A Guide to Writing

1. A Guide to Writing And a good one at that.

2. Brought to you by… • Melissa A. Fabello • And, more importantly, Ms. Molly Metzler • (She was my writing teacher in college.)

3. Introduction • This is where you explain what it is you’re going to discuss. • This is important because your reader wants to know what s/he is about to read. That way, s/he can decide not to read it. ;) • This is NOT just a boring necessity! • It should be interesting and engaging. After all, if this part is lame, no one is going to read the rest of it.

4. Introduction, cont. • START WITH A BANG! • Your first sentence should be fascinating. • It should hook your reader right off the bat. • We don’t care what your name is, how old you are, where you live, or what school you go to – so leave that out. • (This is an introduction to your paper, not your life.) • Try: a quote, an interesting statistic, a shocking idea.

5. Introduction, cont… • EXPLAIN YOURSELF! • Lead your reader into your thesis. • Be quick, but be effective. • Find a way to explain what you’re writing about or why you’re writing about it without giving away your topic.

6. Introduction, cont… • GET RIGHT TO THE POINT. • Don’t dilly-dally around your thesis. • Just say it! • It should be one sentence – and a good one, at that. • You want your reader to go, “Oh, hm, I never thought of that before. Interesting.” • What is a thesis? • It’s really just a fancy way of saying “topic.” • It, essentially, is the CrAzY idea you’re trying to prove in your paper.

7. Introduction, cont… • END SIMPLY. • Be straight-forward. • Introductions don’t have to be long and drawn-out. • They are NOT part of the “meat” of the paper.

8. Body Paragraph • This is the meat – or, uh, tofu – of the paper. • The body paragraphs are where you have the opportunity to explain yourself in long, drawn-out ways.

9. Body Paragraph, cont… • TOPIC SENTENCE • Explain what this paragraph is going to be about. • Do NOT say, “Now I’m going to tell you about BLAH.” • I mean, seriously. That is boring.

10. Body Paragraph, cont… • EXPLAIN YOURSELF • What evidence do you have to support your idea • Tell the reader. • SHOW EVIDENCE • Got a quote? USE IT. • Quotes are the most important piece of evidence you can use in a paper about literature because it proves that your interpretation is correct. • You can’t write a lab report without data; you can’t write a literature paper without quotes.

11. Body Paragraph, cont… • COMMENT ON YOUR EVIDENCE • Don’t ever (evereverEVER) leave a quote untouched. • You need to explain why that quote is important – how do you interpret it? How does it apply to your thesis? How does it prove your point? • TRANSITIONAL SENTENCE • Make this sentence flow nicely into the next body paragraph. • That way, it seems like it all makes sense together.

12. Body Paragraphs, cont… • You can have as many body paragraphs as you want to. • A lot of people think that five paragraphs is the maximum – that is ridiculous. • When you get to college and have to write eight-, ten-, twenty-page papers, you’re going to need way more than five paragraphs. • I mean, really, you cannot have a four-page-long paragraph; that’s ridiculous.

13. Conclusion • This is where you wrap it up! • A lot of people think that you’re supposed to repeat what you wrote in your introduction – WHAT? Why would you want to be redundant? That’s boring – for you and the reader. • This is where you make your final point and say new things without introducing a new topic.

14. Conclusion, cont… • EXPLAIN YOURSELF. • Get any last ideas out of the way. • Anything that will cause you to lose sleep if you don’t say it goes here. • HOWEVER (and this is important, so listen), you should NEVER bring up a whole new topic. • More on that later.

15. Conclusion, cont… • SUM IT UP • Like I said before, do not (DO NOT!!!!!) repeat yourself. • Instead, give a sentence or two to remind your reader of what you’ve been saying. • Without repeating. • No repeating. • Don’t repeat yourself. • Please, don’t repeat yourself. • Don’t be redundant. (Don’t “reword” it.) • Just stop.

16. Conclusion, cont… • CONVINCE YOUR READER • This is your last chance to prove your point. • So… prove it. • Sound convincing. Official. Like you know what you’re talking about. • END WITH A ZINGER! • Leave your reader wanting more. • Do NOT bring up a new topic.

17. The Conclusion Problem • Sometimes, something very crazy happens when you write a paper. • Sometimes, by the end of the paper, you’ve come up with a whole new cool idea! • The paper will be finished and in the conclusion, you’ll notice… A BETTER THESIS.

18. The Conclusion Solution • Unfortunately, the best thing you can do when that happens is to… • START OVER. • Yes. You read that right. • The best thing you can do is to start a whole new paper with the new and improved thesis. • Hey, the good news is: you’ll get a better grade.

19. Some Random Advice • Read your paper aloud. • It should sound natural. • Don’t be afraid to take chances. • Risk-takers are often rewarded. • Write on the short side if you need to. • It’s better than repeating yourself. • Write something to be proud of.

20. HAPPY WRITING!