Last week, I was grading sophomore research papers, and my experience prompted me to include in my Facebook statuses throughout the day fourteen different paper writing tips. For your amusement/education/whatever the case may be, I'm putting them all together here. . . if you've ever written a paper, you may see yourself in at least one of these. AND if you've ever graded research papers, you may see past and present students in all of them! :-)
Tip #1: Although "we" and "you" are indeed no-nos in formal writing, using the word "people" in their place 22 times in a 2 page paper is NOT an acceptable alternative.
Tip #2: Although it is also true that plagiarism is a bad, bad thing, putting 75% of your paper in quotation marks isn't an acceptable solution to THAT difficulty, either. Remember: it's called "writing a paper," not "stringing quotes together"...break up those puppies and/or paraphrase them! (Just ask Nicole Beard. :-D)
Tip #3: Spell check is your friend...but only to a point. If you type "by close" when you mean "buy clothes," it's not going to know that you've royally messed up twice. It's called "proofreading," people.
Tip #4: When a teacher is willing to look over countless revisions of your paper, take advantage of her (or his) generosity. That way, the opinion-based, emotion focus first draft can turn into the research paper it's supposed to be before said teacher grades your final draft! :-) This student gave me possibly a dozen revisions to check,and her end result was so much better as a result.
Tip #5: Don't overuse words. "Amazing" probably isn't the best choice for a formal paper as it is, but it's much less amazing when you use it four times in the first six lines of your paper.
Tip #6: If the topic is a global issue, then I expect you to write about how it affects people all across the globe. That's what "global" means, gang.
Tip #7: It's a truly excellent idea to pay attention during your teacher's presentation on MLA format, especially when it's the first thing she does after eight weeks of maternity leave. However, if you find this an impossible task, then at least pay attention to the sample paper that she gives you so that if you can't make your paper look just like it, you can see the problems and ask for help in fixing them. That way, you won't end up with a single-spaced, unalphabetized works cited page and a header that's out of place because you failed to use Word's Header/Footer function.
Tip #8: It isn't a cited work unless you've actually cited it within the body of your paper. The fact that you have listed it on your works cited page is irrelevant if you haven't cited the source, and I'm still counting off if you haven't cited the minimum number of sources in the *paper*.
Tip #9: If you're going to plagiarize, please don't insult my intelligence by doing an obvious copy and paste job (give or take the contractions that you corrected). If your paper mentions the names and populations of two relatively small Iowa towns without saying they're in Iowa (as in, it's written as though I should know without your naming the state...and I don't), that's going to inspire me to Google that sentence. And when I find the article from which it came and find your whole paper in that article...cross-apply what I said about plagiarism being a bad, bad thing.
Tip #10: If you didn't bring it up in the body of the paper, don't mention it in the conclusion. SN: This is one of many reasons that I think instruction in policy debate would be good for all our students. If you master the concept of "nothing new in rebuttals," you've got the "nothing new in the conclusion" idea down already. :-)
Tip #11: EasyBib is awesome but not perfect. Let your teacher look over that works cited page just to be on the safe side.
Tip #12: You really don't have to state the obvious, and it's a good idea to read over what you've written to make sure that you haven't done so. For example, you don't need to tell me that people are the reason that the world is in its current situation...I haven't been blaming the giraffes all this time, I promise. (Or "The Bible is one of the most influential books in all of literature." That was yours truly circa 1985...had "Duh!" been in fashion 27 years ago, I'm sure that's what Dr. Lloyd would have written on my paper.)
Tip #13: Don't use eight words when one will do. If you can make the point by saying "without," don't make me suffer through "in a way of not having to tolerate." (Yes, that's true even when your paper is running short of the required length. I mentally deduct the padding and take it off your content, anyway, because you really don't have as much content as you appear to.)
Tip #14: Be very careful regarding the credibility of your sources. For example, if you're trying to prove to me that the countries of the world should set aside all differences for the good of mankind, Dmitry Medvedev may not be your best weapon for convincing me to hold hands and sing "Kum Bah Yah" (and I probably just totally butchered the spelling of that title). If you don't know who he is or anything about him, kids, look him up and do some reading. SN: Another good argument for policy debate instruction is geopolitical awareness. :-)
Tip #1: Although "we" and "you" are indeed no-nos in formal writing, using the word "people" in their place 22 times in a 2 page paper is NOT an acceptable alternative.
Tip #2: Although it is also true that plagiarism is a bad, bad thing, putting 75% of your paper in quotation marks isn't an acceptable solution to THAT difficulty, either. Remember: it's called "writing a paper," not "stringing quotes together"...break up those puppies and/or paraphrase them! (Just ask Nicole Beard. :-D)
Tip #3: Spell check is your friend...but only to a point. If you type "by close" when you mean "buy clothes," it's not going to know that you've royally messed up twice. It's called "proofreading," people.
Tip #4: When a teacher is willing to look over countless revisions of your paper, take advantage of her (or his) generosity. That way, the opinion-based, emotion focus first draft can turn into the research paper it's supposed to be before said teacher grades your final draft! :-) This student gave me possibly a dozen revisions to check,and her end result was so much better as a result.
Tip #5: Don't overuse words. "Amazing" probably isn't the best choice for a formal paper as it is, but it's much less amazing when you use it four times in the first six lines of your paper.
Tip #6: If the topic is a global issue, then I expect you to write about how it affects people all across the globe. That's what "global" means, gang.
Tip #7: It's a truly excellent idea to pay attention during your teacher's presentation on MLA format, especially when it's the first thing she does after eight weeks of maternity leave. However, if you find this an impossible task, then at least pay attention to the sample paper that she gives you so that if you can't make your paper look just like it, you can see the problems and ask for help in fixing them. That way, you won't end up with a single-spaced, unalphabetized works cited page and a header that's out of place because you failed to use Word's Header/Footer function.
Tip #8: It isn't a cited work unless you've actually cited it within the body of your paper. The fact that you have listed it on your works cited page is irrelevant if you haven't cited the source, and I'm still counting off if you haven't cited the minimum number of sources in the *paper*.
Tip #9: If you're going to plagiarize, please don't insult my intelligence by doing an obvious copy and paste job (give or take the contractions that you corrected). If your paper mentions the names and populations of two relatively small Iowa towns without saying they're in Iowa (as in, it's written as though I should know without your naming the state...and I don't), that's going to inspire me to Google that sentence. And when I find the article from which it came and find your whole paper in that article...cross-apply what I said about plagiarism being a bad, bad thing.
Tip #10: If you didn't bring it up in the body of the paper, don't mention it in the conclusion. SN: This is one of many reasons that I think instruction in policy debate would be good for all our students. If you master the concept of "nothing new in rebuttals," you've got the "nothing new in the conclusion" idea down already. :-)
Tip #11: EasyBib is awesome but not perfect. Let your teacher look over that works cited page just to be on the safe side.
Tip #12: You really don't have to state the obvious, and it's a good idea to read over what you've written to make sure that you haven't done so. For example, you don't need to tell me that people are the reason that the world is in its current situation...I haven't been blaming the giraffes all this time, I promise. (Or "The Bible is one of the most influential books in all of literature." That was yours truly circa 1985...had "Duh!" been in fashion 27 years ago, I'm sure that's what Dr. Lloyd would have written on my paper.)
Tip #13: Don't use eight words when one will do. If you can make the point by saying "without," don't make me suffer through "in a way of not having to tolerate." (Yes, that's true even when your paper is running short of the required length. I mentally deduct the padding and take it off your content, anyway, because you really don't have as much content as you appear to.)
Tip #14: Be very careful regarding the credibility of your sources. For example, if you're trying to prove to me that the countries of the world should set aside all differences for the good of mankind, Dmitry Medvedev may not be your best weapon for convincing me to hold hands and sing "Kum Bah Yah" (and I probably just totally butchered the spelling of that title). If you don't know who he is or anything about him, kids, look him up and do some reading. SN: Another good argument for policy debate instruction is geopolitical awareness. :-)
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