Paper+Writing+Tips

= Writing A Paper: Student Guide =



-NEVER use second person (you) in a formal paper--it can alienate your reader taking them out of the piece when the writer tells them "you..." instead of bringing them into the paper
== Example WITH second person (DO NOT WANT THIS): My secret "I'm sick" shows you that Marie is sick, but uses selective information in not telling the details of her sickness .== == Example WITHOUT second person: "I'm sick" is an effective secret because it uses selective information to show that Marie is sick but tells none of the details. ==

==-Remember audience when you're writing---mostly when writing about a book read in class your audience KNOWS the characters and stories and has read this book--you do not need to give a plot summary or explain the characters== ==Example WITH plot summary (DO NOT WANT THIS): Marie, the narrator David Hayden's housekeeper, is murdered by his uncle Frank, the doctor in town who has been molesting Indian girls, like Marie. == == Example just EXPLAINING: Uncle Frank abuses his power as a doctor with his Indian patients, which he tries to hide by killing Marie--if Marie is dead what he has done can "die" with her, or so he thinks. ==

-Do not use "this quote explains..." "in this book it shows....", etc. --just explain or show instead of telling what you are going to do
== Example you DO NOT WANT: A quote from the book showing that Marie is sick is when David says "I think Marie is sick" (27). This shows that Marie is sick because David thinks she is. == == Example you DO want: When David says "I think Marie is sick" (27), he is commenting on seeing Marie physically ill. This ties into the prologue because she is the "feverish" woman he is talking about (11), and also sets up the fact that Marie will be needing a doctor. Little does David know that Dr. Frank may be part of the reason Marie is feeling ill in the first place. ==

-Stay away from phrases like "thing", "kind of like", "stuff", "good", "bad" or "nice"--these are general abstractions, fix them by being as SPECIFIC as possible
==-READ YOUR PAPER OUT LOUD, this seems silly and unnecessary but it's the easiest way to catch redundant language. Often times one word can be repeated several times in a paragraph and be very distracting for the reader--play with your language and switch it up!== ==Example you DON'T want: All the stuff Marie goes through show the kind of things she is dealing with like the themes of power and gender and racism. She has no power against Frank, which is bad and the racism against Indians is not good either. == ==Example you WANT: Marie's struggle with her illness and the abuse from Frank ties into racism, power and gender. As a female Indian she has very little power against a white male, especially a Hayden. ==