Survivors Guide to College Writing

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Survivors Guide toCollege Writing

• By John Freed, Ph.D.
• Chapman University College

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Why Learn to Write?

• Youll write a lot at Chapman
• Act of writing develops art of thinking
• Main evidence of college education is writing
  ability
• We write to transcend our life, to reach beyond
  it, to record the journey into the labyrinth, to
  expand our world. -- Anais Nin

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Writers Tool Box

• Dictionary and thesaurus
• Word processing capabilities
• Use MS Word
• Make back-up and hard copies
• Keep one e-copy until you get a final grade
• Rename versions
• Dont trust the spell checkers

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More on Word Processing

• Forget the grammar checker
• Lose elaborate fonts
• Beware of cut and paste
• Use MLA, APA or other style sheet
• Standard paper, standard margins

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Format

• 10 pages or less
• Name, upper left corner
• Course number and section, upper left
• Nature of assignment, upper left
• Page number, upper right corner
• Longer papers
• Info on cover page

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Collecting Material

• Take ownership of idea
• Ask lots of questions
• Vanilla (who, what, when, where)
• Chocolate (how, why)
• Chocolate swirl (who/what/when leading to
  why/how)
• Create debatable statement
• Ex Shrek II is a racist movie.

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Brainstorming

• At least 10 ideas or 10 minutes
• Summer is best month for vacations
• Lots of places to go
• Weather is best
• How to avoid crowds
• Camping and mosquitoes
• Sunscreen and cancer
• warnings
• Where to get good maps

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Clustering
American claims on entire continent
Beating the British to chart PNW
Sacajawea
Amount of supplies they brought
Lewis Clark
19th century ideas Of nature, civilization
Importance of hunting for food
Health of team
Courage of exploring the unknown
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Other Ways to Start

• Freewriting
• Nonstop writing without judgment
• The more you write, the sooner youll start
  making sense
• Treeing
• Develop hierarchy of ideas
• Create organic structure
• Must have reason for moving from Idea A to Idea B

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Writing the Paper Itself

• Shoot for three drafts
• Write the first draft fast
• Edit with fresh eyes
• Read second draft aloud
• Edit until it is smooth and makes sense

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Ask Yourself

• Will a reader wonder why this was written?
• Is my thesis statement clear?
• Does the body of the essay flesh out the thesis
  statement?
• Does the paper stay on track?
• Does the conclusion support the thesis statement?

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Audience

• Another college professor
• Well-read
• Open-minded
• Not overly familiar with your topic

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Thesis Statement

• Goes in first paragraph
• Make it crystal clear
• Repeat it in final paragraph, rephrased in light
  of evidence
• Limit scope depending on length of paper

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Paragraphs

• One idea per paragraph
• Topic sentence in each paragraph
• Each paragraph holds together as organic whole
• Logical reason for moving from one paragraph to
  another
• Smooth transitions between paragraphs

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Style

• Simpler is better
• Small words are better than big words
• Variety in sentence length
• Avoid unfamiliar jargon
• Style should not draw attention to itself

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Frequent Logical Mistakes

• Generalization with insufficient evidence
• Ignoring facts that disprove thesis
• Making opponents statement absurd
• Diverting argument
• Bringing in irrelevancies
• Arguing in a circle, so conclusion is mere
  restatement of thesis
• Attacking a person rather than their argument

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Editors Marks
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Why Write Papers?

• Liberate yourself from teachers
• Introduce yourself to original sources
• Stretch existing competencies
• Examine ideas in depth

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Plagiarism

• Kidnapping in Latin
• Really robbing yourself
• Must credit published sources
• Protect yourself with documentation

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Shorthand

• Analyze break subject into component parts and
  show how parts create the whole
• Comment state your opinion and support with
  evidence
• Compare/Contrast Show similarities and
  differences between two subjects
• Define Give meaning and examples
• Discuss examine or investigate a subject in
  detail

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More Shorthand

• Evaluate Make a judgment on relative worth of
  something
• Interpret Present the meaning behind facts
• Outline Give main points
• Prove (or Demonstrate) Provide reasons for or
  against a statement

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Book Reviews

• What was author trying to do?
• How is book organized?
• Who is author?
• What are sources?
• How well did author succeed in what they set out
  to do?

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And Above All

• Think before you write
• Dont bore your audience
• Dont state the obvious
• Dont pad for length
• READ GOOD WRITERS!