*for papers between 4 and 10
pages
Materials to Keep Handy:
-
the prompt for
the assignment
-
required sources
to include (that you’ve already read)
-
any additional
sources you think might be useful (that you’ve already read)
-
a trustworthy
reference book or website for fact-checking
-
computer and
printer, blank paper and pencils
-
any print-outs
you collect along the way (save all old versions of your paper as different
files)
Step One: Pre-Writing [About 2-4 Hours Over 1-2 Days]
- Skim through the required sources again, very
quickly. If anything comes to mind,
write that down, either in the margins or on a piece of paper.
- Type the question into the computer. For example:
Using the Declaration of Angostura and the two Lenin
documents in Blaisdell (227-231, 236-238) as your primary sources, write an
essay contrasting the revolutionary goals of the Latin American and Russian
revolutions. What do the differences tell us about the developments of
the nineteenth century?
- Break out the question into smaller questions:
How are the revolutionary goals of the Latin American and
Russian revolutions similar?
How are the revolutionary goals of the Latin American and
Russian revolutions different?
What do the differences tell us about the developments of
the nineteenth century?
- Brainstorm about smaller questions that you’ll
also need to answer to answer these questions:
What are the revolutionary goals of the Latin American
revolution?
What are the revolutionary goals of the Russian revolution?
How are the revolutionary goals of the Latin
American and Russian revolutions similar?
How are the revolutionary goals of the Latin
American and Russian revolutions different?
What do the differences tell us about the
developments of the nineteenth century?
- Using the required sources, brainstorm answers to
these questions.
- Print out your answers, and either move to a new
location or take a five minute break and come back. With a pencil, put a check mark next to
the items that you think are good, and write notes by the ones you think
could be better. Use arrows to move
items around that should be under different headings, and cross out items
that you don’t like.
- Put this piece of paper aside. Get up and stretch or take a short
break. Look at the prompt again,
and brainstorm about the big picture.
Is there anything you’re missing?
Think creatively:
Bolivar:
d. 1830
Russian
Revolution: 1917
What
happened in-between? WWI…Communist Manifesto…(industrialization became a major
force in society)…
- Take out the prompt again, and write a one-sentence
answer to it:
Although these revolutions were influenced by many of the
same events of the 19th century, they diverged into dramatically different
paths due to their leaders' different understandings of proper dessert
toppings. Lenin's passion for crushed nuts led to a
violent break with the past, while Bolivar's measured preference for caramel
influenced the new Latin American states to maintain the liberal capitalist policies
of Britain
.
- Underline the points in your thesis statement
that you need to prove:
Although these revolutions were
influenced by many of the same events of the 19th century, they diverged
into dramatically different paths due to their leaders' different
understandings of proper dessert toppings.
Lenin's passion for crushed nuts led to a violent break with the past,
while Bolivar's measured preference for caramel influenced the new Latin
American states to maintain the liberal capitalist policies of Britain
.
- In the computer, write your
thesis statement and rephase the underlined points as arguments; place
points that are off-shoots or sub-arguments underneath the larger argument:
Although these revolutions were influenced by
many of the same events of the 19th century, they diverged into dramatically
different paths due to their leaders' different understandings of proper dessert toppings. Lenin's passion
for crushed nuts led to a violent break with the past, while Bolivar's measured
preference for caramel influenced the new Latin American states to maintain the
liberal capitalist policies of Britain
.
These revolutions were influenced by many of the same events
of the 19th century.
These revolutions diverged into dramatically different paths.
The leaders of these revolutions had different
understandings of proper dessert toppings.
Lenin had a passion for crushed nuts.
This led to a violent break with the past.
Bolivar had a measured preference for caramel.
This influenced the new Latin American states to maintain
the liberal capitalist policies of Britain
.
- Search through your main sources for evidence to
support each statement. Include
your own notes and thoughts, as well as quotations and paraphrases of the
texts. Don’t stop to make anything
pretty—just do as much work as is necessary to make it something you’ll
still understand tomorrow.
STOP
FOR TODAY. Reward yourself for doing a
good job, and go do something you enjoy.
Step Two: Writing
[About 2-4 Hours Over 1-2 Days]
* (for papers over 10 pages,
add more days here)
Now you’re going to actually
write the paper. Using the sub-arguments
and evidence you have, write a paragraph for each point you want to make. Sentences should contain a
topic sentence that introduces the main idea; ideally a person should be able
to read only the topic sentences of your paper to get a summary of your
ideas. The other sentences in the paragraph should provide evidence,
examples, or futher explanation for your topic sentence, but should not introduce
major new ideas--for that, you'll need another paragraph.
Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part
structure—introduction, body, and conclusion. You can see this structure in
paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, comparing, contrasting, or
analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in
communicating your meaning to your reader.
Introduction: the first section of a paragraph; should include the
topic sentence and any other sentences at the beginning of the paragraph that
give background information or provide a transition.
Body: follows the introduction; discusses the controlling
idea, using facts, arguments, analysis, examples, and other information.
Conclusion: the final section; summarizes the connections
between the information discussed in the body of the paragraph and the
paragraph’s controlling idea.
The following paragraph illustrates this
pattern of organization. In this paragraph the topic sentence and concluding
sentence (CAPITALIZED) both help the reader keep the paragraph’s main point in
mind.
SCIENTISTS HAVE LEARNED TO
SUPPLEMENT THE SENSE OF SIGHT IN NUMEROUS WAYS. In front of the tiny pupil of
the eye they put, on
Mount Palomar, a great monocle 200 inches in diameter, and with it see 2000 times
farther into the depths of space. Or
they look through a small pair of lenses arranged as a
microscope into a drop of water or blood, and magnify by as much as 2000
diameters the living creatures there, many of which are among man’s most
dangerous enemies. Or,
if we want to see distant happenings on earth, they use some of the previously wasted electromagnetic
waves to carry television images which they re-create as light by whipping tiny
crystals on a screen with electrons in a vacuum. Or they can bring happenings of long
ago and far away as colored motion pictures, by arranging silver atoms and
color-absorbing molecules to force light waves into the patterns of original
reality. Or if we want
to see into the center of a steel casting or the chest of an injured child, they send the information on a beam
of penetrating short-wave X rays, and then convert it back into images we can
see on a screen or photograph. THUS ALMOST EVERY TYPE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC
RADIATION YET DISCOVERED HAS BEEN USED TO EXTEND OUR SENSE OF SIGHT IN SOME
WAY.
--George Harrison, “Faith and the Scientist”
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/paragraphs.shtml
- Focus on writing one paragraph at a time. You can
work on them out of order. Don’t
worry if it isn’t the best writing you’ve ever done—just get the sentences
down on paper.
- Write the conclusion.
- Write the introduction.
STOP FOR TODAY. Reward yourself for doing a good job, and go
do something you enjoy.
Step Two: Editing [About 2-4 Hours Over 1-2 Days]
- Editing for Content
Print
out what you did yesterday and check the argument:
-- Underline your thesis. Does
it make a specific claim? (It should.)
-- Underline the main
sub-arguments that you use to support your thesis. Are they enough (do
you need more)? Are they all necessary (can one be taken out)? Do they
prove your thesis?
-- Underline every place you
make a claim that needs evidence.
-- Now, circle the places
where you use evidence from primary sources to prove your
claims. Are there any major sub-arguments or minor claims where no
evidence is provided?
-- But brackets [ ] every
place you provided a counter-argument to a claim. For those where
you did not add a counter-argument, try to think of how someone could poke
holes in your claim and your evidence. Either tighten up the phrasing so
that it is irrefutable or admit that a counter-argument exists in your
paper. Make sure you refute each counter-argument. (If the point doesn’t need this, that’s
fine—just check to make sure.)
2. Sanity Check
--Look again at the question
prompt. Did you answer everything or is
something left out? Did you stray from the question?
-- Look back over your notes
and skim the documents again. Does
anything seem important to you that you left out?
2. Editing for Style
Try
these techniques on your print-out, making notes in the margins whenever you
find an error.
-- Carefully
and slowly read your writing out loud.
--
Read your writing, sentence by sentence, from the last sentence to the first
sentence. This technique interrupts the logical flow of the prose and neutralizes
any impression of correctness arising from your knowledge of what you meant to
say.
Make
any changes in the soft copy of your document.
3.
Proofreading
--
Use your dictionary to check any words of which you are unsure, and to check
for correct prepositions, verb tenses, and irregular forms.
--Get
a friend who is a good writer to check over the paper.
Make
any changes in the soft copy of your document.
- Getting the paper ready for your teacher.
--
Check the prompt and the syllabus. Is there any specific information about how
the paper should look? Did you write the correct amount of pages, use the right
font and margins?
--
Add a title, page numbers, your name, etc., according to the requirements.
--
Print out, upload, or email the paper at least an hour before you have to leave
to turn it in. This way, you can get
help if there’s a technical problem.
* Reward yourself for turning
it in!
Good resources for more detailed advice:
http://www.english.uga.edu/writingcenter/writing/checklist.html
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/checkwriting.html
How to proofread your own paper for grammar errors:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/proofing_grammar.shtml
More on thesis statements:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml
More on conclusions:
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/conclusions.html
More on transitions:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/transitions.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/574/01/
List of helpful transition phrases:
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/sixtrait/organization/transitions.html
More on topic sentences:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/paragraphs.shtml
More on quotations, including when to quote, when to paraphrase, and when to summarize:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_quotprsum.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/using_evidence.shtml
UNC-CH Writing Center
Want to take your writing to the next level? This is one of the best
websites on how to write college papers. In addition to their great
guides to style, check out their resources on how to recognize logical
fallacies, on dealing with writing anxiety, and on succeeding in
history courses:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/writing_anxiety.html
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/history.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/