How to Write a Great Paper, by Genevieve Carlton Ph.D
Avoid quoting a secondary source and then simply rewording or summarizing the quotation, either above or below the quotation. It is rarely necessary to quote secondary sources at length, unless your essay focuses on a critical analysis of the authors argument. (See also: Writing a Book Review) Your professor wants to see your ability to analyze and to understand the secondary sources. Do not quote unless the quotation clarifies or enriches your analysis. When in doubt, do not quote; instead, integrate the authors argument into your own (though be sure to acknowledge ideas from your sources, even when you are paraphrasing). If you use a lot of quotations from secondary sources, you are probably writing a poor paper. An analysis of a primary source, such as a political tract or philosophical essay, might require lengthy quotations, often in block format. In such cases, you might need to briefly repeat key points or passages as a means to introduce the authors ideas, but your analysis and interpretation of the texts meaning should remain the most important aim. (See also: Using primary sources and Use scholarly secondary sources.) Your professor can spot a one-draft wonder, so don't try to do your paper at the last moment. Leave plenty of time for revising and proofreading. Show your draft to a writing tutor or other good writer. Reading the draft aloud may also help. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, and a few may slip through no matter how meticulous you are. But beware of lots of mistakes. The failure to proofread carefully suggests that you devoted little time and effort to the assignment. Tip: Proofread your text both on the screen and on a printed copy. Your eyes see the two differently. Dont rely on your spell checker to catch all of your misspellings. (If ewe ken reed this ewe kin sea that a computer wood nut all ways help ewe spill or rite reel good.) Writing an A+ term paper takes much more than a couple of hours spent on research and several lines on a paper. Before we dive deep into the term paper format, lets first define what it is and look into the objectives of this writing assignment. Write in the active voice. The passive voice encourages vagueness and dullness; it enfeebles verbs; and it conceals agency, which is the very stuff of history. You know all of this almost instinctively. What would you think of a lover who sighed in your ear, My darling, you are loved by me!? At its worst, the passive voicelike its kin, bureaucratic language and jargonis a medium for the dishonesty and evasion of responsibility that pervade contemporary American culture. (Mistakes were made; I was given false information. Now notice the difference: I screwed up; Smith and Jones lied to me; I neglected to check the facts.) On history papers the passive voice usually signals a less toxic version of the same unwillingness to take charge, to commit yourself, and to say forthrightly what is really going on, and who is doing what to whom. Suppose you write, In 1935 Ethiopia was invaded. This sentence is a disaster. Who invaded? Your professor will assume that you don't know. Adding by Italy to the end of the sentence helps a bit, but the sentence is still flat and misleading. Italy was an aggressive actor, and your passive construction conceals that salient fact by putting the actor in the syntactically weakest positionat the end of the sentence as the object of a preposition. Notice how you add vigor and clarity to the sentence when you recast it in the active voice: "In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia." In a few cases, you may violate the no-passive-voice rule. The passive voice may be preferable if the agent is either obvious (Kennedy was elected in 1960), irrelevant (Theodore Roosevelt became president when McKinley was assassinated), or unknown (King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings). Note that in all three of these sample sentences the passive voice focuses the reader on the receiver of the action rather than on the doer (on Kennedy, not on American voters; on McKinley, not on his assassin; on King Harold, not on the unknown Norman archer). Historians usually wish to focus on the doer, so you should stay with the active voiceunless you can make a compelling case for an exception.
WHATS your favorite piece of advice about writing a college essay?
How to Write a Reflection Paper: Step-by-Step Guide - The first step in writing a paper is to make sure that you understand exactly what your teacher expects. Here are some questions to ask before you start researching and writing so you can be sure you are on the right track:
How to write a good paper in college - My parents would have much preferred that I write about sports or youth group, and I probably could have said something interesting about those, but I insisted on writing about a particular fish in the pet store I worked atone that took much longer than the others to succumb when the whole tank system in the store became diseased. It was a macabre little composition, but it was about exactly what was on my mind at the time I was writing it. I think it gave whoever read it a pretty good view of my 17 year-old self. I'll never know if I got in because of that weird essay or in spite of it, but it remains a point of pride that I did it my way.
Your writing should provide a context within which the reader learns about who you are and what has brought you to this stage in your life. Try to tie your account into how this has made you develop as a person, friend, family member or leader (or any role in your life that is important to you). You may also want to make a connection to how this has inspired some part of your educational journey or your future aspirations. This college essay tip is by Mira Coach Mira Simon, Independent Educational Consultant and professionally trained coach from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), who combines her expertise to help high school students find their pathway to college. Even a personal statement can have a thesis. Its important to remember that, though your ending can be somewhat ambiguoussomething well discuss more lateryour set-up should give the reader a clear sense of where were headed. It doesnt have to be obvious, and you can delay the thesis for a paragraph or two (as this writer does), but at some point in the first 100 words or so, we need to know were in good hands. We need to trust that this is going to be worth our time. Here you have a long compound introductory clause followed by no subject and no verb, and thus you have a fragment. You may have noticed exceptions to the no-fragments rule. Skilful writers do sometimes intentionally use a fragment to achieve a certain effect. Leave the rule-breaking to the experts.