The College Standard
Writing College Papers:
Identifying Standards
and
Critical Thinking
Challenges
Building Blocks
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Grammar
Vocabulary
Questions
The Goals of Academic Writing
 Thesis
 Argument
 Research
 Plagiarism
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Critical Analysis
Expository Writing
The First Draft
Rewriting Your Paper
Grammar Not Your Bag?
Give These Websites a Try!
Guide to Grammar and Writing
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
University of Toronto Advice on Academic Writing
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html
Guide to Grammar and Style
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
This is a Test of the Emergency Grammar System
http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~russial/grammar/grambo.html
Vocabulary
 Precise usage is the hallmark of top level scholarship –
you must be aware of your professors’ expectations
 Discipline-specific vocabulary must be mastered in order
to participate in the marketplace of ideas
 The process of acquiring a strong vocabulary can help
teach you how to become an active learner
 Identify what it is you need to learn
 Research
 Connect new information to what you already know
 Test your ability to apply new information
 Refine understanding
 Reflect on deeper meanings
Questions
 Identify the questions that dominate in lecture
 Identify the questions that make you want to listen
 Determine which questions prompt you to construct an
informed argument in response
 Will you research scholarly arguments on the topic?
 Will you analyze these arguments with an open
mind?
 Will you risk adding your own original thinking to
the scholarly discussion?
http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Ecompose/student/ac_paper/what.html
Goals of Academic Writing
 Seek truth
 Argue a point
 Propose solutions
 Deepen insights
 Clarify a theory
 Challenge conventional wisdom
What is Academic Writing?
 Writing is a response
 Writing is linear
 Writing is recursive
 Writing is both subject and object
 Writing is decision-making
 Writing is a process, frequently involving
much trial and error
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/pdf/writing.pdf
Thesis
 Generate several theses that respond to “on topic”
questions during brainstorming
 Write each thesis out using complete sentences
 Evaluate the clarity of each thesis statement and force
yourself to remove all obfuscation from your writing
 Evaluate each thesis – is it ?
 A generalization and not a fact
 Demanding of proof or further development
 Motivating (does it prompt the reader to look for
facts and details)
 Thought-provoking
 Focused (avoid vague words such as interesting,
good, or disgusting)
Argument
 Sketch out an argument for each working thesis
 Identify areas where research is needed to support
your premises
 Research supporting premises
 Discard theses/arguments whose premises prove
unsupportable
 Choose the working thesis that allows you to make
the strongest argument for a conclusion about
which you are motivated to write
 Be prepared to modify your thesis to reflect the
final argument that makes it into your paper
What is an Argument?
 A collection of statements that can be given a logical
ordering such that:
Given statements designated as premises and a
statement designated as the conclusion,
the conclusion is justified by all the information
given in the premises
 Arguments come in different flavors:
 Deductive
 Inductive
 Analogy
 Particular to general
 General to particular
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/flowpt3.htm
What Do We Do With Arguments?
 Reconstruct – sift out the premises and the
conclusion and lay bare the logical structure of the
underlying argument
 Assess – determine whether the premises provide
sufficient grounds for the conclusion
 Evaluate - judge whether the premises are true or
false, clear or vague, and in need of further defense or
not
 Identify Fallacies – double-check the argument’s
reasoning to see if any fallacies appear
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/argument1.htm
Another Way to View Arguments
A
 The premises are all acceptable
R
 The premises are relevant to the conclusion
G
 The premises supply sufficient or good grounds
for the conclusion
Trudy Govier's A Practical Study of Argument, (3rd Ed., Wadsworth
Publishing , Belmont, California 1992) as referenced by Jeff McLaughlin
http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/ae/php/phil/mclaughl/courses/crit/lectures.htm
Research
 Take accurate and complete notes
 Copy all quotes, statistics, etc. verbatim
 If you do not quote, paraphrase accurately but in
your own words
 Record author, title, page number and note where
you found the source
 Clearly indicate when ideas in your notes are your
own
 Consider using note cards and limit each card to a
single point
 Develop a bibliography even if it is not needed for the
final paper
Plagiarism
“Quote
 What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important?
In college courses, we are continually engaged with
other people's ideas: we read them in texts, hear
them in lecture, discuss them in class, and
incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it
is very important that we give credit where it is due.
Plagiarism is using others' ideas and words without
clearly acknowledging the source of that
information.
End quote”
Produced by Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
Plagiarism (cont’d)
“Quote
 How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism? To avoid
plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use
 another person's idea, opinion, or theory;
 any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any
pieces of information--that are not common
knowledge;
 quotations of another person's actual spoken or
written words; or
 paraphrase of another person's spoken or written
words.
End quote”
Produced by Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
Critical Analysis
 Anticipate readers’ questions about the strength of your
argument and supporting evidence
 Is your argument clearly delineated?
 Have you left critical assumptions unnamed?
 Have you acknowledged contextual limitations to
the universality of your argument?
 Have you been able to cite evidence or justification
that draws on sources outside your personal beliefs
and values?
 Have you addressed obvious objections to your
argument or evaluated readily accessible counterevidence?
Basic Expository Writing
 Outline your argument (premises and conclusion) before
writing
 Present your conclusion in your thesis statement and
outline your supporting premises in your introduction
 Write at least one paragraph in support of each premise
 Use transitions to link your premises and to structure
your argument
 Write a paragraph summarizing the logic of your
argument and acknowledging external assumptions if
necessary
 Summarize your thesis in your concluding paragraph
and outline the significance of your findings
Thesis
Premise 1
Premise 2
Premise 3
Conclusion
The First Draft
 Write one idea per paragraph
 Follow notes that have been organized logically
 Go for quantity, not quality
 Write for revision, not delivery
 Write freely
 Write about what is most comfortable first
 Develop a habit that encourages you to write on a
regular basis – with or without inspiration
 Identify times when your “deep” mind is most active,
and plan to write after those periods
Write in Haste,
Revise at Leisure
 Allow 50% of your time for
planning, research, and writing the
first draft
 Allow the other 50% for revising
your paper
Rewriting Your Paper
 When rewriting, consider:
 Your reader
 Precise language
 Careful thinking
 Your own learning – rewriting is a great way to
learn the material
 To achieve distance when revising your paper, try:
 Reading it aloud to yourself
 Have someone else read it aloud to you
 Schedule at least one day between revisions, or three
or four days if possible
Rewriting Your Paper (cont’d)
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Cut – anything that does not contribute to your thesis
Paste – reorder and add new transitions after cutting portions
Fix – words, phrases, sentence structures
Prepare – adhere to good production values and give proper
credit
 Proof – check your grammar and confirm that your paper
features:
 Clear thesis statement
 Sentences or paragraphs that orient the reader –
introduction, transitions and summary
 Supporting details – specific quotations, examples, and
statistics
 Lean sentences
 Action verbs and concrete, specific nouns
Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook, 6th ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
Link to this PowerPoint Presentation at:
http://faculty.mercer.edu/zimmerman_jj/Summer.htm