I struggled to figure out what I was good at. This whole “area of expertise” thing had me thrown for a loop. It was actually very depressing, because I came to the sad conclusion that I really wasn’t good at anything. So I did what any upstanding 25 year-old in a jam would do: I asked my mother.
“You get straight A’s,” my mother said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You graduated cum laude; write about how to write a good term paper.”
The woman had a point. I do have my fair share of A’s on my undergraduate (and now graduate) transcript. And so, my fellow struggling college students, I will tell you, clearly, succinctly, and definitively, how to write an awesome college term paper.
Rule #1: Get a thesis statement. You can’t survive without one. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to write a fairly interesting paper with no driving force. Your thesis statement should be clear, concise, and show that you’re taking a side on something (unless you’re doing a research paper in which your opinion is of no consequence). A good thesis statement can be a question, as long as you wind up answering it by the end of your paper. It should also be in the first paragraph of your paper (what we learned was the “introduction” in high school). I like to start off with a quote, and then lead in with a good grabbing thesis statement. It lets the professor know that you aren’t B.S.’ing your way through the paper. It’s also a good idea sometimes to leave your thesis statement for the very end of your first paragraph. This way, it’s the “segway” for your main idea.
Rule #2: Less Is More. I know that as English majors, writing papers is pretty much all we do. It can get a little crazy when your fingers are moving faster than your brain. Pretty soon you’re using words like enormative and exemplary and you don’t know why but they sound great. But you’re not Hemingway and this isn’t See How Much You Can Type Before Bed 101. The worst possible thing to do when writing a paper (and I used to do it ALL the time before reading Elements of Style by Strunk & White. If you haven’t read that, do so, NOW. It’s VERY short) is to just use words for words sake. In Elements of Style, Strunk & White give the best advice: “Let every word tell.” Cut the unnecessary fat out of every sentence and your paper will read much faster and be clearly devoid of B.S.
Rule #3: Make Definitive Statements. I should take my own advice because I always fall prey to the dreaded fraidy cat disease. Instead of making a clear cut statement that concisely states an opinion or a side on something, I use words like “seem” and “appears” so as not to make it look like I’m stating a fact….in case I’m wrong. It may feel right to err on the side of caution, but don’t. Your professors would rather you take a risk and make a bold declarative statement that they may disagree with IF AND ONLY IF you back it up with good arguments and solid information. Don’t fall victim to the “seem” disease. It just makes you look like you aren’t sure of anything.
Rule #4: Remember the Basic Rules. One of the most obnoxious things to have to sit through in an English class is when people — college students — make grade-school league mistakes. You’ll never walk amongst giants if you can’t find the ladder. Remember what a semi-colon does (separates two whole sentences with one main idea); don’t end a sentence with a preposition; know when to use “who” and “whom” (a good trick my mother taught me is that “whom” goes with the word “him” — they both have the letter M). Know that two spaces go after the period when writing a standard term paper. Familiarize yourself with MLA and use it correctly every time even if you think the format is stupid (because it is) because 85% of your class won’t remember and you’ll stand out. Use spell/grammar check but know that it won’t catch everything and you WILL have to do your own editing as well.
Rule #5: Paragraph Cohesion. I’m bad with paragraphs. I’ll admit it. But one thing you MUST have is a cohesive paper. If your paragraphs lack cohesion then all you have is a series of interesting yet disjointed paragraphs. Make sure there is a fluidity, a seamlessness from one paragraph to another. What I do to achieve this is first I make an outline of bullet points, to remind me of what I want to write (because my short-term memory is a joke) and I put certain bullet points with common themes together. For example, if you’re writing about symbolism in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (awesome book) you can note that the creature was a monster with human qualities, and then “segway” into something about Dr. Frankenstein himself was like a human with monster qualities. Paragraph cohesion is something that you should really master once you get to college. It will set you apart from those of your peers still writing high-school league papers.
Rule #6. Don’t Over-Summarize. One of my favorite professors once told my class that when we write papers dealing with one or more books, we should write as though our audience was a class who read that book a few semesters ago. It was excellent advice, because it dealt with one of the biggest taboos in writing a college paper: the pitfall of over-summarizing. The problem that arises is when you read a book and you “get” it, like really get it, and you know it like the back of your hand, the summary comes easy; it just rolls of your back like water. It’s pretty easy to summarize a book, but it’s much more difficult to analyze etc. If your paper is supposed to be, say, 10 pages, and you spend 5 on summary, your analysis (which is the truly important part) loses out. Try making a summary no more than say one-third of your paper. Include necessary information such as plot, major conflict, and resolution, but then move on to the analysis. Trust me, you’ll get a far better grade if you say that Sylvia Plath was predicting her own demise in The Bell Jar, rather than simply saying Esther Greenwood hated electroshock therapy and met a lot of boys.
Rule #7: Beginning and Ending. The two most important parts of your paper are the beginning and the ending. The beginning is what will grab the reader and hook them, keep them reading (although your Professor kind of has to read your paper, he/she doesn’t have to like it. It’s a plus if it’s interesting). The ending is what will stay with your reader. I’ve read so many good things in my day that seemed so unfinished, so abruptly ended. Don’t just stop when you’ve reached your tenth page because you aren’t required to write more than that. Flush out your idea to completion. That’s why it’s a good idea not to save things for the last minute, which I will focus on in my next rule. Don’t start off with your full throttle focus point. Use some type of “introduction” to introduce your reader to your topic. Then, “segway” (yes I know I’m spelling it wrong, thus the quotes) into your paper’s body. The same goes with your ending. Do not simply finish your thoughts and that’s it. You need to wrap it all up in some way, tie everything together. This does not mean that if you have a rockin’ beginning and ending your middle can stink and you’ll still get an A. Every part should rock, and every word should tell.
Rule #8: Your Vocabulary is a Fair-weather Friend. Allow me to tell you a story. I sat in my Essay Writing class reading along with this really smart guy as he was reading his paper aloud. His paper was projected on a huge screen in the front of the class so we could see his words, as he read it out loud. Now I really respected this guy; he wasn’t an English major but a Philosophy major and he had a lot of really fascinating things to say in class and was always putting some type of Platonic spin on everything. But as I sat there listening to him drop ten-dollar (unnecessary) word after ten-dollar word I felt a little awkward. And the Professor did too. “You aren’t using those words correctly,” she said to him, rather dryly. “Yeah I thought so,” he laughed, nervously. And that brings me to this rule. DO NOT under any circumstances, think that using big words makes you seem smart. It doesn’t. It makes you look like you’re using big words to seem smart. If you’ve ever read one of those lengthy grad student / PhD essays that you can find on MLA and college websites, you’ll know that there is nothing wrong with showing the knowledge you possess on a given subject; there’s nothing wrong with looking in your thesaurus for a synonym because you’ve already said “create” five times and you don’t want to repeat it, but if you’re doing it too much or wrong….the Professor will notice. Let your vocabulary be a fair-weather friend. In other words: only let it speak to you when you need something.
Rule #9: Deadlines – Ominous Sounding But Very Important. I cannot stress enough how horrible it is to leave a 20 page term paper for the last minute. I’ve done it. A LOT. And I’m not proud. And I ask you to please learn from my mistakes. If you’re like me, and you can’t work when you’re really tired, it would seem irresponsible to put off your very important lengthy paper for the last, exhausted, minute. But it happens. Most of our term papers all occur at the same time, either mid or end semester. We often have 2, 3 or more papers to do all within one small time frame. And there’s always one (or two) papers that gets neglected. Do not do this. Your work will suffer. You will leave things unedited, misspelled, and disorganized. The longer a paper is, the more time is needed to edit it. Give yourself the time you need. Nothing feels better than to be done with all your papers in a timely fashion, in a way that can get you enough sleep and three square meals.
Rule #10: Works Cited. This rule is simple. Always include a Works Cited page. This is different from a bibliography. A bibliography is all the works you used, quoted, consulted, etc. Works Cited page is just a page of the works you cited in your paper. Structure the works cited page correctly, according to MLA format, and with the right indents. It would be a shame to have a perfect A paper and do your works cited paper incorrectly. Professors notice these things.
And those are my rules. Remember them well, and use them wisely. And if you ever have a question about whether your writing is good, give it to some semi-intelligent person to proofread. I use my mother. We usually get into about ten arguments per paper, but she catches a lot of good things that I miss. There’s nothing wrong with giving your paper a fresh set of eyes. And don’t forget to read Elements of Style. It changed my life.
