Undergraduates in Media Studies often have problems with the writing of papers & that's in part at least because they are attracted to many different ways of writing & communicating, and so they often feel confused about which form to use, it seems to me. Add to this a new diversity in the range of types of writing & communication (email, blogging, etc.) and it is understandable that there is sometimes difficulty in changing gears from a journalism class to a blogging independent study to a creative writing class and the composition of a dense theoretical paper.
What is not understandable, however, is failing to make the effort to learn how to properly construct an academic paper while you are in college. Surely we can all agree on that.
And so, in a spirit of providing Right Speech guidance on papers (helpful, timely, truthful) here are some basic thoughts on how to write a grown-up paper (for a class with me, anyway) & they come with a reminder -- the last piece(s) of work you do, at the end of a semester, can often make a big difference. Learning how to find mental stamina in the last days & weeks of a project, and what a huge difference this can make to the final outcome, is one of the most important (but least heralded?) tasks that can be learned in college.
Structure:
* Provide a clear introduction.
* Follow arguments through to their conclusion.
* Avoid scatter-shot argumentation (aka, throwing s**t at the wall & seeing what sticks).
* Provide a clear conclusion.
* End with citations/endnotes, in full.
Style:
* While it is permissible to use the first-person & to deploy humo(u)r, do not write in slang -- present your argument in formal, clear English. You are writing an academic paper, not a rant for a poetry slam.
* Do not provide a cute/funny journalistic final sentence. You are not writing for the Chronicle. You're a better writer than that.
* Do not repeat the same words/phrases in adjacent sentences where an alternative can be found. Read for this & correct accordingly.
Technique:
* Be specific -- give concrete examples to illustrate your arguments.
* Make arguments, rather than telling the reader what it is that you 'believe'.
* Integrate references & reading into the paper itself.
Basics:
* Cite references in full using the APA, Chicago, ASA, or MLA style.
* Do not tell a story about your references (Yesterday I went to the library after a light lunch and a low-fat latte & there I found a book about the movies by someone called Lauren Mulvey, and in it she said...) that will send the reader to sleep, and it makes you look like an idiot. So just cite the damn text and get on with it! (As Mulvey says...)
* Proof-read your paper & have someone else look at it, too. Never, ever hand a paper to a prof if it has not been proof-read. (And if you find errors on the hard copy, just fix them with a pen.)
* Proof-read your own work backwards, reading it para-by-para in reverse order (you will spot more errors that way).
* Proof-read your own work by reading it aloud. [Thanks to my colleague David Silver for this tip. The prof read his entire novel aloud, all nine chapters, onto 9 CDs. It helped.] You might even try reading it backwards aloud. Once your work begins to sound Dada-esque, however, it may be time to back up.
* Watch out for spelling errors that spellcheck misses (its/it's is the real giveaway -- we all notice when you get this wrong & it tells us that you do not read much).
* Triple-check proper names, especially the names of the authors of the books you are required to read -- when these are wrong, you do yourself no favours. Getting the prof's name right is also usually a good idea.
Never Complain, Never Explain:
* It's best not to hand the paper over in the company of an excuse.
Monday, November 26, 2007
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11 comments:
this is excellent, thanks. i'm totally using it tomorrow in both sections of intro to media studies. structure, style, technique, basics - this is what my students need to know as they ready their final papers.
i like this: "Learning how to find mental stamina in the last days & weeks of a project, and what a huge difference this can make to the final outcome, is one of the most important (but least heralded?) tasks that can be learned in college."
Ugh! Passive aggression simply roils beneath the very thin veneer of parenthetical humo(u)r. Do we really hold our students in such disdain? If so, perhaps the pop should reconsider the professor, or at the very least practice a bit of grown-up communication, i.e. communication that is truthful without being dismissive and sarcastic. That might actually be helpful.
The taking of offence where none was intended is one of the more depressing features of modern life & is indeed classic passive-aggressive behavio(u)r. I am sorry that the deployment of humour is seen as disdainful -- the very opposite is the case & I'll post on that one of these days.
I see no disdain. It seems respectful and tactful to me, which I prefer to something along the lines of "You students are idiots and can't write proper papers." I especially appreciate the acknowledgment that there are various legitimate forms of writing, like blogging and journalism, which are different from academic writing. After I took a journalism class it was hard for me to transition back to essays that called for paragraphs of longer than two sentences.
The guidelines are pretty basic, and if you know them and do them already, then you, as a student, can feel satisfied (and superior to others if that's your style). If you still need to work on them, a good student will take and learn and try harder.
i'm with amber.
hey, i've got something to add under "basics" - within the proof-reading suggestions. proof-read by reading your paper out loud.
I often find most people's conclusions (including my own) to be reaching and desperate. I think this is because most of us were lassoed into the five paragraph form as the only way of expressing ourselves academically. I usually stop when I see fit, accepting a lower grade like some kind of truth-seeking martyr.
An instructional librarian here, with a background in Philosophy.
While this is a great attempt at outlining the basics of the writing process, unfortunately personal experience and multiple empirical studies in librarianship show that much of what you assume here as common skills are, in fact, completely beyond the abilities of most new undergraduates.
* Follow arguments through to their conclusion.
Seems simple, right? But unpack that just a bit. What is an argument? What constitutes an argument in an academic paper? What is a conclusion? How does a conclusion follow from an argument? Easy questions for someone, like yourself, who has been writing for years, but it is not self-evident.
* Integrate references & reading into the paper itself.
Those familiar with the sublime heights that a well constructed literature review can understand this perfectly. Yet, even if a student knows what a proper academic reference is (and they often don't!), what does it mean to integrate it into the paper.
This is very well meaning, but it falls prey to the trap that gets many faculty and TAs: I learned to write/do research successfully, what is so difficult about it? This occurs again and again in the literature.
There are really only two ways for students to understand. 1. Read academic articles, many of them, from many fields, until you find your own style. We know that not many are going to do this willingly, so: 2. Go to the writing centre or library instructional classes. The staff there are actively researching how today's students work, what skills are lacking, and how to fill the gaps in students' knowledge.
my only disagreement would be with this: Do not repeat the same words/phrases in adjacent sentences where an alternative can be found. Read for this & correct accordingly.
there's nothing worse than an essay where the student's gone through with a thesaurus and changed it so no words are repeated. keep it simple and clear, don't worry about it being a little repetitive.
that said, i had an essay once where the first five paragraphs started with 'on the other hand.' How many hands can you have?!
We should certainly assume that an extremely modest little guide like this would not be all the students learn about writing papers. The idea was to produce something that I would speak to & elaborate upon, at some length. It would've been a simple handout, then I decided to blog it, in case it became useful to others. And -- frankly -- I wondered if my tedious & well-worn guidelines might get more attention from students, if I blogged them.
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to say that I find it really useful. During my 5 years of university I was never told how to write a paper, which I think is something that every student must know. Now I'm doing a whole module in my MA called "how to write an academic paper" and finding it extremely useful. :)
Good post.
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