Part I: Introduction–What inspired my argumentative response? For decades, too many high-school teachers have been instilling persuasive writing skills by teaching students the five-paragraph essay. You know it: Introduction with three reasons Reason #1 Reason #2 Reason #3 A summary of all three reasons It’s bad writing. It’s always been bad writing. With the Common Core Standards designed to shift… (more…)
For those people who enjoy writing, such hobby can be used not only for pastime but this can also serves as a bankable skill that can help you make money online. Schools and universities always requires students to compose essays but not all of them consider essay writing as their “cup of tea.” (image from Jomphong of FreeDigitalPhotos.net) In fact,… (more…)
Miscellaneous observations on a topic are not enough to make an accomplished academic essay. An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or a few related questions (see 2 below). It should try to prove something—develop a single “thesis” or a short set of closely related points—by reasoning and evidence, especially including apt examples and confirming citations… (more…)
A proposal describes your project from both inside and outside. First, the inside stuff: A proposal puts forth your argument. It points toward how it will be proved, giving well-chosen examples without unspooling them in detail. A few exemplary details will help illustrate your presentation, but a profusion of them will distract. Such details serve the purpose of demonstrating—not fully… (more…)
Before you can write a dissertation, you must write a dissertation proposal. How to do that is worth a closer look. In my July 24 column, “It’s a Dissertation, Not a Book,” I emphasized the importance of viewing a dissertation in practical terms, beginning with the fact that it is, first and foremost, the credential for a Ph.D. Questions about… (more…)
Having to write a dissertation proposal depends upon the university or institution that you’re attending. Even if a dissertation proposal isn’t a requirement, however, it’s a very useful exercise (and is certainly going to impress your supervisor, especially if it’s not part of your assessment). On some courses the research proposal is assessed and forms part of your final dissertation… (more…)
In Alphabet Juice, Roy Blount Jr.’s earthy, contrarian screed to the pleasures of language, he traces to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch the now immortal edict of revision: Murder your darlings.* It’s interesting that this advice, so often attributed to one great writer or another—Twain, Faulkner, Hemingway, Orwell, Auden, even Samuel Johnson—was in fact penned by a relative obscurity who’d be lost… (more…)