The Writing Resources Corner

Starting a Resolution... And Finishing It! - Robert Boulton

February 08, 2016 by Peter Fields

On this most auspicious of occasions (the occasion being a new semester and a new year), allow me the privilege of making a suggestion or two that might be helpful in making it one of the most successful semesters yet. Around this time of year, when the previous ends and the next begins, it is customary in the Western world to make a resolution, or perhaps multiple resolutions, as promises to ourselves to improve something in the new year. Perhaps we promise ourselves we will lose weight or read more books.

Whatever the resolution may be, if you’re anything like me, you’ve faced this seemingly inevitable truth as the new year progresses: that somehow life gets in the way and these promises we make ourselves go unfulfilled.

This can be a discouraging and even depressing truth as we begin 2016 with high hopes and standards for ourselves. So how do we avoid this seemingly unavoidable disappointment? One option would be to not make any New Year’s resolutions. But what if you’re the kind of person who wants to better yourself? What if you’re the kind of person who wants to improve and expand your mind, like the kind of person you probably are if you’ve enrolled in a school of higher learning? What is another option?

I would suggest that if we want to be successful, we copy what successful people do in a situation where they want to set goals and fulfill them. We should make a list. And I don’t mean simply writing down the resolution you want to keep on a piece of paper; I mean, like the wealthy and successful, we should write down realistic and detailed goals for ourselves every day that will help us reach these ultimate goals of personal improvement to avoid procrastination and maintain focus and control (Corley).

A New Year’s resolution is a lot like a college writing assignment. It’s a goal that we all have the best intentions of keeping, but in many cases other responsibilities (or bad habits or simple procrastination) get in the way of our best intentions. If you feel yourself getting distracted or overwhelmed as a student and a writer with academic tasks this semester (or even if you don’t but want to prevent it from happening), I humbly offer the services of the Writing Resources Center. We can assist in various ways. We can help you outline your paper efficiently and effectively or help you map out your timeline for writing; we even develop strategies curtailed specifically for you. This will help you reach your writing goals with the least amount of stress.

So when you set those New Year’s resolutions, and you’re presented with a new semester’s writing assignments, don’t try to take on these challenges without a plan. When it comes to writing, let the writing center help you design this plan. The tutors in the Writing Resources Center are eager to help you at any stage of the writing process, including initial brainstorming sessions and researching. Although it may seem difficult to keep up with the goals we set for ourselves, when we actually follow through, we are left feeling better than before. Don’t leave those resolutions unfulfilled; let us help you take the first steps towards a happy and successful academic year.

Happy writing!

_______________________________________________________________________

Resources

Tom Corely. “Resources A Peak at the To-Do Lists of the Wealthy.” 2013. success.com. http://www.success.com/article/a-peek-at-to-do-lists-of-the-wealthy

Transitioning Into Winter Break

December 15, 2015 by Peter Fields

What do you do at the end of the road? You’ve walked just as far as you can go, the earth stopping at your feet, the horizon stretching across your view. Across the way you see land– the next stop on your adventure. Only problem is, how do you get from here to there, logically and safely? Enter the bridge, a timeless tool that has helped people get from place to place. Transitions in writing are like your bridges, and at the Writing Resources Center we’ll help you build them piece by piece.

I’d like to think of transitions such as however, additionally, furthermore, nonetheless, and on the contrary to be simple, yet effective ways that bridge one idea to another. So often in writing there are ideas worth inserting in a paper, but not as many ways to make these ideas correlate. You don’t want your thoughts to sound choppy, but sometimes run-ons feel unavoidable. There’s a fine line we, as writers, must walk in order to achieve this textual fullness and cohesiveness professors expect.

At the WRC we encounter this more often than not, and clients can easily become frustrated. There is no cause to be discouraged, however, because there are many ways the tutors here can help you build the foundation of these bridges. When looking at points you’ve made throughout your paper, we look for a thread of commonality. If there’s any way you can relate one point to another, we will help you build your transition around that – leading to a logical and cohesive transition between ideas.

A major problem many people encounter is making their ideas flow together. You have your main points, the main things you want to say, but no way to connect them. When incorporating transitions into your paper, whether they be at the end of a paragraph, the start of a new one, or even somewhere in-between to connect ideas, they provide an avenue for everything to come together: bridge from place to place, idea to idea.

The WRC, as well as writing centers across the country, utilize various resources that help writers grasp and apply effective transitions into their papers.

Our friends over at University of Texas at Austin have a great link that help writers craft strong transitions, and offer synonyms so you aren’t using the same ones throughout your paper that can be found here – http://uwc.utexas.edu/transitions/
Another useful resource is provided by the University of Washington Writing Center, in which they offer pages of extremely effective statements that are sure to help you connect your ideas- https://depts.washington.edu/owrc/Handouts/Using%20Transitions%20Effectively.pdf

In short, (see what I did there) if you have contrasting points in a piece of writing that need to be bridged, tutors at the WRC look to uncover how these ideas parallel each other. All tutors here are extremely effective at highlighting differences, putting our best foot forward when understanding your train of thought, and working towards building the correlation that will help you get where you want to go – one step at a time.

Malapropisms…or Why Reading Aloud can be so Malevolently Beneficial.

November 23, 2015 by Robert Boulton

The English language is a minefield. It’s an obstacle course. It’s full of trips and snares just waiting for the right opportunity to twist our tongues and make us look foolish. There are so many pitfalls when writing and speaking, we’ve even given them names and categorized them. If you don’t believe me, keep reading. We’ll cover just a few in this blog, starting with one of the most notorious (and incidentally, most entertaining): the malapropism.

When we use malapropisms in everyday language, we might refer to them as a “slip of the tongue” when we speak, and sometimes a “slip of the pen” when we write. But malapropisms are really just a little trick of the mind where we replace one word (the right one) with another word (usually one that doesn’t fit at all).

LiteraryDevices.net recently gave the example of a very knowledgeable scientist being referred to as a

“suppository of knowledge”

rather than a repository of knowledge.¹

As you can see, malapropisms can be pretty funny, but in real world settings they can also be frustrating. And they can happen to anyone at any time.

It’s true.

You may have even been in a classroom or read a paper where someone may have talked about a very “pacific” issue that for all “intensive purposes” was “supposably” very important.

And this very “specific” issue would have been better presented for all “intents and purposes” if how important it “supposedly” was had been a little clearer without the malapropisms.²

So what can be done to insure an unassuming college student won’t fall into such a trap? Well, at the WRC, we’d like to think we can help. We use techniques that have been developed for about as long as people have been replacing the right word with the wrong one. And studies have found them to be very effective. The one I’d like to focus on today is one that if you’ve visited the writing center, you’ve probably encountered: Reading out loud. It’s a useful tool when combating the verbal minefield.

Of course, this minefield of mistakes and anomalies in our everyday wordification doesn’t stop with malapropisms. Beyond the malapropism is the neologism. And speaking of wordification, that’s exactly the kind of made-up word that would be a neologism.

And then there’s its cousin, the portmanteau. This one is a combination or a blending of words to make a new word. Using this technique, we get words like smog from the combination of smoke and fog. The neologism and the portmanteau are fairly benign compared to the malapropism and some of each are often regularly accepted into the lexicon of the English language.

This doesn’t make the obstacle course any easier to traverse, however.

It’s…it’s inconceivable.

I suppose not, Inigo. Inconceivable in this case is just another malapropism. The word I was thinking of was more along the lines of confusing, bewildering, or perplexing. Unfortunately, with the abundance of these sorts of traps in the English language, it’s not even remotely inconceivable.

With such a treacherous jungle of words to navigate, it’s no wonder writing centers recommend reading out loud. Its benefits include (but are by no means limited to) addressing the issue of malapropisms and other “slips of the pen.”

So if a tutor in the writing center asked you to read out loud, don’t panic or worry about this, and definitely don’t let it stop you from taking advantage of a session at the writing center. If you’re not comfortable with reading out loud, you don’t have to do it. But know that reading aloud is a very useful way to literally hear the tone of your paper (whether it’s too formal or too casual, for example).

Malapropisms and other lower level usage issues aside (though you will be able to hear those better too), you’ll be able to better put yourself in the position of the reader and consider your audience’s needs more carefully.

If you do have the courage to read for your tutor, it helps us out as we act as an active member of your audience giving you our impressions and feedback on such issues as flow, content, clarity, and yes, even word misusage. Together you and your tutor can listen for proper transitions between ideas and any gaps that may need to be filled in your text.³

If you’re curious, and you want to try out this theory, consider going back up to the top of this blog and reading the title out loud. If you missed it the first time, did you catch the malapropism this time? I hope this blog helped, and I hope none of your writing experiences are malevolent in any way. For more fun with language and literature, check out the WRC’s Pinterest and Twitter pages, and for any issues you encounter in the writing process, we can help address and remedy those hiccups from malapropisms to structure and content. Book an appointment today.

Happy writing!

Works Referenced

net <http://literarydevices.net/malapropism/>
com <http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/8-embarrassing-yet-common-malapropisms/>
The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill <http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/reading-aloud/>

Battling Writer's Block

November 18, 2015 by Peter Fields

It’s 11:30 p.m. and you’ve procrastinated as long as you can. Staring aimlessly into the blank white screen, you know you’re facing a wall that’s impossible to climb. No thoughts magically pop up, you have zero direction on how to approach the material, nor the slightest clue what to write about or how to even start. Welcome to Writer’s Block. You’re not alone, it’s actually a more universal battle than you think. Yet, surprisingly enough, it’s a much more winnable battle than you’ve been lead to believe.

Everyone comes to a point with writing where what to say next, or what to say at all, is elusive. I’m sure there have been countless instances where you knew what you wanted to say, you just didn’t know HOW to say it. I mean, the ideas are right up there, why can’t I get them onto the page? If only writing your thoughts down in a clear, concise, and academically acceptable manner were as easy of a task as it should be.

It happens to everyone, even the best of writers. To be perfectly honest, it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how I could finish the previous paragraph and transition into this section. I feel your pain. No one is immune to writer’s block, so hold solace in the fact you aren’t alone in this tireless endeavor. That being said, it IS a winnable battle. As tutors, we love to see breakthroughs during our consultations when a client knows exactly how to tackle their paper ,and where to go from there.

At the Writing Resources Center we apply a variety of techniques that aren’t overly complex to our tutoring sessions that have helped students along the way. If you’re ever stuck wondering how to start, a great tool you can use is simply brainstorming the main points you want to say and writing them down. As tutors, we love to ask thought provoking questions about main themes, goal of the paper, and how you can transition from one idea to another. Each of these, along with the countless other questions we can ask, really make each client think about what their intended message is. We may ask:

“What did you feel was the main point you were trying to make?”
“How do you see these ideas correlating, and how can we relate them?”
“Are there any common themes you see between these ideas?”
Answering these questions will give your content a clearer direction.

We use visual aids like cluster maps, where we write all the main points or key words down and see how we can build bridges to effectively relate these ideas. We always try to see the client’s point of view before our own, that way we can gear towards your intended message, and then try to incorporate our own insight into the conversation. Letting ideas grow and develop in this collaborative setting really seems to help get clients over the proverbial hump.

No one likes facing writer’s block, but it just feels inevitable from time to time. If you find yourself stuck you can always take a step away from the computer, get some fresh air, and let your head clear out, but always try to keep the ideas flowing. At the WRC we understand the struggles you’re experiencing, because no one is immune to this uphill battle. Everyone has great insights to share, interesting points to be made, and stories worth telling – we just want to help you get it from your thought bubble onto the page, and we’ll do it one block at a time.

Guest Post: WRC Tutor Susan on Multicultural Writing Styles

September 28, 2015 by Heather Vorhies

Communicating in a Global Society: Understanding Different Cultural Writing Styles

Variety is the spice of life, and an international community like that at UNC Charlotte provides a wealth of opportunities for learning about other cultures. Many people don’t realize, though, that writing is a cultural experience; different language groups have their own standards for what “good” writing—especially “good” academic writing—should be in terms of organization, argument, sentence structure, and citation use. These different expectations can often complicate communication between writers and readers in ways that go beyond second language acquisition, causing readers unfamiliar with a particular writing style to judge the piece as disorganized, rude, or just downright “wrong.”

As our society becomes more global, an entire field of study called “Contrastive Rhetoric” has emerged around these cultural writing differences to facilitate greater understanding between readers and writers. Here in the WRC, for example, understanding contrastive rhetoric helps us recognize when a client is working within another cultural writing model so that we can help him or her grasp the expectations of American academic writing. While the research in this field is vast, here is a simplified description of the distinct writing styles of several global language groups:

ENGLISH—Academic writing in English-speaking countries generally features a linear, direct argument style with clear, concrete vocabulary. Writers use a deductive approach to present information, with the main idea first, followed by supporting details.
ROMANCE & SLAVIC LANGUAGES—European cultures (French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian) prefer broad, philosophical discussions presented with tangential details. The main idea is presented in the middle of the paper, and elaborate wording and sentence structure is used throughout.
ASIAN LANGUAGES—Papers written in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures usually feature abstract vocabulary and a circular, inductive approach, where details are presented first. The main idea is not presented until toward the end of the paper.
SEMITIC LANGUAGES—Arabic-, Farsi-, and Hebrew-speaking cultures prefer a writing style that uses repetition and strings of parallel forms to support the main idea. These writings tend to include lyrical, descriptive vocabulary, and often mention family and/or religion.

It’s no wonder that all these differences in style cause confusion for readers! But which style of writing is the correct one? The answer is: none of them and all of them. No particular writing style is “better” than the others, and there is no one “correct” way to organize and present academic papers throughout the world. The right style is the one your reader expects! If you are writing for an audience in China, for instance, write in the accepted Asian style. If you are writing for a professor in the United States—even if he or she is an international professor serving as a visiting instructor at a U.S. university—use the preferred English writing style. Your goal as a writer is to have your message understood, so writing in a way that your reader will most easily grasp is always your best bet.

Works Referenced

Conner, Ulla. Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second Language Writing. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Kaplan, Robert B. “Contrastive Rhetoric and the Teaching of Composition.” TESOL Quarterly 1.4 (1967): 10-16.

Kaplan, Robert B. “Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education.” Language Learning 16 (1966): 1-20.

Miller, Laurie. Internationals Writing in English: An Introduction to Contrastive Rhetoric. Washington: World Bank, 2007.

Petric, Bojana. “Contrastive Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom: A Case Study.” English for Specific Purposes 24 (2005): 213-28.

Reid, Joy M. “ESL Composition: The Linear Product of American Thought.” College Composition and Communication 35.4 (1984): 449-52.

Tags: contrastive rhetoric guest international

Punctuation Problems: The Semicolon

September 14, 2015 by Heather Vorhies

Most (if not all) writers have problems with using punctuation effectively, especially commas. But, arguably, the most misunderstood piece of punctuation is the semicolon (;).

The semicolon can be used in two different ways: to connect two ideas and to separate items in a list. The second usage, while not quite as common, is easier to understand, so let’s start there.

Here’s a simple list:

While packing for the trip, we made sure to bring beach chairs, two kites, and a beach ball.

In order to use semicolons to separate items, the items need to have more to them. Semicolons separate items in a list when commas are used within items so as to avoid confusion. Let’s beef up our list a bit:

While packing for the trip, we made sure to bring beach chairs, one for each person; a dragon kite and a bumblebee kite; and an extra-large beach ball.

Here’s another example with semicolons in a list from the most recent issue of Science:

Four groups of interest are highlighted: G1, ancestral sequences that have almost been completely lost from the human lineage; G2, ancestral sequences that are largely fixed but rarely deleted (also absent in human reference); G3, ancestral sequences that have become copy-number variable since the divergence of humans and Neanderthals/Denisovans ~700 ka; and G4, sequences potentially lost in Neanderthals and Denisovans since their divergence from humans.

Now for the harder stuff. I’m calling on The Writing Center at The University of Wisconsin – Madison for this part as they have a wonderful Grammar and Punctuation Section on their website. We’ll start with this sample sentence from their semicolon section:

Some people write with a word processor; others write with a pen or pencil.

Two independent clauses are linked with the semicolon. While this could be rewritten as two separate sentences, the main point of using semicolons to link ideas is to show a close relationship between the two clauses; plus, there are multiple ways to set this relationship up (See what I did there?). I’ll rewrite Wisconsin’s sample sentence to show you how my tutees usually set up semicolons using conjunctive adverbs:

Some people write with a word processor; however, there are still people who choose to write with a pen or pencil.

I’ll also adjust the first two sentences of our sample Science text to show you how this pattern might look in a STEM piece.

In the past decade, genome sequencing has provided insights into demography and migration patterns of human populations, ancient DNA, de novo mutation rates, and the relative deleteriousness and frequency of coding mutations; however, global human diversity has only been partially sampled and the genetic architecture of many populations remains uncharacterized.

In the WRC, I usually see semicolons (when used correctly) paired with “however.” This may be because “however” on its own establishes a relationship between the original idea and the one that is about to be contrasted to the original, making it a bit easier to understand why and how a semicolon works in that situation.

Of course, if you find that you’re not comfortable with or confident about using semicolons, then don’t! While I may be the #1 Fan of the semicolon, it doesn’t mean that everyone has to like and use them (even though they’re super fabulous…). If you do want to use semicolons in your writing, I suggest you start out with using no more than one per paragraph (if that). Once you’ve become comfortable with using them, run free!

Happy Writing, Everyone!

References:

Sudmant et al. “Global Diversity, Population Stratification, and Selection of Human Copy-Number Variation”

The University of Wisconsin – Madison Writing Center’s Grammar and Punctuation Section

The University of Wisconsin – Madison Writing Center’s “Using Semicolons”

The Oatmeal “How to Use a Semicolon”

Tags: punctuation semicolon

Paraphrasing, Quoting, and Citations: Why is Plagiarism Such an Issue?

August 31, 2015 by Heather Vorhies

Keep Calm and Don’t Plagiarize

Yes. I have fallen prey to that awful poster. It’s just so catchy. So here is your gratuitous picture:

Academic integrity is a huge topic at universities. Many times, academic integrity violations can have serious consequence, sometimes even expulsion from the university, so it’s taken pretty seriously (See our own academic integrity policies at legal.uncc.edu/policies/up-407). Citation can be a tricky process, especially when you’re first learning. Don’t worry, the WRC is here to help; we’ve got lots of practice with proper citations. But why does academia care so much?

I guess the first thing we need to talk about is the fact that in the United States, we follow what is called the Western definition of academic integrity. This idea is built around ownership of ideas, something that is very important in individualistic, capitalist cultures. If you own an idea, you can take credit for it, win awards for it, and make money off it, so Westerners tend to be very concerned with assigning proper ownership. This can be new if you’re an international student and used to another definition of academic integrity.

In different cultures, the definition of academic integrity can change; this isn’t bad, it’s just different. When you immerse yourself in an academic culture, you will be judged by that culture’s standard. Bottom line: if you’re studying in the US, you need to follow the standards developed by Western academic integrity and defined by your university. UNC Chapel Hill has a great handout on plagiarism, found here: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/plagiarism/.

Ownership of ideas is the key phrase in that last paragraph to illustrate why universities take such a hard stance on plagiarism. But there are other reasons, perhaps better reasons, why we cite our sources so well.

We cite others both to give them ownership of their ideas and to show our original work. Simply put, we’re giving credit where credit’s due. Another reason we cite is to show readers the path we took to get to our conclusions. This allows readers to see that we’ve done the proper background research, that our conclusions are sound, and that we’ve actually thought about what we’ve written, fitting our new information or conclusions in with current knowledge. A great benefit of proper citations is that it creates authority for you. The reader can see that you take your work seriously. Drawing out this path for readers also allows them to take the same path. They can pursue more information or try to recreate your research to discover new things for themselves.

Overall, citations are not there to make your life hard. They’re there to help you, the people who are reading you, and the people you read. However, citation practices may vary across disciplines. It’s a good idea to find an authority in your field and ask them about proper citation practices so that you can be a fully contributing member of your discourse community. If you have questions about paraphrasing, directly quoting, and citing, please, come in and see us. We’d love to help.

The librarians at Atkins are also here to help as well. Check out the UNC Charlotte Library Citation Guides (http://guides.library.uncc.edu/CitationGuides) and their Citation Workshop calendar for upcoming events.

For some more information on academic integrity in writing, take a look at this tutorial from UMUC’s Effective Writing Center (http://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/plagiarism/index.cfm)

Good luck and happy writing.

Tags: academic integrity citation

Happy Finals Week!

May 01, 2015 by Alexandra Batty

Happy finals week everyone! This week, we’re going to share an English funny. We found these videos (of course on YouTube) that made us giggle ourselves silly. In honor of finals week, here’s a few videos to take some stress out.

Captain Literally – Part 1

There are about 5 videos that feature Captain Literally; if you follow the YouTube suggestions you should find them all (1-4 + Captain Literally Returns).

Captain Irony

Here, Captain Irony gets some friends: Captain Irony, the Nuclear Ninja, and the Good and Well Twins.

The Grammar Avengers

Speaks for itself. The Grammar Avengers are called up.

(Studio C is a sketch comedy group. The Doorstep 1 and 2, Lady Shadow, Bashful E-mail, and International Relations are a great place to start if you’re looking to explore Studio C.)

And finally, here is a BatDad Vine stressing the importance of their, they’re, and there.

Good luck on finals and don’t stress too much.

Happy Writing

Henry Doss: An Interview with a WRC Founder

April 20, 2015 by Mary Greene

Henry Doss is an alumnus of UNC Charlotte where he received his BA in English in 1977. During his three years here at UNC Charlotte, Doss and a few of his peers founded the Writing Resources Center that we all know and love today. After graduation, he went into banking for several years before joining T2 Venture Creation, a firm that works with startup companies, as Chief Strategy Officer. Doss is also a regular contributor to Forbes magazine. Doss continues to be involved on campus, serving as Executive-in-Residence for the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

In order to delve into the WRC’s history a bit more, we caught up with Doss this spring to ask him a few questions.

Happy Writing!
Alex and Beth

———————————————————————————————————-

Q: Was there a specific incident that really got you thinking about having a place where your fellow students could get help with their writing?

A: I don’t recall any particular event, except that over time it seemed to be clear that there was some kind of need for helping students with writing. I was taking classes with Sam Watson, and I recall a great deal of conversation about writing, how to write, how not to write, how to think about writing, and how really, really mysterious the whole thing seemed to be. I read Peter Elbow’s Writing without Teachers at that time and it made a deep impression on me. This was in 1976! It occurred to me that it was possible that: 1) writing could be learned and 2) learned in ways that were not in general practice at that time. This wasn’t exactly novel or new, but was just Elbow’s ideas and thinking transplanted into our environment at the time. but it was a pretty powerful idea, all the same.

Q: When you started the WRC, did you have any long term goals? Did you imagine that the WRC would take off and expand to become what it is for UNC Charlotte today?

A: I don’t think any of us were thinking very long term. Our situation was immediate, tactical and focused on the present. We were thinking at a very simple level; it really was a very idealistic and kind of fuzzy thing, but it just happened to be grounded in some decent pedagogy and thinking. It did take a while to catch on, but in those early days we were as much concerned with getting a door key and chairs as with anything else. And although I can’t speak for others, I don’t recall thinking much beyond just getting started with something.

Q: What was the most important thing that you wanted to accomplish by creating the WRC? Is that quality still a part of today’s WRC?

A: This is more personal than anything else, but what I thought was important was to simply introduce to others that writing:

was (and is) really, really hard
that it will always be a bit of a mystery, and something that comes from the individual more than from anyone else
that like-minded strugglers could get together and talk their way into insights about their own and others’ writing
that the goal of writers was to do good writing, not necessarily to follow conventions (although an honest rejection of convention does, I think, require a strong understanding of convention)
that writing was (and is) more than anything a process of discovery and not a product
that all writing fails and fails and fails before it succeeds and that understanding failure in writing was more important (and harder!) than understanding success
and that when you come right down to it, reflection, conversation and “play” are the most critical things to practice, as you approach the task of becoming a better writer.

Of all that, I think it’s most important to recognize that writing is not always an end product, but a way of learning. As we used to say: “You write from what you know into what you don’t know.” I’ve always liked that, and I think today’s writing tutors, WRC team and others who are serious about the craft of writing think in similar ways.

Tags: guest Henry Doss interview WRC writing

Entering the Scholarly Conversation

April 06, 2015 by Alexandra Batty

Sorry undergrads. This one’s focused more towards grad students, but it’s still good information to know. In fact, it can really be adapted to help with any sort of scholarly paper. You know what – never mind. This post is for everyone. Entering the scholarly conversation is an important part of graduate education because as a graduate student you are becoming a part of the conversation and contributing to the field rather than just reporting on it. There are four key things that a strong graduate-level scholarly paper will cover (and strong undergraduate papers as well). They are:

Coming to terms. The writer needs to show that they are familiar with the people, research, and theories relevant to their paper.
Forwarding. This is when a writer finds existing material and pulls it into the paper for research purposes. This is most often done by using these four techniques:
1. Illustrating. Showing how the existing material ties into your topic. This is often cued by phrases like “this shows us that…”
2. Borrowing. Just like it sounds. Borrowing prior research done by another scholar. A lot of the time this is seen when authors say “This principle was discovered by… and is a foundation for my theory.”
3. Authorizing. Cued by name-dropping e.g. “Such-and-such did this, so I can do it too.”
4. Extending. Taking an original idea from another scholar and expanding upon it. This can look like “So-and-so started with this idea, but further research was needed into this area, so I’m doing it.”
Countering. The writer must disagree with fellow scholars. This is essential; otherwise the paper isn’t a scholarly research paper. The purpose of these kinds of papers is to show how the writer is filling a gap in the knowledge. If the writer doesn’t disagree with someone, they are most likely not filling in a gap, just agreeing with what went before.
Taking an approach. A combination of showing how the paper helps the field and telling readers what will be done.

These moves help you to truly enter the conversation, not just look up stuff at the library and summarize it. As scholars, people in your field will be looking for you to contribute to the conversation that is happening and stay current with the trends

As people (professors and others in the field) are reading, they will be looking to make sure the writer has done all these things. For a lot of papers in the humanities, these four points will be woven throughout the paper, but in other disciplines, these moves may happen primarily in the literature review or introduction (if your discipline includes a literature review). This approach is also a good way for writers to help themselves be organized and structured as they are writing. This isn’t a complete checklist by any means – you actually have to write the paper and make it sound good – but these four items are crucial to writing a solid scholarly paper.

These four moves have been adapted from Joseph Harris’s Rewriting. It can be found on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Rewriting-How-Things-With-Texts/dp/0874216427