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Besides organization, the other hallmark of a good paper is clarity in writing. Remember that if a paper fails to communicate well, then its research-no matter how well done--will have little impact. There is an old piece of advice that says, "write like you speak." This is terrible advice, at least for formal papers. Good written communication is somewhat different from good spoken communication. When you speak to someone, especially face to face, you can convey meaning through voice inflection, gestures, and other methods in addition to your words. These methods are not available in written communications. Therefore, choice of words, punctuation, and other considerations are particularly vital when you write. Good writing can be divided into three parts: effort, style considerations, and technical matters.
Effort: Thomas Alva Edison once supposedly commented that "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." That is true whether one is inventing the lightbulb or creating an essay, a report, or a book. Writing and polishing drafts of a paper take time and effort. They cannot be done the night before the paper is due. If you sit down at your word processor the night before your report is due and write it into the wee hours of the morning, you will almost certainly leave your reader as bleary-eyed when he or she reads the paper as you were when you wrote it. Two things to do are to write drafts and to get others to read your paper.
1. Write a draft, preferably more than one. No professional writer would dream of sending a manuscript out for review or to press without writing multiple drafts. Indeed, the more one writes, the more one feels the need to do drafts. Only undergraduates have the hubris to keyboard a paper into the computer, print a copy out, hand it in, and wait confidently for that rave review and an "A" grade from the instructor. A better idea is to write a first draft. Note here that the adjective "rough" does not precede "draft." Your draft should be complete and carefully done. Once your smooth draft is done, put it aside for a few days so that you can gain perspective. Then reread it. You may be surprised at how many ways you find to improve what you have written when you look at it with "fresh eyes." The same is true for your third and subsequent drafts.
2. Get help. There are many people who can help you write a first-rate paper. One person is your instructor. Discuss your topic and your ideas with your professor. He or she may be able to help you refine your topic, avoid pitfalls, identify resources, or plan the paper's organization. Submit drafts to your professor far enough ahead of the deadline to give the instructor time to suggest revisions. It may prove helpful also to ask a classmate, a family member, or someone else to read your paper. Most people are not good judges of their own writing. We tend to read what we meant to say, not what we actually wrote. A fresh reader will be able to point out technical errors and lapses in your argument and organization. Writing centers are another source of help at many colleges and universities. You may have already paid for such assistance with your tuition dollars; you might as well use it.
Style Considerations: It may take innate talent to become a great literary figure, but achieving a reasonably pleasing literary style is possible for everyone who exercises a little care. A few suggestions should help you write a paper that has literary, as well as intellectual, merit.
1. Watch your sentence structure. Students and scholars too often seem to assume that long, complex sentences are symbolic of profundity. They are not; they are mostly just cumbersome. Simple, subject-verb-object sentences are best. They are powerful. Still, if you do not vary them occasionally, numerous short sentences do not "read" well. So, after several simple sentences, add a longer one. But do not go too far the other way. Consider "Rourke's Rule of 2s": "Sentences more than two lines long or with more than two commas are probably too long to be understood easily, especially if there have been two in a row."
2. Rely on active tense, action verbs. Avoid the passive tense (No: "Politicians are disliked by many people." Yes: "Many people dislike politicians."). Similarly, action verbs (made, jumped, went) are better than verbs of being (is, are, were). In general, active/action verbs generate more interest.
3. Use standard English. Colloquial English typically does not make a good impression unless you are writing fiction. Obscenities and other forms of gutter English are almost never acceptable.
4. Avoid starting too many sentences with adverbial or adjectival clauses or phrases. These are the short phrases (such as "In the morning, we went...") that are often followed by a comma. Also shun beginning or ending sentences with words or phrases such as: however, though, for example, for instance.
5. Watch your paragraph length. Paragraphs over one page in length are usually too long. They may contain redundant statements or more than one major idea. Rework such paragraphs to delete unnecessary text or to separate ideas into additional paragraphs. At the other extreme, one-sentence paragraphs are not acceptable. Remember that each paragraph should have a topic sentence and several others that explain or develop that topic.
6. Rely on transitions between paragraphs. Conventions like "On the other hand," "Still," "Also," "Nevertheless," "Thus," "However," or "As a result" help the reader get from one thought to another. They smooth the reading process.
7. Avoid clichés. "They fought like cats and dogs over which policy to adopt." Ugh!
8. Get to the point. Do not beat around the bush; save a tree; avoid word pollution.
Technical Matters: Your paper must be free of common writing mistakes. Cautions about some of these are:
1. Avoid sentence fragments. Every sentence must have a subject and a verb.
2. Check your spelling. Misspelled words make you appear uneducated, careless, or both. Keep in mind that misspelled words and typographical errors cannot be distinguished from each other by a reader. Both are unacceptable. Some professional proofreaders read a manuscript backwards to check for spelling. Try it. Do not rely on just your own sense of how words are spelled. Use a dictionary, a "spell check" program if you have a computer, and a second reader to proofread your drafts. Beware of spell checkers, though! Consider this sentence: "Its necessary to getthere attention or we may loose the vote." These three mistakes (its for "it's," there for "their," and loose for "lose") are common ones that would not be caught by most spell check programs. Thus it is crucial to have a human scan your words.
3. Make sure subjects and verbs agree. Subject-verb disagreement is most likely to occur when the two are separated in the sentences by several other words.
4. Be careful of verb tense. Many poor writers use only present tense. Use past tense, future, and other tenses as appropriate. Also be careful to keep verb tense consistent within paragraphs.
5. Make pronouns mean what they say. Misuse of pronouns is very common. A pronoun refers to the last noun of the same person and gender. Consider the sentences, "John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was subsequently also shot and killed. Many Americans wept at his death." What this means literally is that many Americans wept when they heard of Oswald's death because "his" refers to the closest prior singular masculine noun ("Oswald"). Also, do not normally use pronouns more than twice in a row to refer to the same noun. Use the noun or a variation thereof again for clarity. While we are on the subject of pronouns, it is seldom correct to use a gender-specific pronoun (he, she, him, her) to refer to an inanimate object. The United States, for example, is an "it," not a "she."
6. Do not split infinitives. Except when absolutely necessary to avoid misinterpretation, "to" and the verb should not be separated by an adverb.
7. Avoid the use of contractions. Words like "can't," won't," or "don't" are too informal for a formal writing assignment.
8. Be careful of abbreviations. Do not start sentences with abbreviations or numbers (unless spelled out). For countries, avoid using the abbreviation as a noun (No: The U.S. did...); but the abbreviation is acceptable as an adjective (Yes: Current U.S. foreign policy...). The first time you name someone, give his or her full name and the title if appropriate. Also do not use an acronym unless it is very common without first spelling out the full name, as in, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
9. Do not end sentences with prepositions. This rule is being relaxed, but repetitive use of prepositions at the end of sentences is indicative of poor sentence structure.
10. Know when and how to use specific punctuation. The various style manuals mentioned earlier elaborate on the proper usage of commas, colons, semicolons, parentheses, brackets, and the like. |
