Some Suggestions for Academic Writing

Have a clear sense of focus.

Come up with the idea or experience you want to present, state it clearly, and work on keeping that focus clear throughout your paper. Be sure that all parts of your paper connect to your main focus. Remember that your main goal here is not to relate a series of events or ideas but to craft an essay based on a focused theme or argument.

Provide your paper with movement.

Organization is important. If your paper doesn't progress logically from one point to the next, your reader has to work harder than she should to see how your essay fits together. Outlines are often helpful in this respect. Transitions are crucial, showing the relationship between the parts of your paper, so examine your transitions to be sure they're working for you.

Be interesting (and interested, if possible).

This point has to do with style as well as content. In terms of style, vary your sentence structure, using simple, compound, and complex sentences. Avoid using being verbs (note that I break this guideline in the heading to this paragraph) and passive voice, both of which will suck the life out of your writing, making it flat and static. Use concrete details to make your points; avoid generalizations.

Write for a reader.

You aren't writing in a vacuum. As you compose your paper, keep in mind that you are writing to communicate with an audience who is familiar with the works we read in class but who needs to be guided through your particular interpretation of our readings and your experiences.

Revise! Revise! Revise!

Papers rarely emerge fully-formed on your first try. You will often have to take a paper through several drafts before your focus is clear and well-stated and the paper's structure is tight and coherent. Give yourself time so that you can explore the possibilities for an essay; don't feel locked into the direction a paper takes in the first draft. Writing is a process that can lead you in many directions, some of them unexpected. (I extensively revised each chapter of my dissertation multiple times, so I know how important revisions are.)

Proofread!

Don't just spell-check--proofread a hard copy of your paper. Use a dictionary.