MISSION STATEMENT: This page aims to inculcate effective writing habits; it was originally designed for University of Oklahoma students.

 

 
 
 
 

Part the First: The Ten Steps to a Super Composition:

Part the Second: The Bibliography:

Part the Third: The On-line Rules for Correct Punctuation:

 
 
 
 

The Ten Steps to a Super Composition: STRUCTURE.  Make the purpose and organization of your paper clear to the reader immediately.  Tell the reader in the introductory paragraph what your thesis is and how you will demonstrate it.  Then stick to your argument, give solid evidence of your thesis in an analytic and descriptive way, and, finally, give a convincing conclusion which should follow naturally from your evidence and introductory thesis.  No new points should be presented in the conclusion, which should be as brief, succinct, and precise as your main thesis.  A list of works cited should follow. ARGUMENT.   Assume that your reader knows little about your topic but is nonetheless eager to disagree with you.  That assumption should encourage you to argue clearly, logically, and forcefully. PARAGRAPHS.  “Make the paragraph the unit of composition” (Strunk and White 10).  Each paragraph should form a continuous and complete unit of thought with a clear structure (a thesis sentence, several demonstrative sentences, and a conclusion). SIMPLICITY.  Write short, uncomplicated sentences.  Any sentence of more than twenty-five or thirty words should be suspect  (the product, no doubt, of an artist, a lawyer, or a mentally deranged  individual).  Prefer active, transitive verbs to passives and clumsy, wordy constructions.  Do not strive for elegant, complicated prose.  Ask yourself constantly: “Is there a simpler, more straightforward way of saying what I want to say?”  Avoid verbosity and ambiguity. CLARITY.  Eliminate clichés, tautologies, platitudes, colloquialisms, and all vague and flabby language.  “Use definite, specific, concrete language” (Strunk and White 15). JARGON.  Avoid sociological, psychological, theological, or any other kind of jargon.  Write simple, standard English (Spanish) and be sure that you know the exact meaning of every word you use. EVIDENCE.  Use the assigned readings to illustrate your argument.  The most persuasive evidence is that taken from primary sources.  But do not include quotations without analyzing them and relating them to your argument.  Also, use direct quotations only when absolutely necessary to demonstrate a point convincingly.  Otherwise, paraphrase. FOOTNOTES (ENDNOTES).  Use an accepted footnote (endnote) form-consistently (I suggest MLA alphabetical entries using the letter by letter system in the list of works cited and parenthetical citations [hence, no footnotes] in the body of the text).  Be sure each page reference and quotation is correct.  Include a citation for every direct quotation and every idea or piece of evidence that is not common knowledge and that you can assign to a definite written source.  Failure to acknowledge your source is plagiarism. REVISE AND REWRITE.  ALSO, READ YOUR PAPER ALOUD TO YOURSELF. PROOFREADING.  Proofread your final draft (do not rely on your computer proofreading program completely).  Check for spelling errors (use a good dictionary when in doubt), typos, and incorrect punctuation (especially commas and apostrophes in English; commas, interrogatives, exclamations, comillas, acute accents, diaeresis, tildes, and other diacritic markers in Spanish).  Number the pages consecutively.

 

The On-line Rules for Correct Punctuation: http://www.hum.au.dk/engelsk/undervis/punctuation.htm   Check it out by clicking the above link!  The rules are the work of Tim Caudery University of Aarhus, Denmark

THE END
Created on 25 January 2002 by
A. Robert Lauer
Feedback appreciated!

 arlauer@ou.edu
Revised on 15 March 2004