are the essential unit of measurement within an essay. Each paragraph is a landmark representing a single major idea, concept, or point in support of your thesis statement.
When you set about designing your roadmap, return to your initial plan and working thesis. Sketch out the major points you want to address in your work, and then outline the different paragraphs you will develop in support of your point. Construct a paragraph around each of the major ideas you want to share in your work. Do not concern yourself with the placement of each of these paragraphs at this point; just write them as they come to you or organize them where they make sense. As you move recursively through the stages of the writing process, you can always rethink organization and move paragraphs around the essay.
Each paragraph in your essay will resemble a smaller version of as essay itself; just as the thesis statement is the main point of your essay—and that thesis is supported by topic sentences and their paragraphs—so is each topic sentence the main point of its own paragraph, and each topic sentence is supported by the rest of the sentences in its paragraph:
Thesis Statement
| ||||||||
Topic Sentence 01 |
Topic Sentence 02
|
Topic Sentence 03 | ||||||
Examples
|
Evidence
|
Knowledge |
Support |
Data |
Reason |
Information |
Illustration |
Proof |
Topic Sentences
The topic sentence is the main point of a paragraph. It acts as the controlling concept of that paragraph, providing parameters for content included within that paragraph. The topic sentence of each paragraph should develop, connect, or in some way pertain to the thesis statement, even if it does not expressly support it. Control the content of your paragraphs with topic sentences that fit with the overall purpose of your essay.
A single, easily identifiable main point in each of your paragraphs will aid readers in understanding the topic and your perspective on that topic. Topic sentences may support the thesis statement through exemplification, illustration, analysis, support, explanation, or any other generic pattern of development.
These topic sentences will also help you in writing paragraphs. You can make sure that each sentence you include in the paragraph relates to the main point of that paragraph. Sentences that fail to connect directly to the topic sentence may be better suited for another paragraph in the essay, or they fall outside the scope of your main point altogether and can be eliminated from your draft.
If a paragraph is structured deductively—beginning with an assertion and analyzing its components—the paragraph will begin with a topic sentence. A paragraph’s topic sentence is commonly its first, but that is not always the case. A topic sentence may follow a brief introduction or transition, or if building a case inductively—assembling concepts into a larger assertion—the paragraph will conclude with the topic sentence.
Although it is best to consider how you plan to advance the paragraph when placing the topic sentence, you might begin your first drafts by organizing information deductively, so that the controlling ideas appear first. This method will help you stay focused on developing the controlling concept of each paragraph as you move through the drafting stage of the writing process.
If you find that the controlling idea of a paragraph is simply too large for that single paragraph to contain sufficient information, you may need to make the topic sentence more specific. Narrowing the scope of your controlling concept will help you eliminate extraneous information. On the other hand, complex topics may require several paragraphs of development or context. You can also thread a single idea through multiple paragraphs by using transitions that show readers the relationship of each paragraph to its neighbors.
Structure
Paragraphs, like the essay itself, follow the same patterns of universal organization: time, space, and logic (highlighted in chapter eight of this book). If a paragraph describes a concrete object, the content of that paragraph is likely organized spatially. If a paragraph presents a process or a sequence of events, the content of that paragraph would probably be ordered sequentially. Among others, common logical constructions for paragraphs might include easiest to understand to most difficult to understand, most common to least common, or least controversial to most controversial.
If you choose to use a rhetorical pattern in the development of your essay, you should adhere to any specialized rules regarding its use. For example, if making a comparison between two objects, you might develop your paragraphs either criterion-by-criterion or in chunks (see chapter thirteen for further details). Or if composing a persuasive argument, you might include a paragraph of concessions or counterargument. An evaluation essay might contain a paragraph or more of summary.
Typically, the first sentence of a paragraph should alert readers to its content, even if it is not the topic sentence. As you draft, it is routine to both structure and order your paragraphs as the information comes to you. When you revise your work and organize your ideas, you will find it advantageous to revise the structure of your paragraphs until you discover the most-effective way to deliver it to readers.
A common thought is that paragraphs need to be a specific size. Students often cite five to seven sentences as the appropriate paragraph length. While this may be true in practice, you should not draft each paragraph with a target sentence count in mind. For the audience to understand your position, paragraphs must expand on their topic sentences in an informed, reasonable, and creative voice. Development, rather than length, is the primary determinate of the size of your paragraphs. Provide enough content to make your case, but not so much that readers lose interest. The complexity of the topic and your perspective on that topic, as well the purpose of the topic sentence, factors into determining how long your paragraphs will be.
When drafting, conceptualize paragraphs as points of your thesis that you want to address. Naturally, some thoughts will be more complex and require additional context; do not worry if your paragraphs are unequal in size or distribution. As each topic sentence deserves its own explication, some paragraphs will likely be larger than others. At times you may find one of the topic sentences requires quite a bit more support than others. When this occurs, consider using transitional phrases or sentences indicating the continuation of your point from one paragraph to the next.
Because topics will vary from class to class and assignment to assignment, there is no set number of paragraphs that any essay should have. When thinking about the length of your work, review both the assignment and your initial plans to ensure that you have addressed everything you need, then concentrate on a thorough development of those ideas for readers. Underdeveloped paragraphs are very common in early drafts. You can always develop your ideas by adding more proof, examples, or details.
Sometimes paragraphs will offer a sentence of conclusion or summation before transitioning to the next idea. If you feel that your paragraphs are ending too quickly—maybe you feel as if you are abruptly cutting off a main point—you might want to add a sentence of finality before transitioning to your next paragraph.
Transitions
Typically, each paragraph is its own idea, but that is not always the case. Some paragraphs work in concert to provide context or thorough analysis. Every paragraph should feel connected to the previous and lead smoothly to the next. Readers should be able to follow the organization of your thoughts through the body of your work. Transitional words and phrases help guide the audience between different paragraphs in your essay by highlighting each idea’s relationship to another.
Many writers refer to this network of relationships as the “flow” of a writing project—how information in the work connects to itself—and this current should move smoothly and easily so that you readers understand how each component fits together in your work. Flow is also known as coherence, meaning that everything is unified with the thesis statement, as well as connected and consistent in its presentation. So long as your reader can follow a logical progression through your paragraphs, you are communicating effectively.
Although each paragraph represents its own idea, it is inherently connected to those that precede and follow it through its relationship with the thesis statement. While the topic sentences of each paragraph may have little to do with one another individually, taken in the larger context of the thesis statement, a logical connection must exist between them. As the writer, it is your responsibility to show the relationships between these ideas to your reader. Transitions between these ideas can help establish these relationships and guide the audience through your thoughts.
Transitions are commonly used to begin a fresh paragraph introducing a new idea, or to begin a separate paragraph providing examples of the idea introduced in the previous paragraph.
- Also, furthermore, in addition to, then
If a paragraph requires a great deal of explanation in support of its topic sentence, you might find that adding additional specific examples would make the paragraph too lengthy. In this case, you might transition into a second paragraph that contains numerous examples. Such a paragraph would likely conclude with a sentence tying it back to the topic sentence of the first.
- For example, for instance, in particular, to illustrate
Transitions between paragraphs can be used to deemphasize or highlight concepts, to stress the importance of a point raised earlier in the essay, to introduce a subtopic or smaller component of the previous paragraph, to focus on a smaller, more-detailed facet of something introduced in the previous paragraph, or otherwise show readers the relationship between ideas in your work. Other common transitions are used to indicate time, place, sequence, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, or other generic or rhetorical patterns.
- As a result, beyond, consequently, earlier, farther on, finally, first, however, last, later, on the other hand, similarly, therefore, until recently
If you are organizing information chronologically, or putting a series of events in sequential order, it will feel natural to use words such as “First,” “Second,” and “Last.” Be wary of using these transitions to organizing non-sequential information, as readers may not understand the ordinal numbered organization of your paragraphs.
Finally, there are some phrases that you do not want to rely on to begin a paragraph or transition your thoughts. If each paragraph begins with “Next” the audience will feel like they are reading a list, rather than a well thought-out essay. “As stated above” “As I said before” and “See above” are redundant and unsophisticated ways of introducing your next thought.
Words and Phrases
Writers often repeat key terms and definitions to establish relationships between ideas. These words, as well as memorable or special phrases, link paragraphs together throughout the body of your work.
The first stage of ninjutsu training—spiritual refinement—requires plenty of patience and self-discipline. While turtles may exert supreme self-control, they are limited by their very nature.
Discipline can be a demanding practice for teenagers, regardless of whether they are mutant turtles or not. Training in spiritual refinement takes not only a resigned student, but a tolerant teacher.
Repeating key words and phrases in different paragraphs shows readers that the ideas are connected; moreover, repeating terms and phrases lets readers know that they are important.
Parallel Ideas and Structures
Have you ever driven through a subdivision and noticed repetitions in the home designs, or paid attention to a repeating background in a cartoon or video game? Repetition of design, material, and construction helps establish coherence in a larger body of work. Parallel designs—structures that are similar to one another—can alert readers to the similarities between different ideas in separate paragraphs throughout the essay.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 05
Finally, a couple special notes:
- Single-sentence paragraphs can be used for effect, but should be used sparingly, and may not be appropriate for formal writing projects
- Indent the first line of each paragraph ½” or Tab
- An essay’s conclusion should always be its own paragraph
- When using dialogue, begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes
Chapter 06: Introductions & Conclusions
It is said that, “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” Introducing yourself to others can be daunting for this reason. When writing, however, you can revise, fix, improve, or tweak your introduction time and again. Drafting gives you many opportunities to make the best first impression.
In written communication, the introduction includes preliminary information that precedes and leads up to the primary content. A good introduction commands the attention of the audience and enriches their interaction with the text, keying readers into the content and tone of that material.
Many introductions, like greetings, set forth the content and tone of the material that follows them. Introducing yourself to a stranger over the phone, for example, typically includes stating your name, organization, and the reason why you are calling. Jumping into the message of the call without this initial information can lead to unmet expectations, confusion, or misunderstanding. Even answering the phone adheres to this convention through the more-or-less standardized greeting, “Hello?”
Entering conversations with others may be the most frequent contact we have with everyday introductory phrases and expressions. We tend to greet friends as we see them, maybe asking, “What’s up?”–even if the question is not meant to be answered. When writing emails, texts, messages, letters, or whatever else, we tend to open our communications with a greeting, like “Dear,” or “To Whom It May Concern:”
Introductions may preface a story to first put the events of the narrative into context. You might employ an introduction to explain to the audience why they should not rush to judgment on the topic or suggest that the audience may not know the true cause of an event, even if they are familiar with its effect. Or instead you may use the introduction to offer a preliminary phrase as a disclaimer before saying something.
Many television programs start with a cold open, where the narrative begins without first displaying the title of the show and its credits. In television production, cold opens were developed as a practical way to save time in explaining the main characters or the plot—information that was sometimes reserved for a lengthy opening credits sequence—by placing the episode’s narrative arc in context for the audience.
In the heyday of broadcast television, these cold opens had the additional benefit of “hooking” viewers into the show, perhaps keeping them from changing stations during the commercials of the show’s sponsors that often followed the opening credits.
Contemporary television programs, films, and video games may use cold opens to introduce content to the viewers or first establish the tone of the material. For example, television homicide procedurals use the cold open to allow writers to introduce the crime and its victims, providing parameters for the case and the episode’s content. Comedies employ cold opens to house a throwaway joke alerting viewers to the overall mood of the program.
Films such as The Matrix, The Dark Knight, and Raiders of the Lost Ark begin with memorable cold opens. Some video games even employ the cold open. Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Last of Us and other recent games start with a short playable sequence that helps establish the tone, content, and mechanics of the game. Furthermore, these attention-grabbing sequences excite viewers: if something has a bland, predictable, or off-putting introduction, audiences are less likely to give it a chance.
Powerful introductions are meant to free audiences from the tyranny of choice. With seemingly unlimited options available to us in our very limited allowances of time, choosing the right television program, game, or film can be a daunting task. The fear of missing out, or of making the wrong decision, can lead to a decision paralysis where we never invest our time in anything substantial. A thorough introduction can compel readers to complete the reading and not quit partway through.
Introductions make the audience aware that they are about to receive important information. In your own writing, memorable introductions and conclusions establish the parameters of your work for readers and draw them into the topics. Introductions can help put your thesis into context, and conclusions can point readers toward their next step. By providing an entryway into the topic and framing your point, introductions allow you to build your essay so that the audiences sees the topic from your perspective.
A solid introduction should shield readers from the asking themselves, “What have I gotten myself into!?”
Introductions
Introductions are a specific type of paragraph that acquaint the audience with the topic of the essay, your perspective, and a brief background. As there can only be one opening to your essay, a personable voice with a compelling position welcomes the audience into investing their time in your work. A good beginning commands the audience’s attention, explains to them the relevance of the subject, and makes a reasonable claim about the topic.
Generally, an introduction consists of three major components:
- Hook
- Context
- Thesis
The hook draws readers into the text, the context makes your position understandable, and the thesis delivers the topic and your perspective on the topic. Do not let the beginning of your essay become a roadblock to your writing: it is not necessary to write your essay in order. When you begin your writing project, your working thesis statement may be vague. It is possible that you might not know the larger contexts surrounding the topic or have yet to define your perspective on it. Sometimes it is only during the writing process that you discover information you might want to include in your introduction.
Drafting allows you to compile your thoughts in whatever method you find most effective, then later reorganize those ideas into something wholly more coherent. Many writers compose introductions only after completing everything else in the writing project. Some writers find it easier to write an introduction acquainting the audience with the material only after they have composed and reworked that material. Because it can be difficult to write a compelling introduction, saving it for the end of your writing plan can prevent you from getting stuck at the outset.
When drafting your introduction, return to your initial outline or consult the thesis map of your working thesis to provide additional guidance for readers. While this may result in a formulaic introduction, it can also provide a solid framework from which to begin. As you feel more comfortable moving through the stages of the writing process, you can begin to challenge standard notions of construction. In any case, it is best to know what the guidelines are before you might break them.
Hook
The hook, sometimes called the lead-in, or lede, draws readers into your writing. The hook captivates the audience by making the personal, topical, local, or in some other way interesting and approachable. When developing the hook of your writing, try to look at it from the audience’s point-of-view and appeal to that.
Plea to the emotions of readers, or pathos, by crafting a lead-in that shocks readers, or makes them laugh, cry, or emote in some other way. The hook can solicit feelings of sympathy or pity, so long as they are appropriate for the topic and tone of your writing. Or use a hook to engage with the audience’s ethos, or shared values or beliefs. Appeal to logos by introducing readers to a problem before suggesting a solution. Draw readers into the topic by presenting something that seems amiss. Arouse their suspicions by introducing them to a problem of which they are unaware. Pique their curiosity by explaining to them a misconception they might have.
If you use the hook to identify a problem, include in your introduction an outline for a solution. It is easy to complain, but much harder to offer a sensible solution. If your lead-in identifies a problem, the rest of your essay should provide its resolution.
Use the hook to quote an authority or invoke an image with which many people are familiar. The Statue of Liberty, for example, is meant to welcome to America those who seek liberty, justice, and refuge on her shores. Reference the monument in the hook of the introduction to signal to readers the content and tone of what follows.
Assure readers with a hook that reminds them of something with which they are already familiar. If the topic of your writing project is uncommon, compare it with something similar, more familiar to the audience. Or instead use the hook to contrast the topic against something.
Opening with a quotation or image may require attribution, so that readers catch the reference you are making. Attribution means naming the speaker or otherwise referencing their authority when including their words. Use only quotations or images that fit with the topic and tone of your work.
Instead of using an image or quotation in support of your perspective, you might include a quote, or proverb, or image or whatever in order to contrast it against the topic or your perspective. Whatever you do, grab the audience’s attention quickly. Keep introductions concise—they are merely the appetizer to the main course of body paragraphs.
A hook is not effective if it is boring, predictable, or cliché, and opening an essay with a question, definition, or complaint is a common practice in writing. Therefore, if you choose to develop your lead-in using one of these methods, avoid mechanical or stilted constructions (like “In today’s society”) which might cause the audience to lose interest in the topic before you have made your point.
Questions are frequently misused as lead-ins, using speculation to support generalized analysis in lieu of anything definitive. It can be tempting to open an essay with a question. Throughout the writing process you have generated a lot of questions, from brainstorming topics to asking questions to answer with your working thesis statement—it seems natural to incorporate a question into the introduction preceding your thesis.
A question may pique readers’ curiosity, but if you do use a question as your hook, make sure you can provide the audience an adequate answer. If you are unable to answer a question you have used as a hook, the audience may feel cheated, or that you have not done enough research to reach a conclusion or provided enough analysis to answer the question in your work. It can also seem unsophisticated and formulaic to rely on a rhetorical question to begin your project.
Lead-ins phrased as questions that you might read online or see in the news, keep in mind Betteridge’s Law of Headlines. Paraphrased, the law states that if a headline is posed as a question, it can be answered “no.” A headline phrased as a question can almost assuredly be answered in the negative because were the answer to the question an affirmative, the headline would declare the answer instead of asking the question. For example, the commonly-published headline, “Have Scientists Discovered the Cure for Cancer?” would almost certainly be written “Scientists Discover Cure for Cancer” were the discovery true. The question, rather than the declarative, allows room for error, for speculation. The same is true for lead-in questions.
Definitions may not interest readers who already know the meaning of what you are defining. Even references to dictionaries such as Webster’s or the Oxford English do little to draw readers into your writing if the definitions are commonly known. Open with a definition only if you believe it will interest readers. Use your own voice to give new meaning to a word or explain a term or phrase as you see it, so readers will be eager to continue reading your perspective.
Context
In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, the introduction should introduce the topic. If the topic of your writing project is uncommon or new, the audience might be unfamiliar with its basic concepts. The introduction explains to readers what they must know to consider the topic by explaining the larger contexts involved. Often, this contextual information bridges the gap between the hook and thesis statement.
The context you provide in the introduction effectively acts as a disclaimer for your thesis statement. If any information exists that the audiences need to know before they read your thesis statement, the context of your introduction provides it. This information helps readers decide in what light or through what lens they should view the material you provide. Furthermore, the material you provide as context—description, facts, jokes, uncomfortable personal details, whatever—context helps establish the tone of your work.
In journalism, including context in the introductory paragraph means answering the five 5 W’s. In your own drafts, this is a great place to begin: explaining the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a given topic will provide your reader with pertinent information and may help shape your own perspective on that topic.
Some ideas may be better shared through narrative. Telling a story, like giving a case study, can sometimes provide a suitable context for making a point. If your thesis statement can be made into the subject of an intriguing story, opening with a didactic narrative—a story meant to teach a specific lesson—can make for a compelling contextual introduction to the topic.
Thesis
Above all, the introduction includes your thesis statement. Although you may write a complex introduction that spans multiple paragraphs, make your point before pivoting to the body paragraphs to provide support for it.
An essay’s introduction is often organized inductively, narrowing from larger contextual ideas to a specific thesis statement. In such instances, it is trivial for writers to open with overused or generalized phrases along the lines of “in today’s society,” or “in the world today” before moving toward the main point. In any case, many instructors look for the thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph.
Title
The title of a piece announces your ideas to the world. Give your work a descriptive designation that fits the topic, purpose, and tone of your essay. The title acts as a preliminary hook to your writing. Before readers ever begin the introductory paragraph to your writing, they will have encountered its title. Namely, the title should draw the audience into your work and introduce them to its topic.
When crafting a title for a writing project, consider how you would like people to find it were they searching for it. Think about indexing your work as you might use hashtags. The title of your work should help readers sort your writing into a larger category, but also invite readers to explore your work with further investigation. It should be both descriptive and intriguing, which is easier said than done. A title not only hints at the topic of a work, it also acts as a way to label or categorize a piece of writing.
Just like composing your introduction, it is easier to title your work after you have finished it, rather than naming it at the outset of the writing process. It is likely you will encounter something that might work as a title after researching and moving through the iterative stages of the writing process. Or maybe instead after completing your essay you will be reminded of something that encapsulates your work. Do not let finding the perfect title keep you from getting started on your writing project; work through a few iterative stages and circle back to naming work.
Examples:
- Vampyres, Zombies, and Sea Monsters: Gothic Interpretations of Jane Austen’s Novels
- Teddy’s Terrors or Roosevelt’s Rangers?: The Rough Riders
- And All That Jazz: Hollywood and Its Impact on Modern Language
- Revisiting Revisions in Lear: The Cuckoo King’s Artful Amendment
- The Widening Gyre is Man’s Funeral Pyre: How “The Second Coming” Will Again Fail Humanity
- The Formalists’ Fallacy, or If It Weren’t for My Horse, I Wouldn’t Have Spent That Year in College: A Critique of New Criticism
Conclusions
If the introduction is akin to the cold open, the conclusion might be the post-credits scene: the stinger, or tag.
The conclusion is your last bit of contact with the reader, and like goodbyes, adheres to expected conventions. Essays conclude with a culminating paragraph just as conversations close with some brief words or a common phrase: “Goodbye,” or “See you later,” or something as simple as “Peace.” Readers expect a conclusion. As your ideas culminate at the end of a writing project, the conclusion becomes your last chance to stress to the audience the validity of your thinking, the value of your perspective, or the importance of the topic.
The conclusion satisfactorily ends the primary content with a statement of finality on the topic’s main points. Close with a memorable completion of your thoughts on the topic and the information included in the essay. Do not introduce new points of discussion or offer additional evidence in support of your position. After providing the audience the content of your material, offer them a parting thought on what to do with it. Rather than feeling tacked on or routine, the conclusion should read as the logical extension of your thoughts.
Bookend your body paragraphs with thematic introductions and conclusions. For example, if examining a before and after scenario, you might use the conclusion to reflect on the differences between the two states, or how you have changed since an event. If evaluating a subject, you might use the conclusion as a final recommendation to take action based on your review.
Conclusions that seek to motivate their readers to action may offer suggestions on how to apply the information contained in the essay. Such closings might include ideas of what readers can do next, how they can get involved, or who they may contact. For instance, if an essay extols the virtues of democracy, it might conclude by encouraging its readers to register to vote.
The conclusion can provide readers an opportunity to think about what they have read. It may hint at what comes next: a dire warning if the situation fails to change, broader implications or repercussions, or future predictions of what may come.
This final paragraph is also an opportunity to return to the hook or lead-in you included in the opening of your work. If your introduction begins with a quotation or image, revisit that quotation or image in light of the information included in your work. If you introduce a problem, stir the suspicions of the audience, or otherwise pique their curiosity, conclude with a reasonable resolution to that aberration. If you open with a story, conclude that narrative.
Your introduction and conclusion should not be carbon copies of one another. Although they may be connected thematically, each paragraph should serve its own purpose. Avoid the impulse to simply summarize the points you have made in your work. Instead, take into account that readers have learned a great deal from your work, and model your conclusion accordingly.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 06
- In general, avoid single-word titles
- Capitalize all words in the title except for articles (a, an, the) and prepositions—unless they are the first word of the title or subtitle
- Use subtitles to add clarification, much like you might see in movie sequels
- When concluding shorter writing projects, avoid summarizing your main points or restating your thesis—this is a useful technique for large essays—audiences do not need reminding
- Your conclusion might resemble your introduction, but it should not be a copy of it.
Chapter 07: Organization
What is the best way to organize the apps on your phone? Is it to leave them on the home screen and weave them in between widgets? To collect them in folders by sorting them into similar groups? Or instead to leave them wherever they may install, in whatever order you first downloaded them?
It is likely that the way you organize the contents of your phone, your notebook, backpack, desk, room, or whatever other space you keep differs from the way that others might organize theirs. As individuals have different preferences and needs, their methods and reasons for structuring things will vary greatly.
Organization is the method of employing order to a grouping of things or ideas. How you choose to organize information can affect how others may interpret that information, and you can shape their understanding by adjusting or tinkering with the relationship of one idea to another throughout the drafting process. For example, you may be more likely to raise the first point on a topic because you feel more strongly about that point than you do others. In this example, the audience might infer from the prominence of the first point you raise that it is of substantial importance. Organization can reveal patterns in the way we think and help us put those patterns into practice when we communicate.
Organizational structures are inherent in communication. When you speak to someone, you compose your sentences (knowingly or not) according to syntactical rules (formal or informal) which dictate the order of the words and phrases in your speech.
Organized written communication governs the sentences printed on the page with rules regarding grammar, syntax and punctuation, and also their spatial organization from left to right, followed by line breaks, and marked with indentations and new paragraphs.
In formal writing, the essay follows an organizational hierarchy where the thesis statement controls the topic of the essay, and the paragraphs supporting the thesis are shaped and directed by topic sentences which in turn explain the thesis. Various modes of development will have their own patterns for structuring information that can enhance the effectiveness of the material. Imagine an argument, for example: by anticipating the doubts of a skeptical audience, a writer may choose to address those concerns earlier in the essay, demonstrating an open-minded or all-encompassing approach to the subject.
When organizing the content of your own work, it may be easiest to structure your material as it comes to you in the drafting stage of the writing process. When drafting, consider beginning with the fundamental thesis-mapped, five-paragraph essay, but moving beyond it in subsequent drafts.
As you revise your work and reshape your writing, rethink how you organize the information in your draft. Return to organizational patterns you employ in your brainstorming sessions: how you choose to group ideas together may reveal not only how you conceptualize relationships between those ideas, but also may help identify a logical structure or pattern.
Because organization can be subjective—if given the same opportunities, there is no telling if two individuals would use the same method to structure anything—knowing what is logical to readers can be difficult for writers to ascertain. To this end, universally-recognized methods of organization are another great place to begin when thinking about how you might structure your material.
Universal Methods of Organization
Universally-recognized methods of organization are easily-identifiable and help make information intelligible to many audiences. Structuring content according to time, space, or logic aids not only in the audience understanding the material, but also in how you draft and organize that content during the writing process.
Temporal Organization
As far as we know, there seems to be only one direction to travel through time. Because all people experience the progression of time in a single direction—forward—and perceive time in a similar manner, temporal organization, or chronological order, is a universally-understood method for organizing action or events, especially when recreating a series of events to explain a larger concept.
If you write about a series of events, arrange them in the order they occur. Learning the order of events may take some research, especially if you are combining or synthesizing multiple viewpoints, accounts, or experiences, but the research you put into your organization will make your writing easier for readers to understand.
As you write, be wary of falling into the post hoc trap. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy which reasons that one event is solely the result of an event that precedes it. When establishing the relationship between events in a series, it is important to remember that simply because two events happen one after another, the former is not necessarily the cause of the latter. When looking for connections between events, search for causation instead of correlation.
Narratives are usually organized chronologically, as every story has a beginning, middle, and end. When writing a narrative, if you choose to subvert temporal organization—for example, including a flashback or a glimpse of future events—you must signal to the audience that the material is presented out-of-order. If readers are confused, they may misunderstand your position or lose interest in the story.
Phrases that place the events in the story in relation to one another help the audience stay connected to what happens in the narrative. Consider how flashbacks are presented in video games, television, and film. Often the colors or quality of the image differs from its normal presentation, or the mediums use time and location headers on the screen, to provide a context or setting for the events that are about to unfold.
Terms that imply temporal organization:
- First, second, third
- Before, earlier, next, after, later
- Last, finally
Spatial Organization
Ordering ideas is an abstract thought, whereas ordering concrete objects is something that can be done in the real world. Offering a physical description of an object or subject enables the reader to see it as you do. When organizing information spatially, choose a starting point and move steadily in a single direction, painting an image in the minds of readers. Use description to help the audience see the topic as you do.
Spatial organization frequently appears in process analysis and cause and effect rhetorical patterns. For example, the water cycle describes a process whose steps have a physical relationship to one another: water collects in puddles and pools, evaporates into the air above, condenses in the atmosphere, then precipitates down to begin the cycle anew. Or consider Newton’s Third Law, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Describing physical interactions in a writing project requires spatial organization.
Spatial organization may connect objects from left to right, front to back, top to bottom, inside to outside, or any other number of linear approaches. Prepositions often describe objects in physical relationship to one another and may signal spatial organization.
Terms that imply spatial organization:
- Beside, beyond, in front of, behind
- Above, below, next to, around
- Underneath, upon, within, outside
Logical Organization
This method encompasses any number of organizational strategies that follow a logical reasoning in their structure. Most universally-understood methods of organization that you encounter every day have a logical reason behind their ordering.
In mathematics education, students are first taught to identify and count numbers before learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide them. Each stage of the process incorporates and builds upon the material which precedes it. Complex concepts such as algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus are typically taught in a similar order for the same reason.
When playing a new video game for the first time, it is likely players will find the initial stages less difficult than those that follow. Many games are designed to introduce more demanding combinations and challenges as players progress through the game.
Not only are video games, television programs, and films rated by age, but they are also organized by their content. Many media are easily searchable by the content they offer, by the characters they feature, the actors who perform in them, or by their writers, directors, producers, or production studios. Retailers, content providers, and other distributors tend to group similar goods with one another: if a product is attractive to an identifiable audience, a similar product may hold that same appeal.
While these represent only a few of the many different approaches to logical organization, two overarching logical structures supersede all others: deductive and inductive reasoning. Use these two basic methods of organization to explain an idea and support it with evidence. Deductive reasoning begins with an assertion, then unpacks that assertion with additional information in support of the claim. Inductive reasoning tallies several different instances before inferring a logical assertion based on those instances.
While detectives like Batman and Sherlock Holmes may use observation and inductive reasoning to reach their conclusions, your essays will typically follow a deductive pattern, where the introduction contains your thesis statement, making an assertion about the topic, and the following paragraphs provide evidence in support of that thesis and prove your claim to be reasonable. An essay like this might make a claim then support it.
For an example of deductive reasoning, imagine you were to look at a model made from LEGO bricks. If you were to examine the LEGO bricks using deductive pattern, you might first observe the completed model, then disassemble it piece-by-piece to see what different components it includes and how they factor into its construction.
If you were to examine that same pile of bricks inductively, you might begin by observing the differences between the bricks, taking note of the shapes and colors that comprise most of the pile, drawing conclusions about what kind of set, licensed property, or product line they make come from. In doing so, you could make a reasonable assertion as to what one might build out of the bricks.
Inductive organization builds tension as readers follow along with the information you provide them. If you present your assertion effectively, your readers may come to the same conclusions as you.
Terms that imply logical organization:
- Easiest to most-difficult
- Universally accepted to most-controversial
- Least-complex to most-complex
Suggested or Thematic Organization
Common thematic patterns arrange material according to its order of importance, present ideas from the most-popular to least-popular, or use an established system to rate content, so long as all subjects are compared to one another or the same scale.
Organizing material by its importance, popularity, or rating is another subjective method to order your content. If you employ one of these methods, keep in mind your purpose and audience when you draft. If you choose to employ thematic organization, you might have to explain or justify to readers the choices you make.
Depending on the nature of your writing project, you may simply follow the suggested thematic pattern of the assignment or source material. While some genres of writing adhere to prescribed methods of organization, your instructors may have specific rhetorical patterns or organizational strategies in mind for your assignments.
Coherence
Whatever method of organization you choose to employ, it is vital that your work reads coherently from beginning to end. Coherence in communication, or the flow of your writing, means the ability to be easily understood. If readers are unable to grasp the relationships between the sentences within your paragraphs, or if the audience believes the paragraphs of your essay are disconnected or inconsistent in their organization, those same readers will not understand your perspective on the topic. Coherence is crucial when supporting your perspective, offering reasoning for your position, or otherwise providing details or evidence for your thesis statement. To help establish coherence, look for opportunities to:
- Repeat words
- Repeat ideas
- Use transitions to establish relationships between ideas
Coherence within and between sentences, and within and between paragraphs, means that the audience can see how the content and presentation of your material is both connected and consistent. Readers should be able to trace the associations between your ideas through the paragraphs of the essay and follow the progression of information from introduction to conclusion. All grammatical, syntactical, and stylistic choices should be reasonable and consistent throughout the work. Adhere to established guidelines and course requirements above all else.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 07
- Throughout your classes and within your assignments, you will find that individual instructors may have specific requirements for the structure of your work
- Just as if you take a new job that has its own filing or organizational system, you are responsible for learning and adhering to it
Chapter 08: MLA Documentation (8th edition)
Information travels across mediums now faster than ever, and always-evolving modes of communication continue to shape how we communicate with one another. Documentation helps keep track of how that information is borrowed, sampled, remixed, or otherwise employed across the spectrum of written communication.
Most of the writing projects in your classes require you to document the sources you research and incorporate into your work. In nearly all fields of study, documentation is the process of using standardized techniques and systems to reference contributing material. These systems incorporate formal citations within and at the end of texts to identify all borrowed information.
As a piece of writing is reflective of your thinking and represents your contribution into a larger conversation, it is necessary to show readers the connections between your ideas and those of others. The thesis contains your perspective, an opinion supported by facts. Documentation creates verifiable references by giving credit to or acknowledging the contributions of others.
Use citations to borrow, challenge, or build upon the ideas of others and provide future participants in the conversation a method for tracing its history. Audiences can more effectively engage with a text by following its citations through a standardized method that is both comprehensive and navigable.
In the humanities, the standardized style of documentation is MLA—named after the Modern Language Association, an organization committed to the research and study of language—MLA documentation is flexible and modular, and tasks writers to integrate outside materials purposefully, citing traits common to a variety of different sources. In academic writing, it is necessary to include citations for all material you borrow and include in your work. Citations are not only required when borrowing the words, expressions, phrases, or work of another, but also must be provided when using their ideas as well.
Acknowledging the contribution of others is a requirement of thorough research. Presenting another’s work as your own is plagiarism, even if it is not necessarily intentional. Accidental theft or improper documentation is still plagiarism.
Academic dishonesty muddies the relationship between instructor and student, sowing distrust and inhibiting discovery: nothing is learned through plagiarism. If an instructor or the institution turned a blind eye toward it, unchecked plagiarism could discredit the college altogether, and by extension, the value of the degrees earned there.
Avoid plagiarism by providing a citation any time you include in your work material from an outside source. Typically, you will need to provide citations after you summarize, paraphrase, or quote material from an outside source. Acknowledge these sources in your work through formal documentation. Accomplish this through two primary citation requirements for essays:
- Works cited page
- In-text citations
Works Cited Page
The works cited page is a major component for MLA documentation. Appearing at the end of a work, it identifies and organizes the borrowed material in that work. This alphabetical list provides readers formal identification of the contributions of others to your own research.
MLA style requires that you document sources along nine core elements: author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, and location.
Nearly every entry on a works cited page shares some of nine core elements and including as many as possible provides readers a complete citation. These elements follow a standardized order and represent common traits among a wide variety of sources, though they are by no means comprehensive.
Most sources will not have each element present, and not every core element is relevant to each source you will encounter. Include as many as possible and be flexible in your documentation, but modularly. Do your best to fit the correct information into each corresponding core element. If a source is lacking a core element, skip that element and move on to the next. Include information necessary to employ citations purposefully but be wary of sources with too few core elements. Furthermore, some sources require additional elements if published or found within other publications.
Core elements appear in citations in the following order:
Core Elements of a Formal Citation | |
Author or creator | . |
Title of source | . |
Title of container or publication | , |
Other contributors | , |
Version or edition | , |
Volume and/or number | ,/, |
Publisher or producer | , |
Date published or updated | , |
Page Number or URL | . |
The core elements follow this order and use this specific punctuation for each works cited entry. Periods appear only after the author or creator, the title of the source, and at the very end of the entry. Ignore articles at the beginnings of words (A, An, The) and alphabetize by the first present core element each source listed on your Works Cited Page.
When formatting the works cited page, double-space all entries, and format a hanging indent on the left-hand side of the page. A hanging indent makes it easier for readers to identify your sources quickly as they move between the in-text citations in the body of the text and the works cited page.
Author or creator
The creator is typically the author, or the individual principally responsible for creating the work. Sometimes though, the creator may be the person with whose name the work is associated. Whoever it is, most-commonly the creator’s name will appear prominently near the beginning of the work.
A work with a single author:
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
@carterjwn. “Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?” twitter, 5 Apr. 2017, 7:31 pm, twitter.com/carterjwm/status/849813577770778624. Accessed 9 Jan. 2019.
Chance the Rapper. “The Man Who Has Everything.” Single, 2018. Spotify. spotify:track:3woRy7uxzl1lO2XO99oHsN.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Ace Books, 1999.
Hern, Alex. “No-deal Brexit Would ‘Devastate’ UK Gaming Industry, Says Report.” The Guardian, 30 Nov. 2018, www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/30/no-deal-brexit-would-devastate-uk-gaming-industry-says-report. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.
Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. BookRix, 2014. EBSCOhost eBook Collection, 0-search.ebscohost.com.archway.searchmobius.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1469693&site=ehost-live.
u/Unidan. “I am ‘The Excited Biologist!’ AMA!” Reddit, Condé Nast Digital, 25 Apr. 2013. www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1d42co/i_am_the_excited_biologist_ama/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2018.
When a source has multiple creators or contributors, list them in the order they appear on the cover or title page of the source (the order in which they are credited); however, if that source has three or more creators or contributors, list only the first of them and replace the remainder with a comma and the Latin expression et al., meaning “and others.”
A work with two authors:
Diamond, Michael and Adam Horovitz. Beastie Boys Book. Penguin Random House, 2018.
Lennon, John and Paul McCartney. “Love Me Do.” Please Please Me, Original recording remastered, Capitol, 2012.
McCartney, Paul and John Lennon. “From Me to You.” Please Please Me, Original recording remastered, Capitol, 2012.
Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholz. Models for Writers. 13th edition, Bedford/ St. Martins, 2018.
Zendle, David and Paul Cairns. “Video Game Loot Boxes Are Linked to Problem Gambling: Results of a Large-Scale Survey.” PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 11, 21 Nov. 2018, pp. 1-12.
A work with three or more authors:
DJ Khaled, et al. “No Brainer.” Single, 2018. Spotify, spotify:track:5WvAo7DNuPRmk4APhdPzi8.
Huang, Vivan, et al. “The Association Between Video Game Play and Cognitive Function: Does Gaming Platform Matter?” CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, vol. 20, no. 11, Nov. 2017, pp. 689-94.
Milligan, Peter, et al. X-Statix: Omnibus. Edited by Jennifer Grünwald, Marvel Comics, 2011.
If the focus of your work employs the source for something other than its primary creator, such as the work of another contributor, begin your entry with that focus. If an additional contributor provides a type of contribution distinct from the primary creator—such as an illustrator working alongside an author on a book—make note of that contribution.
Bell, Zoë, stunt performer. Thor: Ragnarok. Directed by Taika Waititi, performances by Chris Hemsworth, et al., Walt Disney Studios, 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80186608.
Garland, Alex, director. Annihilation. Skydance Media, 2018.
Gribben, Alan, editor. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain, NewSouth Edition, NewSouth Books, 2011.
Gibbons, Dave, illustrator. Watchmen. By Alan Moore, Reprint edition, DC Comics, 2014.
Sis, Peter, illustrator. The Book of Imaginary Beings. By Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, Penguin, 2005.
Thewlis, David, performer. “The Shame Wizard.” Big Mouth, season 2, episode 3, Danger Goldberg Productions, 5 Oct. 2018, Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80183790.
Tolkien, J. R. R., translator. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. Edited by Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins, 2014.
Williams, John, composer. Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson, performances by Mark Hamill, et al., Walt Disney Studios, 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/title/80192018.
Wilson, Emily, translator. The Odyssey. By Homer, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.
If the focus of your work is on something other than the primary creator—for example, if you were writing a review of a film, concentrating on the director’s contributions to the film, you would likely begin that works cited entry with the title of the film; whereas if you chose to center your essay on the sound direction or fight choreography instead, you might begin the citation by naming the composer or stunt coordinator, respectively.
Ex Machina. Directed by Alex Garland, performances by Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac, A24, 2014.
Jumanji. Directed by Joe Johnston, performances by Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst, TriStar Pictures, 1995.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson, performances by Mark Hamill, et al., Walt Disney Studios, 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/title/80192018.
Whatever the focus of your citation, all names should appear in your writing project as they do in the works you are citing. Do not refer to individuals with familiarity or take liberties with nicknames or shortened versions of their names. If a work is published with no signed creator, skip over that element and begin your entry with the title of the source.
A work published without a named creator:
Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
The Holy Bible. Holman edition, A. J. Holman Company, 1914.
LSAT Logic Games. Edited by Robert Webbing, et al., 2nd edition, Research & Education Association, 2012.
MLA Handbook. 8th edition, The Modern Language Association of America, 2016.
The Qur’an. Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Title of source
Following the creator, the title of the source is the second core element of any citation.
A source’s title is usually displayed noticeably at the beginning of that source, often near the creator’s name. When recording titles of sources in your citations, note that capitalization and punctuation are standardized in MLA style:
- Capitalize the first letter of each word in the title except for the following parts of speech: conjunctions, prepositions, and articles (there are capitalized if they are the first word of the title or subtitle, however)
- A colon always separates the title from the subtitle, even if an em dash (—) or another form of punctuation appears in the original work
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
Cho, Alexander. “Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States.” Cinema Journal, vol. 57, no. 1, Fall 2017, pp. 182-85.
Farmer, John, John Azzarello, and Miles Kara. “Real Heroes, Fake Stories.” New York Times, 14 Sep. 2008, pp. WK10.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Ace Books, 1999.
The Holy Bible. King James Version, Christian Art Publishers, 2013.
Kroll, Nick, performer. “The Shame Wizard.” Big Mouth, season 2, episode 3, Danger Goldberg Productions, 5 Oct. 2018, Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80183790.
Mangum, Jeff, songwriter. “Holland, 1945.” In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, by Neutral Milk Hotel, Merge Records, 1998. Spotify, spotify:track:4iwMhMvcTqukn1n3NVjb2N.
Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholz. Models for Writers. 13th edition, Bedford St. Martins, 2018.
Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Pantheon, 2003.
If the work you are citing is independent and represents the entirety of the source, or is a larger publication and contains the source, italicize the title. If, however, the source appears as a smaller part of a larger publication, enclose the title in quotation marks. This notation helps readers easily identify and find the sources you incorporate into your work.
Title of container or publication
When the source is published as a part of a larger piece of work, it is said to be contained in that publication. The container identifies to the audience where you found the source. For example, you might find a short story or a poem published in a literary magazine, or an article or review printed in a newspaper or published on a website.
Farmer, John, John Azzarello, and Miles Kara. “Real Heroes, Fake Stories.” The New York Times, 14 Sep. 2008, pp. WK10.
Harkin, Patricia. “The Reception of Reader-Response Theory.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 56 no. 3, 2005, pp. 410-25.
Hern, Alex. “No-deal Brexit Would ‘Devastate’ UK Gaming Industry, Says Report.” The Guardian, 30 Nov. 2018, www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/30/no-deal-brexit-would-devastate-uk-gaming-industry-says-report. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.
Huang, Vivan, et al. “The Association Between Video Game Play and Cognitive Function: Does Gaming Platform Matter?” CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, vol. 20, no. 11, Nov. 2017, pp. 689-94.
“The Shame Wizard.” Big Mouth, season 2, episode 3, Danger Goldberg Productions, 5 Oct. 2018, Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80183790.
“USS Callister.” Black Mirror, season 4, episode 1, Zeppotron, 29 Dec. 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80131567.
Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself.” Leaves of Grass, Bantam, 2004, pp. 23-76.
Publications that act as containers themselves are usually self-contained, so their titles are italicized; however, you may find publications that are contained in or accessed through larger publications, databases, or services, such as an published article you find searching through the LRC’s databases, a televised episode of a program appearing on Netflix, or a song published on an album available for streaming through Spotify.
In your documentation, you can account for sources encapsulated in larger sources by creating a secondary publication element at the end of your citation. If your citation includes one or more containers or publications, you must include locations for each of them.
Examples of nested containers:
Bijan, Stephen. “Street Fighters: The Arcade Fraternity.” Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 93, no. 3, Summer 2017, pp. 94-105. MasterFILE Premier, http://0-search.ebscohost.com.archway.searchmobius.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=123906413&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Chaos Chaos. “Do You Feel It?” Committed to the Crime, Barsuk Records 2014. Spotify, spotify:track:3lOok0REf4j3790abX26PR.
“The Light Bulb Scene.” BoJack Horseman, Performances by Will Arnet, et al., season 5, episode 1, The Tornante Company, 14 Sep. 2018. Netflix¸ www.netflix.com/watch/80200242.
“USS Callister.” Black Mirror, season 4, episode 1, Zeppotron, 29 Dec. 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80131567.
Other contributors
People other than the creator may contribute to a source, such as editors, translators, or illustrators. If their participation in the material is relevant to your work, identify their contributions in the citation. Before each name, include a description of their role or contribution to the source.
Borges, Jorge Luis. The Book of Imaginary Beings. Illustrated by Peter Sis, translated by Andrew Hurley, Penguin, 2005.
Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher, performances by Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter, 20th Century Fox, 1999.
Neutral Milk Hotel. “Holland, 1945.” In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, written by Jeff Mangum, Merge Records, 1998. Spotify, spotify:track:4iwMhMvcTqukn1n3NVjb2N.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Emily Wilson, W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.
Losh, Elizabeth and Jonathan Alexander. Understanding Rhetoric. Illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. Illustrated by Dave Gibbons, DC Comics, 1987.
Twain, Mark. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Edited by Alan Gribben, NewSouth Edition, NewSouth Books, 2011.
Common contributions like edited by, illustrated by, and translated by can be described with simple phrases. Include only the most-relevant contributors who are vital to the work. Specific and sizable contributions merit notation; not every contributor, performer, or cast member warrants inclusion in the citation, especially if their contribution is not the focus of your work.
Version or edition
The source may be an edition or version of a work that appears in multiple forms and may contain discrete differences within each form or medium. If this is the case with the source, your citation must note of the publication’s release by its edition or version.
Editions or versions of texts represent revised or updated publications or include other additions such as forewords. These versions can vary greatly from one another in their content and presentation, so identifying this core element is crucial to accurate documentation.
Texts such as the MLA Handbook are updated regularly, and the edition number changes with each subsequent overhaul. The rules in this chapter are based on and sampled from from the 8th edition of the handbook.
Religious texts like the Bible may appear in various forms—such as the King James Version and the Children’s Illustrated—and their edition or version should be used to identify which release of the publication you are citing in your work.
MLA Handbook. 8th ed., The Modern Language Association of America, 2016.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Ace trade paperback edition, 2005.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Special hardcover edition, Ace, 2005.
The Holy Bible. Holman edition, A. J. Holman Company, 1914.
LSAT Logic Games. Edited by Robert Webbing, et al., 2nd edition, Research & Education Association, 2012.
Rosa, Alfred and Paul Eschholz. Models for Writers. 13th edition, Bedford/St. Martins, 2018.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. No Fear Shakespeare, study guide edition, Sparknotes, 2003.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason, Third Series, Reprint edition, The Arden Shakespeare, 2015.
Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. Dover thrift, Dover Publications, 1994.
Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. Norton Critical, 2nd edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
Volume and/or number
If the text you research is too large to be printed in a single book, it may be separated into volumes. Or if the source you include in your work is part of a larger continuation, it may be a numbered entry in a sequence. When you consult a source that is part of a multivolume set, you must include in your citation the core element of its volume and/or number.
Typically, a volume is comprised of a series of numbered issues. For example, each year of a journal may be represented by a single volume number, while the individual issues published that year would each have their own number. In each new volume, the numbering may begin anew. Sometimes, these issue numbers may not be numbers at all; instead you may find a source that publishes quarterly or seasonally, and “number” or otherwise distinguish their issues accordingly. Both terms are typically abbreviated, written as vol. and no.; however, not all volume and number entries will be so explicit, and may even follow their own ordering systems. Television programs, for example, may be categorized by season and episode, or series and episode.
Harkin, Patricia. “The Reception of Reader-Response Theory.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 56 no. 3, 2005, pp. 410-25.
Hill, Daniel. “Ain’t It Grand?” The Riverfront Times, vol. 38 no. 3, 16 Jan 2014, pp. 8+.
Nilsen, Anders. “The Beast.” Mome, Summer, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, pp. 56-71.
Nilsen, Anders. “Event.” Mome, Fall, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, pp. 23-38.
“USS Callister.” Black Mirror, season 4, episode 1, Zeppotron, 29 Dec. 2017. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80131567.
Publisher or producer
The publisher or producer is the entity or group primarily responsible for making the source available to audiences. This may also be the organization responsible for paying for the source to be made, researched, or published. The publisher or producer of material—just like its creator—is liable for the content of that material. As such, sources that fail to identify their publisher or producer have little value, as no one else stands behind what is written.
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher, performances by Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter, 20th Century Fox, 1999.
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Penguin, 1991.
O’Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. Color edition, Oni Press, 2014.
Saramago, Jose. Seeing. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa, Harcourt Books, 2006.
Vandermeer, Jeff. Annihilation. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014.
If you are having trouble identifying the publisher or producer for a source, look for the copyright symbol (©) and owner of that copyright. In books, the publisher is often indicated on the title page or copyright page (also known as the edition notice). If the book is published by a small imprint of a larger publishing house, ignore the imprint name and use that of the larger publication company. In some cases, the publisher or producer may have a similar name to the title of the publication—for example, The New York Times is published by The New York Times Company—in such instances, you may simply omit the publisher and move to the next core element.
Dockteman, Eliana. “Everyone’s a Superhero.” TIME, vol. 186, no. 9/10, Meredith Corporation, 7 Sep. 2015, pp. 76-80.
Gustines, George Gene. “Digital Enhances the Comic Book Experience.” The New York Times, 14 June 2018, B5.
Van Buskirk, Eliot. “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin.” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 29 Oct. 2007, www.wired.com/2007/10/listeningpost-1029/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.
Films and television programs are usually the product of several companies or organizations working in concert with one another, but you need only document the entity primarily responsible for making the work available to audiences.
Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele, performance by Daniel Kaluuya, Blumhouse Productions, 2017.
The Lego Movie. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2014.
Rick and Morty. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Williams Street, 2019.
The Simpsons. Created by Matt Groening, Gracie Films, 2019.
Websites are published by various entities, including, small businesses, major corporations, governmental organizations and other public institutions. The publisher or producer of a website may not be easily identifiable, although many can be found listed at the bottom of each page alongside the copyright notice. Not all copyright holders are publishers, such as websites who host content but are not involved in producing it, such as YouTube; websites like these are additional containers.
Baard, Mark. “Will Genetic Engineering Kill Us?” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 16 Apr. 2003, www.wired.com/2003/04/will-genetic-engineering-kill-us/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2018.
irs.gov. Department of the Treasury, 2019.
“Pit and Chimney Furnace.” Primitive Technology, 16 Dec. 2018. YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nqBgklf9E. Accessed 27 Dec. 2018.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2019.
Date published or updated
A source may be issued on more than a single publication date, especially if it has remained in publication for a long time. Conversely, it may have only been recently published, and updated as information develops.
A core element to a citation is a date of publication. Because the source may have a variety of possible origins, it is necessary to pinpoint for audiences the specific publication you reference in your work.
Including a source’s date is important when demonstrating to readers that your information is up-to-date and relevant. This core element notes when the source was published or last updated. If a source has multiple dates listed, use the most-recent, and include only the most meaningful publication information in the date. Cite the date of that text that you use.
Baard, Mark. “Will Genetic Engineering Kill Us?” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 16 Apr. 2003, www.wired.com/2003/04/will-genetic-engineering-kill-us/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2018.
Whether or not you record the full date depends on the source. Write in your citation the most-recent date as it appears on the copyright page. Sometimes it will remain to your discretion how detailed the date needs to be in your entry. You may find it necessary to include only the year, or you may choose to include the specific day and month if it fits your purpose.
Periodicals typically have their publication dates listed on the covers or title pages and are sometimes published irregularly; issues may appear yearly, seasonally, monthly, weekly, daily, or (increasingly-infrequently) even multiple times a day.
Record the date according to MLA standards, beginning with the day, followed by the month and year.
Page Number or URL (also known as Location within a larger container or publication)
If a source is printed in a larger piece of writing—such as an article in a newspaper, a story in a magazine, or post published online—that source is said to be contained within the publication at a specific location, such as page numbers, disc numbers, or a URL. This final core element informs readers where exactly they can find within a larger publication a source cited in your work.
The format of a source’s location is tied to its medium. For print sources, the location typically refers to page numbers or other indicators of the source’s physical location in the larger publication. If you find an article or essay in a book, for example, that source would only represent a few pages of the larger publication. The location within the larger container are the inclusive page numbers of the source material. While in-text citations include only the page numbers on which the borrowed material appears, references on the Works Cited Page include all of the source’s page numbers.
Location may also refer to another piece of information. An episode of a television show on a DVD collection may list the disc number. A piece of art may be located in a museum or gallery. In the Works Cited entry, these numbers are preceded by a p. if the source is only a single page, or pp. if it is a series of pages.
Harkin, Patricia. “The Reception of Reader-Response Theory.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 56 no. 3, 2005, pp. 410-25.
Hill, Daniel. “Ain’t It Grand?” The Riverfront Times, vol. 38 no. 3, 16 Jan 2014, pp. 8+.
Baard, Mark. “Will Genetic Engineering Kill Us?” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 16 Apr. 2003, URL. Accessed 25 Oct. 2016.
The location of an online work is commonly indicated by the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or address. MLA notes that you should include URLs in your citations (omitting http:// from the address), though your instructors may have different requirements. While URLs are not very effective in print, many assignments are completed online, and including links in your citations on the works cited page can take readers directly to your sources.
For each website you include in your works cited page, your instructor may ask that you add an additional core element at the end of the citation: the date you last retrieved information from the source. Close each entry with the words “Accessed on” followed by the date. If the source is removed or updated significantly following your date of last access, this date will indicate to readers that these revisions are not included in your work.
Baard, Mark. “Will Genetic Engineering Kill Us?” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 16 Apr. 2003, URL. Accessed 25 Oct. 2018.
“Pit and Chimney Furnace.” Primitive Technology, 16. Dec. 2018. YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nqBgklf9E. Accessed 27 Dec. 2018.
Van Buskirk, Eliot. “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin.” Wired, Condé Nast Digital, 29 Oct. 2007, www.wired.com/2007/10/listeningpost-1029/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.
In-text Citations
The other major component to MLA documentation is in-text citations, sometimes known as parenthetical references, or endnotes. These are in-text labels (set aside in parentheses) which connect individual pieces of borrowed material to their respective full citations on the works cited page. In-text citations (with attributions) show readers where you include borrowed material.
In-text citations are different than footnotes in that they do not provide clarification or additional information; they only link identification keyed to entries on the works cited page. A typical reference contains only the creator and location within the source, such as an author’s last name and a page number.
Examples of in-text citations here:
Victor Frankenstein finishes building his creature on a November evening (Shelley 34).
If you name the author or creator in the text surrounding the borrowed material, you need not include that author or creator’s name in the in-text citation; provide only the location in parentheses.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor completes his creation on a “dreary night of November'' (34).
If the work has two authors, include both names.
In the words of The Beatles, “Love, love me do” (Lennon and McCartney).
If the work has three or more authors or creators, use only the first name followed by et al.
The single “Walla Cam” features the repeated lyric, “Wala Cam” (Chance the Rapper, et al.).
If the source is only a single page (most content hosted on websites, for example, does not span across multiple pages as it would in print).
“Vinyl's popularity has been underreported before” (Van Buskirk).
If the source you are quoting is itself quoted in a larger source, use qtd. in.
"‘The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year,’ said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark” (qtd. in Van Buskirk).
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 08
- While researching, take note of all the source’s publication information: look for the required core elements
- Capitalize and title the Works Cited Page as such
- Common knowledge, such as biographical and historical information found in reference materials, need not be cited
- Be wary of using sources with too few core elements. If the material you find in your research has no named creator, source, or publisher, who is responsible for its content? Without knowing who publishes material, you will probably not be able to effectively evaluate it
- Websites often list their copyright holders at the bottom of the page
- While in-text citations include only the page numbers on which the borrowed material appears, references on the Works Cited Page include all the source’s page numbers (not the entirety of the publication’s page numbers)
- Do not start your works cited list on a separate document. Just space down a bit from your draft to keep a running list of your citations in the same file.
Chapter 09: Style
Some people might embrace a fashion of their own through the clothes they wear, how they style their hair, or the way they modify or decorate their bodies. Others may describe themselves by naming the music they listen to, the television programs and films they watch, or the video games, books, or other media they enjoy. Some people distinguish themselves from others with the way they carry themselves, the words they use, their accent or the rhythm with which they speak, or the words they use when they talk, or some other combination of traits altogether. Even the absence of a unique style is a characteristic unto itself. Whatever it may be, there is likely a style that you consider you own, an identity you think best represents who you are, or the person you want others to see.
While you may not control how others see you, you can present yourself to the world as you like. From the pictures and descriptions you post online, to the links, videos, and information you share with friends and family, to the usernames or video game handles or tags you use with others online, the way you shape your interactions with others exemplifies your style. The style you choose to present to others does not necessarily define you, but it will influence how others see you, and may suggest to them how you feel about a topic or subject.
For example, a bumper sticker or decal on a car may communicate a message to other drivers about the beliefs of the driver, but that same sticker will likely inform what those other drivers think or how they feel about that driver. Managing the way you present your identity to others is a delicate balancing act between doing what is expected of you and showing others only what you want them to see.
What is normal, anyway? What is expected of you will depend on the situation in which you find yourself. People tend to dress appropriately depending on the situation, just as they often tailor their styles for what is correct or appropriate at any given time. For the most part, people like to dress for an occasion.
Perhaps your position at work requires you to wear a uniform. If you had a choice, you might not wear it, but because you value the position—or maybe just want to keep the job—you dress appropriately for work, and tailor your style accordingly. While shorts might be more comfortable, especially during a Midwest summer, perhaps you are required to wear pants. Maybe your own workplace has asked you to remove your jewelry, cover a tattoo, or change the color or style of your hair.
Or maybe instead your relatives are visiting for the holidays, and your mother asks you to wear the shockingly-pink bunny footie pajamas your great aunt made you. Even if you feel as if the fuzzy bunny outfit does not fit your style, you may wear it anyway, knowing it will make both your mother and great aunt feel good.
It may be that you dress to impress for important occasions. Perhaps you put a lot of time and thought into your Halloween costumes. Or you might wear your favorite outfit for situations like an interview for a new job (with no formal dress code), a first date, or the beginning of this class. Certainly, you have changed outfits to fit with the occasion, because it is unlikely you are wearing formalwear or a costume to this class. It is similarly improbable that you have attended a formal function, such as a wedding, in your pajamas. Adopting a style that is appropriate for academic writing is akin to changing your clothes to fit the situation: style dresses up the message.
Of course, what is appropriate changes over time and with society, and is pressured by technological, environmental, educational, and political factors. Throughout the 20th century numerous fashions were looked down upon: bloomers, slacks, zoot suits, bikinis, miniskirts, bellbottoms, baggy pants, saggy waistbands, halter tops, baseball caps, long hair, short hair, no hair, facial hair, and many others. You may have even encountered restrictions like these in your own high school dress code, yet still found ways to express yourself.
Conforming to standards while still maintaining your own style can be difficult. Engaging with the writing process and rethinking your style means revising the presentation of your ideas until the audience sees what you want them to see. This style need not be monolithic; your writing style may change depending on the requirements of the writing project, but your style should always reflect who you are and what you believe. When writing academically, you should stay away from casual writing and instead embrace a formal voice or writing identity.
You might write in various styles for different classes or subjects. In your English classes, for example, you might adopt a different voice for your essays than you would for your lab reports in chemistry. Or you might write differently in a film or art review in a humanities course than you would in a speech for a communications course.
The ability to adapt to your specific writing situation is an admirable skill which takes a lot of practice to develop. As you rethink your writing project and move recursively through the stages of the writing process, challenge yourself to find a style for your work that is both appropriate and effective.
In your own academic writing projects, thorough research and careful reading will acquaint you with new experiences and perspectives, informing your own position and style. Developing your methods as a writer means experimenting with your position and your voice, or how you communicate the topic and perspective.
Voice
In composition, your voice is the way you write, or how you communicate information to the audience. Voice is a combination of mechanical elements like grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling, as well as stylistic choices like tone, diction, and point-of-view. Not only must your voice be dynamic for different writing projects, but it must also be appropriate for the medium though which you express yourself.
Writing for different situations, with different purposes in mind, requires changes in your style, or the voice with which you communicate. Informal communication has few standards, but your classes will challenge you to develop your own writing identity while adhering to the conventions of formal writing.
For example, consider how you might deliver the same bad news to different crowds using different mediums. Think of something that has recently been bothering you, then imagine how you would write about it in:
- A journal or diary entry for yourself
- A message to your friend
- A tweet for the public to see
- An essay for a class
The voice you use to deliver the same information through these mediums varies depending on the audience, how you feel about the material, and the medium itself. Style is subjective, and while each medium may have its own conventions or appropriate stylistic choices, your instructors will certainly have opinions about what is good, fashionable, or correct.
When writing for class, your voice should be clear and your style appropriate for your position and audience. An approachable style allows the audience to engage with your work. For formal writing projects, you should assume an academic standard of English, or at the very least a voice reserved for other professional situations. Formal writing situations such as these require appropriate contexts, so informal references to readers (second-person pronouns like you and your), slang terminology, and other informal stylistic choices may not resonate with all audiences.
When you speak, your voice has its own rhythm, timbre, texture, other qualities. While it is not exactly a representation of you, it does help identify you. Your voice may be like those of members of your family, but it is still your own, at least in how you use it. Just as you might identify a close friend or family member—or maybe an actor—by their voice alone, so too might you recognize a writer by their writing alone.
In your classes, your instructors will want you to embrace a voice conducive to academic conversations. Readers will expect you to adopt a professional writing identity and communicate formally. Most formal writing asks that you maintain a grammatically active voice, meaning the subject of a sentence performs the action prescribed by the verb.
- For example, this sentence uses the active voice
- In this sentence, the passive voice is used.
- Who is using the passive voice in the sentence?
The subject acts upon the verb, whereas in passive voice grammatical constructions, the noun phrase or object is acted upon by the verb. Passive voice is useful when the actor is unknown or is an unimportant detail.
- Thieves stole our car. (active)
- Our car was stolen. (passive: by whom?)
- Textbooks collect and transmit information. (active)
- Textbooks are used to collect and transmit information. (passive: by whom?)
Tone
Maybe you have been warned in the past not to take a certain tone (or “that” tone) with someone. While we may all have different definitions of what that tone may be, it is understood that someone’s attitude when speaking can affect how their audience hears what is being said. In verbal communication, the tone of someone’s voice can inform the listener’s expectations. Tone of voice may suggest something different than what their words truly say.
In written communication, tone is your attitude about the topic, or your attitude toward the audience (sometimes both). If you are friendly, it should come across to the audience in your voice. Because tone reflects your emotions, it may be earnest, helpful, sarcastic, honest, delighted, disappointed, jaded, excited, skeptical, sorrowful, angry, shocked, outraged, or any number of other feelings. Your feelings on the topic will inform your perspective, thus the tone you take in your writing will reveal to the audience how you feel about the topic.
However you choose to style your writing, your tone must be appropriate for both the topic and the audience. Maintain an even-handed approach to your tone throughout the writing process. A disrespectful or glib examination of a tragedy, for example, may turn readers against you. If you are unnecessarily flippant or lighthearted, your reader may doubt your commitment to research and to the topic at hand. Conversely, a serious-minded discussion of a trivial occurrence may leave readers wondering what purpose your essay really serves or whether you are misleading them.
In some cases—humor and outrage, for example—tone may be used against the audience’s expectations; however, your purpose for writing will in large part help shape the tone of your writing project. If you are trying to argue for the validity of your claim, or to persuade the audience to share in your opinion, an earnest or forthright tone may help convince them of your rationality. If your goal instead is to affront the audience, spurring them with a shocking statement may be necessary. An incendiary or confrontational tone may unsettle readers and draw them into your work—or it may turn them off completely.
Diction
In composition, diction is your word choice, or the terms that you use in your writing. Appropriate diction is indicative of the quality of your vocabulary and your understanding of the topic. Choosing the best words to use in your writing requires considering the audience when drafting your work. For example, if you were writing an essay which required you to research sugary carbonated beverages, you might use the term soda in your work, instead of regional variants like pop or coke. Or if you were to tell someone about a video you posted online, would you say you shot, made, or filmed the video?
Choosing the correct words for use in your own writing means considering both their denotations and connotations when rethinking your work. A word’s denotation is its dictionary definition. Denotation tends to be objective, or neutral, generally referring to the most common or generally accepted meaning of the term or expression. A word’s connotations are all the associated meanings and feelings attached to that word. Connotation varies depending on the context in which the word is used, who the audience is, and what the speaker’s purpose is. Because connotation is subjective, it can assign positive or negative values to words, or favorable or unfavorable views to topics depending on the audience or context.
When searching for the right words to include in your work, you may struggle to find the terms you seek to express your ideas. Both research and reading during the writing process can help expand your vocabulary by exposing you to new meanings, words, and phrases related to the topic. Choosing correct and precise words is imperative in making yourself understood to the audience and signaling to them that you are an authority on the topic. The more precise your diction, the less likely readers are to misunderstand your meaning.
General terms—words such as stuff and things—leave room for confusion, as their meanings and connotations vary greatly. Offer specificity in your diction to narrow the scope of meanings in your writing. General and specific are not opposites; rather, they describe a scale that changes depending on the purpose, context, and audience. For example, you may have reached an impasse when trying to choose what to eat with family or friends. You might answer the question, “What do you want to eat?” somewhere on this scale, where the answers range from more-general to more-specific:
What do you want to eat?
- Nutrients
- Food
- Solid food
- Something sweet
- A rich dessert
- Ice cream
- Chocolate ice cream
- Skinny Cow brand chocolate ice cream protein cookie sandwiches
Or this example:
- Activity
- Exercise
- Athletics
- Team sports
- Basketball
- College basketball
- Community college basketball
- SCC Cougars basketball
When choosing the best word, it is best to remember not to use slang, or highly-technical language in your writing. Terms like these may be familiar to people who frequently use them in their profession, or to people who share common interests, but slang and jargon are not understood by everyone, and typically do not have a place even in everyday conversation, let alone a formal writing project.
Unless you are writing for a highly-trained or specialized audience, refrain from using jargon unnecessarily. Your goal should not be to confuse the audience or obfuscate your point. Instead, your mission should be to communicate clearly and effectively with readers.
For example, a radio announcer might describe a baseball at-bat with a lot of jargon or specialized expressions:
“The pitcher checks on the runner, gets his sign from the catcher, and fires it home. It’s a strike, right down the pipe, clocking in at 99 through the heart of the strike zone. The count is 0-1. Now the southpaw gets his signal from the backstop, looks back at the runner at first, and delivers from the stretch. The pitch is just a bit outside, and the umpire raises a finger on each hand to signal the count is even at 1-1. The pitcher again checks on the runner, gets his sign from the catcher, and begins his throwing motion. Here’s the pitch: the batter swings and lifts what looks to be a long, lazy flyball to left field. The fielder settles underneath it and makes the catch. He looks the runner back and throws it in to second. The runner can’t tag and retreats back to first. If you’re keeping score at home that’s an F7. One out.”
If listeners are unfamiliar with the sport and its rules, they will be lost and unable to understand what happens in the game. In your writing projects, if readers are unfamiliar with the topic, the tone and diction of your writing may hinder their understanding. You want your writing to be communicative. The audience should be able to understand what it is that you are saying. If you use terms that are outdated, incorrect, or inappropriate, the audience may be less likely to recognize your position. Ultimately, your diction effects how you are perceived by readers.
Figurative Language
Figurative language is diction whose meaning is the opposite of literal language. It is usually associated with artistic writing, but we use figures of speech in everyday communication as well as to provide imagery for readers that is descriptive, emblematic, or otherwise representative of your ideas. Use figures of speech to clarify, magnify, or enhance the power of your thoughts. Figurative language is used for effect and can personalize a writing style.
Illustrative images and comparisons engage with readers’ imaginations: using figurative language requires you trust the intelligence of the audience. Include in your writing projects expressions, vivid descriptions, a variety of sensory details, and rich comparisons to enliven your prose and help readers see a subject from your perspective.
Simile is a figure of speech comparing dissimilar things using a comparative word such as like, as, or than:
- Sly like a fox
- Lazy as a dog
- Faster than a speeding bullet
- Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
- “It’s like rain on your wedding day” (not irony)
Metaphor is a figure of speech comparing dissimilar things without using a comparative word:
- Time is money
- Life is pain
- Time flies when you’re having fun
- “Cry ‘Havoc!,’ and let slip the dogs of war.”
Analogies are comparisons between two things used to provide explanation or clarification:
- Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: although you may understand it better, it dies in the process.
- Like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives
- “Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Clichés are common expressions that have diminished meaning through overuse:
- Push the envelope
- Think outside the box
- Shift the paradigm
Idioms are figures of speech that describe something that is neither literally true nor logically connected to the expression:
- Rain cats and dogs
- Chew it over
- Sleep on it
- Kick the bucket
- Burn another bridge
Hyperbole or exaggeration means stretching the truth for effect:
- Everybody knows…
- Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
- “I’m starving.”
Understatement plays down the value of something, typically for very dry comedic effect:
- “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
- The Troubles
When using figurative language, you must be a reliable authority. Use limiting qualifiers (such as some, many, and most) and avoid relying on hyperbole like ad populum to earn the trust of readers.
Point-of-View
It is common to make assumptions about the audience of a piece of writing, but these assumptions may not always be correct or even appropriate. Using second-person pronouns such as you or first-person plural pronouns like we may define readers in ways contrary to their own viewpoints. Avoid using pronouns that locate your point of view in the first- or second-person point-of-view in formal writing.
While we all have biases, we are likely only aware of some, while others remain unseen. When drafting you may not notice if implicit bias creeps into your position or your voice. When moving through the stages of the writing process, it is important to try to read your work as others may see it.
In academic writing, for example, a long-standing (and outdated) tradition was to denote unknown actors or individuals as male or masculine. For example, an outdated sentence might read:
Each of the students completed his homework.
In this sentence, the pronoun ‘his’ refers to the singular antecedent ‘each;’ however, as you are probably well aware, not every student is male. Contemporary academic writing avoids this by embracing the gender-neutral singular ‘their.’ In today’s classroom the same sentence would read:
Each of the students completed their homework.
Always be sensitive when addressing the following in your own work:
- Stereotypes
- Gender or sexual orientation
- Including pronoun use
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Nationality
- Religion
- Political affiliation
- Age
- Class
- Ability
- Mental well-being
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 09
- Some instructors look to limit their students’ use of the verb “be”
- Was/is/were/are/am
- These verbs don’t necessarily provide as much description as other verbs
- Don’t use contractions
- Know words and phrases that you overuse
- Look to avoid them or change it up
- Use a thesaurus app
Chapter 10: Usage
Written communication can be frustrating. It is sometimes difficult to make yourself understood to readers and adhere to the grammatical rules that govern academic writing. Speaking is often much simpler and something with which most of us are comfortable, or at least have more experience. When you communicate verbally, you cannot misspell words or misuse a semicolon. Verbal communication is largely informal, forgiving, and more fluid in policing grammatical structures.
When you communicate something to others, does it matter if you get some of the details wrong, so long as the audience understands the general idea? The answer to this question will certainly vary depending on who you ask, what they are trying to communicate, and who their audience is. You might speak differently with your friends than you do your coworkers, or you might write for yourself in another way than you would for an academic writing project.
In fact, speaking the way you write in class could be weird in some situations, just as writing the way that you speak could be awkward when writing for class, in terms of both content and voice. It is not very often that you might include citations, extended definitions, or direct quotations in your day-today conversations with others; similarly, you may find that personal information, curse words, slang, atypical spellings, or nonstandard sentence constructions (such as sentence fragments or run-ons) are used only infrequently in academic writing.
Whatever your topic and purpose, your goal should be to communicate clearly and effectively. If the audience is unable to understand your writing because sentences do not follow logical constructions; or readers must stop repeatedly to look up definitions; or if the audience misses important details because they are trying to decipher the organization of or usage in your writing; or if your prose keeps them from getting your point, you are not communicating productively.
One of the goals of this course is that you improve your written communication skills. In order to communicate effectively, you must adhere to contemporary community standards. If the audience is constantly tripped up by misuses in punctuation or spelling, they may find your writing tiresome and become uninterested in your work. Common errors and typos may also cause you to lose the trust of the audience. If readers think that you cannot be bothered to compose logically grammatical constructions—to write clear sentences, or at least revise your work—they may also question the effort of your research or your knowledge on the topic. Repeated mistakes can damage your credibility as both a writer and researcher.
Of course, many writers want their work to not only be correct, but also be memorable. Sitting at the computer, staring at a blinking cursor struggling to write the best introduction—or trying to craft the perfect status update, tweet, or snap for the situation—can be maddening.
Even when writing informally, you may feel pressured to follow the unspoken rules or conventions of communication. Have you ever found yourself struggling to write a short, heartfelt note to someone inside a birthday card, anniversary card, or sympathy card? It can be not only difficult but also stressful to find the right words for the occasion. Or perhaps you have made a comment on the internet and someone corrected your grammar? While a mistake in grammar in an online posting may not affect your position or damage your credibility, it may not feel so great to be corrected, either.
Imagine completing a writing project for work or school. Would you submit a report to your supervisors full of typos? An essay loaded with simple mistakes in punctuation? A letter of application to a potential employer with ungrammatical constructions?
If you were applying for a job, grant, or scholarship, you would most likely want to present yourself in a favorable light to increase your chances of selection. In professional and academic situations, it is crucial to know and follow the rules—not only for your own credibility, but also for the reputation of the institution on whose behalf you are writing.
Studying usage may not be the most exciting endeavor; however, knowing and using these rules to produce sentences that draw readers in is an effective method to communicate your ideas. You have probably learned about grammar in the past, most-likely component-by-component. Maybe your English or Language Arts classes in grade school and middle school included lessons on the parts of speech. Perhaps you diagrammed sentences in high school.
This chapter may help guide you to improving your written communication at the sentence-level; you can apply this to all your writing projects, both formal and informal. As you move through the writing process, consider how this guide can help you develop your sentences effectively.
Crafting memorable and productive prose can be taxing, but there are surefire ways to improve your writing that involve rethinking and revising it. When you review your work during the improve stage of the writing process, look for opportunities to edit your work in ways that promote effective communication.
Because writing is mapping thought, you should want the audience to be able to easily read that map. Improve your communication through effective sentence construction. Think about how many words it takes you to convey an idea and do your best to eliminate unnecessary words and phrases from your writing.
Effective Sentence Usage
There exists a fair amount of variability in how you express your ideas in writing, though most sentences are one of four sentence types:
- Simple
- Compound
- Complex
- Compound-complex
Use these sentence styles to balance the importance of your ideas, or to emphasize some aspects over others.
The most basic complete sentences contain only a subject and predicate, which may be as simple as a noun and a verb. The predicate of a sentence says something about the subject of that sentence.
People cheered.
Wind blows.
She wonders.
They drove.
A phrase, or a group of words that acts as a single unit, does not contain a subject and predicate. A group of words that acts as a noun is known as a noun phrase and can function as a subject or object in a sentence.
The aspiring professional gamer hopes to find enough time to practice.
The first semester of college demands a lot of his time.
After she crams for her midterm math exam, she plans to play online with friends.
A clause is a group of words that contains a noun and a verb.
The dog is happy.
He wags his tail.
I have bacon.
An independent clause can stand alone as its own sentence because it contains both a subject and predicate.
The cat plots against us.
She sharpens her claws.
We live in fear.
Independent clauses express the main idea of a sentence. If the sentence is a single independent clause, that clause must be the main idea. Such sentences are simple.
The dog stands behind me.
The cat stalks above.
Raising pets is complicated.
Of course, an independent clause suggests a dependent clause. Dependent clauses sometimes express incomplete ideas as though they were complete thoughts. Write in complete sentences by avoiding fragments. Including sentence-ending punctuation alone does not remedy a sentence fragment.
The fish watches with great interest. Because he has money on the cat.
The fish watches with great interest because he has money on the cat.
Because he has money on the cat, the fish watches with great interest.
____________________________________________________
I’m surprised he knows a bookie. Who will give him favorable odds.
I’m surprised he knows a bookie who will give him favorable odds.
____________________________________________________
I keep my eyes trained on the cat, but the dog stares only at me. Holding the bacon.
I keep my eyes trained on the cat, but the dog stares only at me, holding the bacon.
A compound sentence is a combination of two or more independent clauses. These sentences are effective for showing readers related concepts and giving ideas equal importance. Connect independent clauses in a compound sentence to one another by using a coordinating conjunction and a comma.
The student completed her essay, and she found enough time to practice her game.
She got an A on her assignment, and the gamer rewarded herself with a new controller.
And is only one of the seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. You can easily remember these seven conjunctions with the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS.
Coordination shows readers that two or more ideas are of equal importance within a sentence. If two clauses would be sentences on their own, you can join them together with a comma and a coordinating conjunction.
Reading is a great way to spend time, for it calms me.
Janet R., our Roomba, is an effective vacuum cleaner, and robots are the future of housekeeping.
I am not taking a trip for pleasure, nor am I taking a trip for business.
My friends and I are looking forward to the next season of Attack on Titan, but I not-so-secretly don’t want the series to end!
Remembering your significant other’s birthday is important, or so I’ve been told.
I love going to amusement parks, yet I have an unreasonable fear of rollercoasters.
Kim enjoyed building a garden, so she spent her spring planting.
Comma splice
A comma splice connects two independent clauses with only a comma, omitting the coordinating conjunction. Use a coordinating conjunction following the comma.
Luke wants to go to the station, his uncle needs him to work the farm.
Luke wants to go to the station, but his uncle needs him to work the farm.
____________________________________________________
The museum sells astronaut ice cream, I know that it is one of your favorites.
The museum sells astronaut ice cream, and I know that it is one of your favorites.
____________________________________________________
Making a mixtape is difficult, I made you a playlist instead.
Making a mixtape is difficult, so I made you a playlist instead.
Run-ons
A run-on sentence is comprised of two or more independent clauses connected without any punctuation or conjunctions.
Ska music is very danceable it usually has a lot of energy.
Ska music is very danceable because it usually has a lot of energy.
____________________________________________________
I try to ride my bike every day it sometimes rains I can’t always ride it.
I try to ride my bike every day, but it sometimes rains, so I can’t always ride it.
____________________________________________________
Using an app to monitor and track your caloric intake can help you lead a healthier life logging every meal and snack is key.
Using an app to monitor and track your caloric intake can help you lead a healthier life, so logging every meal and snack is key.
You may correct a run-on by using a semicolon to connect the two independent clauses if the subjects of the sentences are closely related. Typically, a semicolon puts one clause in the context of another using a transition or conjunctive adverb such as however.
Transitions help establish connectivity and keep readers on the path of your thinking.
Just as subordination and coordination help your readers understand which parts of the sentence are most important, using semicolons with conjunctive adverbs and transitions will aid your audience in following the flow of your writing project.
Luke wants to go to the station; however, his uncle needs him to work on the farm.
The museum sells astronaut ice cream; I know that it is one of your favorites.
Making a mixtape is difficult; therefore, I made you a playlist instead.
Ska music is very danceable; it usually has a lot of energy.
Using an app to monitor and track your caloric intake can help you lead a healthier life; logging every meal and snack is key.
You can also correct a run-on by writing its clauses as their own sentences, subordinating one of the clauses, or using a comma and coordinating conjunction between them.
Subordination shows readers that two or more ideas have unequal importance. The main idea of a sentence is typically expressed in an independent clause, whereas smaller or minor ideas are located in dependent (subordinate) clauses and phrases.
Complex sentence = independent + dependent
A complex sentence uses a dependent or subordinate clause to differentiate focus or importance between the ideas expressed in its clauses.
Because spelling is so difficult, I typically write with a dictionary app open.
If you eat all your meat, you can have some pudding.
Before California was a state, it was a territory.
Since you’ve been such a good sport, I’ll cool it with the examples.
Common subordinating conjunctions:
After, Although, As, Because, Before, If, Since, That, Though, Unless, Until, When, Where, Whether, Which, While, Who, Whom, Whose
Coordination and subordination help eliminate series of too-short sentences, resulting in choppy prose. When combined within the same sentence, coordination and subordination create compound-complex sentences.
Compound-complex = subordination + coordination
A compound-complex sentence is a combination of two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. These types of sentences are useful in highlighting the importance of one idea or clause in a sentence over another. They also tend to build on each other in a cause/effect sequence, showing that an action must happen before a reaction.
Unless you make reservations, Private Kitchen won’t serve your party, so you had better call ahead if you want to take the family there.
I understand his position, even if I don’t agree with him, but that doesn’t mean that I condone his actions.
Although they couldn’t say with any certainty if our insurance will cover the repairs, the agents were happy to hear that we weren’t hurt in the accident, or so they said.
Make it easy for readers to follow your thinking. The map that you draw for the audience should be clear and direct. Effective use of clauses, punctuation, and grammar can aid readers in their journey through your writing project by contributing to the coherence of your work. This “flow” is a combination of connectivity and consistency in your writing.
To help develop the coherence of your own prose, use parallelism in grammatical structures, places items in series, partner ideas, and employ coordinating and subordinating conjunctions to direct readers through your thinking. Similarly, use pronouns in place of nouns and noun phrases and make sure they agree in number and kind with their antecedents.
Parts of Speech
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases. The word for which the pronoun is a substitute is called its antecedent, or referent. Pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents.
Subject and object pronouns refer to people and things.
| Singular Subject | Singular Object | Plural Subject | Plural Object |
1st person | I | Me | We | Us |
2nd person | You | You | You | You |
3rd person | He, She, It, They | Him, Her, It, Them | They | Them |
Personal and possessive pronouns denote ownership.
| Singular Possessive | Plural Possessive |
1st person | My, mine | Our, ours |
2nd person | Your, yours | Your, yours |
3rd person | Her, hers, his, their, its | Their, theirs |
Intensive and reflexive pronouns are used for emphasis and reception.
| Singular | Plural |
1st person | Myself | Ourselves |
2nd person | Yourself | Yourselves |
3rd person | Herself, himself, itself, themselves (singular they) | Themselves |
Two of the most commonly confused pronouns are who and whom. These relative pronouns begin subordinate clauses and questions. Who is used for subjects, and whom for objects. Other relative pronouns include whose, which, and that.
At Comic-Con, Brian got to meet Deadpool, who is his favorite superhero.
He got to meet Deadpool, whom you will meet later.
Whoever collects the most tickets probably spent the most tokens.
The mentor to whom I was assigned has been very helpful in introducing me to the organization.
Whom did you say won the tournament?
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Whose cat is in my kitchen?
Which of these is yours?
Demonstrative pronouns identify other nouns. This, That, These, and Those all point to specific nouns either implied or located within the sentence itself.
Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things that are not specific.
All, Any, Anybody/Anyone/Anything, Each, Either, Everybody/Everyone/Everything, Few, Many, Neither, No one/Nobody, None, Nothing, One, Several, Some, Somebody/Someone/Something
Everybody knows argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy.
Nothing is owed to anyone.
The few that made it are lucky.
Either is fine with me.
Some things are best left unsaid.
Others should never be forgotten.
Indefinite pronouns can be singular or plural depending on the context in which they are used. The antecedent will help you determine whether the pronoun is singular or plural.
Some of the cookies are missing.
Some of the milk is gone too.
Just as pronouns must agree in number and kind with their antecedents, so must verbs agree with their subjects. Avoid shifts in person and number; the number of subjects should agree with the verb (singular vs. plural).
Turtles can be trained in the ways of ninjutsu.
The tortoise is a stubborn student, incapable of learning any martial arts.
Be especially aware of compound subjects, collective nouns, and nouns that appear plural but are not.
The United State Military is comprised of five branches: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
Our class is writing cards and making care packages to send overseas to the troops.
Six-dozen cookies should complete this plate.
Proper nouns
Proper nouns are distinct from common nouns in that they are the names of specific or individual people, places, or things. Because these nouns are specific, they must be capitalized.
Proper | Common |
Cousin Steve | my cousin |
Nintendo 64 | a video game system |
the Mississippi River | a river |
St. Charles Community College | a community college |
Cottleville | a small town |
the Midwest | a midwestern state |
English | composition |
March | spring |
Dr. Acula | the doctor |
Make it easy for readers to follow your thinking by avoiding shifts in verb tense. Verb tenses show readers when things happen in a sentence in relation to when the sentence occurs.
| Simple | Perfect | Continuous | Perfect Continuous |
Present | It happens | It has happened | It is happening | It has been happening |
Past | It happened | It had happened | It was happening | It had been happening |
Future | It will happen | It will have happened | It will be happening | It will have been happening |
Verb tenses differentiate time for the audience.
| Simple | Perfect | Continuous | Perfect Continuous |
Present | It is | It has been | It is being | It has been being |
Past | It was | It had been | It was being | It had been being |
Future | It will be | It will have been | It will be | It will have been being |
Beware of irregular verbs—verbs that do not follow the regular pattern of conjugation.
Modify your ideas with adjectives and adverbs (rhetorical limiters or qualifiers) to add precision to and avoid overgeneralizations in your writing. Adjectives and adverbs provide clarity, depth, and texture to your writing. Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns, whereas adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
The blue truck ran the stop sign.
Just before the accident, the car’s tires screeched loudly.
The crash was inevitable.
The twisted, crumpled vehicles lay in the middle of the intersection.
Luckily no one was injured.
The police arrived eventually.
Most adjectives and adverbs come in one of three flavors: positive, comparative, and superlative. Use comparatives when examining two subjects and superlatives when examining three or more subjects.
Positive | Comparative (-er/more) | Superlative (-est/most) |
Good | Better | Best |
Bad | Worse | Worst |
Smart | Smarter | Smartest |
Dumb | Dumber | Dumbest |
Silent | More silent | Most silent |
Happy | Happier | Happiest |
Terrifying | More terrifying | Most terrifying |
Accommodating | More accommodating | Most accommodating |
Thick | Thicker | Thickest |
Of the two ducks, the blue was better.
Out of all the ducks drawn in class, this duck is the best.
The blue duck is the most beautiful bird I have ever beheld.
As the strongest dodgeball player, he must throw the ball judiciously.
On his final exam, he performed well.
Billy is the luckiest boy in the first grade.
Comparatives and superlatives cannot modify absolutes. Something, for example, cannot be more perfect or most unique.
Prepositions and prepositional phrases
Prepositions also add specificity to your writing by modifying a noun with a phrase. Such phrases often act as adjectives or adverbs in sentences.
Over the hills and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go.
There are many prepositions, but the most common can be identified with a simple exercise that pairs the word with a simple noun phrase:
________________ the meadow
________________ the fence
________________ the cottage
Because prepositions modify nouns and pronouns, they establish a relationship with those words. Sometimes the relationship is spatial:
Aboard, above, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, down, from, in, inside, into, near, next to, off, on, onto, opposite, out, outside, over, past, round, through, throughout, to, toward, under, underneath, unto, up, upon, within, without
Other times the relationship is more abstract:
About, after, as, concerning, considering, despite, during, except, for, like, of, plus, regarding, respecting, since, than, till, unlike, until, with
Punctuation
Punctuation marks function as road signs throughout the map of your thinking. Sentence-ending punctuation and internal punctuation help direct readers through your thoughts, denoting individual ideas and expressions from one another.
Common Errors in punctuation can prevent readers from understanding your perspective by confusing the action and/or meaning of your sentences. While imperfect punctuation may not prevent your readers from understanding your perspective, it can make the journey a little more arduous.
Commas are the most-common punctuation mark, appearing nearly twice as often as all other marks combined, so it is no wonder that they are frequently misused. Commas clarify meaning inside sentences. Without commas, parts of a sentence would collide into one another, confusing meaning:
While we were eating the dog snuck out the back door.
You may do a double take and reread this sentence to make sure the subjects aren’t actually eating a dog, and once you see the “snuck out the back door” part which doesn’t make sense if the diners ate the dog, you may realize that you read it wrong, and you try again to read it the correct way. This takes time though, and with a simple comma after the word eating, the sentence clearly and effectively portrays what it meant to portray from the beginning, and the dog is safe from being eaten, but it may get into some trouble because it snuck out the back door.
Commas help organize information in your sentences in four major ways, through:
- Coordination
- Introduction/subordination
- Separation/serialization
- Insertion
As you learned in the beginning of this chapter, coordination and subordination connect and introduce ideas within a sentence. A comma indicates to readers that one clause has come to an end and that another is about to begin.
The clumsy giant fell from the beanstalk, and the ground shook when he crashed into the field.
I was sick with worry about the test, but our professor isn’t even here today.
Randy owns a go-kart, so it’s entirely possible that Taylor might have asked him to go for a ride.
A comma also follows introductory words or phrases, as well as clauses that precede the main idea of your sentence. Most commonly, these word groups function as adverbs, usually explaining where, when, how, why, or under what conditions the sentence’s main idea takes place.
When the sun rises in the West, only then will you know that the world has gone topsy-turvy.
Tripping over the dog, he fell into the coffee table and spilled soup all over the couch.
However, his grandma uses a lot of Scotch Guard, so the couch was no worse for wear.
Stan, please mail this letter for me.
Having nothing else left to do, I reluctantly began my homework.
Periods
The period is the most-commonly used mark of sentence-ending punctuation; that is to say, most sentences end in periods. End claims, declarative statements, and every sentence that isn’t a question or an exclamation with a period.
This is a declarative statement.
Today is a day that ends in a Y.
Sometimes a sentence explains that someone asked a question although the sentence doesn’t ask a question itself.
Jesse asked if we were going to the arcade later.
Kris asked whether he should eat beforehand.
Periods are also commonly used in abbreviations.
Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., Sr., Jr.
A.A., B.A., M.A., Ph.D., R.N.
a.m., p.m., i.e., e.g., etc., etc.
Exclamation Marks
The exclamation mark should be reserved for sentences and phrases that express excitement. Use exclamation marks sparingly for special emphasis; if you use them too frequently, readers may not understand which sentences or phrases are extraordinary or exceptional.
Wow! I can’t believe that this frozen yogurt place lets us put free unlimited toppings on our frozen yogurt.
This is outrageous!
Question Marks
If you ask a question directly, end the sentence with a question mark.
What do you mean I have to pay for all of these toppings?
This is an outrage?
Colons
A colon directs readers by grabbing their attention and indicating the words that follow are of significance or importance.
A colon appears at the end of an independent clause. What follows may be a list, a phrase or word that renames another noun, a question, or even another independent clause (if it provides clarity on the first).
A poorly balanced breakfast might include the following: diet soda, marshmallows, one piece of chewing gum, school glue, and lip balm.
Some of my favorite breakfast delicacies are General Mills staples: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Lucky Charms, Sprinkle Spangles, Sir Grapefellow, and of course, Baron Von Redberry.
Some of the most memorable cereal spokespeople are animals: Sugar Bear, Tony the Tiger, Dig’em the Frog, and Cornelius the Rooster.
Never forget the immortal words of Toucan Sam: “Follow Your Nose!”
Breakfast is the key to your morning’s ignition: you need it to get started.
The colon is also used in subtitles, greetings, ratios, and time notation.
Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb
To whom it may concern:
To the office of the registrar:
1:2, 5:7, 1:100
1:00 a.m., 4:20 p.m., 9:00 p.m.
Semicolons as Supercommas
If a series of items includes internal punctuation—such as a noun that renames another noun—use a semicolon to distinguish between items in the series.
Classic science fiction sagas that have been adapted to video games include Star Wars, both the original and prequel trilogies; Star Trek, the original series, The Next Generation, and various other titles; and Dune, which has been adapted only twice since its initial publication.
Hyphens
Compound nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs sometimes appear as a single word, sometimes as two separate words, and sometimes as a hyphenated compound. A hyphen connects two words that act as a single adjective preceding a noun.
The all-knowing rock of wisdom is missing from its pedestal.
Some no-good scoundrel probably made off with it during my nap.
The last time it went missing, I found it in the cushions of our well-worn couch.
Additionally, you can use a hyphen to avoid confusion and make your meaning clear.
During the pit stop, the team re-tired the car in under two seconds.
After the victory, the driver retired from competitive racing.
Dash (or em-dash)
The dash is a versatile punctuation mark, often used to indicate additional information within or at the end of a sentence.
Use a dash:
- To establish parenthetical information that you want to explain, to emphasize, or on which you want to expand
- To indicate a shift in thought
- In conjunction with parenthetical commas to help rename another noun in the sentence.
All the scraps of paper that we’ve been saving—receipts, canceled checks, tax returns, proofs of purchase—are now digital, preventing clutter and unnecessary waste.
Everything Tim had been working toward—realizing his dreams, buying that jet-ski from his cousin’s neighbor, asking for time off to develop his comedy—came to fruition when he met Eric.
Not everything about our unscheduled layover is awful—the cookies are free.
Running at full speed, Charlie planted his foot, took aim at the football, and kicked with all his strength—only to fall on his head as Lucy pulled the ball away.
Making a shopping list of ingredients for tacos—corn tortillas, cherry tomatoes, onion, cilantro, salsa verde, and chicken—helped me realize that I want pizza instead.
The original members of the Avengers—Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp—have all appeared in the film adaptations of the comic books.
Brackets and parentheses
Words and phrases encapsulated in parenthesis often act as asides or digressions from the main idea, though they may also add additional or supplemental information. Limit your use of parentheticals; too many detours from the main path may lead readers astray from your main point.
The original five X-men (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Jean Grey) have all starred in their own limited series since their initial publication.
James S.A. Corey (the shared penname of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), the author of The Expanse series, has also written one Star Wars novel.
Parentheses may also encapsulate (1) numbers, (2) letters, or (3) other symbols to identify individual items in a series.
Brackets are used in MLA documentation when you replace or insert information into a direct quotation. The brackets indicate to readers where you have made changes to the original in the name of coherence.
For example, you might modify a selection of text from this chapter from its original second person point-of-view:
“This chapter may help guide you to improving your written communication at the sentence-level; you can apply this to all your writing projects, both formal and informal.”
To the third person:
“This chapter may help guide [readers] to improving [their] written communication at the sentence-level; [students] can apply this to all [their] writing projects, both formal and informal.”
Ellipsis
An ellipsis is made with three periods. When employing MLA documentation, use both an ellipsis and brackets together if you have removed information from a direct quotation: […]
For example, the previous selection of text from this chapter can be shortened with an ellipsis and brackets:
“This chapter may help […] you develop your sentences effectively.”
Make omissions such as this sparingly. If you remove too much material from a direct quotation, readers may question the context and content of the selection. Creative use of ellipsis and brackets may distort the true meaning of a selection.
“This film is not very good, unless you want to waste your time and money. Other than the first fifteen minutes, there is not enough suspense to keep the audience on the edge of their seats for three hours of plodding exposition.”
“This film is […] good […] and […] there is […] enough suspense to keep the audience on the edge of their seats […].”
Apostrophes
An apostrophe denotes possession when used with a noun—and unless the word ends in an s—always appears with an s. Possessive nouns show readers who owns what.
Mario’s overalls
Luigi’s gloves
Yoshi’s saddle
If the subjects of the sentence possess jointly, only the second subject includes the apostrophe. If the two subjects possess independently, both subjects include apostrophes.
Mario and Luigi’s third video game is fantastic.
Mario’s and Luigi’s overalls are bespoke.
Sometimes possession may seem a little awkward or abstract:
The work of an hour
An hour’s work
The bottom line of the company
The company’s bottom line
The last nerve of Eric
Eric’s last nerve
Plural nouns that end in s include an apostrophe with no additional s.
The safety glasses’ lenses protected her eyes from any debris.
The hobbits’ journey to Mordor was harrowing.
The Cardinals’ playoff chances are middling.
Apostrophes also are used in contractions to indicate missing letters.
Original | Contraction |
It is | It’s |
Do not | Don’t |
Cannot | Can’t |
Is not | Isn’t |
Had not | Hadn’t |
Should not | Shouldn’t |
Must have | Must’ve |
You have | You’ve |
Could have | Could’ve |
Would have | Would’ve |
Should not have | Shouldn’t’ve |
An apostrophe and the letter s are sometimes used to make plural letters, numbers, and words that appear as words, as well as abbreviations
Do you have any old 45’s we could try on the record player?
How many H’s are in the word withholding?
Those pants look so 1990’s.
Did you complete your ACT’s?
Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your ABC’s!
When revising your work, review your usage and word choice. Many commonly misused words can disrupt readers from understanding your meaning. The following are typical usage errors:
A/an
Accept/except
All right/alright
Apart/a part
Bad/badly
Can/may
Capital/Capitol
Cite/site
Complement/compliment
Data/datum
Definitely/defiantly
Effect/affect
Father/further
Good/well
Its/it’s
Lay/lie
Lead/led
Less/fewer
Maybe/may be
Passed/past
Principal/principle
Quote/quotation
Should have/Should’ve (not should of)
Than/then
There/their/they’re
To/too/two
Your/You’re
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 10
- Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Muphry’s Law states that if you try to correct someone’s grammar online, you will inevitably make an error in your correction.
- Vague pronoun references make for confusion
- Avoid references to the reader (2nd person pronoun: you)
- Adopt standardized usage
- Technology problems vs technological problems
Chapter 11: Exposition
Fact vs. opinion: this time it’s personal!
Readers have recently become accustomed to seeing terms like “fake news” and “alternative facts.” When a topic is known as controversial, it can be difficult for people to agree on what the facts actually are. Fact-checking information by researching its source and evaluating its credibility is a laborious task, which sometimes makes it problematic to separate fact from opinion.
Opinions are subjective viewpoints originating from individual perspectives. Opinions express what you understand to be the truth, but others may disagree with your position. Facts are objective, observable, and indisputable. Because of these qualities, facts excel as evidence in supporting a position. Facts can help convey reliable information by explaining, identifying, or exposing the truth. If your goal is to inform readers, it is best to provide them with facts.
The fact-filled materials with which you have worked during your time in school—dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, journals, and textbooks—are expository, sources meant to reveal to readers truthful information. These explanatory materials are not experiential, but instead aim for neutrality or objectivity in how they present information.
Some of the writing you produce in college will be based on your own experiences, such as personal narratives—these writing projects may ask you to write about and reflect on your own experiences—but most of the written work you produce will be expository. Essays, lab reports, book reports, profiles on individuals, locations, or events, and other expository writing projects strive for objectivity when presenting information to readers.
Because expository writing is constructed with facts, it is a rhetorical foundation on which many other genres build their structures. When you need to provide the audience with a clear picture of something, you might turn to an expository rhetorical strategy like description, definition, or exemplification.
Writing an expository essay can include synthesizing reliable outside information into your own work; therefore, expository writing often requires research. Expository writing establishes the conversation on a given topic by drawing on various credible sources to outline that topic. These essays tend to present their main points in explicit, straightforward thesis statements.
These thesis statements are supported with exhaustive examples, evidence, or other reasoning that allows readers to accept your information as factual. The audience must see facts such as descriptions, definitions, and examples as true, accurate, or otherwise reliable. Your goal is to demonstrate to readers that your sources are dependable and their information credible.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Description
Description uses additive details to provide readers an overall impression of a person, place, or object. This representation gives the audience an idea, sense, or feeling about the subject. If your purpose is expository, description may help readers understand better the topic by clarifying information, providing additional material such as finer points or specifics, or using language to establish a dominant mood.
You can paint subjects as you want readers to see them using clear and accurate description, so nearly all essays employ some level of description. For example, process analysis might describe different physical attributes of a process, such as the size or shape of cookies to be balled out in a recipe, where narrative might describe the setting or character. When constructing a description, narrow your focus by limiting information to only specific and relevant details. Concrete subjects, rather than abstractions, are much easier to describe because these subjects are observable.
Imagine, for example, that after a long study session you accidently left a notebook in the library. If you called back later in the day looking for your notebook, a vague description of the notebook and where you last saw it might not yield the results you want.
If instead you had to describe to the police your stolen car, or if you were to make flyers for your missing pet, you would want to provide your target audience with plenty of information so that they could effectively help find what is missing.
A good description includes abundant relevant details and allows others to see the subject just as you do. Just because you have seen your subject before does not mean that the audience has. Maybe you can clearly picture it in your head, but can others? Use description to paint for readers a vivid word-picture but include only details that advance your purpose.
If you were writing a narrative about a life-affirming whitewater rafting experience, details such as the other rafters’ hair color or pizza topping preferences may not matter to the story. While facts such as these may be accurate, they are also unlikely to fit with the purpose of the writing project (affirming your life). Important details might include information such as the water and air temperatures, the unseen dangers lurking below the water’s surface, and the lifelong friends accompanying you on the trip. Be as specific as possible without venturing into what may distract readers.
Vague, fuzzy, or unnecessary details add little, and may even detract from what you set out to accomplish with a writing project. Include only details that help shape readers’ understanding of the topic. Provide them with an overall impression by describing solely relevant details, organized logically from a consistent perspective.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Definition
In verbal communication, a person’s tone of voice can sometimes indicate that they are using a word in a nonstandard way. The listener is meant to understand this subtext, so long as they are familiar with the use of the word. Understanding meaning is fundamental in communication, so knowing the specific usage of a word allows us to fully consider its denotations and connotations. If the speaker and listener—or writer and reader—do not share the same definition of a word, its use can lead to misunderstanding.
Definitions, or the meanings of words, help develop an expository writing project by providing readers clarification. The audience is more likely to engage with the text if they understand it easily (and do not have to pause to reach for the dictionary). When examining words or subjects, consider if the definition you provide must be objective or subjective. Objective denotations are those understood by all, where subjective connotations are impressionistic, and may alter the tone of the material in the eyes of each reader. Refer to the purpose of your writing project when defining words or subjects: if your purpose is expository, strive to remain objective.
Words and their meanings change over time, and it is only through cultural exchange, circulation, and use that these changes occur. Cool words can become uncool, popular words unpopular, and acceptable words taboo as their denotations transform, or their connotations change, or as their audiences vary. If the reader and writer have different definitions of a word in mind, the meaning of a sentence can change:
- Did you see him land that nollie? That kid is stupid good!
- That dude dances like crazy, he is so rude!
- (Referring to the Nintendo Power Glove) “It’s so bad!”
Definitions are only successful if their meanings are clear to both reader and writer.
Formal Definition
The most common place to find a word’s meaning is the dictionary. Writers sometimes turn to this expository text for additional clarification in understanding a term. The listed, literal meaning of a word, or what is primarily understood to be meant by that word, is a word’s denotation, or formal definition.
Formal definitions are almost always brief and support another rhetorical pattern in a writing project. When providing a formal definition, a single sentence of explanation most often suffices, but sometimes you will need to include additional context for the term, especially if the term is controversial, complex, or highly-technical.
Extended Definition
An extended definition is longer and more-detailed than a one- or two-sentence explanation of a term. If the subject of your definition is controversial, complex, or highly-technical, an extended definition may be something as large as an entire essay or article.
Extended definitions may:
- Provide the history of a term
- Offer additional examples of a term
- Describe a topic and its parts in detail
- Compare synonyms or other similar subjects
- Contrast the word with its antonyms or other meanings
- Explain where others may be mistaken when defining the term
- Recontextualize a word, or explain a new meaning to the audience
While a subject’s denotation is objective, its connotation may be subjective. Even so, an extended definition provides a comprehensive explanation to readers. When developing an extended definition, think about what you must define for the audience and why.
For example, have you had to explain Pokémon to your grandparents? Do the people in your life use the same words for things as you do? Do they know the correct or appropriate words for complex ideas? Do they misuse terms? What terms is the audience comfortable with? What might they misunderstand?
It is probably that you have had to explain your likes or hobbies to friends or family members who may not have understood them. In defining a subject, it is necessary to take into consideration what the audience already knows and what information you can provide them.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Exemplification
Exemplification is the rhetorical strategy of providing examples to develop a point. Factual examples offer clarity and provide support for an idea, allowing readers to better understand the topic. To show readers the importance of your idea, for example, you might include a litany of statistics from various reports, or instead craft a narrative or a human-interest profile—both patterns of development provide readers with examples of your topic.
When using examples to provide clarity or evoke interest, a series of small instances may suffice. When using examples to explain or persuade, a delimited scope of examples with a more-detailed examination of these fewer instances may be more productive. Sometimes extended exemplification can be more effective than a quantitative list.
Examples allow others to see things as you see them, making the unfamiliar more accessible. Good examples provide clarity for readers and help them understand your position. Well-developed examples are appropriate for the purpose of the writing project and are tailored to the audience. When explaining planes in geometry, for instance, using a shadow as an example makes the concept easily understood to a wide variety of students.
Exemplification is used in almost all academic writing, as it is a surefire way to provide direct evidence in support and clarification of a point. Examples used in support of your perspective should be relevant, credible, and trustworthy. Without authoritative examples—without facts backing your opinions—claims you make are unconvincing and unsupported. If your examples do not support, clarify, or otherwise help readers understand your point, those examples may be ill-suited to your purpose.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 11
- Look for expository verbs on the writing prompt: define, record, name, state, list, identify, locate
- No matter what rhetorical patterns you use in the development of an expository essay, you must always consider the audience. Consider the following questions regarding your readers:
- Who is the audience? What can you assume about them? Does the medium of your writing suggest a specific audience?
- What do they already know about your topic, and what must you explain to them? Many audiences are comprised of people with varying experiences, levels of knowledge,
- How can you draw in their interest? How might your topic appeal/apply to them?
- What can you do so that they trust your account of the facts to be the best?
- Consider your own opinions about the topic—are they apparent in your writing? What is the difference between informing someone and arguing for your position?
- When writing exposition, mind your tone: sound like you know what you’re writing about, but don’t be pretentious. Employ an easy-to-understand, trustworthy tone that is confident, neutral, informative, and reliable
- Because you are reporting only the facts to the audience, you omit your own opinion. You’re aiming to explain something to readers—let them think about it rather than trying to convince them how to think about it. Your goal should be to provide enough information that the audience can make up their own minds on your topic.
- Don’t use a term in its own definition
Chapter 12: Narrative
Some theorists think that fiction is what separates humans from animals. They suggest that human beings’ ability to imagine scenarios in our minds—and the need to connect with others—is representative of a kind of thinking that makes us different from other creatures. In this sense, fiction is not indicative of imagination in literature, but is useful in understanding the perspectives of others.
A narrative is an account of events, or a story. Narratives are not necessarily fictional tales, they are the true stories too: everything has a history, story, or beginning. People search for answers, reasons, causes, look for explanations, make predictions, so everything becomes a story along the way. Telling stories is a great method for spreading knowledge because those narratives tend to be interesting as well as memorable.
Stories create shared spaces for the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of audiences vastly different from one another. Through these imagined stages, readers can empathize with individuals whose lives would otherwise be completely unimaginable. On this stage of imagination and empathy, narratives can be used to shape the expectations of the audience.
Narrative Conventions
In academic writing, you may have to tell a story which recreates events for readers. These stories will either be short or comprehensive narratives. A short narrative may be a component of a larger essay. You may find yourself including a short narrative inside a larger essay to provide an example or illustrate a point. Short stories act as narrative detours that enhance other rhetorical patterns and appeal to audiences’ emotions.
On the other hand, a comprehensive narrative is an extended story, which comprises most of the writing project. This type of narrative is a complex story with lots of characters, settings, action, or other moving parts, and may be an entire essay unto itself, such as a personal narrative that explores a major change in your life. Whatever the size of the story, every narrative includes conventions common to storytelling.
Plot
What happens in a story is the plot. The action of the story (even if it does not feel very actiony) is what move the plot forward through a sequence of events. For example, in some stories the action may simply be a conversation between two characters, or the thoughts or observations of an individual over time. Narratives frequent literature, video games, film and television. In these mediums, the narrator is the voice in a story that describes the action in the story, acting as a conduit between the reader and the plot of the narrative.
Plot is comprised of events, sometimes grouped together into larger scenes or chapters. Most narratives are organized temporally, moving through a sequence of events in a chronological order, because what happens in the beginning of the story usually exerts an effect on what follows.
Most plots can be simplified into a short form (beginning, middle, and end), though many experts may describe and map the plot of a story differently. Gustav Freytag, a 19th-century German novelist, developed a popular pyramid for mapping dramatic structure which applies to almost all narratives, for example.
The scope of a narrative should encompass all necessary information. Every story has a beginning. When crafting a narrative, take the audience back to the start of the events so that readers have enough context to understand the important elements of your story.
This middle of a story might be best described as building tension, anticipation, or drama as you work toward the turning point, or climax of the narrative. This rising action reaches a head at the climax, and the plot shifts direction and/or characters change. The falling action typically follows very rapidly before the resolution in the conclusion.
The end of a story does not necessarily take place at the height of the action; instead, many times a story will only conclude after weighing the contents of the story in a larger context. For example, if the narrative is personal, you may reflect on how you have changed since the events in the story and your retelling of the story. That said, some readers will never be satisfied with a story’s ending and will always want more or want to know what happens next.
For instance, consider a narrative arc as you might if you were bored in class. Picture looping a loose rubber band around your index finger and thumb, then pulling back one side of the rubber band, further and further, until it is tight. Imagine then letting go of the edge of rubber band. As the potential energy you have stored in the rubber band is released, the whole thing flies forward off your fingertips.
Deciding how you will kill some time in class and getting the rubber band in place is equivalent to the beginning of a story, where a writer may introduce the setting, characters, and plot. Pulling the rubber band tight between your fingers is the rising action, the tension reaches it peak at the climax, or turning point (where you let go one the end you hold), and the rubber band flying off your fingers, falling to the floor represents the falling action. Picking up the rubber band before anyone notices is comparable to a story’s resolution. Just as your actions result in a change to the rubber band, so too do the events of the plot result in a change within the characters of the story.
Some stories start in the middle of things, or in media res. Instead of a linear beginning, middle, and end, readers are thrown into the middle, and have to depend on the author to fill in the blanks about the beginning of the narrative, which usually happens through flashbacks, dialogue, or descriptions of the past.
Characters
Character can refer to a couple of concepts:
- A personage (person-like thing, or anthropomorphized entity) in a story
- The quality of one’s morals or values
While this section is focused on the first definition, the second is closely related. The values of a character may come to light as the plot of a story progresses. Narratives are populated with characters, who may interact with one another using a written representation of spoken communication, or dialogue. Characters experience the events of the plot, and in good writing, they can be used to examine ideas.
Specialized characters, such as the protagonist and antagonist take on outsized roles in a narrative. The protagonist is the main character of the story, while the antagonist is the force that opposes the main character. It is common that a story’s protagonist is a hero, but that is not always the case. The protagonist need not be heroic, much less a good person. Similarly, the antagonist need not be evil, or even a person at all.
When crafting a narrative, give careful attention to how other characters engage with the story’s protagonist. Characters’ interactions with the protagonist, the words that characters use to describe or talk about the protagonist, or what they might think about the protagonist can all communicate ideas to the reader about that protagonist.
When writing a narrative, craft good characters that are believable as individuals, rather than copies of the main character or extensions of your personality. Well-written characters speak with their own voices, follow their own agendas, and sometimes behave contrary to what one might expect.
Setting
A narrative’s setting refers to the time and place where the events occur. A descriptive setting can help the audience put the story’s plot, its characters, and their actions into context.
The time in which the narrative takes place can be specific (a certain time of a certain day in a specific year), or very general (winter, the future, the distant past); the action of the story may take place over the span of a few moments or may stretch thousands of years into the past or future.
The time in which a story is set may influence the reader’s expectations:
- The far-flung future vs. the ancient world
- High noon vs. midnight
- Wednesday morning stuck in class vs. Saturday afternoon at a friend’s house
- Sunshine on a breezy day vs. chilling wind and rain
Similarly, the place in which a narrative takes place and be specific or general—your home; St. Louis; Missouri; the moon; under the sea—and influences the plot. How might the following locations affect the climax of a love story? How might these settings change a family vacation?
- An active volcano
- A deserted beach
- A creepy, dilapidated mansion
- A crowded waterpark
- The security line at an airport
Be clear in establishing your setting. Add description through sensory details. Include only details that dovetail with your tone and emphasize details of the setting that enhance your story.
Sensory Details
Sensory details in a narrative represent or appeal to the five senses. These details can help provide realism and add particulars to a story that help readers see things from your perspective.
Meaningful details can make stories more interesting, and the messages they carry more powerful. Varying the amount and level of sensory details you include in your work will aid in introducing or describing new material. As you move between ideas or events in the narrative, you might focus on different sensory details in each paragraph or scene.
Sensory details may be reflective of the tone of your writing or the setting or may indicate to readers larger thematic ideas, as well. In an expository essay, for example, where your purpose may be to describe something to the audience so that they may observe it objectively, it would be advantageous to report the topic with a serious tone, using literal descriptions of events and objects rather than figurative language, which relies on imagination. In a narrative, however, where you want the audience to experience events as you do, metaphor may help make your point clearer. You might, for instance, compare a person to an inanimate object, such as a rock, to either imbue them with strength or suggest that they are lazy.
For example, consider how the air might smell sodden just before a downpour, or how you might notice the sound of rustling leaves or feel your hair whipping in your face as the wind picks up before the sudden deluge.
Dialogue
Dialogue is a conversation between characters in a narrative. As you include the thoughts and actions of characters in a story, you must also give consideration to the words they say and how they say them.
It is important that each character have their own voice so that the audience accepts characters as individuals, rather than thinly veiled plot devices or facsimiles of each other.
Use a range of verbs to introduce dialogue and complement the tone of each scene or idea. Different verbs may indicate different tones, moods, and feelings. Consider how various verbs can change the context of dialogue:
- The student said…
- …whispered nervously
- …mumbled absentmindedly
- …added awkwardly
- …yelled, shouted
- …cried out
- …interrupted
- …cursed under their breath
- …lamented that there were so few examples
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 12
- Review your narrative for coherence: is the story connected and consistent through the beginning, middle, and end?
- We all have tendencies when it comes to verbal communication--for example, using conversational filler words such as ‘like’ or ‘um’ to fill awkward silences, gesticulating with our hands, or subverting chronological order when retelling a narrative (like completing a side quest in a video game--but sometimes we may be unable to name our own habits without outside help. To create believable dialogue, try recording yourself speaking with friends and family to get an idea of how your conversations flow, or how other people speak
- When using dialogue, begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes
Chapter 13: Analysis
Curiosity is part of human nature. Analysis helps satiate the hunger for knowledge. Have you ever taken something apart in the hopes of finding out what made it work, or if it was broken—what made it stop working?
Analysis is the process of breaking something down into its core components in order to study them and how they interrelate. Analysis is invaluable to learning about new topics because it changes the nature of understanding. Examine smaller components of larger concepts to produce greater depth and breadth in comprehension.
The classic example is that of the television remote control. Maybe you have experienced the remote working sporadically as you try to operate the television. In trying to diagnose the problem, you employ analysis. You may start by removing the battery cover to see what size and how many batteries the remote needs to operate. If that does not work, your next step might be seeking out the instruction booklet or search for codes online in the hopes of reprogramming the remote. Next you may test and/or replace those batteries, but if that change fails to fix the remote, you might have to find a screwdriver to take the whole thing apart. In disassembling the remote control, the right tools make the difference.
Of course, you could easily smash the remote against the floor to spill its guts, though you might have a tough time in reassembling it later. If your goal is to learn how the remote works or what is keeping it from working, analysis is the correct tool for the job. Having a goal in mind will allow you to select the right tool for the job. Educator and psychologist Benjamin Bloom developed a system for classifying goals in learning: lower-order concerns of this taxonomy begin with remembering, understanding, and applying knowledge, followed by higher-order concerns like analyzing or evaluating that knowledge and even creating with that knowledge.
Using the correct screwdriver allows for a thorough disassembly of the remote control. That same screwdriver also allows you to put the remote back together after you have taken it apart. If you can analyze a larger concept, you may be able to recreate that idea for others by joining together its smaller components. For example, you might first:
- Study the operations of an equation so that you can replicate its function
- Examine the construction of a building to apply its methods in your own design
- Investigate the cause of an adverse effect to search for a workable solution
- Sort, categorize, or divide items or ideas based on your conclusions to inform others
Deductive analyses such as these begin with a general principle or idea before examining finer components that support or otherwise explain that general principle. Many professional and academic writing projects will ask you to analyze a subject to gain a better understanding of it.
Conducting a survey requires you to read over and analyze the responses of its participants, allowing you to draw conclusions. Similarly, to establish a rule or pattern, you must make observations and draw conclusions from those experiences. At work you may have to provide an overview or report of your department to your coworkers and supervisors, requiring a detailed list of responsibilities and results. Presenting information such as that in a chart or graph provides visual analytical representation of subjects along two or more axes.
In academic writing, composing a persuasive argument is easier if you analyze positions opposed to your own. Doing so will allow you to understand and address the concerns of a wider audience, as well as concede points and offer counterarguments where you can. In other writing projects, establishing a principle to divide subjects into categories or classifying subjects by already-established criterion demands an analysis of those subjects. Only by learning what things are made of can one separate them: comparing or contrasting things against one another requires an examination of smaller characteristics of the larger subjects to find similarities or differences in their composition. Whatever the situation, thorough analysis provides accurate results.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Compare/Contrast
Every day you are faced with numerous choices. From the moment you rise in the morning to the minute you fall asleep, you consider thoughtfully many of the choices you make throughout the day. Deciding between possible alternatives using comparison or contrast engages analysis and can lead toward evaluation. Comparison showcases similarities between subjects, whereas contrast reveals differences between subjects.
When your alarm goes off, you might ask yourself, “Should I hit the snooze button and sleep for five more minutes, or do I need to get out of bed and begin my day?” In making an informed decision, you might consider how long it takes you to get ready in the morning, or the density of traffic along your morning commute, or even the amount of studying or reading you would like to complete before class. You might then contrast those thoughts against the idea of staying in your warm bed and recapturing the dream you were just having, then having to skip breakfast altogether, or at least grab some fast food on your way to school and eat while cramming in a quick review in the hallway before class begins.
In getting ready in the morning alone, we must make many choices where we contrast different sequences of events in our minds (even if they are not this simple, or either/or decisions):
- Shorts or pants?
- Hair up or down?
- Contacts or glasses?
- Fruit or cereal?
- One quick round of Fortnite?
- Homework or phone time?
Comparison and contrast are not limited to two choices—you can compare or contrast as many subjects as necessary to make your point. In fact, the larger your sample size, the more-informative your results. Incorporating comparison or contrast into your own writing should provide readers with information. Although your analysis may not be comprehensive or absolute, it will provide value to the audience because it affects your perspective.
“It’s like apples and oranges.”
This idiom is often used to describe subjects that have little or nothing shared between them. If someone says this expression to you, they mean that the two subjects in discussion are beyond comparison. The expression means comparing one to the other is fundamentally unfair, will result in a skewed perspective, or is an otherwise fruitless endeavor.
But apples and oranges? Both are fruit! Both apples and oranges are spheroid, part of the same food group, found in the same department in grocery stores, and both share co-starring roles in the backwards idiom, “apples and oranges.” While it may be more beneficial to contrast the two fruit—to point out the differences between them: how and where they grow, their origin, cultivation, cost, and nutritional content—it seems easy enough to draw comparisons between the two subjects as well.
Where comparison acknowledges the similarities between subjects, contrast shows the differences between them. The contrast of unlike subjects illuminates discrepancies between those subjects and aids in evaluation by highlighting one subject’s advantages over another’s by casting one in relief of the other. Contrast is especially useful if your goal is to elevate one subject over another in the eyes of the audience; using this rhetorical strategy, you can demonstrate to readers the advantages of your position against the deficiencies of another. With analysis like this, you may be able to convince readers to acknowledge your position as reasonable and your argument as valid, or even persuade them to adopt your viewpoint.
Comparison and contrast frequently appear together, though they are two separate rhetorical strategies used for different reasons (even if they do often accompany each other in the same paragraph or essay). When making informed choices, we tend to compare and contrast different subjects against one another to see which decisions might prove advantageous. We also compare and contrast similar subjects to one another—class times, work schedules, taco take-out menus, pizza toppings—to establish preference or status. In any case, it is common that we both compare and contrast subjects when making a decision.
Structure or Form
There are two structures you might employ when developing a comparison or contrast in your work. You can choose to examine your subjects one at a time in large chunks, or detail individual criterion across all your subjects. Where chunking can help give overall impressions of subjects, criterion-by-criterion organization illuminates specific details of each subject.
Chunking your comparison or contrast means focusing on all the criterion or points of a single subject before moving on to the same criterion or points of the next subject. If you choose to chunk your material, maintain parallelism in your lists: use the same criterion or points for each subject, arrange those criterion or points in an identical order in each paragraph, and use consistent grammatical structures for each.
Introduction: includes hook, context, and thesis statement | |||||
| Criterion 01: How and where they grow | Criterion 02: Origin and Appearance | Criterion 03: Cultivation | Criterion 04: Cost | Criterion 05: Nutritional Content |
Chunk 01: Apples | Grow on trees found in temperate environments | Turkey; can be red, green, yellow. | Spring planting, below 32 degrees, harvest August to October, takes 3 years for fruit at least | $1.09 for one | 95 calories, 19 grams sugar, and 3 grams fiber. |
Chunk 02: Oranges | Grow on trees found in subtropical environments | China; can be orange in color | planting at anytime if in tropical climate, above 32 degrees, harvest depends on planting, takes 3 years for fruit at least. | .59 for one | 80 calories, 14 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of fiber |
Conclusion |
Criterion-by-criterion construction means comparing or contrasting your subjects on a single point in each paragraph. If you choose to organize your writing project along specific criterion, begin by choosing a handful of the most-pertinent points. As you move through the writing process you may encounter additional criterion you want to include in your work, but you should begin with the points most well-known to the audience. If you revise your comparison or contrast by adding more material, return to the structure you use to analyze those criteria.
Introduction: hook, context, and thesis statement | |
Criterion 01: How and where they grow | Apples |
Oranges | |
Criterion 02: Origin
| Apples |
Oranges | |
Criterion 03: Cultivation
| Apples |
Oranges | |
Criterion 04: Cost
| Apples |
Oranges | |
Criterion 05: Nutritional Content | Apples |
Oranges | |
Conclusion |
Sometimes these patterns suggest themselves: when making a comparison between then and now, for example, you may find it easier to chunk the time periods so that readers can see the whole of the similarities or differences in context. Whichever pattern you choose to employ, arrange your subjects in a logical order, one that best suits your purpose and audience.
Avoid disrupting the flow of your comparison or contrast by including transitions that show readers the relationship between criterion and subjects. For example:
- On the other hand,
- In contrast,
- Similarly,
- Likewise,
- Continuing on,
- Alternatively,
When comparing or contrasting subjects, analysis will reveal what those subjects have in common or what they lack. Sometimes comparison and contrast are best presented using figurative language such as analogy and metaphor.
Analogy
An analogy compares subjects and used to explain or clarify one of the subjects by analyzing how it is like the other. In this sense, they work as written reasoning because they explain to readers how subjects are equivalent. Analogies are used to aid understanding: they can help provide clarity to unknown concepts by comparing them to recognizable objects. Similarly, they can be used to explain unfamiliar theories by comparing them to familiar ideas.
You may have experience with analogies from standardized tests like the SAT or ACT, though these sections may have long since been removed:
- Ink : pen :: Lead : ?
- Bark : dog :: Meow : ?
Incorporating analogies like these into your work is an example of active learning because it requires applied reasoning: in order to successfully use an analogy in your writing, you must first conceptualize the comparison in your ideas. Analogies within a sentence or paragraph can immediately help define new terminology by putting it in context.
Analogies help develop arguments through comparison. The more similar the subjects, the more powerful the analogy. That said, if you use an analogy to persuade readers, you must support your claim with evidence. Be wary of the slippery slope logical fallacy, wherein you make a false comparison asserting that because two subjects are similar in one way, they are also similar in other ways. Analogies in argument typically posit that what is true in one situation is or will be true in another situation. For example, one might argue against drug prohibition in America based on the country’s experiences with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Because analogies are form of figurative language, they are subjective—their meaning may vary from person to person. The audience may not share your perspective on the topic, or they may not agree with your approach to the subjects of your comparison. Incorporating analogy in your writing encourages active learning because you must shift your thinking on a subject, anticipating how others might see it. Developing analogies in your own writing may require thinking about a topic in a new way to better explain that topic to those unfamiliar with it.
If your analogy is unclear, or the audience is unfamiliar with the subjects you are comparing, readers will be confused and may misunderstand the point you are trying to make. If the audience is unable to see a logical connection between the subjects of your analogy, readers may begin to doubt your authority or may misunderstand your meaning.
Metaphor
Metaphor describes a subject in a way that, while not literally true, helps explain another subject through comparison. Metaphor helps create an impression by comparing subjects to vivid expressions, though those expressions may not resemble what they mean. Metaphors are a specialized kind of comparison, used to compare dissimilar ideas or objects—that is to say, things not of the same kind of type, but radically different from one another.
For example, maybe you have a friend who is not:
- The brightest bulb
- The sharpest knife in the drawer
- Roundest object in a pouch full of very round objects
In these abstract metaphors, the two subjects being compared (your friend and a common object) are not of the same type, or—to use another metaphor—these two subjects are not cut from the same cloth. While the two subjects in this metaphor are very dissimilar, you can use illustrative comparison to tell others what you think of your friend’s intelligence.
Anthropomorphizing objects—assigning human-like qualities to non-human things, such as animals or vehicle (like in many Disney films)—uses metaphor to humanize subjects, appealing to pathos, or the audience’s emotions. In order to humanize, personify, or anthropomorphize a subject, you must first be able to recognize in it human-like qualities. In doing so, you think about your subject in a new light. Drawing out this comparison in writing is a practice of active learning.
Extended Metaphor
An extended metaphor is one that continues beyond its original subjects and imagery, extending outward from that initial comparison to include additional characteristics. Extended metaphors draw out and solidify comparisons. For example, if you were to use a metaphor comparing the money to liquid, you might develop an extended metaphor using terms and phrases such as these:
- Pool of resources
- Liquid assets
- Cash flow
- Revenue streams
- Make it rain
- Divert or channel income
- Pour money into something
- River of cash
- Trickle of income
- Revenue will run dry
- The bubble will soon pop
- Squeeze blood from a stone
- If you go broke, you are sunk
Mixed Metaphor
A mixed metaphor begins the comparison with a specific subject, but in the middle of the metaphor shifts to another subject, so that the original meaning is lost. Consequently, the comparison falls apart and the metaphor makes little sense.
- “If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!”
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Cause and Effect
We often learn more from our mistakes than we do our successes, though both can be mined for knowledge. Newton’s third laws states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, or more simply, that actions have consequences. A causal analysis examines why something occurs. Seeking out the inception of an effect teaches us what caused it. Knowing what effects an action might set in motion may lead to a more responsible or measured implementation of those causes.
Cause and effect is a rhetorical strategy that establishes the relationship between events by linking causality between them. Causality is the idea that we can trace an event backward through time to find its origin
Any given effect is the consequence of an immediate cause, which itself is the product of an ultimate cause. An immediate cause is the event that changes the moment and whose outcome in an effect. It is the event immediately preceding an effect. An ultimate cause, or inciting incident, is what sets the events in motion, resulting in what may develop into a series of effects, sometimes becoming new causes themselves, propagating a string of even more effects.
Causal Chain Reaction
Perhaps you are familiar with the term “chain reaction.” A chain reaction, or cascade, occurs when a series of events unfolds on its own, unchecked by outside influence. Sometimes powerful effects themselves can become the impetus of a new reaction, starting off a string of events that can later be identified as a causal chain.
When searching out the ultimate cause for an effect, be way of committing post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning. Although we understand events to occur in temporal order, that does not necessarily mean that the latter events were the result of the former event. People tend to look for order where it may not exist, sometimes using flawed analysis to make a case for cause and effect. Misappropriation of this rhetorical strategy can lead to making tenuous connections between unconnected events, creating a false narrative of causality.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Division & Classification
Division and classification are both methods of analyzing a subject, though they differ in practice. While they may differ from one another (and sometimes occur separately as rhetorical patterns), they often accompany one another in execution.
- Division is a process of categorizing subjects based on a rule or principle.
- Classification is a process of placing subjects into already established or recognized categories.
Which process you choose to employ largely depends on your subject and purpose. For example, consider how television programs and films are already classified into preestablished categories. Using a single rule or principle, how might you divide them into categories of your own?
Create a rule, establish a basis, or make up a principle to divide subjects into separate categories. Choose this principle to learn what happens when applied to various subjects.
Or instead, classify new subjects by placing them into already-established categories to see how they compare to standards.
Rhetorical Strategy/Pattern: Process Analysis
A process analysis relates a series of events to one another by arranging them in a logical order in order to explain how something happens or occurs. The two types of process analysis are the how-to and how-it-works.
The how-to process analysis provides readers with instructions or directions which lead to a final product or desired results.
To help your readers complete a how-to process analysis, you may have to explain to them why certain steps are necessary, encourage them to complete the process or see it though, and/or offer them tips, tricks, or hints that will help them reach the desired results or final product.
The how-it-works process analysis explains to readers how something occurs or how it is done without explaining to them how to do it. This type of process analysis is meant only to provide information, not to achieve a final product or desired results. This is the type of process analysis you would encounter on an informational tour or a behind-the-scenes look.
Whatever the type of process analysis, temporal organization will likely be the best form of organization. So that your readers can easily follow along, it is crucial to explain to them how each step is connected to that which precedes it.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 13
- Perhaps you have heard the local advertisements which claim that IMO’s pizza is the “square beyond compare.” Do you believe this pizza is incomparable to other pizza? Or is the ad suggesting we contrast IMO’s against other pizza?
Chapter 14: Argument
The word argument may conjure images of verbal disagreements growing into heated debates, or outright bickering. Arguments may call to mind the idea of two people raising their voices at one another, trying to subdue the other through a louder and more-forceful use of words. These kinds of interactions can be unsatisfying and unproductive, as neither party seems to be reasonable, neither listens to the other, and no ideas are truly exchanged.
In academic writing, an argument is a reasonable position on a topic. Writers offer arguments to inform others or make a point regarding their understanding, perspective, or beliefs. An argument is a claim that this position is valuable or worth valid consideration. Arguments stress test reasoning, search for faults or flaws in logic, and help people come to alternative conclusions.
Although your instructor may have certain expectations for the use of argument in your class, a broad definition of the term will serve you well. Disregard the negative connotations of conflict and reframe the word argument as what you have to say. In terms of an academic essay, an argument is a reasonable and defensible position you hold regarding a topic. Often, when stating your main point in an essay’s thesis statement, you are making an argument. This main point—your informed, creative, reasonable, and substantial opinion—is the basis for crafting your argument.
While you may share some similar viewpoints with other people, it is not uncommon for others to see things differently than you do. Because your position is yours alone, making your argument to others is akin to sharing your opinion with them. Your opinion matters because it is your own, and because it is unique, it has value. Your opinion may contribute to a discussion that others are unable to see, provided you support your position. To be valuable, an opinion must be informed, creative, reasonable, and substantial.
For example, you may find you act contrarian with friends or family, challenging their positions with opposing viewpoints to get a rise out of them, or to get them to see things from another perspective. Arguments help us confront accepted ideas. Without the introduction of provocative new perspectives, conversations about topics can lapse into stagnation or monotony, reflected in conventional thinking.
Develop an argument to help you understand your own position, as well. Just as engaging with the writing process helps you discover new ideas about a topic, so does deliberating different arguments or perspectives on a given topic. Talk to yourself, or argue with yourself, as a tried and true method to test the validity of your thinking or weigh the consequences of an upcoming decision.
Even if you feel that you are an expert on your topic, it is important that you try to absorb information from as many quality sources as possible and examine the topic from a variety of viewpoints other than your own. Approaching a topic from multiple perspectives may introduce you to new stories and ideas, which can in turn change your own thinking about the topic.
Have you ever found yourself in an argument, but lacking the right combination of words at the right moment to make your point? Verbal disagreements like these can be frustrating. Without sufficient resources at your disposal, your position may feel untenable. If the audience is unwilling to listen to reason, or apathetic toward your position, you may feel like you are wasting your breath.
Verbal exchanges can also lead to hurt feelings. Escalation of a disagreement can lead to an argument that is loaded with emotional language, rather than logic. Some people choose to avoid argumentation or confrontation for these reasons. It can be easier to disengage than to change someone’s mind.
Written arguments allow you to avoid such frustration. Because the writing process is time-consuming, you will have plenty of time to research and shape your position. By anticipating the needs of the audience, offering concessions when applicable, providing counterarguments when necessary, and including evidence that supports your position, you can craft effective arguments that can inform or persuade readers.
As arguments are intuitive, they are built on opinions. Because your argument is built on your opinion, you must support your position with evidence. Facts are absolute: they are not perspectives on a topic, they are observable or measurable qualities of a topic. Where facts are objectively true, opinions are subjective interpretations of ideas and vary from person to person.
Depending on your topic, purpose, and audience, some opinions are more valuable or credible than others. For an opinion to have merit—to be valuable in your writing projects—it must be reasonable, informed, and supported by facts. Because facts are objectively true, there is no room for disagreement about them; however, some sources may offer what they call alternative facts. Facts themselves are inarguable, but people frequently disagree on what facts mean.
Many people can look at the same data but interpret it differently, just as many people can watch the same film and hold different opinions about it. The facts regarding the film do not change from person to person, but the interpretation of what those facts means will certainly vary depending on each viewer’s own experience.
The Rhetorical Triangle: Logos, Ethos, Pathos
The rhetorical triangle is a common representation of the components of argumentation. Effective arguments take into consideration the needs of the audience by balancing their use of the rhetorical triangle. Each vertex of the triangle represents an integral factor of an argument: logos, ethos, and pathos. These corners represent appeals to reason, shared ethical considerations, and emotions. An effective argument is centered somewhere within the field of the triangle, influenced by the pull of each vertex.
- Appeals to logos are appeals to logic and reason, like facts, figures, reports, and statistics
- Appeals to ethos are appeals to shared ethics or beliefs, such as the authority of individuals, entities, or systems
- Appeals to pathos are appeals to feelings, or language that is used to evoke an emotional response from the audience
You might think of logos, ethos, and pathos as the expressions of the body: logos is “using your head,” ethos is your “gut feeling” or “having the nerve” to do something, and pathos “pulls on your heartstrings.”
Do not feel as if you must achieve an equal balance of all three components to craft a successful argument. Your use of appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos will vary greatly depending on the topic of your argument, your position, purpose, and audience.
Considering the Audience
Offering your opinion can be difficult, especially if you do not think you know enough information about the topic to have what you consider a creative or informed perspective. When beginning an argumentative writing project, ask yourself first what you know about the topic, what the audience may know about the topic, and then figure out what you must learn about it. Research will lead you to conversations on the topic, and after thorough investigation, ask yourself what you can provide readers that other writers might not be able to offer. Show readers what your perspective can contribute to the conversation that might be absent in others’.
In your academic writing projects, you may encounter classmates or instructors who disagree with your position on a given topic. Perhaps the best place to disagree with someone is in the college classroom, as it is an opportunity to challenge conventions and confront new ideas. Use each writing project as an opportunity to explore new viewpoints and values.
In instances of disagreement, do not distress that because you hold a different opinion than others that they will be unwilling to listen to your perspective. In your classes, readers will be eager to learn your opinion, even if they disagree with it. So long as your position is reasonable and informed, even those who disagree with your opinion will agree that it is valid.
When you consider the audience, imagine readers who are at best indifferent to the topic and your position on the topic. Envision readers who may be disinterested, bored, or otherwise occupied, and not feel it necessary to give your argument their full attention. To combat this apathetic malaise, draw readers into your topic by including them in the scope of your thesis statement. Shape your perspective so that it affects the audience.
In other scenarios, you may find that readers are openly hostile to your position or are unwilling to even consider your viewpoints. Such cases require that you handle the considerations of the audience carefully, which may include devoting the majority of your argument to addressing their concerns instead of furthering your own.
Readers who are the most-difficult with which to engage are those who are entrenched in their viewpoints, often because their positions are closely-related to their core beliefs. Even when confronted with evidence, such readers may shy away from giving argument fair consideration. Unfortunately, not all audiences are receptive to all arguments: if readers are unwilling to listen to reason, you are wasting both your time and theirs trying to present them your argument. Exhaust all available options to convince the audience of the validity of your position.
Persuasion
Some argumentative writing projects will ask that you not only convince readers of the validity of your argument, but also that you persuade the audience to adopt your position as their own. Persuasion goes further than just establishing your argument as reasonable. In a persuasive argument, your goal is for the reader to agree with you, or even to add their voice to the conversation in support of your position.
For the audience to see things as you see them, you must provide appropriate contextual information to establish your position. Summarizing relevant or vital background information, including numerous detailed examples, and offering explanations or definitions where appropriate can affect how readers perceive your position.
To develop a balance of appeals in your own writing, think back on the times when you have been persuaded to do something, and analyze those instances for examples of effective persuasive techniques. Were you motivated by reason, by emotion, by appeals to authority, or by shared ethical concerns? What was necessary to change your mind?
The best persuasive appeals use a mix of logos, ethos, and pathos. Successful arguments are structured to appeal to their target audiences by using relatable diction, making concessions where necessary, offering counter-arguments where applicable, and including pertinent and valuable information in support of the thesis, or initial claim.
Take a holistic view of the topic and consider how those who disagree with your position might look at it. Ask yourself what you can do to convince those readers to change their minds without suggesting that your perspective is the only moral or reasonable position to hold. Encourage the audience to see the topic as you do.
Call to Action
If you want readers to add their voices to the conversation or act on the topic, close your argument with a call to action. Demonstrate to the audience that they can involve themselves with the topic and affect change or make a difference. Encourage readers to action.
The conclusion of an argumentative writing project may ask readers to do something about the topic as you have outlined it through your perspective. For a call to action to succeed, you must provide the audience with the resources they need to get involved. Show readers how to be successful when engaging with the topic.
For instance, if your writing project argues that citizens of a democracy have a unique political responsibility, you might conclude by encouraging readers to register to vote. Of if your essay posits the causes of global climate change, you might close the essay by telling the audience recycle more. If you do choose to conclude with a call to action, your tone and diction throughout the essay should be supportive and inspirational. Empower the audience by motivating them to act on the topic.
Concessions
Every argument is founded on an opinion, and as such, must allow room for dissenting opinions. This does not mean that every position has an opposite opinion of equal weight or value; many opinions are ill-informed, hastily-made, or otherwise unfounded or incomplete. Only arguments made in good faith—those founded on logic and with honorable intentions—express positions on which reasonable readers may disagree.
Any valuable opinion of a topic on which others may take multiple reasonable positions provides a perspective supported by evidence. Arguments are often described as having “sides,” as if there were a physical demarcation of absolute positions sharing no overlap.
However, when you consider how many sides there are to an argument, you might reconceptualize how you think of argument. If you want to get technical, the argument is the position itself—there could be layers of nuance and context packed into any given argument—so there are as many sides to an argumentative topic as there are viewpoints.
That said, only creative, informed, reasonable, and substantial viewpoints are relevant to academic discourse. Because writing projects are limited in scope, you need not make concessions to every viewpoint; only the most-pertinent, relevant, or well-known positions require acknowledgement in your essay. When planning the breadth and depth of your concessions, take into consideration what readers knowledgeable with the topic will expect you to know and address in your writing.
Concessions, while they may seem like they weaken your position, can actually help strengthen your credibility as a writer. Making small allowances to dissenting viewpoints suggests to readers that you have studied the topic comprehensively because the prominent arguments are known to you, or after reviewing other reasonable positions, you think yours is best.
Thorough research should introduce you to multiple different positions on a topic. Sharing the most prominent or relevant of these viewpoints with readers will allow them to make up their own minds regarding your perspective on the topic. Including concessions to additional germane viewpoints shows that you regard the audience highly—that you trust them to take into account the information you provide and to understand the importance of your position.
Furthermore, a commitment to your topic in light of the concessions you make suggests that throughout your research and the writing process, of all the different opinions you have encountered, you have determined this perspective to be the most important.
Counterargument
It will sometimes be necessary for you to not only acknowledge opposing viewpoints, but to offer a rebuttal to their claims. Refuting incorrect information or material demonstrates to readers that you are well-read on the topic and understand the applicable contexts and conversations surrounding it.
When you craft a counterargument, address the key points of the initial claim. Do not gloss over or ignore glaring factual errors in favor of making your point. Look for incorrect information or material presented out of context that might make a perspective seem more attractive to readers. Call out errors where you see them.
Ask yourself if the argument you seek to refute is balanced in its use of logos, ethos, and pathos. If it relies too heavily on any one of the vertices of the triangle, try looking for flaws in the approaches regarding the remaining two. It is possible that an argument which relies too heavily on emotion, for example, may not be supported by reason. Maybe you have even felt reluctant to donate old clothes or toys which you have outgrown, if only because they hold sentimental value.
An effective counterargument expressly refutes the main point of an argument by providing evidence, rather than just offering an opposing viewpoint or attacking the argument or its arguer. If the argument you seek to refute is balanced in its use of logos, ethos, and pathos, instead look for logical fallacies in its reasoning.
Logical Fallacies
Logical fallacies are common flaws in reasoning. They appear time and again in popular writing and argumentation, even though they are easy to identify. Arguments that include logical fallacies may lean more heavily on appeals to pathos or emotionally-charged language than those without. Learning these common logical fallacies will help you identify lapses in reason in the arguments you want to refute and avoid using the same logical fallacies when developing your own argument.
- Ad hominem: Discrediting an argument based on the character, morals, or values of the person making the argument is an ad hominem fallacy. The content of an argument should be considered apart from the individual making the argument.
- Ad ignorantiam: An appeal to ignorance claims that because someone is unaware they are making a mistake, they are not actually making a mistake. Typically, ignorance of the law does not exempt one from its reach.
- Ad populum: An appeal to the masses suggests that everyone is doing something, or that or everybody knows something to be the case. This fallacy may also suggest that because everyone does or believes something, that is reason enough to do or believe it.
- Begging the Claim/Question: This fallacy assumes the premise of the position to be true before proving it to be or frames the conclusion as an accepted opinion without providing support.
- Circular Reasoning: Circular reasoning—or circular logic—restates a position in support of itself. This fallacy typically includes vague diction or complex terminology which can confuse readers.
- Either/Or or false dichotomy: These fallacies reduce an argument to only two positions. Because arguments derive from opinions, there are as many sides to an argument as there are reasonable perspectives (more than two).
- Fallacy Fallacy: Just because an argument is fallacious, that does not mean its conclusion is false. An illogical construction can sometimes lead to a correct answer. For example, in mathematics, sometimes using the wrong formula or process will yield the correct results.
- False Comparison/Moral Equivalence: Comparing unlike subjects results in skewed outcomes. Compare subjects of a similar type.
- Gambler’s Fallacy: This fallacy purports that a recurring event will occur because it is “due,” even if all available evidence points to the contrary. The fallacy of thinking that one’s “time will come” leads some to follow illogical lines of reasoning.
- Genetic Fallacy: Because a fault is expressed in someone’s genes, they are exempt from the repercussions of their decisions or actions. These fallacies tend to “run in the family” or “cannot be helped” because they are “in the genes.”
- Naturalistic Fallacy: Because something is natural it is exceptional. Simply occurring naturally does not denote superiority over others of its kind.
- Non sequitur: This is information or material that is not connected or related to the topic or argument in any way.
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc: Simply because two events happen one after the other, that does not signal that the latter is a result of the former. Correlation is not causation.
- Red Herring: A red herring diverts an argument by introducing a new argument, which may be only tangentially related to the first. Red herrings often appeal to ethos or pathos in order to elicit a response from readers.
- Slippery Slope: A slippery slope is a causal argument made without the proof of definitive evidence. This fallacy claims that a relatively small step in a process will set off a causal chain of immense proportions.
- Small Sample Size/Hasty Generalization: Information or material extrapolated from too little evidence, too few examples, or unrepresentative evidence leads to conclusions which may not be true or accurate.
- Straw Man: A straw man reduces an opposing argument to a simplistic (and sometimes absurd) position, often out-of-line with the initial claim. This “straw man” is easily defeated with a simple counterargument.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 14
- Do not moralize your argument, or suggest that it is the only reasonable position on a topic
- Do not insult or provoke readers you try to persuade
- Make concessions early in the argument, then provide counterarguments and address logical fallacies
- Wrap up the body paragraphs with the development of your position, or appeals
Chapter 15: Evaluation
People use evaluation every day, even in the seemingly-most-mundane ways. The stores we shop at, the restaurants where we eat—any service we employ—all are subject to reviews from their customers. When people make plans to go out to dinner, but are unsure of which restaurant to choose, they might turn to the internet to search for suggestions, menus, and reviews.
After dinner, some might want to see a movie, so they again turn to their phones to seek out film-review websites or watch trailers for what is currently playing at the theater. After the film, everyone will consider their options, and decide whether or not to call it a night. If they want to continue the evening after the movie, some might open a mapping app to look for nearby suggestions, then filter the results according to the reviews left by other customers. At the end of the night, some might take a rideshare home and afterward give a rating to their driver online.
In reading this scenario and asking yourself if this is a good or bad evening—or even laughing to yourself because you consider the whole paragraph a mess of terrible examples—you are practicing evaluation, or review. Evaluation is a means of assigning value to something. Because it requires analysis in support of its resulting judgment, evaluation is a higher-order concern which employs critical thinking.
People may be more inclined to review something if they have a strong reaction to it. For example, if you have a negative experience with a retailer, you might be more-likely to post online or leave a review that outlines your situation. If you have a wonderful experience where an employee goes out of their way to help you, you may be more-likely to post online or contact the business to express your gratitude and see that the employee is recognized. On the other hand, if you have a typical shopping experience, you are unlikely to leave a review explaining what you consider to be normal.
Reviews of different media—films, television programs, video games, books, comic books, whatever—as well as reviews of products and services provide readers with a rubric for assessment or a scale for measurement against similar media, products, and services. Recommendations and evaluations such as these help ensure that consumers make informed decisions, or do not waste their time, money, or energy on substandard practices.
In this sense, reviews are practical in helping readers understand the worth of a given subject. For writers, reviews provide an opportunity to express what they think about a subject, and to explain to the audience why they believe a topic is important or valuable.
Because evaluations help establish value, reviewers have an ethical responsibility to their audiences. While readers must always weigh for themselves the credibility of an authority, reviewers must work in good faith and do their best to present an unbiased and accurate evaluation. The value of a review may depend on the integrity of the reviewer, publication, or institution, so if the reviewer harbors any preference or tendency, they should make that explicit in their review. In evaluation the reviewer appeals to an ethos, or shared value system:
- In class, instructors have a responsibility to their students to grade consistently, fairly, and impartially in accordance with established rubrics and standards
- At work, employers have the responsibility to compensate their employees commensurate with experience or accomplishment and review their performances without bias
- Online, influencers on social media like Instagram, Twitter, or Twitch have a responsibility to their audiences to divulge if they are being paid for their opinions, or if a post of theirs is sponsored.
Because reviewers may exert influence on the subjects they review and the audiences for whom they write, reviewers have a responsibility to be equitable in their evaluations.
In your courses, your instructors may ask you to write a review or an evaluation of a subject—a film, book, article, whatever—to press you to engage with the work. Examples of common classroom evaluations:
- Conducting a survey crowd-sources a review to a larger group
- Asking for a recommendation from a professor requires a brief, professional evaluation from a faculty member
- Evaluating yourself or your work in an assignment
- Participating in group discussion means evaluating the relevance of the material you wish to discuss, as well as the opinions of others
- Concluding a course with an evaluation of the class and its instructor asks that you rate the quality of the course
To write a relevant evaluation of something, build a context around the claim you make, establish criterion by which you will judge the subject, and provide evidence that supports your final position.
Aa evaluation:
- makes a statement about the author’s opinion of the subject’s value
- explains the criterion that inform the author’s opinion on the subject
- provides evidence in support of the claim or opinion (thesis statement)
Context & Criterion
To evaluate a subject or review something meaningfully, you must first have a thorough understanding of that subject so that you can identify to the audience how well it adheres to set criterion. Research the subject and acquaint yourself with the conversation around it. What you discover will become the context for your topic; the quantity and detail of the background information you need to include varies depending on your purpose, the medium in which you are writing, and the audience.
Criterion are the points on which your judgments are founded. Some subjects have standards that are universally recognized or used in their evaluations, while others will require you to tailor your criterion specific to your purpose and audience.
If you are reviewing something technical, specialized, or unique—something with which you believe readers will have had little experience—provide them with comparisons or benchmarks to subjects of similar types and kinds, or contrast them and explain the differences between your subject and others so that the audience can see the value in the criterion.
Limit your scope when providing contextual information by including only information relevant to your criterion and audience. When considering how much context you will need to provide readers, consider that the audience may influence the criterion you choose to use in your evaluation.
For example, if you were to review a film for two different audiences, you might choose criterion targeted to each group. In writing about a film for a class, you might critique artistic choices or technical aspects behind its creation, such as art direction, cinematography, or symbolism; however, were you recommending the same film to your friends for your next movie night, you might highlight the exciting action, realistic special effects, or memorable acting performances. An audience of your peers may respond differently to the content of your evaluation than an audience of parents of young children, for instance, who might care more about any violence or sex in the film than its use of special effects or the quality of its musical score.
Films, television programs, and video games are all evaluated by their content, and adhere to a letter-and-number rating system to inform consumers. These same media are often screened and reviewed by critics who might judge the materials on different criterion entirely, and typically show audiences what they think using another rating system, such as stars, thumbs-up or thumbs-down, or a letter or number grade.
If the subject is popular or widely known, it is unlikely you will have to provide much context. If the subject is specialized, however, you can make your evaluation accessible to a greater variety of audiences by including additional information, such as a summary, definitions of terminology unique to that subject, specific background details, or other specialized concerns. Whatever the scope of your context, it is vital to provide enough information to readers to demonstrate that you have an effective understanding of your subject.
When writing a review, choose relevant criterion by which you will evaluate your subject. Limit your scope to only the most pressing concerns: similar types of reviews tend to focus on related criterion. Food critics, for instance, might care about the ingredients and techniques used to create a dish, as well as its presentation and the overall atmosphere and service of the restaurant. If you were to evaluate a dish or restaurant, you might consider modelling the criterion for your evaluation after those of successful food critics. Additional research may be necessary to find what major points you should raise in your review. Whatever you choose to include in your review, the audience must understand why the criterion you choose are important to the subject.
The reasoning of your selections should not be a mystery for readers to uncover; one of your goals as a reviewer should be to instill within the audience trust in your judgment. Provide enough context so that readers can see the relevance of these criterion to your subject by adequately defining and explaining the value of those criterion.
Standards for criterion may be quantitative or qualitative, though most successful evaluations use a mix of both. Quantitative criteria are concerned with the amount, capacity, variety, or quantity, of relevant aspects of the subject, whereas qualitative criterion care about the caliber, condition, nature, or quality, of relevant aspects of the subject. Where quantitative criterion can typically be measured and tend to appeal to reason, qualitative criterion may be more subjective, or experienced. Qualitative values can appeal to an ethos shared with the audience.
You might first establish a criterion by which to judge your subject, and then provide examples of your subject’s qualities that reflect that version of your criterion.
Some simple questions you can ask that may help you determine criterion:
- Has your subject succeeded or failed?
- Can it be improved?
- Are there alternatives?
The criterion you select for your evaluation will also inform your opinion on the subject. As you begin drafting your evaluation, choose criterion that matter to your perspective when reviewing your subject, state the conclusion of your evaluation in your thesis, and support your claim with evidence.
Evidence
For each criterion you use to evaluate your subject, you will need to include enough evidence to support the reasoning of your evaluation. Throughout your research, you will encounter a great deal of evidence that supports your evaluation of the subject, but because you cannot include it all in your work, you must consider what kinds of and how much evidence is necessary for best communicating with readers your perspective on the topic.
In order to accept any evaluation as reasonable, the audience will need to see evidence that explains your rationale. If incorporating quantitative evidence, the material may speak for itself. Be objective, balanced, fair, in your evaluation, and include all relevant examples as they appear in your subject. If relying on qualitative evidence, develop your position relative to common standards and explain to readers how the evidence stacks up against the outlined criterion. For example, what—in your opinion—makes a good burrito? Should it be filling? Cheap? Both?
For example, evaluating where you might move is a larger decision that figuring out where you might eat for dinner. Choosing to relocate requires far more research and consideration, as well as more criterion, than deciding what to eat.
Anticipate the needs of the audience by establishing yourself as a credible reviewer. Use your introduction to become an authority on your subject. Demonstrate your knowledge and experience with the subject by referencing similar examples, your credentials, or specific information that establishes you as the authority. Let readers know that your evaluation matters, show them what makes your evaluation sufficient, and convince them that your evaluation can lead to a deeper exploration of the subject.
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 15
- Use like reviews for like kinds
- How many grapples is a plumbus worth?
- What’s the conversion rate of Schrute Bucks to Stanley Nickels?
- Do not neglect established criterion: standard qualitative criterion are usually employed for a reason, even if that reason is not immediately clear
Chapter 16: Synthesis
Research is a reliable method to find an answer you seek.
Imagine you had a friend visiting from out of town and they wanted to get the best slice of pizza in town. Would you know exactly where to take them? How might you know that, or—if you do not know—how would you find out where the best piece of pizza is? Would you have to ask around?
If you think you know the answer, first ask yourself what makes you qualified to provide such an evaluation to your friend. If you have eaten a variety of pizzas with different combinations of crusts and toppings, then you may be a knowledgeable critic. If, however, you have yet to eat at every pizza restaurant in town or have not sampled a substantial quantity of pizzas from each establishment, your opinion may be ill-informed or lacking authority. It is entirely possible that your friend may judge pizzerias by an entirely different set of criteria than your own, and what you may think amazing, they may consider pedestrian.
Faced with this new looming doubt about the power of your pizza palate, you may turn to the internet for a quick search and sort the returns by rating, but what does that rating really tell readers? Who are these reviewers, and are their opinions relevant?
In desperation, you might ask around your friends for their suggestions, and finding them varied and unhelpful, turn to scouring old newspaper clippings on microfiche in the basement of the local library, seeking out old food reviews in the musings of the retired local food critic of the town’s now-shuttered newspaper.
Or you might begin your own research endeavor, your own analysis. In order to answer the question, you might first establish what makes “the best slice in town” the best. Sketch out a series of criterion, then hit the bricks and begin your research, taking notes throughout your quest to discover the smallest, dingiest pizza dives and their offerings. Only after you feel you have collected enough evidence to make your case, can you compile your notes and draw any conclusions. Finally, offer your very-patient friend a recommendation based on your exhaustive research and examination.
Or, your town might have only one pizza place, making this a relatively easy request to fulfil.
If you were to write a recommendation based on this research process—seeking out information from online reviews, the opinions of your friends, historical news documents, and your own personal investigations—that recommendation would consist of a synthesis of the materials you examined and the experiences you had. In academic writing, a synthesis is a combination of elements assembled for an express purpose. This composition of components—the evidence and rhetorical strategies you employ in your essay—adds, blends, or incorporates credible voices into your own as a speaker in the larger conversation on a topic.
The materials you choose to include and the methods you use to share them with readers steer the conversation, help readers see the topic from your perspective, and shape how the audience engages with the topic. Research is not simply compiling a list of facts or sources that support your position; research is the process through which you seek out and learn new information.
Researching throughout the writing process will keep you actively engaged with your materials and the topic. When you seek out sources, you are likely to come across information that you already know, but you are sure to uncover new ideas, as well. Rethinking your topic in light of new information will help direct revision. Even actions as small as reading the headnote or looking up information about the author and title you are about to read can lead to changes in perspective. Rethinking is often complementary to research—as you learn about something new, you may begin to view it from a different position—your opinion is shaped as you process new information.
Writing a Research Essay
A research essay is essentially an expository or argumentative essay that employs methodical documentation and support of an examination of a topic from a reasonable perspective. A research essay presents readers with a synthesis of relevant information on which the main points of the position are grounded.
Brainstorming ideas for a research topic may reveal to you how you conceptualize that topic. Generating a lot of material early on seems like a good place from which to start, but choosing your own topic for a research essay is not merely a matter of selecting a topic on which you think you can write the most; you should choose a research topic about which you want to learn more and about which you can spend a lot of time reading without getting bored.
Consider choosing a topic based on something that affects your life. If you have a personal connection to the topic, you may feel more compelled to read and write about it. Think about your familiarity with the topic and ask yourself what it is you want to know more about regarding the topic and why. Use these early inquiries to guide your initial searches.
Focus the Scope of Your Topic
A single-word topic is too vague to research thoroughly and may overwhelm you if the scope of your research is too general. Early in the research process you will have to narrow your focus, or else you might find all your time consumed by finding and reading sources.
You can focus the scope of your topic in many ways, and two of the simplest limiting factors are by time and location. Consider looking at your topic through either an historical or a contemporary lens. You might cap research to a particular time period, examine change over time, or even look toward the future. In terms of location, you might regulate the scope of your topic by looking at it geographically, in an individual locale. Examine the micro or macro: restrict your research to small regions, compare or contrast them against one another, or examine the topic’s relevance to your own community.
When outlining the scope of your topic, keep in mind how your purpose and target audience may shape your perspective, the details and contexts you need to fully explore your position, and how you wish to communicate your thoughts to readers. Consider the depth and breadth of materials you will need when thinking about why and for whom are you writing.
Establish a context through which to view that topic. Provide readers with enough relevant background and contextual information that they can see the topic from your perspective. When you begin researching the topic, look for current discussions, different perspectives, various voices, updates, or changes in understanding. Seek “newness” and apply these contexts to your perspective.
Ask a Research Question
Formulate a question you want your research to answer. The more specific your question is, the more focused your research will be. With that in mind, do not feel as if your question is unalterable or that your perspective cannot change while researching. As you begin to answer your research question, your position may shift, and you may want to ask a new question entirely. You can always ask follow-up questions, where you can narrow your focus with ever-more-specific queries.
Answer that Question Thoroughly Through Research
This is an inductive principle. After gathering large quantities of information, you will have to sift through all of it to build the narrative you wish readers to see. Select ideas that will help you answer your research question then synthesize them into your own unifying idea as definitive working thesis statement. Incorporating what you find into you work helps readers answer your research question.
Make a Research Schedule
Plan how you will spend the weeks leading up to the due date, including time for writing and revision. It is best to invest a lot of time at the outset of the writing project in choosing your own topic and seeking out a variety of resources. Not only will gathering these sources early give you the time you need to read and adequately assess them, if you change your research question, you will have enough time to complete the project than if you had procrastinated in finding sources.
There is no guarantee that the materials you find will be useful, or even relevant to your topic. If you feel that the sources you discover in the research process do not fit well with the topic or your perspective, you will have to return to the drawing board and seek out new sources.
It is unlikely you will be able to read through all the materials that you find in the short amount of time that you have to complete the writing project. Search through the tables of contents and glossaries of the texts, which direct you to pertinent chapters or sections and help you decide whether the source is valuable or not. Give yourself additional time to reread and annotate the resources you find useful, as well as time to draft, and revise your writing project.
Here is an example of a simple 4-week schedule that focuses on setting goals:
Date | Portion of Project to be Completed |
Nov 4th | Submit Research Proposal |
Nov 5-7th | Find 4 Scholarly Sources, Read/Take Notes |
Nov 7-9th | Find 4 Other Sources, Read/Take Notes |
Nov 10-11th | Write Annotated Bibliography |
Nov 11th | Submit Annotated Bibliography (By 11:59pm) |
Nov 12-14th | Create Outline of Ideas |
Nov 15th | Draft Intro and Pages 1-3 |
Nov 16-17th | Draft Pages 4-7 |
Nov 18-20th | Draft Remaining Pages/Double Check Works Cited Pages |
Nov 21-24th | Review and Edit Paper |
Nov 25th | Submit Paper |
Here is a more narrative-style work plan with notes for the student to remember while working:
Work Plan
October 27th- Become well versed on this topic and start reading resources to pick and learn from
October 29th- November 3rd- Begin drafting proposal, print out questions and answer with notes first, then type up formal response.
November 4th- Submit Research Proposal after getting someone to read over it for typos
November 4th-7th- Find 4 scholarly sources to use for paper, read and take notes. Don’t forget to write down works cited information.
November 6th-11th- Start writing annotated bibliography, do not wait until last minute as it will take a lot of time!!
November 7th-8th- Find 4 more sources to use for paper, read and take notes
November 9th-10th- Write annotations for final 4 sources. This should be easy by now.
November 11th- Submit annotated bibliography after having someone look over citations
November 12th- Decide what quotes from my annotated bib sources I want to use in the paper.
November 13-15th- Make an outline by topic. Draft working thesis statement. Think about the “Call to Action” at the end. Start drafting.
November 16th-20th- Continue to draft. Incorporate sources. Keep running Works Cited page.
November 21st-23rd- Should be at conclusion by now. Keep reading from beginning to ensure it flows. Check in-text citations for page numbers.
November 24th- Should be finished drafting and ready to comb over the paper carefully. Have 2 people read it.
November 25th- One last look over the whole thing. Submit research paper!
Sources
In your writing projects, a source is something from which you can obtain information or knowledge. Sources support the points you make, providing proof, offering examples, and illustrating your opinions. Synthesize a variety of reliable sources into each writing project to show readers a consensus on a point or demonstrate that your perspective is founded on evidence.
Establish for the audience your credibility as a researcher and as a thinker by including in your work accurate information from reliable sources. The materials you include in support of your position should be current and relevant to the topic, speak from authoritative positions, and fit with the overall purpose for the writing project. Valuable sources testify to the reliability of your research—and by extension, thinking.
Both the way you search for information and the terms you use in that pursuit can lead you to a range of diverse sources. Some of the information you encounter would work for an informal project but will almost-certainly appear questionable or unconvincing in an academic writing project. Selecting the right sources to use in an essay requires careful synthesis, and even further research into what the sources say, and also into the sources themselves.
Sources can be trained or popular, primary or secondary. Trained sources are typically professional, scholarly, or otherwise experienced publications such as journals or periodicals that are peer-reviewed, meaning that a group of experts in the field has evaluated the material prior to its publication. These sources, written by trained specialists, often contain the most up-to-date research and thinking and are usually more thorough and technical than their popular counterparts.
Popular sources are largely non-academic, published more frequently, and intended for general audiences. They are frequently written by laymen, or writers who may have conducted some research, but are not considered specialists in the field. News periodicals, such as newspapers, websites, and magazines are examples of popular sources which are generally both more accessible and easier to understand than professional sources.
Primary sources are the original sources of information, such as authentic documents, personal journals or diaries, contemporaneous witness accounts, or field or laboratory research. Secondary sources, such as books, essays, and journal articles are those that discuss, interpret, and analyze primary sources.
The difference between what counts as a primary and a secondary source will vary depending on your topic and the scope of your research. Writing an essay on the violence depicted in a video game, for example, would mean the game itself would be the primary source, and any published criticism of the game would count as a secondary source. Writing a summary of an individual video game critic’s published work, however, would make each of that reviewer’s written critiques a primary source.
When you encounter a source that you think will be valuable to your writing project, make a note to yourself how the source helps to answer your research question. Is it trained or popular? Primary or secondary? Did you do any additional research into the source itself? Can you corroborate its information with another reliable source? When you begin drafting the essay later, annotations like these can help you organize your work.
Finding Sources
It can be intimidating trying to begin a research project. Just getting started is the hardest part for many. If you know that you would like to write about regarding a topic, but do not know the specifics of that topic or have yet to define your perspective on it, consider a quick search on your phone or computer for a brief outline of the conversation. Staring at a blinking cursor will probably not yield any tangible results, but opening your research with a few terms in the search bar of your browser is a reasonable place to begin finding sources.
While the results of your initial search may not be reliable, accurate, current, or even useful in your writing project, they will provide a quick overview of the topic and an overview of the larger conversation and contexts. The links you find may be predictable, as well: typing a one- or two-word phrase into the search bar results in familiar links to wikis, popular news sources, and products for sale.
If you begin your research into a topic this way, do not feel obligated to use only the first few results your search returns. Many search engines return results containing tailored news stories, targeted advertisements, sponsored content, or display results based on their popularity rather than their relevance or accuracy.
Engaging with the research process means sometimes meeting the material on its terms. Go to the LRC! Use the library. The SCC library is right here on campus and a great place to find useful and credible information. The LRC has a multitude of research materials available, though some may be available only at the library itself. If you do not want to go to the LRC in person, call or visit the website, linked on the school’s website, your course Canvas page, and SCC portal, where you can chat with research librarians.
Check out the online catalog by using the search bar on the LRC’s homepage. There you can search for books, articles, or a combined search of all the LRC’s materials. Many of the returns from your searches will be accessible to you online, though some materials will be accessible only on campus or via MOBIUS. The reference section of the LRC is located on the first floor, and contains the encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, and other published records and archives.
- Ask for help from the wonderful reference librarians. They are superhuman searching machines who can help you find useful credible information to synthesize into your writing projects.
- Talk to your instructor. They may have placed texts or materials on hold at the LRC, or if they may be able to recommend further reading on the topic.
Off campus, your local library can be a fantastic resource as well. It is likely their book collection will differ from that of the LRC, so you may be able to find additional sources on your topic there. Also, they may have subscriptions or access to more databases or materials that can supplement your research.
Evaluating Sources
Selecting the best sources to synthesis into your work means evaluating your selections as you research the topic. Even before you begin reading a source, you can do a little preliminary research into the author, the publication, or the publisher. Going into a reading with a bit of context will help you engage actively with the source and evaluate its usefulness in your writing project.
CRAAP is a useful mnemonic device used to help remember a series of questions you can employ to evaluate the quality of a potential source:
- Currency – How recently was the source published? Is it up to date with current thinking?
- Relevance – Is the source useful to your position?
- Accuracy – How correct or precise is the information included in the source?
- Authority – What credentials does the author/publication have that would allow them to write on/publish the topic?
- Purpose – Was the source written/published with intent?
Not only must you question whether or not the source itself is valuable, you must also consider its connection to your topic and the position you are taking in the essay. Ask yourself if the source contributes anything to your purpose.
You should not try to force a source into your work just because you have found it, or because it is a notable publication or author; instead, include only selections that are strictly relevant to your topic and the positions you adopt in your essay. If a source used in your writing is incompatible with material around it, readers may misunderstand your meaning or become confused.
Additional questions you might ask yourself when evaluating a source for use in your essay:
- Is the source too technical for general audiences? Can you paraphrase the material?
- Is the stance of the source inconsistent with your position? Can you use the source in a concession or counterargument?
- Is the source necessary in your essay? Would another source better suit your purpose or audience?
Annotating Sources
As you collect and evaluate sources, keep track of their publication information. Initially, you may not select a source immediately after finding it, but after more research, or after changing your research question, you may want to return to that source later. Bookmark websites and write down the call numbers of books in the library to keep tabs on your resources as you move through the research process. Locate sources within larger publications and make note of where those sources are located. If you stay on top of annotations early in the writing process, you will easily complete the Works Cited page at its close.
As you whittle down the number of sources you plan to synthesize into your work, print out electronic resources and make photocopies of and print materials so that you can take notes on the sources themselves. As you read and reread these sources, the highlights, underlined phrases, and other markings you leave on the page will help you construct your essay in the drafting stage of the writing process.
If your writing project requires a works cited page, an annotated works cited page, a works consulted page, a bibliography, or any other documentation of your source material. keeping detailed records of your sources—and writing brief summaries of what you find in them—will help you construct it.
Synthesizing Sources
After you have collected, read, reread, and annotated your sources, you can begin to incorporate them into your writing project. Refer to your sources as examples or integrate them into your writing in support of your position. Combine your thoughts and words with those of others to inform a position, similar to forming Voltron, or assembling the Avengers or Justice League: your opinion is stronger synthesized with support. In academic writing, it is common to incorporate sources through summary, paraphrase, and quotation; any time you synthesize the thoughts or words of another in your work, you must include alongside it an attribution.
Summary
A summary distills a piece of writing down to its most-important points. Summarizing something invokes active reading, as you must analyze and evaluate the text to determine what material is pertinent or valuable. Engaging with the text like this requires you to pare away unnecessary information. Do not make the common mistake of restating everything in the original: a summary is not a synopsis. Limit the scope of summary to a recap of the material’s most-important points.
Typically, summaries are written to be as objective as possible. As such, the major points you see in a piece of writing should be easily observable to others—that is to say, a summary should not provide a unique insight into the material—the summary should represent a factual retelling of the most-pertinent information.
Even so, in selecting what you believe to be the major points or the ideas most-relevant to the topic and your perspective, you are engaging with the source subjectively. To that end, a summary should read as if it has been written by its author. When you summarize information in your work, do so in your own voice. Maintain the tone you have established throughout the draft and continue with your own diction. It is important that you are highly-selective if you choose to repeat key words, phrases, or sentence-structures from the original source, though it is best to avoid incorporating any of these into your own writing to maintain your own voice.
When you summarize material from a source, you must also let readers know where you found that material. You can either incorporate its publication information into the text itself using an attributive tag, and/or you can include a parenthetical reference at the end of the summarized material.
Paraphrase
Paraphrase is similar to summary in that you rewrite the original material into your own words. Unlike summary, however, paraphrase requires that you reword all the material, rather than just its main points. In this light, paraphrase is most akin to translation: doing your best to explain to readers what someone else is saying or writing while using your own words.
Paraphrase is a powerful demonstration of active reading skills because in order to translate something effectively, you must not only read it, but truly grasp what it means within an established frame of reference. Your ability to rephrase material in your own voice represents your thorough understanding of the information and its contexts.
Because paraphrase includes all of the material, and not only the main points, paraphrase is typically limited to shorter excerpts. It can be time-consuming and cumbersome to paraphrase large selections or passages. Were you to paraphrase a paragraph, for example, your paraphrase would contain all the same information as the original, and would likely be similar in size and function, leaving little room to add your opinion or analysis.
Just as with summary, you should paraphrase only in your own voice. Maintain the tone and diction you have established in your draft, do not repeat key words, phrases, or sentence structures from the original. And, just like summary, paraphrase requires that you give credit to the original source. You can include publication information in the text itself using an attributive tag, and/or include a parenthetical reference at the end of the paraphrased material.
Quotation
Quotation is borrowing exact material from the source and incorporating it directly into your essay with no changes in the material from the original.
Incorporation is key to using quotation successfully in an essay. Similar to how summary and paraphrase ask you to put material in your own words without disrupting the flow of the essay, when you include a quotation into your work, it must fit into your writing accordingly. Even though you are copying the original material word-for-word, character-for-character, you must still understand what the quote means and the context in which it is used to successfully synthesize it into your work. Additionally, it should fit with the flow, or coherence, of your voice.
Because it is sometimes difficult to put a quotation into the correct context without a lot of background information, quotation should be used sparingly and with great care. Whenever you include material borrowed directly from a source, readers should know who the author of that material is and from where you are borrowing it. Sometimes that means including introductions to material or providing additional context before including the quotation in your essay.
Topic Sentence → Quotation → Relevance
Introduction → Citation → Explanation
Topic Sentence/ Introduction | Throughout the book series Harry Potter written by J.K. Rowling, Harry looks to Professor Dumbledore for advice and guidance. |
Quotation/ Citation | At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore tells Harry, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” (Rowling 245). |
Relevance/ Explanation | Dumbledore stresses to Harry that even though he shares many characteristics with Lord Voldermort and has the potential to be a dark wizard, if he continues to choose light and goodness, he will never be like Voldermort. |
How to Do the Relevance or Explanation:
After introducing and citing the passage, you will need to explain the significance: How might this author’s idea relate to my thesis? How does this data add to what I am trying to prove in this paragraph? Why am I putting this quotation in my paper? What am I trying to show here?
Never leave any room for interpretation. It is your responsibility as the writer to interpret the information for your reader and identify its significance.
Remember, a quote does not speak for itself or prove anything on its own. That is your job!
Attribution
Attributive tags, or signal phrases, are phrases that identify to readers the author or creator of the material you synthesize into your work. The most basic attributive tags include simply the author’s name and a verb. For example, Fonzie says, “Sit on it!” In this case, the name Fonzie and the verb says show the reader know who is speaking the phrase.
In place of the speaker’s name, you might instead employ metonymy, refer to their credentials, or construct a phrase that alerts readers to the speaker’s identity, qualifications, credibility, or other notable information. For example, instead of referring to the president by name, you may simply write: “The president tweeted,” or “A tweet from the White House reads…” Similarly, you might first name author J.K. Rowling in your writing project and then refer to her as “the award-winning author” in the paragraph thereafter.
When choosing a verb for a signal phrase, “says” is maybe the most universal. But it is also terribly overused and incredibly nondescript. While says conveys to readers that someone is speaking, it does not provide the audience the tone of voice or attitude that the speaker uses. Instead of using this boring verb, try using verbs that match the tone of your essay, or otherwise highlight the purpose or point of including the synthesized information in your work.
Examples of signal phrases and attributive tags:
Adds | Claims | Contends | Endorses | Notes | Reveals |
Admits | Comments | Considers | Finds out | Observes | Says |
Agrees | Compares | Denies | Illustrates | Points | Shows |
Argues | Concedes | Declares | Implies | Predicts | Suggests |
Asserts | Describes | Disputes | Insists | Refutes | Thinks |
Believes | Concludes | Emphasizes | Maintains | Responds | Warns |
Other Sources: Interviews If you want to incorporate some additional information into your essay, consider an interview with an expert, or someone who is intimately familiar with your topic. Look to accessible professionals, experts, and public officials before friends and family. Of course, friends and family can make good interview subjects—and may even be the reason why you have selected a topic—although they might not always be suitable subject for an interview on the topic of your writing project. Matching schedules can be difficult and asking for someone’s time can be daunting. Be flexible and allow yourself plenty of time to conduct interviews and follow-ups in your research schedule. If you change your perspective during the research process, you may want to return to your interview for follow-up questions or clarification. Begin with a little preliminary research into your interview subject. Ask yourself why you are interviewing this particular subject, and what you hope to learn from your interview. Before you go into the interview, find out some background information on the subject of your interview and look for connections between your subject and the topic. You may be able to use this information to help shape your questions. Write out your questions ahead of time but know that they may change as you conduct the interview. Plan ahead—it is great to have too many questions rather than too few. It is far easier to forego any superfluous questions as time allows than it is to try and ask thoughtful questions in the moment. Consider writing some follow-up questions ahead of time, so if your subject is willing to expand on a question, you are prepared to continue with that line of query. Avoid questions that can be answered in a single word and ask follow-up questions to their answers to generate more-specific responses. Do not let your subject respond only with generic or simplistic answers. You have chosen this subject for a reason, so get the information you seek from them. If you can, digitize or record (audio/visual) the interview so you can review the material and quote your source directly. Take detailed notes throughout your interview and review them afterward. Fill out any abbreviations or quick annotations immediately after you conclude so that you do not forget their meaning. Finally, listen to or read over your interview and annotate it. Look for opportunities to synthesize it into your work. |
TIPS AND NOTES: SECRETS AND POWER-UPS FOR CHAPTER 16
- When researching at your local library, note that the classification system may differ to the LRC’s: Dewey Decimal System vs. Library of Congress
- If you’ve summarized a large amount of material from a source in a single paragraph, end that paragraph with the parenthetical reference
- You need not necessarily summarize or paraphrase a source in its publication order: feel free to mix information up (so long as it still makes sense)—if you think you could organize the material more effectively, don’t hesitate.
- If you choose to include a quotation, you may make alterations to it only so that it fits grammatically within your work. Any changes you make to the original must be noted on the page.
- Changes to quotations
- [including words]
- Making omissions…
- You might also take note of indirect quotations, or quotations within quotations (qtd. in)