Online Guide to Writing and Research

Thinking Strategies and Writing Patterns
During your college career, you will write a variety of assignments. Some will be based on your beliefs and opinions; others will require you to report on and evaluate existing research. You may be asked to write any number of business documents, such as proposals, reports, feasibility studies, strategic planning documents, and even lab reports and other scientific research. You may design and conduct surveys or perform other data-gathering tasks that must be written up. You may write speeches, advertising and marketing copy, and white papers as assignments. You may even write fiction, such as short stories and poetry. Most certainly during your college career, you will write research papers and be expected to take essay examinations.
Whatever you write, you will need strategies to help you apply your critical thinking skills to the writing process. There is no neat crossover between assignments and thinking strategies. In some cases, these strategies will be clear to you, e.g., when you are asked to analyze a problem and propose a solution. In other cases, the assignment will be expressed more abstractly and call for a variety of critical thinking and writing strategies.
This chapter looks at some strategies and how they apply to your academic assignments, from research assignments to essay exams. Although we cannot provide models for every kind of writing assignment you will receive, we can explore how thinking about your writing can lead to stronger, more effective writing.
Kinds of Assignments You Will Write
Most college writing consists of assignments tailored to help you think about the subjects you are learning, learn about and explore new subjects, discover what your ideas are, and demonstrate what you have learned. In other words, your assignments are opportunities for you to pose probing questions that your writing will answer. In learning to pose the questions and answer them, you will discover how writing serves as a thinking tool.
Many students think of writing as what they produce after they have thought through the assignment or the question at hand. In general, if they study the material, students don’t have much difficulty writing about the content of the courses. Student writing problems usually originate from misunderstanding the ways in which writing can be used to think through a problem, task, or question. By understanding that you can use writing to explore and discover ideas for your assignments, you can generate ideas, discover what you think about your topic, explore approaches to it, and demonstrate critical thinking about it, all of which constitute what your teacher hopes to accomplish in assigning writing tasks.
Assignments usually embody certain learning objectives called cognitive objectives. Table 3.1 shows cognitive objectives in relation to the types of assignments you may receive. Just knowing what learning objective is intended for an assignment can head you in the right direction.
Table 3.1Assignment Expectations and Cognitive Objectives
Assignment uses the following directive wording:
When your teacher expects you to do the following:
Cognitiveobjective
Define, label, list, name, repeat, order, arrange, memorize
Memorize, recall, or present information
Knowledgerecall
Describe, indicate, restate, explain, review, summarize, classify
Interpret information in your own words
Comprehension
Apply, illustrate, prepare, solve, use, sketch, operate, practice, calculate
Apply knowledge to new situations
Application
Analyze, categorize, compare, test, distinguish, examine, contrast
Break down knowledge into parts and show relationships among them
Analysis
Arrange, compose, formulate, organize, plan, assemble, construct
Bring together parts of knowledge to form a whole; build relationships for new situations
Synthesis
Appraise, evaluate, conclude, judge, predict, compare, score
Make judgments based on criteria; support or confirm preferences; be persuasive
Evaluation
Use supporting examples, cite passages from the text, paraphrase, summarize
Quote or paraphrase to support what you have written; be persuasive
Support by allusion/example
Provide corroborating evidence, reference other works, research, cite examples from case studies
Use outside research to support your thesis or hypothesis; be persuasive
Support by research
In the first three levels of cognitive objectives, you are expected to demonstrate your knowledge and mastery of course information. You show that you remember facts and can recall them (knowledge recall), comprehend the information by being able to interpret and present it in your own words (comprehension), and apply what you are learning to new situations (application). The remaining cognitive objectives—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—are more complex and represent the kinds of learning objectives fostered in the college experience. The last two mentioned in the table, supporting by allusion, example, and research, describe using evidence to explain or support your arguments.
Critical Strategies and Writing
As we said in chapter 2, the writing process is messy. Experienced writers do not follow a neat set of procedures to achieve their writing goals. They use writing to discover and explore. Asking questions and writing go together; writing is about thinking. Only after the writer thoroughly examines the subject through writing and is satisfied with the ideas discovered, does he or she polish the writing for the reader. Here is where the writer decides on the organization and style. Here is where he or she also decides which critical strategies to use for writing the final draft.
Critical thinking yields several strategies you are likely to use in your college writing. Your writing assignments may primarily reflect just one of the strategies or a combination of them. We have arranged these strategies in the order of complexity of the critical thinking they require. Keep in mind that these strategies often overlap. You may use comparison and contrast when you are synthesizing information; you may synthesize the results of a causal analysis. But you will use several of these analytical strategies when you write an evaluation. You should look at the discussion here as a way to explore and discover your ideas about your subject so that you can write your assignment.
The strategies discussed here are those most commonly used in college writing. The first three— (1) analyzing, (2) comparing and contrasting, and (3) explaining causes and effects—are among the most practiced forms of analysis. The next two strategies—(1) stating your opinion and supporting it and (2) proposing a solution—are the forms of synthesis most commonly found in college writing. Evaluation is the most complex of the thinking strategies and usually employs other reasoning strategies. The last strategy, persuasion, is used with the other strategies to lend credibility to your stated position and to bolster acceptance of your thinking. Refer to table 3.1 for more details on the critical thinking and writing assignments.
Critical Strategies and Writing
Analysis
Analysis, the basis of many other strategies, is the process of breaking something into its parts and putting the parts back together so that you can better understand the whole.
When you focus on understanding something better by comparing and contrasting it to something else, you identify and analyze the similarities and differences. As you discuss these in your writing, keep your working thesis with its controlling idea in mind. Let your thesis guide what details you select to establish your criteria for comparison. Your overall purpose in writing this kind of analysis—comparing and contrasting—always guides what you write.
When you seek to explain the causes and effects of an action, event, or situation, you are trying to identify their origins and understand their results. You may discover a chain of events that explain the causes and effects. How you decide where the boundaries of causal analysis are depends on your thesis and your purpose for writing.
Example of Writing Using Analysis
Critical thinking has been defined in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes. In a narrow sense, it means using the strategies of informal logic to analyze and evaluate arguments, expose logical fallacies, and form your own logical arguments that will hold up under scrutiny of another critical thinker . . . But in a wider sense, critical thinking can mean any thinking that is assessed by criteria intended to result in good thinking. Thinking can be shallow, poor, one-sided, self-deceiving, and ego-protecting. Critical thinking means examining your own and others’ thinking to be sure that it is good thinking. (University of Maryland University College, 1996, pp. 1–4)

Critical Strategies and Writing
Synthesis
Synthesis is a bit more complex than the analytical strategies just discussed. In synthesizing information, you must bring together all your opinions and research in support of your thesis. You integrate the relevant facts, statistics, expert opinion, and whatever can directly be observed with your own opinion and conclusions to persuade your audience that your thesis is correct. Indeed, you use synthesis in supporting a thesis and assembling a paper.
Here is an example, where the writer synthesized his ideas about how your prejudices and cultural orientation transform your voice as a writer at different stages of the writing process:
Example of Synthesis
Gender, race, and class prejudices can affect the development of a sense of self and voice. Likewise, the rhetorical conventions discourse communities require can overwhelm the personal voices of individual writers. But despite these pressures, a combination of spontaneous and deliberate strategies for writing and revising can help you capture your authentic personal voice when you write. In the planning and outlining stage of the writing process, clustering and nonstop freewriting can let you emotionally connect with the seemingly impersonal information absorbed from your reading. At the draft-writing stage, open-ended freewriting can help you as you struggle to express your own understanding and engagement with the subjects you write about. At the revising stage, several deliberate strategies methodically applied can improve the tone, emphasis, and readability of the rough draft. (University of Maryland University College, 1996, pp. 5-21–5-22)

Critical Strategies and Writing
Evaluation
Evaluation is the most complex of all analytical strategies and uses many of the other analytical techniques. In applying this strategy, you first establish the criteria you will use to evaluate your subject, apply them to the specific parts of the subject you are judging, and draw conclusions about whether your subject meets those criteria. In the process of evaluating a subject, you will usually be called upon to render some analysis and synthesis and even use persuasive or argumentative techniques. In humanities and literature courses, you may write evaluations of art, literature, drama, and music. In communications classes, you may evaluate user manuals, technical reports, or business proposals. In management classes, you may evaluate particular management techniques and their effectiveness in organizations of a certain size. In each case, the process is the same: first, establish the evaluation criteria; select what characteristics you will apply those criteria to; evaluate how well the selected characteristics meet the criteria; and present your results, along with examples, to support your premise.
Critical Strategies and Writing
Persuasion
Persuasion is aimed at changing readers’ opinions or beliefs or encouraging them to accept the credibility or possibility of your opinion or belief. At some level, all writing has a persuasive element. You may simply be persuading your reader to continue reading your writing or even to accept in your credibility, that you know your subject area. Or you may be persuading your reader that your complex theory about the causes of the crash of the Asian market are credible and probable.
You can make your writing persuasive by responding to your reader’s needs. When you keep your reader in mind, you can identify with his or her point of view and attitudes. Use your style and tone to show respect for your reader. Offer your reader arguments and evidence—the examples, textual allusions, or research—to support your opinion or belief. For more information on using persuasion and formal argument, take a look at one of the writing references listed in appendix A, "Books to Help You Improve Your Writing."
Whatever critical strategy you use to write your paper, you will be supporting your thesis statement. Indeed, a well-developed thesis statement will often suggest the writing strategy you should use.
Developing a Paper Using Strategies
After you have discovered and explored your ideas by writing and are satisfied with your content, you can begin organizing your ideas for your reader. The key to well-organized writing is to use a strong thesis statement that suggests a key writing strategy to guide your organization. (You may find it helpful if you review the discussion about thesis statements in chapter 2.) For each strategy, its use, the reasoning that guides it, and the details that support it are described. Any good writing text, such as those listed in appendix A, can give you more details. In this guide, we want to acquaint you briefly with this process.
For example, if your assignment calls for you to compare the benefits of one cost analysis system over another and show how system A is superior to system B, your paper will be organized as a comparison and contrast paper. Your thesis might look like this:
Example of a Comparison/Contrast Thesis
System A is superior to system B in efficiency, in the amount of computational time required, and in ease of understanding, all of which aids training.
A causal analysis assignment might call for you to identify and classify the motives and submotives associated with recidivism among criminal offenders. Your thesis may be:
Example of a Cause and Effect Thesis
Recidivism among criminal offenders is caused by five contributing factors: (1) repeated patterns of behavior, (2) lack of institutional training, (3) unstable home conditions, (4) perception that jobs are unavailable, and (5) lack of stringent penalties for repeated crimes.
In this example, the writer might discuss each of the listed causes by defining them, showing their effects, and supporting his opinion with statistics and examples.
This is a good time to review the examples of thesis statements shown in table 2.2 of chapter 2. By realizing that the thinking strategies overlap, you can see for yourself how different thesis statements might yield different thinking and writing strategies. The strategies you use should always be guided by your purpose and your audience. Many of the writing texts listed in appendix A of this guide discuss in greater detail how to develop a paper using a thesis statement.
Your introduction and conclusion frame your writing and give it a sense of connection and resolution. The introduction establishes your idea and purpose, whereas the conclusion affirms your thesis and resolves your thinking process. Acting as a bridge, the middle of the paper expounds and explains your idea and purpose, leading the reader inevitably to the conclusion. For many students, having a clear introduction with its thesis statement and major supporting statements is enough to guide their writing.
With a clear thesis statement to guide you, you can write your introduction, one of the key sections of your assignment. Your introduction sets the stage, telling your reader what your thesis is and often what your major supporting statements will be and suggests the strategy for the writing. Here is an example of an introduction written from a thesis statement from table 2.2 that does just this.
Example of an Analysis and Definition Thesis with Introduction
Thesis statement: Reader-centered writing techniques will make your writing clear, effective, and engaging.
Major supporting statements: Reader-centered writing speaks directly to the reader in a language and style that gives him or her the best chance of hearing the message. Reader-centered writing is clearly organized, with its main ideas easy to find and coherent. Each section moves smoothly to the next. Reader-centered writing uses active voice and strong verbs whose action keeps the reader moving. Finally, reader-centered writing respects the reader, involving him or her in the content.
The remaining parts of the assignment will explain the thesis, define the listed techniques, give examples of them, and show how using them will make your writing clear, effective, and engaging.
Sometimes, just knowing that paragraphs consist of a topic sentence with its controlling idea, details, reasons, and illustrations is enough to get a student writing.
Example of a Paragraph Using Topic Sentence, Details, Reasons, and Illustration
Topic sentence with controlling idea: Reader-centered writing is not authoritarian or dictatorial.
Reason: It reflects acceptance of the reader’s free will and dignity.
Detail: For the reader-centered author, writing becomes a way to transfer information while serving the reader’s needs.
Reason: It is not a "dumbing down," but an honest, straightforward way to present complex ideas and requests in a simple and painless way.
Detail with reason: Writing this way often takes more effort than conventional writing because it emphasizes service and the building of relationships.
Illustration: Using you to address your readers makes them the center of the message and tells them that the message is for them, thus eliminating the distance between writer and reader.
Here’s a possible conclusion for this hypothetical assignment:
Example of a Conclusion
Reader-centered writing techniques build communication relationships between the writer and the reader. They bridge the gap between business and customer and ensure that your message clearly and effectively serves the customer.
This conclusion actually synthesizes the discussion of specific writing techniques with their results—building effective communication relationships.
Patterns for Presenting Information
College students face a variety of writing tasks in their course work. Although these tasks vary from course to course and discipline to discipline, the ways to present information are similar. As your papers grow in complexity, so will your presentation strategies, with the research paper often synthesizing several patterns.
Patterns for Presenting Information
General-to-Specific Pattern
The general-to-specific pattern is probably one of the more common patterns in college writing. It may be used in any of these familiar places:
introduction to a paper
background in a research paper
opening paragraphs for a discussion or an analysis
essay examination answers
As the name suggests, this pattern is characterized by a movement in your thinking from a generalization to specific details. Your opening paragraph would begin with a general statement and then add details that explain it. The details may continue to become increasingly more specific. The pattern ends with a broad statement that summarizes your thinking that resulted from the details.
Example of a General-to-Specific Pattern
Writing is a complex sociocognitive process involving the construction of recorded messages on paper or on some other material, and, more recently, on a computer screen. The skills needed to write range from making the appropriate graphic marks, through utilizing the resources of the chosen language, to anticipating the reactions of the intended readers. The first skill area involves acquiring a writing system, which may be alphabetic (as in European languages) or nonalphabetic (as in many Asian languages). The second skill area requires selecting the appropriate grammar and vocabulary to form acceptable sentences and then arranging them in paragraphs. Third, writing involves thinking about the purpose of the text to be composed and about its possible effects on the intended readership. One important aspect of this last feature is the choice of a suitable style. Because of these characteristics, writing is not an innate natural ability like speaking but has to be acquired through years of training or schooling. (Swales and Feak, 1994, p. 34)
In this example, the first sentence presents the general statement about the writing process. The succeeding statements consist of details and examples, introduced by the transitions first, second, and third. Finally, the pattern ends with a broad or general statement that summarizes what the writer wishes to conclude about the meaning of the details.
This paragraph could have introduced a longer paper in which the writer discusses the kinds of training needed to learn to write, analyzes the results of a study about learning to write, or even introduces a topical literature review about teaching writing. You can see that the general-to-specific pattern is one you will use frequently because of its versatility as well as its obvious ability to quickly and effectively introduce your readers to your ideas.
You might find this pattern useful for writing mission and vision statements, definitions, marketing analyses, reports of scientific investigations, topical literature reviews, feature articles, editorials, and formal arguments from principle. Also, this mode of writing reflects deductive reasoning, where your conclusion follows necessarily from your premises.
Patterns for Presenting Information
Specific-to-General Pattern
The specific-to-general pattern reverses the one we just discussed. A paragraph written in this order begins with the details and leads the reader to the generalization, which may be the thesis or the conclusion. We can use the previous example to show how this order reverses the general-to-specific pattern:
Example of a Specific-to-General Pattern
The skills needed to write range from making the appropriate graphic marks, through utilizing the resources of the chosen language, to anticipating the reactions of the intended readers. The first skill area involves acquiring a writing system, which may be alphabetic (as in European languages) or nonalphabetic (as in many Asian languages). The second skill area requires selecting the appropriate grammar and vocabulary to form acceptable sentences and then arranging them in paragraphs. Third, writing involves thinking about the purpose of the text to be composed and about its possible effects on the intended readership. One important aspect of this last feature is the choice of a suitable style. Unlike speaking, writing is a complex sociocognitive process that has to be acquired through years of training or schooling. (Swales and Feak, 1994, p. 34)
This pattern is as compelling as the general-to-specific pattern. As you lead the reader through your thinking, you can build some suspense before your concluding statement. Writers often use this pattern to persuade their audience about the writer’s generalization or conclusion and when he or she isn’t sure about the audience’s attitude toward his or her conclusions.
This pattern is especially useful for writing that seeks to discover the nature of the problem and the possible solutions by carefully analyzing their details. For example, in writing a diagnosis of organizational problems, the writer might use inductive reasoning to find the major problems by examining the symptoms. These results may be presented in a specific-to-general order. In scientific reasoning, this pattern is often used with inductive reasoning, where facts or observations about a situation are evaluated to determine whether a generalization can be made.
Patterns for Presenting Information
Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern
The problem and solution pattern reflects a form of critical thinking that tends to be more argumentative and evaluative. You may find this pattern useful in writing case studies, critiques, introductions, reports of scientific investigations, literary reviews, political and social discourse, white papers, proposals, many kinds of reports, and essay examinations.
The most common forms of this pattern sequence the information in one of two ways: (1) problem-process-solution or (2) problem-cause-solution. Both patterns first describe the problem and then proceed through diagnosis and analysis to propose a solution. The diagnosis and analysis may include an evaluation of processes or procedures or a discussion of causes contributing to the problem.
For example, you might use this pattern to write a paper discussing how diabetes is being treated through diet, drugs, exercise, and surgery. Your process analysis would examine the progression of the disease and the different ways to treat it. The solution you propose might include one or more of the current treatment modalities, and you would evaluate the merits of your solution in light of the life-saving procedures you discussed. In the problem-cause-solution pattern, you might describe why diabetes is a serious health problem and the known causes of diabetes, such as diet, genetics, biochemical processes, and obesity. Your proposed solution for preventing diabetes or mitigating its effects would then be based on what you know about these causes.
Here is an example of the problem-cause-solution pattern:
Example of a Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern
Why do artists draw graphics that lie? Why do the world’s major newspapers and magazines publish them?
Although bias and stereotyping are the origin of more than a few graphical distortions, the primary causes of inept graphical work are to be found in the skills, attitudes, and organizational structure prevailing among those who design and edit statistical graphics.
Lack of Quantitative Skills of Professional Artists
Lurking behind the inept graphic is a lack of judgment about quantitative evidence. Nearly all those who produce graphics for mass publication are trained exclusively in the fine arts and have had little experience with the analysis of data. Such experience is essential for achieving precision and grace in the presence of statistics, but even textbooks of graphical design are silent on how to think about numbers. Illustrators too often see their work as an exclusively artistic enterprise . . . Those who get ahead are those who beautify data, never mind statistical integrity. (Tufte, 1983, p. 79)
[The chapter continues to discuss the causes and effects of graphic distortion and examines the sources of integrity and sophistication in the processes of graphic design.]
Conclusion
The conditions under which many data graphics are produced—the lack of substantive and quantitative skills of the illustrators, dislike of quantitative evidence, and contempt for the intelligence of the audience—guarantee graphic mediocrity. These conditions engender graphics that (1) lie; (2) employ only the simplest designs, often unstandardized time-series based on a small handful of data points; and (3) miss the real news actually in the data . . .
How can graphic mediocrity be remedied? . . .
Graphical competence demands three quite different skills: the substantive, statistical, and artistic. Yet now most graphical work, is under the direction of but a single expertise—the artistic. Allowing artist-illustrators to control the design and content of statistical graphics is almost like allowing typographers to control the content, style, and editing of prose. Substantive and quantitative expertise must also participate in the design of data graphics, at least if statistical integrity and graphical sophistication are to be achieved. (Tufte, 1983, p. 87)
Professor Tufte describes the problem of incompetence in graphical presentations of quantitative information and discusses the causes. His solution, to include content and statistical experts in designing graphics, is evaluated throughout the chapter. He uses descriptions and examples of graphical distortion, integrity, and sophistication to support his conclusion.
Patterns for Presenting Information
Discussing Raw Data
Some college writing requires that you interpret and discuss raw data presented in a nontextual form, such as a table, graph, figure, or illustration. You may have conducted a survey and now have to report on the results. Your teacher may ask you to review the data on unemployment and discuss whether there is a correlation between national debt and unemployment data. Or you may be asked to support your position on capital punishment by citing data on recidivism in your state. In any case, your discussion of the data may be as short as the interpretation of data presented in a table or as long as the research report itself.
The organization of a data discussion usually follows the general-to-specific pattern. First, you present the main claim supported by the data. Then, you discuss the details as they support or deny the main claim. Your discussion might include the problems, implications, exceptions, methodologies, and so on. Interpreting and commenting on data require clear thinking on your part, reflected in a clear thesis with specific supporting ideas for your interpretation of the data.
When asked to write this kind of an assignment, some students make the mistake of just describing what the data say, rather than interpreting the data. Another mistake is to read too much into the data and draw unreasonable conclusions. The key is "to find the right strength of claim for the data and then order your statements in some appropriate way (such as from the more significant to the less significant)" (Swales and Feak, 1994, p. 77) or from the most emphatic to the least emphatic. Each discipline has its own methods, theories, beliefs, and common practices for working with data. Talk with your teacher or review your texts for more information on interpreting data in your discipline.
Patterns for Presenting Information
Summaries and Abstracts
Very likely, you will be asked sometime during your college career to write a summary of research sources, a procedure, a book, an article, or some other piece of information. Your summary may be presented orally, in writing, informally, formally, or for an exam. You may even be asked to summarize information in a graphical format. Summaries can be simple, using just a few key words, or they may be more complex, depending on your purpose for writing them.
Writing a summary is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your understanding of course material. Many students mistakenly think that simply repeating the key words from the material suffices. In summarizing, not only are you asked to repeat in your own words what you know (demonstrate comprehension), but you may be asked to evaluate the summarized information or draw several ideas together in a summary (evaluate and synthesize).
Here are some tips for summarizing:
Always present a balanced view of your material.
Always give equal coverage to all parts of the material.
Always use a neutral tone in your writing.
Always keep the author’s material distortion-free.
Always summarize in your own words.
Opening summaries give just the essential content, results, and conclusions and may be brief. Formal summaries, such as an executive summary, may be 1–5 percent of the original material in length and reflect the organization of the original source. Remember that your purpose is to present faithfully the contents of the original source.
Abstracts, on the other hand, are used by readers to decide whether to read a source in full. They are compressed versions of the essential content of a source. Those who catalog information and create research reference materials also use abstracts. Most information-retrieval systems can scan the key words in an abstract and retrieve the source it is based on. You may be asked to write an abstract for a research report and certainly for a seminar paper or a scholarly paper. Most assuredly, you will write an abstract for a graduate thesis or dissertation.
Because abstracts help readers decide whether they want to read the original, the content is quite compressed. Your abstract will contain only a few sentences, perhaps only three to five. You should include the key words that reveal the major idea of the original material to identify the field of study involved.
Patterns for Presenting Information
Critiques
Many teachers regularly use critiques to find out whether you have read the material and to prepare you for exams. You could be asked to write critiques in any class. You may be asked to critique someone else's ideas, an excerpt, a book, a poem, a work of art, even a mathematical solution. Writing critiques improves your critical and analytical thinking and hones your evaluative skills. Where summaries are meant to represent the original source faithfully, critiques are meant to be a critical assessment of the reading material in light of your own understanding.
When you write a critique, you must do justice to your material. The objective is to present the material fairly and then apply critical thinking and judgment to its ideas. Each discipline commonly uses its own methodology and language for critiquing, so you should review critiques in your field and discuss them with your classmates or teacher to find good models. In fact, as part of your course work, you will probably learn the art of critiquing in your specialization.
In general, when you prepare to write a critique, you first read through the material. You'll want to decide the basis for your critique. What criteria and standards are you using to judge the material? Jot them down, spell them out clearly, and keep them in front of you while you draft your critique. Don't forget your thesis statement, or the main conclusion you draw in judging the material; the criteria, or the main aspects of the material to be evaluated; and the standards, or the ideals or principles, against which you are judging the material. Your critique may naturally take a general-to-specific organization or even a problem-solution pattern.
Supporting with Research and Examples
When you express an opinion or make a statement, you improve your credibility with your reader by supporting what you say with research findings and examples. Using these findings along with other outside sources lends credence to your point of view. When you research topics, you will need to find out who the reliable sources are in the area of study. Some signs of reliability will be apparent to you when you first start your project. In the sciences and in technology especially, older sources should be given less credence than new ones because the older sources tend to be less reliable in areas where new discoveries are continually being made.
Chapter 4, "The Research Process," discusses the research process for writing research papers. As you learn more in a subject area, however, you will begin to cite research findings even in less formal writing assignments. You may, for example, refer to a book on cryogenics you have read recently in answering a question on an ethics exam. You can use your research to strengthen your writing and provide credibility whenever it seems appropriate. In general, when you casually cite such references in exams or course assignments, teachers may not expect you to offer full documentation. If you are unsure how formal your citation of sources should be, ask your teacher to clarify his or her expectations.
The following example shows how one economics student integrated references to support her point of view in an informal assignment.
Why I Believe in Enterprise Zones
In this assignment, I will defend the statement that "enterprise zones are a viable method for creating growth sectors in urban economies where they would not otherwise appear." My defense is based on the premise that enterprise zones recover the costs of lost tax revenue by generating growth and expanding the business tax base in urban centers.
Enterprise zones are specially protected areas of a city reserved for business growth. They are traditionally created in areas of low growth and offer incentives to businesses locating there. The critics’ argument that the loss of potential tax revenue negates their value is specious. Enterprise zones offer the potential for growth where it had not previously been realized, thereby offering real, as opposed to speculative, opportunity for growth.
Last week’s Post article on growth in Washington, DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood offers tangible proof that the concept of enterprise zones can work for cities. The Post related that this area, once inhabited by prostitutes and drug dealers, was set aside as an enterprise zone after the 1960s riots and has continued to attract small businesses and entrepreneurs. Enterprise zone status has spurred a new wave of investment there and has attracted many middle-class residents.
Writing Essay Examinations
In addition to research papers, essay exams are among the more common college writing assignments. These exams not only call on most of your writing skills, they also test your ability to read carefully, understand the question, and write purposively within a limited time. Weak essay exam answers are caused not so much by ignorance of the subject matter but by a lack of planning and strategy.
Many students complain that they perform their worst on essay exams, and the pressure of this forced and timed writing doesn’t encourage a polished and well-thought out product. The difficulty for the student lies not with grammatical awkwardness, but with lack of attention to the writing. Often, students believe they must sacrifice planning time to a "data dump" to demonstrate what they know.
Too often students begin writing without first thinking about what they want to say and then developing their intentions into an adequate answer. They write without clear purpose. The results are answers that are inadequate, unclear, often illogical, and irrelevant.
Successful essay exam responses depend on your ability to develop and use the critical thinking skills with the writing processes described in this guide. Now is a good time to review table 3.1. Notice the specific key words in your teacher’s assignments to identify a thinking strategy that will then suggest a writing strategy. Understanding how these two ideas—(1) thinking about the topic and (2) the writing strategy—are related can help you understand the question and plan for purposive writing.
The following three sections offer some suggestions for improving your essay exam responses.
Writing Essay Examinations
Read and Understand the Question
First, read the question carefully. If you misunderstand or misinterpret the question, your entire answer may miss the mark. Notice what the question requires you to do. Notice whether it asks you to explain, discuss, summarize, define, evaluate, compare, analyze, or synthesize. These key words help you to understand the question.
Essay questions are often broad questions that ask you to work with abstract terms, concepts, tendencies, or sweeping events or trends. They differ from short-answer questions in the level of specificity required in their answers. Short-answer questions usually ask that you recall information by providing facts, definitions, or examples.
Another way to understand essay questions is by understanding how they ask you to apply your knowledge, what rules and concepts you are being asked to use. If you are asked to list, describe, explain, summarize, classify, apply, illustrate, use, calculate, sketch, or perform an operation, you are being asked to apply particular knowledge you have acquired. If you are asked to analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate, predict, determine cause and effect, synthesize, or evaluate, you are being asked to select from the knowledge you have gained.
Essay questions usually call for some sort of application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation of information, or some combination of these. Many students mistakenly summarize a plot or recapitulate the topic from the texts or class lectures in place of doing an analysis. If you are asked to analyze a key concept in relation to a specific situation, simply summarizing it, describing it, or paraphrasing it won’t work. If you are asked to compare and contrast two systems, describing each of them and their characteristics alone won’t develop the comparison. Always try to understand clearly what kind of answer you are expected to write.
The following essay assignment calls for a broad understanding of literary concepts, a specific period of literature, and some history, in addition to the ability to cite from the works of several writers of the period. The short-answer question, on the other hand, requires specific knowledge of a particular kind of programming language.
Example of a Long-Answer Essay Question
Harold Bloom, in his book, The American Religion, asserts that the American religion is an expression of individualism. Discuss this concept as it pertains to the transcendentalist literature of Emerson and Thoreau.
Example of a Short-Answer Question
Define fourth-generation language and give an example.
Writing Essay Examinations
Organize Thinking Before Writing
Essay questions often fall into types calling for specific organizational strategies. For example, a question that asks you to compare and contrast two different architectural styles requires that you describe both styles and then discuss their similarities and differences. To do this, decide which characteristics to compare and contrast and what criteria to use for selecting them. Then discuss the similarities and differences.
On the other hand, a question that asks you to contrast these two architectural styles as expressions of the beliefs of the architects about what a house should be is asking you to look at the similarities and differences as aesthetic expressions of the philosophies of the two architects. In this case, you might discuss the characteristics of the different styles, one at a time, and then describe how these characteristics arise from the different views of what a house should be.
The types of questions presented here are typical of the kinds of essay questions on examinations or in course assignments. Notice that these assignments suggest certain strategies for developing your essay.
Essay Question Types
Cause/effect: What are the causes of the current crisis in the Asian market, and what effects will the crisis have on the European Economic Community?
Discussion: Identify three of Kant’s categorical imperatives and discuss them in relation to twentieth-century life.
Demonstration: Demonstrate the feasibility of enterprise zones in cities with under 300,000 population and crumbling infrastructure.
Evaluation: Evaluate Leakey’s contribution to anthropology in light of at least two major criticisms leveled against him.
Explication: Explain (explicate) the importance of the line "Turning and turning in the widening gyre" in Yeats’s poem "Second Coming."
Process analysis: Describe the process associated with regenerating tissue after surgery to correct mitrovalve prolapse.
Compare/contrast: Contrast the architectural styles of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier as expressions of their beliefs of what a house should be.
Synthesis: How does the individualism of Thoreau and Emerson differ? How do their notions of individualism differ from today’s individualism?
Think through your general answer before you begin to develop your essay. Identify the strategy that is suggested or directed. If you cannot figure out exactly what your teacher is asking of you, ask for an explanation. If an explanation is not possible, then try rephrasing the essay question using wording that suggests a strategy. When you decide on a specific rephrasing of the question, then write that down in the form of a thesis statement or topic sentence. Express your thesis as a probing question, if necessary, to begin exploring and discovering your ideas.
This is the time to rely on some of the idea-generating techniques we discussed in chapter 2. Make lists of related ideas that suggest themselves to you from your thesis statement. Ask yourself the journalist’s questions to get your ideas flowing. Use the multiple perspectives strategy to look at the subject from different points of view. For most students, making lists, brainstorming, or using one of the formal idea-generating techniques will be enough to suggest a direction. For others, framing a topic sentence or thesis statement will get them started writing. Keep your working thesis statement in front of you to check periodically that you are staying on target, but don’t hesitate to refine or change your thesis when your thinking and writing have led your thoughts in a somewhat different direction.
Writing Essay Examinations
Make Answer Relevant and Complete
Writing a complete and relevant answer means that you addressed the question and organized your thoughts so that you included the information you needed to write during the time given to you. A short-answer question tests knowledge of the facts. An essay exam, on the other hand, requires a discussion of the question to show your ability to select and organize information to support your thesis.
A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone
Style, voice, and tone in writing express the attitude of a writer at that moment and in relation to a particular subject and audience. Students often confuse writing style with some vague sense of personal style, or personality. But style is a technical term for the effect a writer can create through attitude, language, and the mechanics of writing. If the writing reflects a consistent choice of patterns, then it is perceived as coherent and harmonious, the style supporting the content. The writer’s purpose and style clearly have a cause-and-effect relationship. Because style is distinct for each discipline, you should discuss with your teacher what is appropriate for your writing assignments.
Voice and tone reflect your attitude about your subject and your readers. Voice is who the readers hear talking in your paper, and tone is the way in which you are doing the writing. Voice can be institutional or academic—that is, objective and formal. Or voice can be personal—in fact, your distinct voice. You will need to decide whether you want your tone to be informative or affective. Do you want to inform your readers or to persuade them in some way? Your style and attitude toward your subject combine to create your voice and tone.
Your goal in college writing is to understand the material of your discipline and be able to discuss it effectively in writing. Your teachers want facts as well as opinions, and they want to be able to assess, through your writing, how well you synthesize your thinking and learning in the course. Your goal in most academic writing is to convey facts about a subject, integrate opinions based on facts, and synthesize what you have learned as you go along. You will discover, however, that some academic writing is persuasive and that your teachers will expect you to know the language of persuasion as well.
This discussion does not give you enough information for you to control voice, tone, style, and persuasion. It is intended to remind you that these are important considerations and should not be overlooked. For more information on voice, tone, style, and persuasion, see Appendix A, "Books to Help You Improve Your Writing," for other resources.
A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone
Style Through Vocabulary and Diction
Many disciplines have their own vocabulary of special terms that you learn as you study each discipline. The way you use a special vocabulary affects the style and tone of your writing. The longer you study the discipline and the more you read, the better you will become at mastering its vocabulary.
Students may get into trouble because they do not know the vocabulary of a discipline. They may use ordinary words where special words are needed, or their writing may simply become vague. Teachers may identify such writing by inserting in the margin comments, such as vague diction, poor word choice, or even inappropriate style.
The following hypothetical examples from two papers on reducing defects in software development show you what a difference vocabulary can make in establishing style, tone, and credibility for each writer. Note that even though the first writer understands some basic principles taught in the technical management course, she lacks the vocabulary to express what she has learned. To make up for her lack of appropriate words, and thus of clear thought, she uses vague terms to establish criteria, such as bad and worse, and falls back on clichés, such as rocket science. The second writer, on the other hand, has mastered the few special words he needs to express the concepts taught in class and to draw conclusions from what he has learned. His writing is clear and focused, his style and tone appropriate.
L Below-Average Paper
Most defects are bad but some are worse than others. Software developers have to know how to identify the defects that will cause the biggest problems and correct these first. This isn’t rocket science—people just have to discipline themselves to look for errors as they occur. Technical managers also have to know how to keep track of the defects (through some of the ways we discussed in class). They also have to know how to make decisions based on their findings and tracings.
J Above-Average Paper
Not all defects in software products are created equal, and not all have the same effects on the shipment decisions that a technical manager must make. When a project manager or software development team tracks the severity levels of problems in the code, shipment decisions become easier. Severity levels can be established as part of the overall plan for testing the product, which generally includes function testing as well as integrated system testing. Severity levels may be set, for example, on a scale of 1 to 4, where Sev-1 errors cause the program to abort, Sev-2 errors impede user progress, Sev-3 errors cause a particular function not to work, and Sev-4 errors represent cosmetic changes that will make the software better but will not have any of the effects of the other three severity types. Using the severity system of classification and an automated tracking system, technical managers have the data they need to make the important decisions about whether to ship a product. For example, a product with three Sev-4 errors remaining in it will probably be shipped, whereas one with four Sev-1 errors will not.
Vocabulary is related to diction, another important element of style. Where vocabulary refers to the specific words in a discipline, diction refers to the overall selection of language for your writing. Words are not right and wrong in and of themselves. They are appropriate and inappropriate in terms of whether they support your purpose. If your purpose is to present your thesis and research so that your reader will find your position credible, then your diction should be appropriate—objective, concrete, and specific.
Finally, style rests on language. Poor style and unacceptable tone do impede communication and may affect your grade. They can make group work difficult. You should cultivate a style that shows your knowledge and command of course material and that enables you to convey opinions about what you have learned in a manner that audiences, including your teacher, will appreciate.
Here are some practical suggestions for developing a style that supports your content and your thinking:
Let your purpose guide your writing. Your style is the result of your control over your content, not added later to give your writing "personality." Know what you want to accomplish with your content, and your style will take care of itself.
In general, choose a style between colloquial and formal. This moderate style will work in most cases where your assignment does not specifically call for a colloquial or formal style.
Keep your style consistent in tone and diction by carefully choosing the patterns of writing and vocabulary that best serve your purpose.
Try to anticipate how your reader will understand your writing. Be specific and concrete and avoid wordiness.
In summary, writing is thinking. As you improve your thinking skills, your writing skills will improve; as your writing improves, your language will become more articulate and reflect your evolving critical thinking. If you would like to improve these skills formally, consider taking COMM 396: Critical Analysis in Reading and Writing.

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Online Guide to Writing and Research
Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing
Writing Handbooks
· Alred, G., Oliu, W., & Brusaw, C. (1992). The professional writer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
· Cook, C. K. (1987). Line by line: the MLA’s guide to improving your writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
· Damer, T. E. (1995). Attacking faulty reasoning: A practical guide to fallacy-free argument (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
· Diamond, H. (1989). Barron’s grammar in plain English (2nd ed.). New York: Barron's Educational Series.
· Fahnestock, J., Secor, M. (1982). A rhetoric of argument. New York: Random House.
· Feldman, R. (1993). Reason and argument. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
· Fiske, R. H. (1989). Webster’s new world guide to concise writing. New York: Webster’s New World.
· Gordon, K. (1993) The deluxe transitive vampire. New York: Times Books.
· Gordon, K. (1993). The new well-tempered sentence. New York: Ticknor & Fields.
· Gunning, R., & Kallan, R. (1994). How to take the fog out of business writing. Chicago: Dartnell.
· Hacker, D. (1999). A writer’s reference (4th ed.). Boston: St. Martin’s Press.
· Kennedy, X. J., Kennedy, D. M., & Holladay, S. A. (1999). The Bedford guide for college writers (5th ed.). Boston: St. Martin’s Press.
· Langan, J. (1992). College writing skills (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
· Leggett, G., Mead, C. D., & Kramer, M. G. (1994). The Prentice-Hall handbook for writers (12th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
· Newby, R. (1987). The structure of English: A handbook of English grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press.
· Pinckert, R. C. (1991). Pinckert’s practical grammar: A lively, unintimidating guide to usage, punctuation, and style. Cincinnati: F & W Publications.
· Sabin, W. A. (1996). The Gregg reference manual (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
· Safire, W. (1990). Fumblerules. New York: Doubleday.
· Scherga, M. (1991). Practical English writing skills. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
· Sorenson, S. (1997). Webster’s new world student writing handbook. New York: Macmillan Publishing
· Waddell, M. L., Esch, R. M., Walker, R. R. (1993). The art of styling sentences: 20 patterns for success (3rd ed.). New York: Barron’s Educational Series.
· Zinsser, W. (1998). On writing well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction (6th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
· Zinsser, W. (1989). Writing to learn: How to write and think clearly about any subject at all. New York: Harper & Row.
Dictionaries
General Dictionaries
· The American heritage dictionary: College edition. (1994). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
· McCutcheon, M. (1995). Roget’s super thesaurus: The ultimate thesaurus and word-finder. Cincinnati: F & W Publications.
· Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary: Tenth edition. (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
· Webster’s new world dictionary. (1995). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Special Dictionaries
· Black, H. C. (1991). Black’s law dictionary. (6th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing.
· Connors, T. D. (Ed.). (1982). Longman’s dictionary of mass media and communication. New York: Longman.
· Harre, R., & Lamb, R. (Eds.). (4th ed.). (1991). The encyclopedic dictionary of psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
· McGraw-Hill dictionary of scientific and technical terms. (1993). (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
· Mitchell, G. D. (Ed.). (1979). A new dictionary of the social sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Aldine, Hawthorne.
· Nemmers, E. E. (1997). Dictionary of economics and business: A thousand key terms and people. Totowa, NJ: Sipes Publishing.
· Pfaffenberger, B. (Ed.). (1994). Que’s computer user’s dictionary (5th ed.). Indianapolis: Que® Corporation.
· South, D. W. (Ed.). (1994). Computer and information science and technology abbreviations andacronyms dictionary. New York: CRC Press.
· Toffler, B., & Imber, J. (1994). Dictionary of marketing terms (2nd ed.). New York: Barron’s Educational Series.
· Weimer, R. (1996). Webster’s new world dictionary of media and communication. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
General Style Manuals
· American national standard for bibliographic references. (1977). New York: American National Standards Institute.
· Gibaldi, J. (1995). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (4th ed.). New York: The Modern Language Association.
· Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). (1994). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
· The Chicago manual of style (14th ed.). (1993). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
· U.S. Government Printing Office style manual (Rev. ed.). (1984). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
· Winkler, A. C., & McCuen, J. R. (1994). Writing the research paper: A handbook with both the MLA and APA documentation styles. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Company.
Special Style Manuals
Behavioral and Social Sciences
· Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: American PsychologicalAssociation.
· The Chicago manual of style (14th ed.). (1993). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Biology
· CBE style manual: A guide for authors, editors, and publishers in the biological sciences (5th ed.). (1983). Bethesda, MD: Council of Biology Editors.
Chemistry
· Handbook for authors of papers in American Chemical Society publications. (1978). Washington, DC: American Chemical Society.
English and Communication Studies
· Gibaldi, J. (1999). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (5th ed.). New York: The Modern Language Association.
· Winkler, A. C., McCuen, J. R. (1994). Writing the research paper: A handbook with both the MLA and APA documentation styles. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Company.
Journalism
· French, C. W. (Ed.). (1996). The Associated Press stylebook and libel manual (6th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley Publications.
Law and Paralegal Studies
· The bluebook: A uniform system of citation (15th ed.). (1991). Cambridge: The Harvard Law ReviewAssociation.
Mathematics
· A manual for authors of mathematical papers(7th ed.). (1980). Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.
Physics
· American Institutes of Physics. (1978). Style manual for guidance in the preparation of papers (3rd ed.). New York: American Institutes of Physics.
Science
· American national standard for the preparation of scientific papers for written or oral presentation. (1979). New York: American National Standards Institute.
Graphics
· Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
· Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
· Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
Researching on the Internet
· Ackermann, E., & Hartman, K. (1997). Searching and researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web. New York: Bantam/Franklin Square Press.
· Maloy, T. K. (1996). The Internet research guide: A concise, friendly, and practical handbook for anyone researching in the wide world of cyberspace. New York: Allworth Publishing.
· Rowland, R., & Kinnaman, D. (1995). Researching on the Internet: The complete guide to organizing, searching, and qualifying. New York: Berkley Group/Prime Publishing.
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Online Guide to Writing and Research
Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing
Writing Handbooks
· Alred, G., Oliu, W., & Brusaw, C. (1992). The professional writer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
· Cook, C. K. (1987). Line by line: the MLA’s guide to improving your writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
· Damer, T. E. (1995). Attacking faulty reasoning: A practical guide to fallacy-free argument (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
· Diamond, H. (1989). Barron’s grammar in plain English (2nd ed.). New York: Barron's Educational Series.
· Fahnestock, J., Secor, M. (1982). A rhetoric of argument. New York: Random House.
· Feldman, R. (1993). Reason and argument. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
· Fiske, R. H. (1989). Webster’s new world guide to concise writing. New York: Webster’s New World.
· Gordon, K. (1993) The deluxe transitive vampire. New York: Times Books.
· Gordon, K. (1993). The new well-tempered sentence. New York: Ticknor & Fields.
· Gunning, R., & Kallan, R. (1994). How to take the fog out of business writing. Chicago: Dartnell.
· Hacker, D. (1999). A writer’s reference (4th ed.). Boston: St. Martin’s Press.
· Kennedy, X. J., Kennedy, D. M., & Holladay, S. A. (1999). The Bedford guide for college writers (5th ed.). Boston: St. Martin’s Press.
· Langan, J. (1992). College writing skills (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
· Leggett, G., Mead, C. D., & Kramer, M. G. (1994). The Prentice-Hall handbook for writers (12th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
· Newby, R. (1987). The structure of English: A handbook of English grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press.
· Pinckert, R. C. (1991). Pinckert’s practical grammar: A lively, unintimidating guide to usage, punctuation, and style. Cincinnati: F & W Publications.
· Sabin, W. A. (1996). The Gregg reference manual (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
· Safire, W. (1990). Fumblerules. New York: Doubleday.
· Scherga, M. (1991). Practical English writing skills. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
· Sorenson, S. (1997). Webster’s new world student writing handbook. New York: Macmillan Publishing
· Waddell, M. L., Esch, R. M., Walker, R. R. (1993). The art of styling sentences: 20 patterns for success (3rd ed.). New York: Barron’s Educational Series.
· Zinsser, W. (1998). On writing well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction (6th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
· Zinsser, W. (1989). Writing to learn: How to write and think clearly about any subject at all. New York: Harper & Row.
Dictionaries
General Dictionaries
· The American heritage dictionary: College edition. (1994). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
· McCutcheon, M. (1995). Roget’s super thesaurus: The ultimate thesaurus and word-finder. Cincinnati: F & W Publications.
· Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary: Tenth edition. (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
· Webster’s new world dictionary. (1995). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Special Dictionaries
· Black, H. C. (1991). Black’s law dictionary. (6th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing.
· Connors, T. D. (Ed.). (1982). Longman’s dictionary of mass media and communication. New York: Longman.
· Harre, R., & Lamb, R. (Eds.). (4th ed.). (1991). The encyclopedic dictionary of psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
· McGraw-Hill dictionary of scientific and technical terms. (1993). (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
· Mitchell, G. D. (Ed.). (1979). A new dictionary of the social sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Aldine, Hawthorne.
· Nemmers, E. E. (1997). Dictionary of economics and business: A thousand key terms and people. Totowa, NJ: Sipes Publishing.
· Pfaffenberger, B. (Ed.). (1994). Que’s computer user’s dictionary (5th ed.). Indianapolis: Que® Corporation.
· South, D. W. (Ed.). (1994). Computer and information science and technology abbreviations andacronyms dictionary. New York: CRC Press.
· Toffler, B., & Imber, J. (1994). Dictionary of marketing terms (2nd ed.). New York: Barron’s Educational Series.
· Weimer, R. (1996). Webster’s new world dictionary of media and communication. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
General Style Manuals
· American national standard for bibliographic references. (1977). New York: American National Standards Institute.
· Gibaldi, J. (1995). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (4th ed.). New York: The Modern Language Association.
· Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). (1994). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
· The Chicago manual of style (14th ed.). (1993). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
· U.S. Government Printing Office style manual (Rev. ed.). (1984). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
· Winkler, A. C., & McCuen, J. R. (1994). Writing the research paper: A handbook with both the MLA and APA documentation styles. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Company.
Special Style Manuals
Behavioral and Social Sciences
· Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: American PsychologicalAssociation.
· The Chicago manual of style (14th ed.). (1993). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Biology
· CBE style manual: A guide for authors, editors, and publishers in the biological sciences (5th ed.). (1983). Bethesda, MD: Council of Biology Editors.
Chemistry
· Handbook for authors of papers in American Chemical Society publications. (1978). Washington, DC: American Chemical Society.
English and Communication Studies
· Gibaldi, J. (1999). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (5th ed.). New York: The Modern Language Association.
· Winkler, A. C., McCuen, J. R. (1994). Writing the research paper: A handbook with both the MLA and APA documentation styles. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Company.
Journalism
· French, C. W. (Ed.). (1996). The Associated Press stylebook and libel manual (6th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley Publications.
Law and Paralegal Studies
· The bluebook: A uniform system of citation (15th ed.). (1991). Cambridge: The Harvard Law ReviewAssociation.
Mathematics
· A manual for authors of mathematical papers(7th ed.). (1980). Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.
Physics
· American Institutes of Physics. (1978). Style manual for guidance in the preparation of papers (3rd ed.). New York: American Institutes of Physics.
Science
· American national standard for the preparation of scientific papers for written or oral presentation. (1979). New York: American National Standards Institute.
Graphics
· Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
· Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
· Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
Researching on the Internet
· Ackermann, E., & Hartman, K. (1997). Searching and researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web. New York: Bantam/Franklin Square Press.
· Maloy, T. K. (1996). The Internet research guide: A concise, friendly, and practical handbook for anyone researching in the wide world of cyberspace. New York: Allworth Publishing.
· Rowland, R., & Kinnaman, D. (1995). Researching on the Internet: The complete guide to organizing, searching, and qualifying. New York: Berkley Group/Prime Publishing.
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Go back to:
·Writing at Dartmouth
·Online Writing Materials
·Materials for Faculty
Teaching Writing in the First Year
·Teaching Writing in the First Year
·Teaching the First-Year Seminar
·Teaching Writing 5
·Teaching Writing 2-3
Teaching Writing 5
On this page:
·What can you expect of your students?
·What does the Writing Program expect of you?
·What do your students expect of you?
What can you expect of your students?
Writing 5 is, for most Dartmouth students, the first exposure to the demands of college writing. While many students are competent high school writers, most do not yet understand the demands and conventions of academic prose.
Most students entering your Writing 5 understand what a thesis sentence is. They grasp the general rules of paragraphing. They understand the sentence and its boundaries—though they sometimes run on, and they often make the mistake of putting their most important ideas into dependent clauses. Incoming students make grammar errors that we might classify as annoying—that is, errors that don't interfere with a reader's understanding but that reflect a less-than-careful writer. Although your students shouldn't need formal grammar instruction, they will need you to point to persistent errors and to insist that these errors be addressed.
Your students will also come into Writing 5 with certain habits that you'll want to break. Most common among these is the dreaded five-paragraph theme, in which students begin with a generalization, posit a thesis that has three points, craft three paragraphs to illustrate these points, and then conclude by making another generalization (or reiterating the one with which they began). Instructors beware: even longer papers of ten or fifteen paragraphs may be based on the five-paragraph-theme model. This approach to writing doesn't often produce good papers as students let the form dictate their thinking, rather than letting their thinking dictate the form.
A second habit that you'll want to break is your students tendency to nominalize—that is, to turn verbs into abstract nouns in order to sound more academic. Students might write "It was not the intention of the Russian ambassador to bring the negotiations to a conclusion," when "The Russian ambassador did not intend to end negotiations" might be better. Nominalizations make sentences less clear because the bury actions—which should be in verbs—within nouns, making it difficult to pick out the actors in sentences. Moreover, nominalizing leads to several bad habits, including a tendency to use the passive voice or to overuse "There are/It is" constructions. Students mimic this habit because they have seen it in academic writing, but we should break this lamentable cycle. A few lessons in the elements of style will help students to build sentences with actors as subjects and with good, strong verbs.
What does the Writing Program expect of you?
The list of goals for Writing 5 is long. Instructors are expected to introduce students to the conventions of academic discourse. They will sharpen students' critical thinking skills. They will introduce students to research by creating an assignment that requires students to find, evaluate, use, and cite secondary sources. Most important, they will teach their students to write.
As in the other first-year writing courses, teaching writing will not depend simply on assigning writing—though writing will be assigned, and often. Instructors will frequently conduct writing workshops, confer regularly with students about their writing, provide careful and thoughtful feedback, and make good use of the collaborative learning and active learning ideas described throughout this website. For a more thorough description of the program's expectations, please see Writing 5: Guidelines for Faculty. We hope that you will especially note the following:
· Plan to spend substantial class time on student writing. Don't allow course readings to crowd out discussion of student work. Treat student work as another text for the class, using it as the basis for in-class writing workshops. See Conducting Writing Workshops for proven strategies.
· Require (and allow ample time for) revision. Most experienced writing teachers know that students learn to write not simply by writing, but by rewriting. Studies show that student writing improves when they are asked to work out the problems in an existing paper, rather than applying the instructor's comments to a new writing task.
What do your students expect of you?
Most students are enthusiastic about Writing 5—after all, they selected your section from the many listed online. Accordingly, their expectations are high.
· Students expect the classroom format to be discussion-based, rather than lecture-based. They want a class that is intimate not only in size but in character.
· Students want feedback from you on their writing. You should respond not only to the content of the writing, but also to its structure, form, and style.
· Students expect that you will return their papers to them in a timely manner, so that they have sufficient time to absorb and incorporate your comments before the next paper is due.
· Students expect that you will be accessible to them. They expect you to be available to meet with them in conference and in office hours throughout the term to discuss their progress. They also hope that you will respond to their emails.
· They don't realize it, but your students need you to show them where their existing models of research and writing, which they have inherited from high school, fail. Until you can demonstrate to them that their existing models are inadequate for academic purposes, they may resist your efforts.
· Once you've shown them that their existing models won't work, students will want you to inspire them to explore new models and to support them while they do. They'll want you to remain engaged with them as writers and as thinkers, so that they in turn can do their best work in your course.
If you have questions about teaching Writing 5, please contact Karen Gocsik, Executive Director of the Writing Program.
Written by Karen GocsikLast modified: Sunday, 30-Sep-2007 12:42:27 EDTCopyright © 2004 Dartmouth Collegewww.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/faculty/firstyear/writing5.shtml
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