I’ve come to the sad realization that I’m having a hard time writing papers. I’m in my first year of graduate school and realize that because of this (my inability to write or organize a paper quickly and well) I’ve really screwing up.
My problem seems to be that I can read and take notes, but getting from the notes to the first draft is my stumbling block, I don’t know how to do it.
So, any tips on how to organize and write a paper? Any good books you’d recommend for this?
In my experience, there are no tricks or tips that will make you a good writer. You can always follow patterns laid out by others, but organizing scattered thoughts into a coherent, concise paper is a skill that you are born with and can only develop, not learn.
I beg to differ.
While it is possible that a paper which qualifies as “work of art” might be within the reaches of an elite few only, writing a “coherent and concise” paper is possible for pretty much anyone.
Basic things to do would be:
[ul][li]Make sure what the question is asking.[/li][li]Marshal arguments pro and con.[/li][li]Prioritise arguments.[/li][li]List citations under each argument[/li][li]Begin writing with a general introduction that discusses the question broadly.[/li][li]Write about the points you have generated.[/li][li]Conclude with a broad description of the points you have mentioned.[/li][li]If writing essay-style, ensure that each point links up with the next somehow. (If writing with subheads, this issue is less important.)[/li][li]Follow standard formatting procedures. For instance, I do psychology, and it is compulsory for us to write research papers in the format prescribed by the American Psychological Association. (This is an international requirement.)[/li][/ul]
Some other things to take note of are:
[ul][li]Jargon, unless absolutely necessary, is not a good idea. [/li][li]A paper is not supposed to be a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel.[/li][li]Always research thoroughly. [/li][li]Read journal articles (if this applies to your subject) to get facts, opinions, further citations.[/li][li]When given a word limit, use it as a benchmark, and not as an ironclad rule (unless your supervisor specifically mentions that one word more/less = lousy grade).[/li][li]If you can’t organise quickly (as you mentioned), start early![/li][/ul]
I don’t know about books on writing papers, but a google search ought to come up with plenty.
Every graduate paper assigned to me required APA style.
It is easy to not write what is meant. It is often hard to catch it upon an immediate proofread. I recommend letting a paper sit for a day or two then giving it another proof.
Freyr - as a college instructor I can not stress enough the efficacy of your writing center. Exams are pretty much over and you should be thinking about either a summer class or next semester right?
If you are indeed in Graduate school, how did you make it all the way through 4 years of undergrad without delving into your writing problem?
Seems your 100 and 200 level english pre-rec’s should have helped you at least a little. What is your major if I may ask?
If you are in grad school you should have no trouble finding a tutor who is a good fit for you.
To the OP, writing is something anyone can do, especially when it comes to term papers and other assignments in school. (Writing the Great American Novel is another story, of course.) aasna’s post above contains great advice.
My wife is a university professor and teaches several writing-intensive courses. These are courses which have a significant writing component in addition to their primary content, and a large portion of the grade is based on these papers. She provides an extraordinary (in my view) amount of feedback on these papers, and students often comment that they learned to write in her psychology class because it was the first time someone pointed out corrections instead of just grading. In addition to just editing/grading papers, she provides feedback on early drafts if the students are willing to spend time in her office. If your university offers this kind of course and you can find this kind of professor, one semester will improve your writing dramatically.
As an aside, if you’re trying to cultivate productive feedback from a professor, do what you can to make it easy for them. I am appalled by the quality of papers my wife gets. They are often printed in strange “creative” fonts, colored ink, and with lots of obvious misspelled words. I tell her she should simply reject any paper submitted by a student to lazy to run their word processor’s spell check, but she perseveres. Also, make appointments for office hours and take any time available with your prof. She often has students drop off drafts and want her to edit, but they can’t be bothered to sit in the office and discuss.
Did you ever cluster or free-write in high school?
These are great pre-writing exercises that can help you organize your thoughts & select a topic.
Gale Group, a major publisher of reference materials and databases, also offers an online guide to writing research or term papers. This is a great, clearly written guide.
A good basic book our undergrad students use is:
10 Steps in Writing the Research Paper. by Roberta H. Markman, Peter T. Markman, and Marie L. Waddell.
It also nicely breaks down the steps.
Grad student here. I think I know where you are coming from-- your writing skills aren’t necessarily BAD to the point that you need the undergrad writing program but all of a sudden your writing is having more demanded of it and things arne’t working on that scale. When I started grad school I think it was the scale and complexity of the papers that cowed me. I had always been a pretty decent writer-- too decent to have developed any discipline about it, and suddenly that discipline and methodical technique was very very necessary.
Things I learned:
A) JUST WRITE A FRIKKING OUTLINE FOR ONCE. At the undergrad level this struck me as a sign of weakness, but at your level it’s really necessary. Don’t just try to spew out a paper from start to finish-- I don’t really outline, per se, but I start with a kind of skeletal manifesto version where in a page or two I set out my method and argument and basic transitional logical moves, then I can fill it out and since I’ve laid out the transitional logic the paper should work ok in the end-- the actual information and evidence can come in last.
This way, obviously, while you are writing it will be clear when you are heading out into left field or start writing a separate paper within your paper-- you can stop at any point and ask yourself whether what you are working on at the moment actually contributes to what you alluded to in your manifesto. If it’s only tenuously related, chuck it, even if it’s interesting. Stick it in a discursive footnote if you love it too much to entirely leave it.
When you get started on your dissertation you may find that around the time of your major exams and advancement your dept requires a ‘prospectus’ in which in 10-15 pages you rehearse your dissertation (open to revision over the years, of course) complete with an explanation of methodology and chapter summaries. At that scale this is a very useful thing and makes what you intend to do finally much clearer to yourself.
B) Your paper is not a mystery novel. Your outcome and argument need not (should not) come as a surprise somewhere in the middle-- in the introduction tell the reader (and yourself) exactly what you are going to do-- actually see A above-- my first 2 pages often serve as a reheasal of my larger argument and in writing my logical manifesto I often have instant-introduction, unless I’ve decided to do something narrative or clever there-- THEN I launch into the manifesto.
C) I’m not sure how to describe this point, but. . . the reader does not need to know the process through which you came to your conclusions-- your own learning process; the structure of your paper doesn’t have to mirror the personal narrative you’ve gone through in your research. You can organize your paper any way you feel once you have your conclusions-- free yourself from your learning curve. If you started out with some kind of common misconception about your topic you don’t need to share that and don’t need to reiterate it in your intro-- it ends up looking like a bizarre uncited straw-man argument.
A big thanks to one and all (except Tree Boy). I’m looking for those books and doing some serious reading now!
Phlosphr, I’m in grad school in anthropology at Cal. State Northridge. Yup, I’m looking for summer work and figuring out how to make up for this deficency over the summer break.
How I got to this point, I’m not sure. In my undergrad days, I just didn’t do much writing and when I did, I had a whole semester to write out the paper. Even then, some of them were pretty bad, I notice in reflection.
I took my undergrad work at UWM (Uni. Wisc. Milwaukee) and tested out of the basic English program. I showed I could write a basic essay and had a command of the English language. I should also note, I’m a late returning student. I started back in college in my mid-30s. My high school days were long behind me and I came from one of the worst school systems in the country; Louisiana.
You probably got here just like everyone else. Writing is not stressed enough at early levels and many students never learn it. But the fact that you recognize the problem means you should be able to correct it easily. IMO, it is mostly a matter of getting used to writing, even if casually. A lot of the papers my wife assigns are reflection papers where the students write about an experience, and the point is not to produce a technical research article but simply to write coherent thoughts. A lot of them have trouble with basic things like subject-verb agreement. They will even mis-read a sentence inserting correct agreement when asked to read aloud, indicating that they know the rules and would never speak this way, but they aren’t used to writing and don’t pay attention to the details when they do.
I think if you start keeping a journal, it might help enormously. Keeping a web journal like a blog is great because the shame-factor of publishing your poor writing for the world to see might make you edit your work properly instead of just dashing off your thoughts. This will help you get used to expressing yourself in writing so when the time comes to do a more focused paper, you’re less stymied by the basic mechanics.
This is the single-most important piece of advice I got while in grad school.
capybara’s other advice is sound as well. Often the complexity and scope of papers in grad school can be overwhelming. Sadly, professors are often looking for your own work instead of just restating what the text book says and then agreeing with it.
I would suggest taking a finished piece or work (colleague’s paper or published article) and break it down into an outline form. Look at how it is structured - where the arguments occur, how alternate ideas are refuted, how extensive the introduction is, etc. Having a template to go by is useful if you find yourself floundering.
Hey, I said IN MY EXPERIENCE, I have found that you can’t learn how to write a good paper/story/whatever. I came across countless students when I was in college who spent 4 years in writing centers, remedial English classes and personal tutor sessions and the only improvement they made was learning the difference between they’re and their.
When I say it is a skill you are born with, I am referring to something musicians struggle with. Most who dedicate their life to music can be seperated into two categories: 1) They can compose a pleasing tune 2) They can only reproduce one. I think the same holds true for great writers. Either you can take your own orignal thoughts or the colleciton of thoughts across a topic and arrange them into something that gets your point across succinctly, or you can’t.
One other rule of thumb which will help the reader to understand your writing…
99.99% of the time, the word “this” should be followed by a noun. People often use the word “this” to describe concepts that haven’t been mentioned in several sentences and the reader is very confused. In addition, adding a noun after “this” focuses the writer on the subject of his or her sentence–a rather helpful tool for a beginning/inexperienced writer.
