{"id":34,"date":"2022-04-28T18:44:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppcc5\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=34"},"modified":"2022-05-04T20:26:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T20:26:36","slug":"writing-in-college","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppcc5\/chapter\/writing-in-college\/","title":{"raw":"Writing in College","rendered":"Writing in College"},"content":{"raw":"<h2><strong>Part 1. Some crucial differences between high school and college writing<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<strong>From high school to college<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSome students make very smooth transitions from writing in high school to writing in college, and we heartily wish all of you an easy passage. But other students are puzzled and frustrated by their experiences in writing for college classes. Only months earlier your writing was winning praise; now your instructors are dissatisfied, saying that the writing isn\u2019t quite \u201cthere\u201d yet, saying that the writing is \u201clacking something.\u201d You haven\u2019t changed\u2013your writing is still mechanically sound, your descriptions are accurate, you\u2019re saying smart things. But they\u2019re still not happy. Some of the criticism is easy to understand: it\u2019s easy to predict that standards at college are going to be higher than in high school. But it is not just a matter of higher standards: Often, what your instructors are asking of you is not just something\u00a0<em>better<\/em>, but something\u00a0<em>different<\/em>. If that\u2019s the case, then you won\u2019t succeed merely by being more intelligent or more skillful at doing what you did in high school. Instead, you\u2019ll need to direct your skills and your intelligence to a new task.\r\n\r\nWe should note here that a college is a big place and that you\u2019ll be asked to use writing to fulfill different tasks. You\u2019ll find occasions where you\u2019ll succeed by summarizing a reading accurately and showing that you understand it. There may be times when you\u2019re invited to use writing to react to a reading, speculate about it. Far more often\u2013like every other week\u2013you will be asked to\u00a0<em>analyze<\/em>\u00a0the reading, to make a worthwhile\u00a0<em>claim<\/em>\u00a0about it that is not obvious (<em>state a thesis<\/em>\u00a0means almost the same thing), to support your claim with good reasons, all in four or five pages that are organized to present an\u00a0<em>argument<\/em>. (If you did that in high school, write your teachers a letter of gratitude.)\r\n\r\n<strong>Argument: a key feature of college writing<\/strong>\r\n\r\nNow by \u201cargument\u201d we do not mean a dispute over a loud stereo. In college, an argument is something less contentious and more systematic: It is a set of statements coherently arranged to offer three things that experienced readers expect in essays that they judge to be thoughtful:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see a\u00a0<em>claim<\/em>\u00a0that would encourage them to say, \u201cThat\u2019s interesting. I\u2019d like to know more.\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see\u00a0<em>evidence, reasons<\/em>\u00a0for your claim, evidence that would encourage them to agree with your claim, or at least to think it plausible.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see that you\u2019ve thought about\u00a0<em>limits<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>objections<\/em>\u00a0to your claim. Almost by definition, an interesting claim is one that can be reasonably challenged. Readers look for answers to questions like \u201cBut what about . . . ?\u201d and \u201cHave you considered . . . ?\u201d<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThis kind of argument is less like disagreeable wrangling, more like an amiable and lively conversation with someone whom you respect and who respects you; someone who is interested in what you have to say, but will not agree with your claims just because you state them; someone who wants to hear your reasons for believing your claims and also wants to hear answers to their questions.\r\n\r\nAt this point, some students ask why they should be required to\u00a0<em>convince\u00a0<\/em>anyone of anything. \u201cAfter all,\u201d they say, \u201cwe are all entitled to our opinions, so all we should have to do is express them clearly. Here\u2019s my opinion. Take it or leave it.\u201d This point of view both misunderstands the nature of argument and ignores its greatest value.\r\n\r\nIt is true that we are all entitled to our opinions and that we have no duty to defend them. But universities hold as their highest value not just the pursuit of new knowledge and better understanding, but the sharing of that knowledge. We write not only to state what we think, but also to show why others might agree with it and why it matters. We also know that whatever it is we think, it is never the entire truth. Our conclusions are partial, incomplete, and always subject to challenge. So we write in a way that allows others to test our reasoning: we present our best thinking as a series of claims, reasons, and responses to imagined challenges, so that readers can see not only what we think, but whether they ought to agree.\r\n\r\nAnd that\u2019s all an argument is\u2013not wrangling, but a serious and focused conversation among people who are intensely interested in getting to the bottom of things\u00a0<em>cooperatively<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThose values are also an integral part of your education in college. For four years, you are asked to read, do research, gather data, analyze it, think about it, and then communicate it to readers in a form in which enables them to assess it and use it. You are asked to do this not because we expect you all to become professional scholars, but because in just about any profession you pursue, you will do research, think about what you find, make decisions about complex matters, and then explain those decisions\u2013usually in writing\u2013to others who have a stake in your decisions being sound ones. In an Age of Information, what most professionals do is research, think, and make arguments. (And part of the value of doing your own thinking and writing is that it makes you much better at evaluating the thinking and writing of others.)\r\n\r\nIn the next few pages, we\u2019re going to walk you through a process of creating an argument in a Humanities or Social Science paper. Note that we\u2019re describing \u201ca\u201d process and not \u201cthe\u201d process. We\u2019re not describing the way that everyone does go about writing an argument. We\u2019re certainly not describing the way everyone must go about writing an argument. Further, we can\u2019t cover everything, and some of your teachers will expect something other than what we describe here. There are even some differences between how you write papers in Humanities and in the Social Sciences. But within all these limits, we can lay some groundwork for writing college papers.\r\n\r\nWe begin with the assignment that gets you started; then we discuss some ways to plan your paper so that you don\u2019t waste too much time on false starts. We conclude with some strategies for drafting and revising, especially revising, because the most productive work on a paper begins after you have gotten your ideas out of the warm and cozy incubator of your own mind and into the cold light of day.\r\n\r\n<strong>Interpreting assignments: a guide to professors\u2019 expectations<\/strong>\r\n\r\nNot all of your instructors will be equally clear about what they expect of your paper. Some will tell you in detail what to read, how to think about it, and how to organize your paper, but others will ask a general question just to see what you can do with it. Some instructors will expect you to stay close to the assignment, penalizing you if you depart from it; others will encourage you to strike out on your own. Some few instructors may want you to demonstrate only that you have read and understood a reading, but most will want you to use your understanding of the reading as a jumping-off point for an analysis and an argument.\r\n\r\nSo your first step in writing an assigned paper occurs well before you begin writing: You must know what your instructor expects. Start by assuming that, unless you see the words \u201cSummarize or paraphrase what X says about . . . ,\u201d your instructor is unlikely to want just a summary. Beyond this point, however, you have to become a kind of anthropologist, reading the culture of your particular class to understand what is said, what is not, and what is intended.\r\n\r\nStart by looking carefully at the words of the assignment. If it is phrased in any of these ways, one crucial part of your task has been done for you:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cAgree or disagree: \u2018Freud misunderstood the feminine mind when he wrote . . . .'\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cWas Lear justified in castigating Cordelia when she refused to . . . ?\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cDiscuss whether Socrates adequately answered the charge that he corrupted the youth of Athens.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nFor questions like these, you start (but it\u2019s only a start) by considering two opposing claims: Freud understood the feminine mind or did not, Lear was or was not justified, Socrates did or did not answer the charges against him. For reasons we will discuss below, you will\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0want the claim of your paper to be merely yes or no, he did or he didn\u2019t. But an assignment like this can make it easier to get started because you can immediately begin to find and assess data from your readings. You can look at passages from the reading and consider how they would support one of the claims. (Remember: this is only a start. You do not want to end up with a claim that says nothing more than \u201cFreud did (or did not) understand the feminine mind.\u201d \u201cLear was (or was not) justified in castigating Cordelia \u201d \u201cSocrates did (or did not) adequately answer the charge.\u201d)\r\n\r\nMore likely, however, your assignments will be less specific. They won\u2019t suggest opposite claims. Instead, they\u2019ll give you a reasonably specific sense of subject matter and a reasonably specific sense of your task:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cillustrate,\u201d \u201cexplain,\u201d \u201canalyze,\u201d \u201cevaluate,\u201d \u201ccompare and contrast,\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cDiscuss the role that the honor plays in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey.<\/em>\u00a0\u201c<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cShow how Moli\u00e8re exploits comic patterns in a scene from\u00a0<em>Tartuffe<\/em>.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nNone of these assignments implies a main point or claim that you can directly import into your paper. You can\u2019t just claim that \u201chonor does play a role in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey<\/em>\u201d or that \u201cMoli\u00e8re does exploit comic patterns in\u00a0<em>Tartuffe<\/em>.\u201d After all, if the instructor has asked you to discuss\u00a0<em>how<\/em>\u00a0Moli\u00e8re used comic patterns, she presumably already believes that he\u00a0<em>did<\/em>\u00a0use them. You get no credit for asserting the existence of something we already know exists.\r\n\r\nInstead, these assignments ask you to spend four or five pages explaining the results of an analysis. Words such as \u201cshow how\u201d and \u201cexplain\u201d and \u201cillustrate\u201d do\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0ask you to summarize a reading. They ask you to show how the reading is put together<em>,\u00a0<\/em>how it works. If you asked someone to show you how your computer worked, you wouldn\u2019t be satisfied if they simply summarized: \u201cThis is the keyboard, this is the monitor, this is the printer.\u201d You already know the summary\u2013now you want to know how the thing does what it does. These assignments are similar.<em>\u00a0<\/em>They ask you to identify parts of things\u2013parts of an argument, parts of a narrative, parts of a poem; then show how those parts fit together (or work against one another) to create some larger effect.\r\n\r\nBut in the course of so doing, you can\u2019t just grind out four or five pages of discussion, explanation, or analysis. It may seem strange, but even when you\u2019re asked to \u201cshow how\u201d or \u201cillustrate,\u201d you\u2019re still being asked to make an argument. You must shape and focus that discussion or analysis so that it supports a\u00a0claim that you discovered and formulated and that all of your discussion and explanation develops and supports. We\u2019ll talk more about claims\u2013also known as points\u2013in later sections.\r\n\r\nA third kind of assignment is simultaneously least restrictive and most intimidating. These assignments leave it up to you to decide not only what you will claim but what you will write about and even what kind of analysis you will do: \u201cAnalyze the role of a character in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey<\/em>.\u201d That is the kind of assignment that causes many students anxiety because they must motivate their research almost entirely on their own. To meet this kind of assignment, the best advice we can give is to read with your mind open to things that puzzle you, that make you wish you understood something better.\r\n\r\nNow that advice may seem almost counterproductive; you may even think that being puzzled or not understanding something testifies to your intellectual failure. Yet almost everything we do in a university starts with someone being puzzled about something, someone with a vague\u2013or specific\u2013dissatisfaction caused by not knowing something that seems important or by wanting to understand something better. The best place to begin thinking about any assignment is with what\u00a0<em>you<\/em>\u00a0don\u2019t understand but wish you did.\r\n\r\nIf after all this analysis of the assignment you are still uncertain about what is expected of you, ask your instructor. If you class has a peer mentor, ask that person. If for some reason you can\u2019t ask either, make an appointment at the Learning Center.\u00a0<strong>Do this as soon as possible.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re not likely to succeed on an assignment if you don\u2019t have a clear sense of what will count as success. You don\u2019t want to spend time doing something different than what you\u2019re being asked to do.\r\n\r\n<strong>Another key feature of college writing: what\u2019s your point?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nHowever different your assignments may seem, most will share one characteristic: in each, you will almost certainly be asked to make a point. Now when we talk about the \u201cpoint\u201d of your paper, you should understand what we do and do\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0mean. If asked what the point of their paper is, most students answer with something like, \u201cWell, I wanted to write about the way Falstaff plays the role of Prince Hal\u2019s father.\u201d But that kind of sentence names only your\u00a0<em>topic<\/em>\u00a0and an\u00a0<em>intention<\/em>\u00a0to write\u00a0<em>about<\/em>\u00a0it.\r\n\r\nWhen most of your instructors ask what the point of your paper is, they have in mind something different. By \u201cpoint\u201d or \u201cclaim\u201d (the words are virtually synonymous with\u00a0<em>thesis<\/em>), they will more often mean the most important\u00a0<em>sentence<\/em>\u00a0that you wrote in your essay, a sentence that appears on the page, in black in white; words that you can point to, underline, send on a postcard; a sentence that sums up the most important thing you want to say as a result of your reading, thinking, research, and writing. In that sense, you might state the point of your paper as \u201cWell, I want to show\/prove\/claim\/argue\/demonstrate (any of those words will serve to introduce the point) that:\r\n<blockquote>\u201cThough Falstaff seems to play the role of Hal\u2019s father, he is, in fact, acting more like a younger brother who . . . .\u201d\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nIf you include in your paper what appears after\u00a0<em>I want to prove that<\/em>, then that\u2019s the point of your paper, its main claim that the rest of your paper supports.\r\n\r\n<strong>But what\u2019s a\u00a0<em>good<\/em>\u00a0point?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA question just as important as what a point is, though, is what counts as a good one. We will answer that question here, even though it gets us ahead of ourselves in describing the process of writing a paper. Many beginning writers think that writing an essay means thinking up a point or thesis and then finding evidence to support it. But few of us work that way. Most of us begin our research with a question, with a puzzle, something that we don\u2019t understand but want to, and maybe a vague sense of what an answer might look like. We hope that out of our early research to resolve that puzzle there emerges a solution to the puzzle, an idea that seems promising, but one that only more research can test. But even if more research supports that developing idea, we aren\u2019t ready to say that\u00a0<em>that<\/em>\u00a0idea is our claim or point. Instead, we start writing to see whether we can build an argument to support it, suspecting, hoping that in the act of writing we will refine that idea, maybe even change it substantially.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s why we say we are getting ahead of ourselves in this account of writing a paper, because as paradoxical as it may sound, you are unlikely to know\u00a0<em>exactly<\/em>\u00a0what point you will make until\u00a0<em>after<\/em>\u00a0you have written the paper in which you made it. So for us to talk about the\u00a0<em>quality<\/em>\u00a0of a point now is to get ahead of ourselves, because we haven\u2019t even touched on how you might think about drafting your paper, much less revising it. But because everything you do at the beginning aims at finding a good point, it is useful to have a clear idea about what it is you are trying to find, what makes for a good point.\r\n\r\nA good point or claim typically has several key characteristics: it says something significant about what you have read, something that helps you and your readers understand it better; it says something that is not obvious, something that your reader didn\u2019t already know; it is at least mildly contestable, something that no one would agree with just by reading it; it asserts something that you can plausibly support in five pages, not something that would require a book.\r\n\r\nMeasured by those criteria, these are\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0good points or claims:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201c<em>1 Henry IV\u00a0<\/em>by William Shakespeare is a play that raises questions about the nature of kingship and responsibility.\u201d Sounds impressive, but who would contest it? Everyone who has read the play already knows that it raises such questions.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201c<em>Native Son<\/em>\u00a0is one of the most important stories about race relations ever written.\u201d Again, your readers probably already agree with this, and if so, why would they read an essay that supported it? Further, are you ready to provide an argument that this point is true? What evidence could you provide to make this argument? Are you prepared to compare the effect of\u00a0<em>Native Son<\/em>\u00a0with the effects of other books about race relations?<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cSocrates\u2019 argument in\u00a0<em>The Apology<\/em>\u00a0is very interesting.\u201d Right. So?<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>\u201cIn this paper I discuss Thucydides\u2019 account of the Corcyrean-Corinthian debate in Book I.\u201d First, what significant thing does this point tell us about the book? Second, who would contest this (who would argue that you are not going to discuss Thucydides\u2019 account?).<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nNone of these is a particularly significant or contestable point, and so none of them qualifies as a good one.\r\n\r\nWhat does qualify as a good claim? These might:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>The three most prominent women in\u00a0<em>Heart of Darkness\u00a0<\/em>play key roles in a complex system of parallels: literally as gatekeepers of Africa, representatively as gatekeepers of darkness, and metaphorically as gatekeepers of brutality.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"rteindent1\">\r\n<blockquote>While Freud argues that followers obey because each has a part of themselves invested in the leader, Blau claims that followers obey in order to avoid punishment. Both neglect the effects of external power.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou should recognize, however, that you will only rarely be able state good points like these\u00a0<em>before<\/em>\u00a0you write your first draft. Much more often, you\u00a0<em>discover<\/em>\u00a0good points at the end of the process of drafting. Writing is a way of thinking through a problem, of discovering what you want to say. So do not feel that you should begin to write only when you have a fully articulated point in mind. Instead, write to discover and to refine it.\r\n\r\nOne note on the language of point sentences. If you\u2019re like us, you will want your readers to think that your points are terrifically interesting and significant. What almost never accomplishes this is to say: \u201cMy point is terrifically interesting and significant.\u201d Many writers try to generate a sense of importance for what they write by simply adding some synonym of the word \u201cimportant:\u201d \u201cAn important question to consider . . .\u201d \u201cIt is essential to examine . . . \u201d \u201cA crucial concern is whether. . .\u201d This isn\u2019t going to work. What convinces readers that a point is important is not the word \u201cimportant,\u201d but the words that tell us the substance of the point. If, during your first draft, you find yourself using words like \u201cimportant,\u201d you should make a note to yourself to come back during your revisions to replace \u201cimportant\u201d with more substantive language. Then don\u2019t forget to do it. It\u2019s really important.\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Licenses and Attributions<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL\r\n\r\n<em>Composing Ourselves and Our World,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Provided by: the authors. License:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)<\/a>CC\r\n\r\nLICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains an adaptation of <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/about-this-course\/\">About this course<\/a>:\u00a0 by Lumen Learning, and is used under an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)<\/a>\u00a0license.\r\n\r\nThis chapter contains an excerpt from\u00a0\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/writing-program.uchicago.edu\/undergrads\/wic0intro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Writing in College: A Short Guide to Writing in College<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Licensed under a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives<\/a> license. Joseph M. Williams and Lawrence McEnerney, The University of Chicago.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<h2><strong>Part 1. Some crucial differences between high school and college writing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>From high school to college<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some students make very smooth transitions from writing in high school to writing in college, and we heartily wish all of you an easy passage. But other students are puzzled and frustrated by their experiences in writing for college classes. Only months earlier your writing was winning praise; now your instructors are dissatisfied, saying that the writing isn\u2019t quite \u201cthere\u201d yet, saying that the writing is \u201clacking something.\u201d You haven\u2019t changed\u2013your writing is still mechanically sound, your descriptions are accurate, you\u2019re saying smart things. But they\u2019re still not happy. Some of the criticism is easy to understand: it\u2019s easy to predict that standards at college are going to be higher than in high school. But it is not just a matter of higher standards: Often, what your instructors are asking of you is not just something\u00a0<em>better<\/em>, but something\u00a0<em>different<\/em>. If that\u2019s the case, then you won\u2019t succeed merely by being more intelligent or more skillful at doing what you did in high school. Instead, you\u2019ll need to direct your skills and your intelligence to a new task.<\/p>\n<p>We should note here that a college is a big place and that you\u2019ll be asked to use writing to fulfill different tasks. You\u2019ll find occasions where you\u2019ll succeed by summarizing a reading accurately and showing that you understand it. There may be times when you\u2019re invited to use writing to react to a reading, speculate about it. Far more often\u2013like every other week\u2013you will be asked to\u00a0<em>analyze<\/em>\u00a0the reading, to make a worthwhile\u00a0<em>claim<\/em>\u00a0about it that is not obvious (<em>state a thesis<\/em>\u00a0means almost the same thing), to support your claim with good reasons, all in four or five pages that are organized to present an\u00a0<em>argument<\/em>. (If you did that in high school, write your teachers a letter of gratitude.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Argument: a key feature of college writing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now by \u201cargument\u201d we do not mean a dispute over a loud stereo. In college, an argument is something less contentious and more systematic: It is a set of statements coherently arranged to offer three things that experienced readers expect in essays that they judge to be thoughtful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see a\u00a0<em>claim<\/em>\u00a0that would encourage them to say, \u201cThat\u2019s interesting. I\u2019d like to know more.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see\u00a0<em>evidence, reasons<\/em>\u00a0for your claim, evidence that would encourage them to agree with your claim, or at least to think it plausible.<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">They expect to see that you\u2019ve thought about\u00a0<em>limits<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>objections<\/em>\u00a0to your claim. Almost by definition, an interesting claim is one that can be reasonably challenged. Readers look for answers to questions like \u201cBut what about . . . ?\u201d and \u201cHave you considered . . . ?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This kind of argument is less like disagreeable wrangling, more like an amiable and lively conversation with someone whom you respect and who respects you; someone who is interested in what you have to say, but will not agree with your claims just because you state them; someone who wants to hear your reasons for believing your claims and also wants to hear answers to their questions.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, some students ask why they should be required to\u00a0<em>convince\u00a0<\/em>anyone of anything. \u201cAfter all,\u201d they say, \u201cwe are all entitled to our opinions, so all we should have to do is express them clearly. Here\u2019s my opinion. Take it or leave it.\u201d This point of view both misunderstands the nature of argument and ignores its greatest value.<\/p>\n<p>It is true that we are all entitled to our opinions and that we have no duty to defend them. But universities hold as their highest value not just the pursuit of new knowledge and better understanding, but the sharing of that knowledge. We write not only to state what we think, but also to show why others might agree with it and why it matters. We also know that whatever it is we think, it is never the entire truth. Our conclusions are partial, incomplete, and always subject to challenge. So we write in a way that allows others to test our reasoning: we present our best thinking as a series of claims, reasons, and responses to imagined challenges, so that readers can see not only what we think, but whether they ought to agree.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s all an argument is\u2013not wrangling, but a serious and focused conversation among people who are intensely interested in getting to the bottom of things\u00a0<em>cooperatively<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Those values are also an integral part of your education in college. For four years, you are asked to read, do research, gather data, analyze it, think about it, and then communicate it to readers in a form in which enables them to assess it and use it. You are asked to do this not because we expect you all to become professional scholars, but because in just about any profession you pursue, you will do research, think about what you find, make decisions about complex matters, and then explain those decisions\u2013usually in writing\u2013to others who have a stake in your decisions being sound ones. In an Age of Information, what most professionals do is research, think, and make arguments. (And part of the value of doing your own thinking and writing is that it makes you much better at evaluating the thinking and writing of others.)<\/p>\n<p>In the next few pages, we\u2019re going to walk you through a process of creating an argument in a Humanities or Social Science paper. Note that we\u2019re describing \u201ca\u201d process and not \u201cthe\u201d process. We\u2019re not describing the way that everyone does go about writing an argument. We\u2019re certainly not describing the way everyone must go about writing an argument. Further, we can\u2019t cover everything, and some of your teachers will expect something other than what we describe here. There are even some differences between how you write papers in Humanities and in the Social Sciences. But within all these limits, we can lay some groundwork for writing college papers.<\/p>\n<p>We begin with the assignment that gets you started; then we discuss some ways to plan your paper so that you don\u2019t waste too much time on false starts. We conclude with some strategies for drafting and revising, especially revising, because the most productive work on a paper begins after you have gotten your ideas out of the warm and cozy incubator of your own mind and into the cold light of day.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interpreting assignments: a guide to professors\u2019 expectations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not all of your instructors will be equally clear about what they expect of your paper. Some will tell you in detail what to read, how to think about it, and how to organize your paper, but others will ask a general question just to see what you can do with it. Some instructors will expect you to stay close to the assignment, penalizing you if you depart from it; others will encourage you to strike out on your own. Some few instructors may want you to demonstrate only that you have read and understood a reading, but most will want you to use your understanding of the reading as a jumping-off point for an analysis and an argument.<\/p>\n<p>So your first step in writing an assigned paper occurs well before you begin writing: You must know what your instructor expects. Start by assuming that, unless you see the words \u201cSummarize or paraphrase what X says about . . . ,\u201d your instructor is unlikely to want just a summary. Beyond this point, however, you have to become a kind of anthropologist, reading the culture of your particular class to understand what is said, what is not, and what is intended.<\/p>\n<p>Start by looking carefully at the words of the assignment. If it is phrased in any of these ways, one crucial part of your task has been done for you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAgree or disagree: \u2018Freud misunderstood the feminine mind when he wrote . . . .&#8217;\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWas Lear justified in castigating Cordelia when she refused to . . . ?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDiscuss whether Socrates adequately answered the charge that he corrupted the youth of Athens.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For questions like these, you start (but it\u2019s only a start) by considering two opposing claims: Freud understood the feminine mind or did not, Lear was or was not justified, Socrates did or did not answer the charges against him. For reasons we will discuss below, you will\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0want the claim of your paper to be merely yes or no, he did or he didn\u2019t. But an assignment like this can make it easier to get started because you can immediately begin to find and assess data from your readings. You can look at passages from the reading and consider how they would support one of the claims. (Remember: this is only a start. You do not want to end up with a claim that says nothing more than \u201cFreud did (or did not) understand the feminine mind.\u201d \u201cLear was (or was not) justified in castigating Cordelia \u201d \u201cSocrates did (or did not) adequately answer the charge.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>More likely, however, your assignments will be less specific. They won\u2019t suggest opposite claims. Instead, they\u2019ll give you a reasonably specific sense of subject matter and a reasonably specific sense of your task:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cillustrate,\u201d \u201cexplain,\u201d \u201canalyze,\u201d \u201cevaluate,\u201d \u201ccompare and contrast,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDiscuss the role that the honor plays in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey.<\/em>\u00a0\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cShow how Moli\u00e8re exploits comic patterns in a scene from\u00a0<em>Tartuffe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these assignments implies a main point or claim that you can directly import into your paper. You can\u2019t just claim that \u201chonor does play a role in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey<\/em>\u201d or that \u201cMoli\u00e8re does exploit comic patterns in\u00a0<em>Tartuffe<\/em>.\u201d After all, if the instructor has asked you to discuss\u00a0<em>how<\/em>\u00a0Moli\u00e8re used comic patterns, she presumably already believes that he\u00a0<em>did<\/em>\u00a0use them. You get no credit for asserting the existence of something we already know exists.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, these assignments ask you to spend four or five pages explaining the results of an analysis. Words such as \u201cshow how\u201d and \u201cexplain\u201d and \u201cillustrate\u201d do\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0ask you to summarize a reading. They ask you to show how the reading is put together<em>,\u00a0<\/em>how it works. If you asked someone to show you how your computer worked, you wouldn\u2019t be satisfied if they simply summarized: \u201cThis is the keyboard, this is the monitor, this is the printer.\u201d You already know the summary\u2013now you want to know how the thing does what it does. These assignments are similar.<em>\u00a0<\/em>They ask you to identify parts of things\u2013parts of an argument, parts of a narrative, parts of a poem; then show how those parts fit together (or work against one another) to create some larger effect.<\/p>\n<p>But in the course of so doing, you can\u2019t just grind out four or five pages of discussion, explanation, or analysis. It may seem strange, but even when you\u2019re asked to \u201cshow how\u201d or \u201cillustrate,\u201d you\u2019re still being asked to make an argument. You must shape and focus that discussion or analysis so that it supports a\u00a0claim that you discovered and formulated and that all of your discussion and explanation develops and supports. We\u2019ll talk more about claims\u2013also known as points\u2013in later sections.<\/p>\n<p>A third kind of assignment is simultaneously least restrictive and most intimidating. These assignments leave it up to you to decide not only what you will claim but what you will write about and even what kind of analysis you will do: \u201cAnalyze the role of a character in\u00a0<em>The Odyssey<\/em>.\u201d That is the kind of assignment that causes many students anxiety because they must motivate their research almost entirely on their own. To meet this kind of assignment, the best advice we can give is to read with your mind open to things that puzzle you, that make you wish you understood something better.<\/p>\n<p>Now that advice may seem almost counterproductive; you may even think that being puzzled or not understanding something testifies to your intellectual failure. Yet almost everything we do in a university starts with someone being puzzled about something, someone with a vague\u2013or specific\u2013dissatisfaction caused by not knowing something that seems important or by wanting to understand something better. The best place to begin thinking about any assignment is with what\u00a0<em>you<\/em>\u00a0don\u2019t understand but wish you did.<\/p>\n<p>If after all this analysis of the assignment you are still uncertain about what is expected of you, ask your instructor. If you class has a peer mentor, ask that person. If for some reason you can\u2019t ask either, make an appointment at the Learning Center.\u00a0<strong>Do this as soon as possible.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re not likely to succeed on an assignment if you don\u2019t have a clear sense of what will count as success. You don\u2019t want to spend time doing something different than what you\u2019re being asked to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Another key feature of college writing: what\u2019s your point?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However different your assignments may seem, most will share one characteristic: in each, you will almost certainly be asked to make a point. Now when we talk about the \u201cpoint\u201d of your paper, you should understand what we do and do\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0mean. If asked what the point of their paper is, most students answer with something like, \u201cWell, I wanted to write about the way Falstaff plays the role of Prince Hal\u2019s father.\u201d But that kind of sentence names only your\u00a0<em>topic<\/em>\u00a0and an\u00a0<em>intention<\/em>\u00a0to write\u00a0<em>about<\/em>\u00a0it.<\/p>\n<p>When most of your instructors ask what the point of your paper is, they have in mind something different. By \u201cpoint\u201d or \u201cclaim\u201d (the words are virtually synonymous with\u00a0<em>thesis<\/em>), they will more often mean the most important\u00a0<em>sentence<\/em>\u00a0that you wrote in your essay, a sentence that appears on the page, in black in white; words that you can point to, underline, send on a postcard; a sentence that sums up the most important thing you want to say as a result of your reading, thinking, research, and writing. In that sense, you might state the point of your paper as \u201cWell, I want to show\/prove\/claim\/argue\/demonstrate (any of those words will serve to introduce the point) that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThough Falstaff seems to play the role of Hal\u2019s father, he is, in fact, acting more like a younger brother who . . . .\u201d\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you include in your paper what appears after\u00a0<em>I want to prove that<\/em>, then that\u2019s the point of your paper, its main claim that the rest of your paper supports.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But what\u2019s a\u00a0<em>good<\/em>\u00a0point?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A question just as important as what a point is, though, is what counts as a good one. We will answer that question here, even though it gets us ahead of ourselves in describing the process of writing a paper. Many beginning writers think that writing an essay means thinking up a point or thesis and then finding evidence to support it. But few of us work that way. Most of us begin our research with a question, with a puzzle, something that we don\u2019t understand but want to, and maybe a vague sense of what an answer might look like. We hope that out of our early research to resolve that puzzle there emerges a solution to the puzzle, an idea that seems promising, but one that only more research can test. But even if more research supports that developing idea, we aren\u2019t ready to say that\u00a0<em>that<\/em>\u00a0idea is our claim or point. Instead, we start writing to see whether we can build an argument to support it, suspecting, hoping that in the act of writing we will refine that idea, maybe even change it substantially.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why we say we are getting ahead of ourselves in this account of writing a paper, because as paradoxical as it may sound, you are unlikely to know\u00a0<em>exactly<\/em>\u00a0what point you will make until\u00a0<em>after<\/em>\u00a0you have written the paper in which you made it. So for us to talk about the\u00a0<em>quality<\/em>\u00a0of a point now is to get ahead of ourselves, because we haven\u2019t even touched on how you might think about drafting your paper, much less revising it. But because everything you do at the beginning aims at finding a good point, it is useful to have a clear idea about what it is you are trying to find, what makes for a good point.<\/p>\n<p>A good point or claim typically has several key characteristics: it says something significant about what you have read, something that helps you and your readers understand it better; it says something that is not obvious, something that your reader didn\u2019t already know; it is at least mildly contestable, something that no one would agree with just by reading it; it asserts something that you can plausibly support in five pages, not something that would require a book.<\/p>\n<p>Measured by those criteria, these are\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0good points or claims:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201c<em>1 Henry IV\u00a0<\/em>by William Shakespeare is a play that raises questions about the nature of kingship and responsibility.\u201d Sounds impressive, but who would contest it? Everyone who has read the play already knows that it raises such questions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201c<em>Native Son<\/em>\u00a0is one of the most important stories about race relations ever written.\u201d Again, your readers probably already agree with this, and if so, why would they read an essay that supported it? Further, are you ready to provide an argument that this point is true? What evidence could you provide to make this argument? Are you prepared to compare the effect of\u00a0<em>Native Son<\/em>\u00a0with the effects of other books about race relations?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSocrates\u2019 argument in\u00a0<em>The Apology<\/em>\u00a0is very interesting.\u201d Right. So?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn this paper I discuss Thucydides\u2019 account of the Corcyrean-Corinthian debate in Book I.\u201d First, what significant thing does this point tell us about the book? Second, who would contest this (who would argue that you are not going to discuss Thucydides\u2019 account?).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these is a particularly significant or contestable point, and so none of them qualifies as a good one.<\/p>\n<p>What does qualify as a good claim? These might:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>The three most prominent women in\u00a0<em>Heart of Darkness\u00a0<\/em>play key roles in a complex system of parallels: literally as gatekeepers of Africa, representatively as gatekeepers of darkness, and metaphorically as gatekeepers of brutality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"rteindent1\">\n<blockquote><p>While Freud argues that followers obey because each has a part of themselves invested in the leader, Blau claims that followers obey in order to avoid punishment. Both neglect the effects of external power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You should recognize, however, that you will only rarely be able state good points like these\u00a0<em>before<\/em>\u00a0you write your first draft. Much more often, you\u00a0<em>discover<\/em>\u00a0good points at the end of the process of drafting. Writing is a way of thinking through a problem, of discovering what you want to say. So do not feel that you should begin to write only when you have a fully articulated point in mind. Instead, write to discover and to refine it.<\/p>\n<p>One note on the language of point sentences. If you\u2019re like us, you will want your readers to think that your points are terrifically interesting and significant. What almost never accomplishes this is to say: \u201cMy point is terrifically interesting and significant.\u201d Many writers try to generate a sense of importance for what they write by simply adding some synonym of the word \u201cimportant:\u201d \u201cAn important question to consider . . .\u201d \u201cIt is essential to examine . . . \u201d \u201cA crucial concern is whether. . .\u201d This isn\u2019t going to work. What convinces readers that a point is important is not the word \u201cimportant,\u201d but the words that tell us the substance of the point. If, during your first draft, you find yourself using words like \u201cimportant,\u201d you should make a note to yourself to come back during your revisions to replace \u201cimportant\u201d with more substantive language. Then don\u2019t forget to do it. It\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p><strong>Licenses and Attributions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL<\/p>\n<p><em>Composing Ourselves and Our World,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Provided by: the authors. License:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)<\/a>CC<\/p>\n<p>LICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED<\/p>\n<p>This chapter contains an adaptation of <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/about-this-course\/\">About this course<\/a>:\u00a0 by Lumen Learning, and is used under an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)<\/a>\u00a0license.<\/p>\n<p>This chapter contains an excerpt from\u00a0\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/writing-program.uchicago.edu\/undergrads\/wic0intro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Writing in College: A Short Guide to Writing in College<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Licensed under a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives<\/a> license. Joseph M. Williams and Lawrence McEnerney, The University of Chicago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"Joseph M. 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