Notes

1. Remember that this is not an opportunity to merely state your personal beliefs or feelings. This is an exercise in logical analysis.
2. The views of other people should be explained with the same respect you give to your own views.
3. Never disparage people merely because they disagree with you.
4. You can include definitions, but only if they're your definitions, and not definitions taken from dictionaries.
5. You can't claim that something is a "fact" unless you can support it with good evidence.
6. You can't say there is evidence unless you can actually describe that evidence.
7. You can't claim an argument is bad unless you can identify a problem with some specific part of that argument.
8. Stuff that doesn't help explain what you think and why you think it should be omitted from your paper.
9. Beyond explaining and clarifying what you presently think, don't write an introduction.
10. Don't include a cover sheet, nor a separate citations page. Don't waste space.
11. If you can't answer a question, just say so. Don't pretend that there's no answer.
12. Don't delay stating your thesis (or "takeaway").
13. Don't speculate. Just stick to what can be proved.
14. Don't mention stuff you don't discuss. Only mention stuff that helps you deliver your ideas.
15. Don't waste time on history, or background information, or anything that doesn't help you deliver your thesis.
16. Don't substitute quotes for your own writing. If you quote, make sure you also put the idea into your own words.
17. Don't ask rhetorical questions. If you have something to say, say it plainly.
18. Don't write stuff that doesn't help state, clarify, support, or defend your ideas and conclusions.
19. Once you've said everything once, stop writing. Don't write a "conclusion" that just repeats things you've said before.
20. Submit through Turnitin.com (Make sure you click "confirm" after submittal.)

A good way to look at this assignment is to see it as a report on your own thinking process. Once you've analyzed the arguments and the evidence and everything else available to you on the topic, you will have an information structure that includes your thesis (or takeaway)

1. Write to be understood. (Added 5/22/2018)

You should write as clearly as you possibly can. If your paper is more difficult to understand than it needs to be, you have not written it as well as you could have.  Generally, you should try to write so that the average middle school student can understand the meanings of all your sentences. You should only use technical terms if you need them for precision. You should never use a complicated sentence structure when you can say the same thing in simple sentences. You should never, ever make your writing harder to understand than it absolutely needs to be.

2. You should not play accordion music at any time in this paper.

"Accordion music" is material that does not contribute to explaining, supporting, critiquing or defending your thesis. Think about it like this: Suppose you take your car in to the transmission shop for repairs, and the mechanic says "$75 for parts, and $100 an hour for my labor." You agree to this and, having nothing better to do, you go to a nearby coffee shop to wait. You sit outside, and happen to be able to see the mechanic working on your car. For the first hour, he works on your transmission, but then puts down his tools, picks up an accordion, and plays polka music for two hours. (You hate accordion music. You especially hate polkas.) After two hours of dancing around your car playing such favorites as "Beer Barrel Polka" and "Im Krapfenwald'l," he picks up his tools again and resumes work on your car, finishing up in exactly one more hour. You return to the shop, and he charges you $475, which he says is $75 for parts and $400 for the four hours he worked on your car. My question is, do you think the mechanic should be paid $200 for the two hours he spent playing polka music instead of working on your transmission? Personally, I would not pay a mechanic for unwanted polka music, and I won't give credit for unwanted material that does not contribute to explaining, supporting, critiquing or defending your thesis.

Copyright © 2023 by Martin C. Young

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