Writing Tips

There are three reasons for putting together a package such as this. The first is to give students a general idea of what expectations are likely to be involved in researching and writing papers in university classes at all levels.  The second is to help students further develop the skills they need to research and write senior theses, professional papers or theses.  A final purpose of this document is to present a summary of the mistakes students typically make in writing papers and take-home exams.  Although the comments and suggestions provided below may not be relevant to all students, please use what is to improve your class assignment, term papers, etc.

General Comments

Papers that are well researched, organized, and written are a pleasure to read.  More than that, a research paper or take-home exam that is clearly and concisely argued and correctly presented sends a positive message to the reader.  The reader is more likely to take the time to read the paper carefully because it is obvious that care was taken in researching and writing it. 

One of the major reasons that I emphasize what some students refer to as "form" (organization, spelling, punctuation, syntax, semantics, documentation) in research papers is to encourage students to learn how to USE form to better com­municate the substance of their ideas.  The point is not to emphasize form over substance--but to enhance substance through form.  Before one can do that, however, one needs to adapt form to individual style as well as to the purpose and content of a given paper or exam.  At the stylistic level, what works for some will not work for others.  You need to discover what works for you--and reject what does not.  And some recommendations made in various manuals (Turabian, Biddle, MLA, Chicago) are just that: recommendations.  (Obviously, this is not always--and perhaps even seldom--the case with punctuation, spelling and syntax. See the section dealing with these issues.)

Suppose, for example, a manual tells you that when listing more than three items, one should use a semi-colon to separate those items.  [Example:  Further studies reached the same conclusions, especially those by Smith (1972); Jones (1974); Altenstetter (1980); and Hargrove (1986).]  If you have many such lists to report (names, dates, places, court cases, studies), to BLINDLY follow this "rule" might not be appropriate.  You might wind up with a paper full of lists and semi-colons and little else.  It might be better for you to consider other ways to deal with those lists.  Put them in an endnote when they occur, perhaps, or construct explanatory sentences or paragraphs around them.  Some "rules" are simply inappropriate given the content and/or purpose of specific papers.

Some students, for example, take to heart Turabian's recommendations regarding headings, which recommends having the following headings:  "Introduction," "Discussion," "Summary," and "Conclusion."  The POINT of Turabian's recommendations regarding headings is this:  It makes sense to structure your paper in a logical manner.  Headings simply help you accomplish this.  Further, headings can (but don't necessarily) help with transition (that is, the connected movement from one set of ideas to another).  Please don't abide by the letter of such recommendations--and lose the spirit!   Take the following example, to further appreciate my meaning here.

Often in past students papers, it seemed as though the various headings were stuck in after the fact.  For example, information falling beneath the heading "Introduction" often was not an introduction at all.  Think about what the headings mean.  Why would you want to identify the part of a paper dealing with the presentation of facts/evidence as the "Discussion" section?  Simply because Turabian recommended this as the second heading, following the introduction?  Headings used this way can be unnecessary at best--and irrelevant (or downright misleading) at worst.   Further, all introductory sections do not need to sit under the heading "Introduction."  Why not something more revealing--not to mention exciting--that suggests an introduction?  And don't use the heading "Discussion" unless you are analyzing (discussing) facts, ideas, etc., already presented.  And the analytical section does not HAVE to carry the label "Discussion."  In short, let recommendations such as this stand as guidelines.  Make them work for--not against--you.

The same logic applies to the whole process of referencing (aka citing) and bibliographies.  Keep at the front of your mind the REASON for each.  References are notations in the paper that "refer" to the source of the information you are presenting.  They are used to tell the reader where you got your facts and ideas.  Referencing one's sources also protects you from charges of plagiarism (putting forth someone else's ideas as your own).  The general rule of thumb is:  If it's not your original idea (i.e., if you did not personally discover the fact that you are presenting), somebody else did.  You should give that person credit.  This is especially true for dates, statistics, etc.  That being the case, doesn't it make sense to give that credit in a manner that is not disruptive to the flow of your ideas (by last name)?   And since it is possible for two or more sources to have the same last name, doesn't it also make sense to list the year with the name [e. g., (Jones 1987)]?  Of course, if you have two sources for the same information, you should reference them in either alphabetical [(Jones 1989; Smith 1988)] or chronological order [(Smith 1988; Jones 1989)], for the sake of consistency if nothing else.  Whatever referencing methods you use, be consistent. It is distracting to include books, journal or article titles in your in-text references.  The complete reference material should be listed in the bibliography.

As you attempt to improve your researching and writing skills, you will find principles of form easier to remember and apply if you think about why such a requirement or recommendation is made.  Most of them really do make sense, once you stop and think about them.

Some students seem confused when discussions of references, citations, endnotes, footnotes and bibliographies have arisen in class.  The following generalizations can be made in this regard.  The words "reference" and "citation" are sometimes used interchangeably; both are used to describe the notations that are made in a text that indicates the source of information.  When using the in-text method of referencing your sources (as opposed to footnoting or endnoting), this is almost always a person or several persons (authors) who wrote the piece from which the information was obtained.  Again, you should not, for example, refer to Newsweek in your text as a source.  You should not refer to any title in the text itself.  This information--the title, publisher, etc.--is supplied in the references listed at the end of the paper--or in a footnote, endnote, or bibliography.  To put it in the text is awkward, disruptive and sometimes even confusing.  Use the last name of the author; if the author is a committee or a corporation, simply put in the name of the corporation or committee, followed by the year [e.g., (Senate Appropriations Committee 1988) or (Rand Corporation 1987)].   These two words (reference and citation) are also used to describe the information that appears in the bibliography (author, date, title, publisher).  To some people, however (and I think this is where the confusion tends to come in), a "reference" is the notation that appears in the text [(Jones 1987)]; a "citation" is the bibliographic description of that source.  (This makes sense if you look up the definition of each word.  A reference is an allusion to something--to refer to something in the text is to allude to it; a citation is the specification of something--to cite is to specify.)  I only point this out to you because people use these words differently.  Regardless of the semantics involved, the bottom line is that the sources of the information you use in a paper must be identified (given credit) in the text of your paper.  The complete description of each source so identified must be completely described in the bibliography or reference section at the end of your paper.

Footnoting is the method required by some instructors (not me!) to refer readers NUMERICALLY to the sources of information used in a paper.  In this method, rather than putting in the author's name, you simply refer readers (by number) to a footnote containing all of the facts about the source.  The footnotes themselves are located at the bottom of the page where their corresponding numbers appear in the text.  Since it is difficult to make changes in text with footnotes stuck at the bottom of the page, many instructors allow (and I prefer) the in-text method of referring to one's sources.  Other instructors may want you to use the numerical referencing method, but will allow you to put all of the citations at the end of the paper (endnotes rather than footnotes).

This brings us to the purpose of bibliographies.  A bibliography is simply a complete listing of ALL the sources of information that you referred to in the body of your paper.  Since you referred to these sources by last name, doesn't it further make sense to list these names in alphabetical order (by the last name and beginning with the last name), so that the reader can locate the source to which you are referring quickly and easily?  It is also customary to include enough material about the source so that the reader can go and find it him/herself.  Thus it also makes sense to make distinctions in your bibliography between various types of materials (journals, books, government documents, interviews, etc.).  This helps the reader make quick distinctions between the types used, which in turn helps that individual locate the reference in the library.  The way in which you write up a book in the bibliography is different than the way you write up a journal article; both are different from government documents.  The exact format you use in your bibliography is up to you; select a style manual and stick with it.  Keep in mind that the format for listing sources of information in the bibliography differs from the format for footnotes; what these differences are depends on what style manual you are using.  When in doubt, be consistent and you'll be safe.

Over the past two years, I have noticed that students at UNR tend to make the same mistakes from paper to paper and class to class.  I have attempted to identify, categorize, and correct (through examples) the most frequent of these in the following pages.  In addition, I have provided a few research and writing tips.  Reject those that don't suit your style or "work" for you.  Pay attention, however, to sections on punctuation, spelling, grammar, and syntax.  These are not tips.  They are, for the most part, concrete writing rules.  

Research Process

Some students do not understand how to "research" a paper.  Before you can even begin to locate the information you need in the library, you need to define and narrow down your topic.  At a minimum, you should have CONCRETE answers to the following questions:

  1. What is the focus of my paper?
  2. Why is this the focus of my paper?
  3. What is my thesis statement?
  4. What sort of evidence might I need to support my thesis?
  5. Where am I likely to find such evidence?

You may well be unable to answer these questions without conducting a preliminary investigation of the topic.  Browse through the library, either in person or via your computer.  Try to get a general feel for what has been written on the topic and by whom.  (If you do not yet know how to logon to UNR and other libraries, you need to learn.  Ask the reference staff to help you get started.  They are quite friendly and willing to do this.  The library is easily accessed from UNR's website as well.)

Select a book or article that gives you an historical overview.  Generally, such a book or article will provide you with the information you need to focus your research and answer the questions listed above.  After you have answered these five questions and have a GENERAL feel for where you want to go, make yourself an outline that reads like a recipe.  Then follow that recipe.

In general, a research paper should accomplish the following goals:  It should clearly identify the subject being discussed, as well as the reason for examining such a topic (why it is an important issue, for example).  A thesis statement should appear early on in the paper; a thesis statement clearly and concisely states the bottom-line of your paper.  An example of a good thesis statement that appeared in one paper is as follows:  "Any action on the part of an employer or administrator to restrict an individual's sexual behavior outside the workplace is clearly a violation of his or her right to privacy."  If you do not articulate the bottom-line of your paper early on, you leave the reader hanging, searching for the major point.  In addition, since the next part of paper should represent an effort to document or support that thesis statement, if you have not made it in the first place, the reader becomes confused.

A good research paper goes on from the introduction and thesis statement to provide evidence to support the claim she or he is making.  The particular points of the evidence should be connected one to another.  They should be drawn from or based upon the research you have done.  You should be answering the question (using the above thesis statement):  Why is this a clear violation of the right to privacy?  Before you get there, however, you must tell the reader what the right to privacy is--where such a notion came from and what it means.  Then move on to validate your major point.

The concluding section should be just that:  conclusions that are reached, again based on and drawn from the evidence you have presented.  Conclusions should be logical extensions of the evidence that you have presented.  These extensions, however, may be explicit or implicit.  This is the section where you engage in analytical thinking.  This is the section where you can bring your own ideas to the paper.  This is where, provided the rest of the paper is well done and hangs together as a whole, you can be creative.  If you have solutions to propose, this is where they belong.

A "good" research effort will be explicit and clear (i.e., I don't have to guess or search for the points you are trying to make) in the presentation of the argument and the logic that supports it.  A "very good" effort will demonstrate creative thinking and analysis.

Beyond these general points, I recommend you follow (closely) the research process described in any one of a number of research/writing books that are available to you.  But don't follow that process (or the recommendations I made above) blindly.  Think about what you are doing.  Figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Organization and Transition

Some students fail to properly organize their papers.  Consequently, the papers jump around.  Ideas are strung together in an almost random order.  For others, the paper does not hang together as a whole.  Some write a series of unconnected ideas with no development or exposition of those ideas.  These are major problems in any paper or exam.  Some students spend several pages stating the same idea over and over again, using different language and different sources for the information.  This is not the same thing as developing an idea or discussing the consequences of events or ideas.  Developing and following an outline will help.  The use of headings (headings that make sense) and transitory phrases might also help, provided you know how to use them properly.  

Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation

Most words are spelled one and only one way, with few exceptions.  I realize that typographical errors do occur even in papers that are carefully proofed.  However, students who write and hand in sloppy papers that are full of misspellings give the reader the impression that the paper was a rush job.  The reader therefore feel that if you rushed through the writing of your paper, s/he can read it quickly.  After all, if you didn’t take the time to write a thoughtful paper, why should the reader take the time to read it thoughtfully?  So use a spellcheck.  Have a friend proofread it for you.  Run it through the UNR writing lab.

Traditional rules for punctuation need to be followed.  You need to avoid the most common--and most annoying--punctuation errors that tend to crop up in student papers.

A few of the most common errors in punctuation and grammar that I have noticed over the past several years include:

Comma Splices (and the misuse of commas in general):  A comma splice occurs when one uses a comma to separate (splice) two complete sentences [Jane went to the store, she bought a loaf of bread.]  These two sentences should be separated by a period or by a semi-colon.  If you must use a comma in a situation like this, you need to put in a word that connects the two (a conjunction--such as "and").  This turns the two sentences into one double (compound) sentence.

Colons, Semi-Colons, Parentheses and Dashes:  Until or unless you KNOW how to use these devices, avoid them.  (See a style manual on the use of each of these.) 

Try to keep your paper in the same tense.  This will not be easy in all cases and indeed sometimes will be impossible.  But make the decision to write in a particular tense and stick to that tense.  I find it easier to write in the past tense.  This is because most of my research involves events that have already occurred.  However, when I am discussing future consequences or implications of past events, I shift to the future tense.  This is one of those rules that will get you into trouble if you follow it blindly.  Avoid jumping tenses within the same sentence or paragraph.  There are only a few circumstances in which such jumping may be appropriate.

When using DIRECT QUOTES, keep in mind the following:

A quote must be quoted EXACTLY (that's why it is called a quote); however, sometimes the exact quote does not fit within the context of what you are saying.  Perhaps, for example, you are writing in the past tense (was) and the quote is in present tense (is).  Or perhaps you need to put the quote in the middle of one of your sentences and the quote begins with a capital letter.  You deal with these problems by altering the tense of the direct quote, changing the capital to a lower-case letter, and putting brackets around the two changes. This lets the reader know that you have altered the quote.   [Example:  EXACT QUOTE:  "The political climate of the 1980s is different."]  In this case, the 1980s have already occurred.  You will need to change is to was.  Your paper might be in the past tense also.  [Example:  ALTERED VERSION:  According to at least one study, "[t]he political climate of the 1980s [was] different" (Jones, 1984:2).]

You should not stick a quoted sentence beginning with a capital letter in the middle of one of your own sentences.  You must reduce the first letter of the quoted sentence to lower-case and enclose that one letter in brackets, to indicate that you have changed the quote.  As an example:   The quote is:  "Supervisors are responsible for the conduct of their employees, while those employees are on the job."  You wish to indicate who said this and what you think of this statement—but you also want to use the whole quote.  You might consider, then, doing the following:  James Smith, a noted expert on sexual harassment, insists that "[s]upervisors are responsible for the conduct of their employees, while those employees are on the job" (1994:22), but not, according to Jones (1996) when those employees are not at work.  All quotes must be identified by author, year and PAGE number on which the quote appeared.

To repeat:  Direct quotes must be accompanied by the page number of the source from which you obtained the quote (Jones 1987:2).

As you are reading the materials you have gathered for your research, it is a good idea to summarize (briefly) the major points on an index card.  This index card can also contain all the information you need to list it in the bibliography.  (Saves time!)  And as you come across something you think you would like to use as a direct quote, copy it and note the page number.  This will make the writing, referencing, and bibliographic process much easier for you.  One way to go around the need for collecting page numbers and dealing with the complicated punctuation involved in using direct quotes is to paraphrase (say another way in your own words) what the author means.  In that case, you need only supply the author and the year.

Do not end sentences with prepositions (with, for, at...).

Syntax and Semantics

Syntax refers to the way in which you structure and put together your sentences.  Make certain the subject and verb of each sentence is in agreement.  ("The United States Supreme Court were in agreement" is simply terrible English.   The Supreme Court is one body and as such is singular.  Another way to say the same thing (but correctly) is:  All members of the United States Supreme Court were in agreement.)

Make certain also that the subject and pronouns agree when the one refers back to the other:  Don't say "Individuals need to express his" or "The individual needs to express their" or "The Court failed to express their opinion."

Semantics refers to word selection and usage.  Don't use a word if you are not absolutely sure of its meaning.   Don't use "fancy" words just for the sake of using fancy words.  In selecting and using words, keep it simple and straightforward.  Say what you mean to say--I cannot read your mind.  It is your job to convince me that you know what you are talking about; I cannot make assumptions, not even when I know that you do know what you are talking about, and not even when I know what you meant to say.

Using and Incorporating Sources into Your Text

Court cases must be underlined or put in italics.  It is less distracting to put the court case in parentheses than it is to make the case an actual part of your sentence.   The way a few students have handled court cases in the past is awkward at best.  [WRONG: In Witherspoon Electric Company vs. the United States Government, the employee was fired because....]  In the first place, the employee was not fired in Witherspoon.  Rather, Witherspoon, a court case, was the result of the fact that the employee was fired.  Say what you mean to say.  Say it directly and simply.   A better way to say the same thing might be:

Several court cases have examined the issue of wrongful termination.  For example, a 1978 decision (Witherspoon Electric Company vs. the United States Government, 343 U.S. 579) set forth the circumstances under which an employee might have a winnable case.  First of all, ....

Take one step further, after such a statement, and explain the case.  Simply stringing a bunch of court cases together, with little or no explication or discussion--and no connections made between the cases--is not good form.  Note also that courts cases should be accompanied by the appropriate citation.  This may be done in the text, as is the case above, or in the bibliography.  If you choose to put the citation for a case in the bibliography, all you need in the text is the name of the case and the year in which it was decided.

All laws must be accompanied by the appropriate Public Law Number or the appropriate U.S. Code citation.  It is not enough to simply refer to the scholar who was describing the law for you.  U.S. Codes and Public Law Numbers are typically listed in the book or article that discusses the law; if not, they may be obtained from government documents.

When incorporating the information provided by your sources (especially direct quotes) into your paper, focus on the word "incorporate."  Do not, for example, insert whole sentences taken from your source in the text without making some attempt to connect the information to paragraph in which it appears.

INCORRECT EXAMPLE:  A Maryland state court noted that in at least two situations, a teacher's conduct ceases to be private.  "First, if the conduct directly affects the performance of the occupational responsibility of the teacher and second, if without contribution on the part of the school officials, the conduct has become the subject of...." (Smith 1987:2).  Another lower court ruling disagreed.

Do you see what is wrong with the above paragraph?  The quote is incorporated awkwardly into the text.  A better way to accomplish the same objective might be paraphrase rather than to quote directly. 

CORRECT EXAMPLE:  A Maryland state court noted that in at least two situations, a teacher's conduct ceases to be private. The first of these involves whether or not the conduct "...directly affects the performance of the occupational responsibility of the teacher...." (Smith 1987:2).  The second concerns a whether or not "...without contribution on the part of the school officials, the conduct has become the subject of notoriety" (Smith 1987:3).  

Direct quotes LONGER THAN FOUR LINES must be single spaced and indented.  Try using connective phrases like "According to one author" or "Several scholars have commented on" to weave (not just stick) your sources into the text.  (Other phrases that might be helpful in this regard include:  "Smith observed" "Some scholars feel....One of these is Jones.  In a study released in 1989, he concluded….)

There are other grammatical and writing rules and guidelines, to be sure.  This is not an exhaustive list.  I simply have tried to identify the mistakes I frequently see in student papers at UNR.  The end result, if you learn how to avoid violating rules of grammar, etc.—and discover the research and writing guidelines that work for you and use them consistently—will be a much better final product.