Honors Literature
Notes to Improve Writing
1. Make sure that you have a strong thesis that expresses what your paper will discuss and makes
a point about something. This first paragraph should have 3-5 sentences. Identify the
literature and the author or author’s you are discussing in this paragraph.
2. Avoid Plot Summary – Be careful that you don’t just tell what happens in the story to take up
space. Quotes and examples should be used to support your own claims
3. Follow proper in-text citation rules.
a. Use quotes within a sentence as an example of something you have already mentioned
and then explain how the quote supports your claim. (Don’t say “this quote says” or “In
this quote”.
b. After ending a quotation with quotation marks, you need a parenthesis with the
author’s last name and the page number where your quote is originally found. Notice
that the period goes after the citation to signal the actual ending of the entire sentence.
Correct: Once people walk with evil “there is no good on Earth” (Hawthorne 5).
4. Support your claims by citing quotes or phrases from the text.
Correct: A pink ribbon is present throughout the story and its meaning is contradictory. It
symbolizes Brown’s morals and ultimately gives him multiple opportunities to return to them,
like when he “seized it and beheld the pink ribbon” (Hawthorne 4). By grasping ahold of the
ribbon, he is reclaiming his innocence and shying away from his mischievous past.
5. Reflect on the significance of your paragraph before beginning another one.
a. Ask yourself “so what?” in regards to the information in your paragraph. Relate what
you have said back to your topic sentence and to the overall focus of your paper.
b. Make sure that your paragraphs have 5 – 7 sentences and that the ideas relate to your
overall argument.
6. Keep verbs in active (present) tense to add strength to writing.
Incorrect: Brown explored the nature of evil and the evil of nature. Young Goodman Brown
symbolized the turning of his back on his morals and the fading good judgment to choose the
right path.
Correct: Brown explores the nature of evil and the evil of nature. Young Goodman Brown
symbolizes the turning of his back on his morals and the fading good judgment to choose the
right path.
Apply: Faith represented not only a wife but also the concept of morality. Brown left her, which
signified leaving his morals, and explored to dark side of life.
7. Avoid using “empty” words – very, so, really.
8. Avoid using abbreviations in all cases – no it’s, he’s, they’re, haven’t or other examples.
9. Avoid stating I believe and I think as they are assumed in your writing.
10. QUIT USING YOU!
11. CONCLUSION- these need major work! A conclusion is not a restatement of your first
paragraph. It should bring all of your ideas together and reinforce the claim you made in your
thesis.
12. Proofread your paper and make sure that all of your sentences are complete and that your
paragraphs flow from one to the other.