Writing Good

or,

ways to improve on a thesis, research paper, essay, critical review, or book chapter in 28

easy lessons

Audience

• The audience for your essay?• The best educated student in the

seminar.

• Not the professor

• Test: • Would I know what this term meant

before I wrote the paper?

Thesis Statement

• Every essay, book, or article has one main idea. –A “controlling” idea

• The thesis statement, properly constructed, is that main idea.

• It is the principal idea, thought, or causal relationship you propose to convey to a specific audience of readers.

Several general rules on thesis statements

• Not necessarily the first sentence in the paper;

• Should be a complete sentence;

• The thesis sentence should have a workhorse verb –Avoid "this paper will discuss;" ”this is

very interesting;" or ”this has many implications."

Testing the clarity of the thesis sentence

• Count the number of ideas you have written: –narrow it down

• Reverse the order of the sentence–what is the main focus?

• Test out the idea:–Use counterfactual analysis

Counterfactual Analysis

• Testing the relative merits of a particular statement, idea, or thesis.

• “Contrary to fact, conditional.”

• Conditions to be met:* Must be close in time

* Must be within the feasible;

* Facts must be accurate;

* Must have some relationship to acceptable body of literature.

Paragraphs

• A paragraph is a mini-essay

• The topic sentence its thesis statement

• The ideas expressed in the paragraph should cohere –(from the Latin, glue: to stick together).

The best paragraphs

• Supply details and evidence;

• Use a clear organizational plan;

• Employ cohesive and transitional devices;

• Develop the idea sufficiently to suggest a convincing argument.

Sentence clarity

• Verbs: Active vs. Passive Voice

• Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb. • "Joe saw him" is strong. "He was seen

by Joe" is weak.

• How often was he seen? Once? Every day? Once a week?

Sentence Clarity (cont.’d) Verbs: Active vs. Passive Voice

There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.

At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard.

Dead leaves covered the ground.

The cock's crow came with dawn.

Sentence Clarity: Nominalization

• Nominalization is the conversion of a verb into a noun; substituting the action verb with a “to be” verb.

• Generates a “passive construct” in which the actor (subject) becomes less obvious.

• Some examples:– His reflection on X is (he reflected that)

– Her insistence on Y was (she insisted that)

– The U.S. war declaration occurred (the U.S. declared war)

– Weapons of mass destruction (weapons that massively destroy)

Sentence Clarity (cont.’d)Nominalizations

“Public support for the Johnson administration was problematic due to…”

“Summers stated that a declaration of war was lacking when the U.S. became involved in the conflict.”

“The public weakly supported the Johnson administration because. . .”

“Summers showed that the U.S. failed to declare war at the beginning of the conflict.”

Nominalized Changed to main verb

Sentence Clarity (cont.’d)Nominalizations (cont.’d)

“Machiavelli’s strong belief [in] power being the only goal in life is a backdrop for the picture he tries to paint.”

“Machiavelli believed strongly that power was the singular goal to pursue in life.”

Nominalized Changed to main verb

Put statements in positive form

• Make definite assertions.

• Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language.

• Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.

Put statements in positive form

He was not very often on time.

He did not think that studying Latin was a sensible way to use one's time.

He usually came late.

He thought the study of Latin a waste of time.

Express even a negative in a positive form

not honest

not important

did not remember

did not pay attention to

not different

not notice

not many

not often

dishonest

trifling

forgot

ignored

similar

overlook

few

rarely

Place negative and positive in opposition

“Not charity, but simple justice.”

“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I love Rome more.”

Use definite, specific, concrete language

A period of unfavorable weather set in.

He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well-earned reward.

It rained every day for a week.

He grinned as he pocketed the coin.

Example

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account. (recast by George Orwell)

Example

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. (King James version, book of Ecclesiastes)

Simplify: omit needless words

• Vigorous writing is concise.

• A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.

• For the same reason, a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

SimplifySome common tendencies:

the question as to whether

he is a man who

owing to the fact that

in spite of the fact that

whether

he

since, because

though, although

SimplifyExample:

Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.

"Tell them that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows." (FDR, frustrated with the Blackout order, Federal Regulations, 1942)

Avoid Redundant Modifiers

completely finish

basic fundamentals

final or eventual outcome

terrible tragedy

past history

future plans

true facts

free gift

various different

personal beliefs

consensus of opinion

each individual

anticipate in advance

Avoid Redundant Categories

During that period of TIME, the membrane AREA became pink in COLOR and shiny in APPEARANCE.

During that period, the membrane became pink and shiny.

Replace a Phrase with a Word

• the reason for

• due to the fact that

• owing to the fact that

• in light of the fact that

• considering the fact that

• on the grounds that

• this is why

• because, since, or why

Replace a Phrase with a Word

• as regards

• in reference to

• with regard to

• concerning the matter of

• where. . .is concerned

• about

Last Words (for now)

• Key to writing is. . .writing

• Key to good writing is editing

• Key to editing is willingness to learn

• Good writing is good thinking

• We write to learn as we learn to write