(partially adapted from a class handout written by Dr. Jacquelyn Kilpatrick)

 

Keep the following in mind when completing a writing assignment for this course:

 

1.      When writing you have a goal other than simply fulfilling a classroom writing assignment.  You are writing in order to explain your position, to convince others of the validity of your position, and even so that you may understand your own position more clearly.  (All right, you are admittedly also writing to fulfill a classroom assignment).

 

2.      Continuing one of the themes from above, writing should help you UNDERSTAND your own ideas better.  The act of putting your ideas down on paper will force you to consider those ideas more fully, to arrange them more logically, to express them more clearly, etc.  Thus you should treat each writing assignment as a LEARNING assignment.

 

3.      Writing is fun – at least it is when you’ve reached the point where you trust yourself enough to not trip over the basic mechanics of spelling and grammar.  By writing down your ideas you are in a sense empowering yourself.  You are flexing your intellectual muscles.  Flexing muscles is a good thing.  You may not enjoy writing now, but if you pay attention and monitor your own improvement you will find yourself enjoying the writing process more and more as you get better at it.

 

4.      Here are some of the things that the grader (sometimes me and sometimes your fellow students) should be looking for in your writing:

 

• Focus

-         Is the writer’s position clearly stated?

-         Are the main points, explanations and supporting information directly related to this position?

-         Does the introduction do a good job of “setting the scene” and does the conclusion really conclude, i.e. does the conclusion do something more than just restate the introduction?

• Support

-         Does the writer include enough details, evidence or supporting arguments to be convincing?

-         Are all major points developed?

-         Is the wording sufficiently precise to clearly convey what the writer meant (or are words poorly chosen leading to occasional confusion)

• Organization

-         Are the ideas logically arranged to make the overall argument more convincing?

-         Are paragraph breaks appropriate and do transitions from one idea to another go smoothly?

• Mechanics

-         Are sentences correctly formed (grammar, spelling and punctuation)?

• Overall

-         How effectively does the writing communicate?

-         Is there a clear and purposeful position?

-         Is there a balanced, sensible and logical explanation of the relevant ideas?

 

5.      There is no one way to write a paper or essay.  However, here is a format that you might want to consider.  It works for me.

 

Step 1: GATHER IDEAS:

Jot down all of the concepts, ideas, names, dates, etc. that you can think of that might be relevant to your eventual argument. (“Jot” means don’t worry about spelling and grammar and don’t worry too much about organization.)

 

Step 2: ARRANGE THEM:

Arrange these ideas logically - go so far as to write an outline if you feel that it would help.  Note that this step is CRUCIAL.

 

Step 3: WRITE WITH A CONTENT FOCUS:

Write the paper.  Pay primary attention to getting the relevant ideas down on paper in a convincing and logical way but don’t worry too much about the mechanics of English.  Focus on WHAT you want to say here, the ideas that you want to present, the concepts that you want to explain.  Don’t focus on HOW you say it, i.e. don’t lose your content focus by worrying too much about spelling, grammar and punctuation.

 

Step 4: REWRITE AND REFINE:

Proofread.  Now pay attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation and word choice.  Clean up the inevitable mistakes you made in step 3 and make your arguments more convincing by changing a word here, rearranging a couple of sentences there, etc.