Paper Writing Tips for English 241

     This course is unusual in several ways that affect the writer.  It's interdisciplinary, so you will encounter readings in many document formats, from newspaper articles and blog posts to scholarly articles in MLA, U. Chicago, APA, and some weird Continental systems that most Americans never see. If you are familiar with MLA style, use it.  If you are familiar with another format, use that one.  Just be consistent.  If you do not know how to adhere to a scholarly document format, please see the course style sheet, linked to the menu at the bottom of the home page.

Critical Thinking:  Because English 241 asks students to think independently and to examine their own literacies as evidence in all three textual domains (digital, print, and manuscript), the first thing I am looking for in your writing is active engagement with your topic, thinking at a high level of energy and care.  This means you should not be content to merely report information, but you also should be evaluating and reacting to the information you report.  Remember the power that comes from asking one's evidence "why" and "how" as part of understanding it. 

Research:  Some English 241 research will require students to ask themselves or friends and family about their experiences of texts.  Generally, though, one should never be satisfied merely with what one knows, one's self, or what others tell one.  If nothing else, try to find historical context for people's experiences, including your own.  We do not live in a vacuum, but in cultures whose major events and trends shape us.  Do not ignore this.  Please do not neglect to ask your instructor for assistance--this can be an extremely important form of outside-class teaching and learning.

       Secondary source research will be essential for most topics, and writers should find relevant, current, peer-reviewed sources rather than relying upon whatever Google is pitching today.  Research in the Internet and digital text will depend very much upon when the sources were writing.  The 'net changes quickly, and sources rapidly become outdated except as evidence of what we once used to believe was true.  Peer-reviewed scholarship on print and manuscript texts will be absolutely required, except in rare cases in which booksellers or amateur scholars can be demonstrated to offer important evidence or judgment that we can rely on.  Take seriously the responsibility to demonstrate the reliability of non-peer-reviewed sources, an act which usually happens in foot- or endnotes. Here, too, please do not neglect to ask your instructor for assistance.  I have trained for decades to be able to help you.

Prose quality:  Treat these writing assignments as important pieces of academic prose.  If you happen to write in an online format (Web page, etc.), make sure you translate all the traditions of American academic prose composition to the online form.  Give your work a title that clearly communicates the topic and thesis of your work.  Create an introduction that prepares readers for the kinds of evidence you will examine, your conclusions and logic, and the order in which the readers will encounter it all.  Treat paragraphing as a way to sign-post the major logical structures in your writing, to keep readers from becoming lost or confused.  Offer illustrative examples, taking full advantage of modern word processors and Web page editors' capacities for including images, charts and graphs, hyperlinks, and other extra-textual evidence.  Make sure your work has a proper conclusion that looks for consequences of the truths and speculations you have just presented.  And finally, document the sources you have used in a format appropriate to the style you have elected to follow (see above).