writing paper of english

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

A Message From the Assistant Director of Content Development 

The Purdue OWL® is committed to supporting  students, instructors, and writers by offering a wide range of resources that are developed and revised with them in mind. To do this, the OWL team is always exploring possibilties for a better design, allowing accessibility and user experience to guide our process. As the OWL undergoes some changes, we welcome your feedback and suggestions by email at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via our contact page  if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Social Media

Facebook twitter.

• © 2016

English for Writing Research Papers

• Adrian Wallwork 0

English for Academics, Pisa, Italy

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

• At least two-thirds of published scientific papers are written by researchers whose first language is not English
• 20% of the comments referees make when reviewing papers for possible publication in international journals regard English language issues
• In some disciplines, acceptance rate by journals of papers originating from the US/UK is 30.4%, and is higher than all other countries
• Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: English for Academic Research (EAR)

297k Accesses

23 Citations

44 Altmetric

• Table of contents

About this book

Authors and affiliations, about the author, bibliographic information.

• Publish with us

Buying options

• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (20 chapters)

Front matter, writing skills, planning and preparation.

Adrian Wallwork

Structuring a Sentence: Word Order

Structuring paragraphs, breaking up long sentences, being concise and removing redundancy, avoiding ambiguity, repetition, and vague language, clarifying who did what, highlighting your findings, discussing your limitations, hedging and criticising, plagiarism and paraphrasing, sections of a paper, introduction, review of the literature.

• prepare and structure a manuscript
• increase readability and reduce the number of mistakes you make in English by writing concisely, with no redundancy and no ambiguity
• write a title and an abstract that will attract attention and be read
• decide what to include in the various parts of the paper (Introduction, Methodology, Discussion etc)
• highlight your claims and contribution
• avoid plagiarism
• discuss the limitations of your research
• choose the correct tenses and style
• satisfy the requirements of editors and reviewers
• Research papers
• preparing and structuring a manuscript
• readability
• avoiding mistakes
• redundancy and ambiguity
• introductions
• review of the literature
• highlighting results

Book Title : English for Writing Research Papers

Authors : Adrian Wallwork

Series Title : English for Academic Research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26094-5

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Social Sciences , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-26094-5 Published: 02 March 2016

Series ISSN : 2625-3445

Series E-ISSN : 2625-3453

Edition Number : 2

Number of Pages : XX, 377

Topics : English , Language Education , Popular Science in Linguistics , Grammar

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Main navigation

Write & improve.

Improve your English writing online

Want to improve your writing skills? Our free online tool helps you to practise your writing and get valuable feedback instantly. Write & Improve is simple to use: just choose a task, write or upload a written response and use the feedback to quickly improve.

It shows you how to improve your spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Join over 2 million learners of English who have used Write & Improve to improve their writing.

Start practising now

Improve your writing now – it's free!

• There is no limit on how many times you can use the tool – keep practising as much as you need to and build your confidence.
• Encourages you to think about what to improve.
• Keep improving and see your progress.

When I was preparing for my B2 First exam I practised really hard and I succeeded, so I'm in love with this tool that I still use almost every day. Aaron from Ecuador

With Write & Improve my grades get better and I am inspired to do more. It is really graphical and easy to use, highlighting your mistakes in a very visual way. Victoria from Uruguay

Write & Improve helps when practising writing particular types of documents. I've been able to see my progress and how my learning has changed. Jorge from Switzerland

Programmes & Qualifications

Cambridge igcse english - first language (0500).

• Past papers, examiner reports and specimen papers

You can download one or more papers for a previous session. Please note that these papers may not reflect the content of the current syllabus.

Unlock more content

This is only a selection of our papers. Registered Cambridge International Schools can access the full catalogue of teaching and learning materials including papers from 2018 through our School Support Hub .

Past papers

• -->June 2022 Mark Scheme Paper 11 (PDF, 244KB)
• -->June 2022 Insert Paper 11 (PDF, 1MB)
• -->June 2022 Mark Scheme Paper 21 (PDF, 219KB)
• -->June 2022 Insert Paper 21 (PDF, 903KB)

Examiner reports

• -->June 2022 Examiner Report (PDF, 6MB)

Specimen papers

• -->2020 Specimen Paper 1 Mark Scheme (PDF, 187KB)
• -->2020 Specimen Paper 1 Insert (PDF, 155KB)
• -->2020 Specimen Paper 2 Mark Scheme (PDF, 981KB)
• -->2020 Specimen Paper 2 Insert (PDF, 143KB)
• -->2024 Specimen Paper 1 Markscheme (PDF, 1MB)

Stay up to date

Sign up for updates about changes to the syllabuses you teach

• Syllabus overview
• Published resources

Explore Greyhound Nation

• Loyola Today

Tips for Writing Papers

Writing about literature: general guidelines, what does my professor want.

In 300-level and 400-level English courses, you'll be asked to write a formal analysis  (sometimes called a "research paper," a "term paper," or even a "documented literary analysis"). This paper should present an original argument about an aspect or aspects of literature and should engage with critical sources . It is important to keep in mind that this assignment is not a report . It should not merely rehearse the critical arguments that have already been made about your topic. Rather, the argument should be based on your own close reading of your chosen text(s) and, at the same time, demonstrate the scholarly maturity that comes with situating this argument in relation to the work of other scholars. Material from these sources should be carefully documented using the MLA style of documentation .

Here are some tips:

• All professors will want to see a strong argument , cogently advanced and well-supported by evidence from the literature .
• Organization  counts. Make sure you have a focused, detailed thesis within your introductory paragraph . Succeeding paragraphs should state a topic and supply evidence and argument to support that topic. Don't forget the conclusion . A strong conclusion leaves your reader with a clear sense of your perspective and helps the reader to recall the most important aspects of your argument.
• Don't let the critics run away with your paper. Subordinate their views to your own , and make sure that the preponderance of the paper is yours. Never cite a critical view that you do not understand.
• Remember to revise  your work and proof-read carefully. Some professors care more about one aspect of paper writing than others. Some particularly hate to see documentation errors; for others sloppy writing (lots of spelling, punctuation and other mechanical errors) spells doom. Always do your best work, and don't assume that you can neglect any aspect of your essay.
• Your professor will give you specific guidelines for topic selection, but general topics often include: poetry explication , analysis of theme(s) , exploration of one or more characteristic(s) of an author's style and approach , placement of a work or works in literary historical context , the comparison/contrast  of works sharing similarities but written by different authors and/or in different literary periods.
• The English 200-Level Guide at the LND Library website contains links to a variety of research tools, as well as tips on how to locate articles and books. You may find the MLA Bibliography tutorial particularly useful.
• The Help guides page at the LND Library website also can help you use the different databases, find articles and books, navigate the library catalog, and cite sources using MLA style.

Leuven Program

Procedure & requirements for third-credit english papers.

Students in the Leuven program who wish to receive a third credit for a two-hour English course offered in Leuven may write a paper for assessment by English Department faculty at Loyola. Normally the paper is read by a faculty member in the appropriate field who decides whether the paper rates a grade of C or above (passing) or whether it falls into the C- to F range (failure). The paper does not receive a letter grade, just a "pass" or "fail." Students awarded a "pass" receive the third credit for the course. The course grade is the grade the KU/Leuven professor assigns. Specific requirements appear below, but all students should also consult the Department's general guidelines (above) for paper writing.

• Papers for 200-level credit Length: 5-7 pages The paper should be a formal analysis of an aspect or aspects of literature read in the course and should utilize at least two critical sources . Material from these sources should be carefully documented using the MLA style of documentation . Appropriate general topics include: poetry explication , analysis of theme(s) , exploration of one or more characteristic(s) of an author's style and approach , placement of a work or works in literary historical context , the comparison/contrast of works  sharing similarities but written by different authors and/or in different literary periods.
• Papers for 300-level credit Length: 10-12 pages The paper should be a formal analysis of an aspect or aspects of literature read in the course and should utilize at least four critical sources . Sources should be carefully documented using the MLA style of documentation . Ordinarily, the paper should treat a major work of literature (a long poem, play or novel, as opposed to a sonnet) or more than one shorter work to create an argument of some substance.

Appropriate General Topics

Analysis of theme(s).

A theme is a recurring idea or concept in a text. It is not explicit; therefore, the writer must to look for repeated imagery or symbols, examine the relationships between plot, setting, characters, and structure, and think about the feelings evoked throughout the text. Common themes in literature include love, jealousy, and friendship. If assigned to analyze a theme in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you could analyze the theme of friendship between Huck and Jim.

Exploration of one or more characteristic(s) of an author's style and approach

Consider analyzing the author's use of imagery or setting:

Analyzing Setting

“Setting refers to the natural or artificial scenery or environment in which characters in literature live and move. Seeing also includes what in the theater would be called props or properties—the implements employed by the characters in various activities. Such things as the time of day and the consequent amount of light at which an event occurs, the flora and fauna, the sounds described, the smells, and the weather are also part of the setting. Paintbrushes, apples, pitchforks, rafts, six-shooters, watches, automobiles, horses and buggies, and innumerable other items belong to the setting. References to clothing, descriptions of physical appearance, and spatial relationships among the characters are also part of setting.” (Edgar V. Roberts, Writing Themes about Literature)

In order to create an argument about the function of the setting in a particular work, you need to identify the principal settings and to see how they work. Here are some steps you can take:

• Read the story and mark references to setting. Start with the place and time of the action and then focus upon recurrent details and objects.
• Think about what the story is about. What happens? What is its point? Is it a story about love, jealousy, gain, or loss? What is the main experience here?
• Look through your setting notes and see if they fall into any pattern. What are the interesting shifts and contrasts?
• Determine how the setting relates to either the main point of the story (step 2) or to some part of it. In other words what does the setting have to do with character or action? What are its effects? Whatever you decide here will be your thesis statement.
• Make an outline, indicating what aspects of setting you will discuss and what you intend to say about them. Discard notes that are not central to your plan (you don’t have to discuss everything). Focus on the four or five key passages in the story that you wish to examine. List them in your outline in the order in which they occur.

Analyzing Imagery

As distinct from character, theme, and plot, imagery occurs primarily in language, in the metaphors (i.e. comparisons), similes (comparisons with “like” or “as”), or other forms of figurative (pictorial) language in a literary work. Sometimes setting, i.e., the locality or placing of scenes, or stage props (like swords, flowers, blood, winecups) can also be considered under the rubric of imagery. But whatever the expression, images primarily are visual and concrete, i.e., things which the reader sees or can imagine seeing. Some examples are flowers, tears, animals, the moon, sun, stars, diseases, floods, metals, darkness and light.

In order to create an argument about the significance of an image in a particular work, identify a principal image or image cluster and to see how it works by following these steps:

• Read the work and mark recurrent images or image clusters. If you are seeing references to roses, e. g., references to other thorns or to other flowers might also be pertinent parts of a cluster. Look at notes to the images carefully. Take out your microscope. You may also track down occurrences of related words with the help of a concordance (See Marvin Spevack’s Concordance to Shakespeare in the library) or electronic word searches. You can use secondary sources for this assignment as well.
• Think about what the play is about. What happens? What is its point? Is it a play about love, jealousy, gain, or loss? What is the main experience here? Look through your images and image clusters and see if they fall into any pattern. What are the interesting shifts? Do they generally appear in the speeches of certain characters? in certain scenes? Do we have a progression or development? Significant contrasts?
• Determine how the images or image clusters (step 3) relate to either the main point of the play (step 2) or to some part of it. In other words what do the images have to do with character or action? What are their effects? Whatever you decide here will be your thesis statement.
• Make an outline, indicating what your image pattern is and what you intend to say about it. Discard images that are not central to your plan (you don’t have to discuss everything). Focus on the four or five key passages in the play that you wish to examine. List them in your outline in the order in which they occur.
• Read Criticism and watch films to deepen understanding and refine your thesis. Compile a bibliography. Adjust outline as necessary.

Placement of a work or works in literary historical context

By placing a work in its literary historical context, one can trace the influences a historical period had on an author and/or the creation of his/her work(s). In doing this, a literary historical critic gains insights about the nature of a particular historical period. Using the historical context as a lens through which to read literature allows one to gain an understanding of both larger social issues, as well as the personal struggles that everyday people endured. As Janet E. Gardner explains in Writing about Literature,

"We may be able to learn from parish burial records, for example, how common childhood mortality was at a particular time in English history, but only when we read Ben Johnson's poem "On My First Son" do we begin to understand how this mortality may have affected the parents who lost their children. Likewise, the few pages of James Joyce's story "Araby" may tell us more about how adolescent boys lived and thought in turn-of-the-century Dublin than several volumes of social history" (Gardner 147-8).

Comparison/contrast of works sharing similarities but written by different authors and/or in different literary periods

While there are many forms of compare-and-contrast essays, the best ones use the points of comparison and contrast that they identify between the works in order to make a claim about how one text illuminates the other or how they illuminate each other. Rather than a simple delineation of differences and similarities, your essay should use those differences and similarities to make a larger argument about how comparing the two texts reveals some unexpected or non-obvious about one or both of the works.

Most often, such claims work to show how texts do similar things differently. Therefore, often the best structure for this kind of argument is to detail enough similarities between the works (especially works written by vastly different authors and/or in different literary periods) to justify your comparison and to narrow the scope of your discussion. In other words, first show how your two vastly different texts are attempting similar things. Then, focus the remainder of your essay on the nuanced differences between each text’s approach to those similar things and the way in which juxtaposing them illuminates our understanding of one or both.

Poetry Explication

Explication, from explicare meaning “to unfold,” is an exercise in analysis. In it, the writer shows that he or she can read a poem and explain how it the various choices a poet makes shape its message and affect the reader. One writes an explication by paying close attention to the meaning of words, to their sounds, to their placement in lines and sentences. One then explains how the parts contribute to the whole. This exercise trains the ear, eye, and mind. It develops critical faculties and discipline.

• Read the poem out loud several times. Look up in a dictionary at least 10 words in it for meanings, alternate meanings, and for shades of meaning. Take notes. Jot down some general observations about the poem and your initial reactions.
• Ask yourself who is the speaker? What is the situation and what is the poem about? Be as precise and as specific as possible. What about tone, diction [level of word choice—high, medium, low, or slang], mood? Jot down your answers.
• Underline all repetitions or devices of sound that you notice. Pay attention to any surprising shifts of sound or meaning. Ask yourself what effects they have? Jot down your answers.
• Type the poem out (double-spaced) on a separate sheet of paper. Number the lines and mark all stressed and unstressed syllables. Mark also significant devices of sound: caesuras [breaks within a line, usually signaled by punctuation], alliteration, or assonance (“significant” means important enough for you to discuss later). This does not count in the four pages and must be handed in with the poem.
• Write in your first paragraph a brief summary of the poem, i.e. a notice of its central statement and constituent parts. Show some emotion or interest here; don’t be flat or effusive (avoid general and meaningless praise: “this is a wonderful or incredible or brilliant poem”).
• Quote the first few lines of the poem (1-4, or whatever you're comfortable with). Talk about the speaker and situation, about what is said, how, and why. Note connotations and overtones, how sound creates or enhances sense. Don’t ever notice a poetic device without explaining its effect. Pay attention to sound and sense, to music and meaning.
• Repeat step 3 for the rest of the poem, working your way through slowly and carefully. Note instances of repetition and their effects; note development of phrases or ideas. Note images and be account for shifts in tone, sound, rhythm, diction, or subject. Discuss the ending of the poem separately.
• For a conclusion write a brief, specific statement about the effect or meaning or artistry of the poem, about structures or patterns or insights that your analysis has revealed. Look through your opening paragraph for hints that you can now develop in closing. Or revise opening in light of what you have discovered.

ARGUMENTATIVE THESIS

Your thesis must make an argument, not an observation.

An “observation” suggests something that is generally true about the text, like an objective element of the plot or an image used by the author. For example, if we are writing about the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf we might make an observation about the way animal imagery seems to function for the Geat warriors. We might observe that while the Geats feature an image of a boar on their battle helmets (thus seemingly identifying with this ferocious animal), there are other moments in the text when the Geats shun vicious monsters (when they are reluctant to fight the dragon, for example.) Someone who has read the work carefully probably wouldn’t disagree with this observation; it refers to an image used by the narrator and a specific plot point. This observation does, however, pose a question or “problem” for the careful reader: what do we as readers make of this apparent contradiction? Why is this juxtaposition important for the narrative more broadly? What are the consequences of this juxtaposition on plot, theme, or character? So what?

An “argument”—your thesis statement— is your solution to this problem. The thesis answers the “so what” question by explaining the significance of the observation and explaining why an invested reader should care about this detail. For example, one might argue that the juxtaposition of the Geats ferocious helmets and their subsequent unwillingness to approach the dragon suggests an inherent difference between the warriors’ appearance (outward show) and their actions. This seems to be a theme in the work. The Danish coastguard who greets the Geats when they arrive in Denmark remarks that there is often a difference between “what is said” and “what is done,” and at the end of the epic, Wiglaf says that this discrepancy between word and action will ultimately impair the Geats' ability to protect their kingdom. A thesis statement could read: “The difference between the Geats ferocious appearance and their later unwillingness to fight fearful monsters like the dragon suggests a devastating discrepancy between their appearance and their actions—a discrepancy that is responsible for the deterioration of the warrior culture in the epic.”

It is important to keep in mind that your thesis statement should argue something with which a reader can disagree. If I argued the thesis above, the body of my essay would not only need to prove that there is, in fact, a contradiction between the Geats’ appearance and action, but would also necessarily provide additional textual examples of how this discrepancy contributes to the deterioration of the warrior kingdoms in the epic. And, I’d need to be aware that other readers might not see the same contradiction. For example, another viable thesis statement could read: “As clear from biblical references in the text, humans identify with animals over monsters because animals are more like humans. Both humans and animals were created by God and thereby remind men of Divinity; whereas, monsters are perversions of God’s nature and thereby indicate a diabolic presence.” Rather than suggesting a contradiction, the imagery on the helmet suggests a righteous identification with God’s creation and an equally righteous aversion to things that are not “of God.” These two thesis statements offer opposite solutions to the problem posed above; both are viable and could be supported with textual evidence; and both make points with which a careful reader could disagree.

CLOSE READING

Before a literary scholar can begin writing about a piece of literature, one must engage in the exercise of close reading. As the term suggests, “close reading” means closely examining the words on a page in order to come up with a reading or an interpretation about the greater meaning of a work.

How does one “read closely”?

• The first task involves dissecting a passage or phrase by analyzing literary elements that stick out. For instance, is the tone, diction, syntax, style, imagery, figurative language, theme(s), cultural/historical/religious references, rhyme, rhythm and meter, etc. significant in the passage or stanza? Take notes on whatever seems significant by writing in the margins of your text or keeping a reading journal.
• After taking notes, the second task in close reading is looking for patterns or interruptions of patterns. Gather the evidence collected and think about how each one works together to create the work as a whole or how these elements contribute to or complicate larger issues such as theme, setting, characterization.
• Finally, think about the purpose and the effect of these significant elements/patterns in the work as a whole. This means asking why and how: Why is an author using a particular metaphor, tone, diction, etc. and how does it affect one's understanding of the passage? How are they all related to one another? How do they help us understand the larger work?

The steps listed above are a pre-writing exercise, designed to help you identify a potential thesis. Once you have formulated a thesis about how to read a larger work, you can use the smaller significant elements as evidence. This evidence will then need to be analyzed in order to support that thesis.

CRITICAL SOURCES

Defining Literary Criticism

Literary criticism is a disciplined attempt to analyze some aspect or aspects of one or more works of art—for our purposes, mostly literary art (plays, novels, short stories, essays, poems). Serious literary critics study their primary materials very closely and repeatedly, examine the contexts in which the works they are studying were produced, and read widely in the work of other literary critics on their subject before producing their own original analysis of a work or works of literature. Generally, literary criticism is published in one of three forms: in a book; in an article published in a professional journal, whether print-based or online; or in an article published in a book as part of a collection. These formats insure that experts in the appropriate field(s) have reviewed the literary criticism and judged its accuracy in points of fact, its attention to scholarship in the field, etc. These formats are peer-reviewed sources (also known as "refereed sources"). Peer-reviewed means that a source has been rigorously scrutinized by other experts before publication.

Why consult and cite literary criticism?

• Reading a variety of views increases your knowledge of your subject and helps you to demonstrate to your reader that you have considered views other than your own.
• Reading literary criticism enables you to weigh your conclusions against others’ to check your logic and to see whether you have covered all significant aspects of your argument.
• Citing others’ views makes you appear a more knowledgeable writer to your readers.
• Citing literary critics whose views agree with yours can strengthen your case (although you must still supply the appropriate evidence).
• Taking issue with a critic with whom you disagree can also strengthen your case if you present your counterargument effectively.
• Literary criticism can enable you and your readers to see how evaluations and analyses of literature have changed over time.

Where do I find literary criticism?

Encyclopedia articles do not offer true literary criticism, nor do Cliff’s Notes, Spark Notes, or “overviews” of authors, works, or literary topics available online. Some websites post serious scholarship, but many are run by fans or students who may or may not know more than you do(!) Wikipedia, for example, is not a peer-reviewed source; any one can post and update information on this site and, as a result, it is not a reliable resource. If you find your sources either through the SHARC catalogue or the MLA Bibliography database online (the bibliographical resource of the Modern Language Association), you are unlikely to go wrong:

• Use books and articles from the Loyola/Notre Dame Library or other libraries and articles located via the library databases. Internet material must have been published in a book or journal before being placed online. (Recall your library workshop.)
• Good sources can be found through Project Muse and the MLA Bibliography database, but avoid the “Biographies” and “Overview” tabs in the Literature Resource Center. This information can be useful to provide background for your research, but you should not use it in your paper as one of the documented sources.
• The MLA Bibliography database is the primary research database for researchers in literature. If a this database doesn’t supply a .pdf of an article you want to look at, write down the full publication information, and search for the journal in the ejournals section of our library’s homepage.

FORMAL ANALYSIS

Formal analysis involves a close reading of the literary elements of a text. A formal analysis examines elements such as setting, imagery, characters, tone, form/structure, and language. The goal of a formal analysis is to create meaning by exploring how these elements work together in any given text. You can compare parts of a text or you can analyze how parts of a text relate to the whole text.

MLA STYLE OF DOCUMENTATION

Follow the MLA style of documentation, which is a parenthetical style. Remember that you need a “Works Cited” page and a “Bibliography” page, and these should follow MLA format, not one you create on the spur of the moment or borrow from some other discipline. The "Works Cited" page lists all works you cite in the essay, the "Bibliography" lists all the works you consulted, including all of those cited. You should always note your professor's requirements as to minimum number of sources.

The Department's handbook (A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker) provides information under the MLA tab about how to provide parenthetical documentation and prepare a bibliography and list of works cited. You may also consult dianahacker.com/resdoc/ for online help. Use the “Humanities” resources tab. A quick look at the sample MLA paper in the Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference will give you a general sense of how MLA documentation works.

ORGANIZATION

Every paper must contain an introduction (which states the argumentative thesis), subsequent argument paragraphs, and a conclusion.

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

As Janet E. Gardner writes in Writing About Literature, "Essentially, and introduction accomplishes two things. First, it gives a sense of both your topic and your approach to that topic, which is why it is common to make your thesis statement a part of the introduction. Second, an introduction compels your readers' interest and makes them want to read on and find out what your paper has to say. Some common strategies used in effective introductions are to begin with a probing rhetorical question, a vivid description, or an intriguing quotation. Weak introductions tend to speak in generalities or in philosophical ideas that are only tangentially related to the real topic of your paper. Don't spin your wheels: get specific and get to the point right away."

Your introduction is your opportunity to catch your reader's attention and involve that person in the ideas you put forth in your paper. Imagine riding in an elevator with someone you'd like to strike up a conversation with about a specific topic. How do you do it? How do you catch that person's attention before the ride is up? You can't just immediately throw your claims and evidence at that person, yet at the same time, he or she is unlikely to be compelled by vague general statements about "the history of time" or where and when a certain person was born. And you can't stand there all day getting to the point. Instead, you look for compelling point of interest that is both related to where you'd like to go with your discussion, and is of shared interest between you and that person. After raising the topic through this point of common ground, you can then put forth what you will claim about it.

SUCCEEDING PARAGRAPHS

A complete argument paragraph consists of the following components:

• Topic Sentence: Suggests generally what the paragraph is talking about; often includes a transition from previous paragraphs.
• Claim: Makes a very specific claim that the paragraph will argue is true; you’ll likely derive this claim from your thesis statement (together, all your paragraph claims will work to prove your thesis).
• Evidence: Provides the textual support for the claim.
• Analysis: Explains how the evidence actually relates to the argument. This is typically the most challenging part of composing your paragraph, and it is often forgotten (much to the peril of both reader and writer!). Here, you must articulate how the passage you’ve just cited supports the paragraph claim/argument premise. You must explain how the textual evidence means what you think it means. Never rely on the reader to be able to interpret the evidence on his or her own. That is, if your argument is a statement with which the careful reader can disagree, this means that the evidence you provide can likely be interpreted in many different ways. You need to guide your reader in interpreting the evidence so as to argue why your claim is true.
• Conclusion: Offers implications of the argument and evidence, often transitions to the next paragraph. This often answers the “so what?” question. It articulates why what you’ve just proven matters and usually articulates how your argument claims relates to/proves the thesis statement.

After the explanation of evidence, a well-developed paragraph might also include:

Additional Evidence/Explanation: What other evidence is there to support your claim?

Concession/Nonclusion (these are an inseparable pair!): What evidence might contradict your claim? (The concession acknowledges the perceived opposition (perhaps in the form of another critic) or the skeptical reader). And, why, despite this evidence, is your argument still more effective than the concession? (The nonclusion is essential—never end a paragraph with a concession; take the concession into account while further proving your argument!)

As Janet E. Gardner points out in Writing About Literature, "Your conclusion should give your reader something new to think about, a reason not to just forget your essay. Some writers like to use the conclusion to return to an idea, a quotation, or an image first raised in the introduction, creating a satisfying feeling of completeness and self-containment…. Some writers use the conclusion to show the implications of their claims or the connections between literature and real life. This is your chance to make a good final impression, so don't waste it with a simple summary and restatement."

This doesn't mean that your conclusion should not restate your thesis. Your conclusion is the place in which you draw together all the threads of your argument and neatly tie them up. When Gardner says not to "waste" your conclusion with "simple summary and restatement," she means don't ONLY summarize and restate. Your should absolutely recap your main points, but a good conclusion ALSO does more. Additionally, treading the path between not giving your reader anything new in the conclusion and introducing more unsupported claims can be tricky. The conclusion is a good place to SUGGEST the further implications of your argument, for life, for literature, for an author's body of work, etc., but be careful that you don't find yourself making new claims your reader is unlikely to agree with. These implications should follow naturally from the structure of your argument and often are best expressed with less-definitive phrasing (i.e. "perhaps," implies," "suggests," "hints," "may," etc.).

POST-WRITING

• Revise again and again. All good writing is rewriting. Clarify, define, smooth-out rough spots. Work to develop ideas, and round out paragraphs. Try to be more accurate and graceful, to clean up mistakes, and to correct embarrassing errors. Look hard at your evidence. Be tough and cut out the nonsense.
• Proofread carefully, by means of spell-check and by your own reading. Make sure you have supplied a title, page numbers for the paper. (No decorative bindings; use 12-point type, double spaced, with standard page margins.)
• Make sure you have provided accurate documentation for every quotation and outside source cited or consulted.

QUOTING CRITICS

• It is a good idea to include a full quotation when the critic says something particularly well. Paraphrase when the idea is important, but the wording is nothing special. (Document both.)
• Don’t let the critics run away with your paper. Instead, keep their ideas subordinated to your own and use them to support your own claims. Typically, your paragraphs should begin with your topic sentence, then provide your evidence from the text, and then (perhaps) include a comment or comments from critics. A rare exception might be when you are disagreeing with a critic. In this instance, you may wish to state the opposing idea first, and then follow up by expressing your disagreement and presenting the evidence for your point of view.
• Cited passages should be integrated into your text and be attributed to their originators. For example, "Elgin Slapworthy has observed that 'Dickens remembered this period in his boyhood as both painful and humiliating' " (237). Don’t just pop in a quotation without making the context and source of the quotation clear. Attribution in the text makes the essay read more smoothly and cuts down on the amount of parenthetical documentation that must be provided.
• Quotations of more than three lines should be indented and set off in the text. Setting off indicates quotation, so quotation marks are not needed, unless you have a quotation within a quotation.   As Prof. Bladderstock argues:  Austen’s prose has often been imitated but never matched. Even my own brilliant Austen parody, Sense and Susceptibility, fell short in regard to dialogue.  Austen’s uncanny ability to combine sense and wit, while suiting words and phrasing to character, is difficult, perhaps impossible to reproduce. (132)
• A quotation within a quotation—say you quote a critic who quotes a passage from Dorothy Sayers—this should be indicated by using single quotation marks: According to Evangeline Pink, “Sayers’ use of the line, ‘So, you’re one of them,’ echoes a statement in the trial of the infamous Madeline Smith” (299).

EVIDENCE FROM LITERATURE

Just as scientists provide data to support their results, literary critics must use evidence from literature in order to convince their audience that they have a cogent argument. Evidence must be provided in every body paragraph in order to support your claims. Where will you find evidence? First, you must do a close reading of the text. It is much easier to first analyze and think about how the smaller literary elements work together to create the whole work, rather than randomly thumbing through a work to find support for your thesis. When you provide evidence, you are providing proof from the text that shows your audience that your thesis is valid. Critics most commonly provide evidence by quoting a line or a passage from a work. When you provide evidence, it is imperative not to take it out of context. For example, if a character is joking with another character that he will kill himself if he fails his chemistry test and there's no other mention of death in the work, it would be unfair to represent this character as suicidal by eliminating the context of him joking. Accurately quoting and fairly representing events/characters/etc. adds to your credibility as a writer. If you find evidence that counters your thesis, you should still engage with it. Think about what your critics would say and come up with a response to show how that particular piece of evidence might still support your stance. Once you're done gathering evidence, you can move on to the analysis portion in which you explain how the evidence supports your claims.

Request Information

• International
• Schools directory
• Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

AQA English Language Paper 1 Question 5 Revision

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

1 April 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

AQA English Language Paper 1 revision lesson on Section B or Question 5 (Descriptive Writing/Narrative Writing).

We explore an example exam question and look at approaches to descriptive writing, preparing us for the exam for the 2024 summer.

The lesson includes worksheets, differentiated and adaptive learning approaches, revision tips, timings, success criteria and more, as well as model examples of planning.

A really useful way of revising these questions in time for the Paper 1 exam in May 2024.

***Leave a review and we’ll send you another masterclass for free. Just email [email protected] once you’ve left your review!

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

Jump to navigation

Call for Papers: Collectif Research and Writing Anthology

The Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles

Collectif Research and Writing Anthology

2024 Call for Papers

Do you want to forge community and ignite your scholarship? Connect with scholars, activists, artists, and others passionate about the advancement of women? Impact a wider audience? By publishing in Collectif , you’ll reach50,000 potential readers. To celebrate the issue’s release, the Center will host a salon, where contributors can share their work and connect with the Center for the Advancement of Women community.

2024 Theme and Call

Incoming: The Price Women Pay and How They Fight It

The Center will dedicate its sixth edition of Collectif to questions related to the economic wellbeing of California’s women and girls. Responding to our 2024 Report, The Cost of Being a Woman: Advancing Solutions for Economic Equity ,the Center is currently seeking articles, essays, and creative works (e.g., visual art, prose, poetry, etc.) for Collectif.

As the 2024 edition of The Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California™ examines, it costs a lot to be a woman in California. There’s the pay gap, healthcare costs, pricey beauty standards, lack of access to venture capital, unbalanced carework—the list goes on. Partnered and single women consistently pay more and receive less. The gradual improvement in the earnings gap for California women is due to advancements for White and Asian American women; the gap has stayed consistent for Latinas and increased for Black women. So, how can women and girls build a secure, healthy, and sustainable life when the costs are so staggering? There is hope. 97% of California’s companies now have at least one woman director, leading to better profits and more diverse workforces.

The Center invites proposals for Collectif. While the word “income” denotes money received from earning or investment, “incoming” suggests a process of entering or arriving. Despite our obsession with hustle culture and girl bosses, the Report reveals how women and girls still need to arrive at economic parity. It asks: how will workplace culture and public policy catch up to the economic reality of women’s lives in 2024? This issue of Collectif will invite deeper explorations of how to make that possible. Topics may include: labor, care work, beauty standards, healthcare costs, community-based organizations, policy changes, equity in the workplace, and more.  

About Collectif

Collectif is a research and writing anthology published annually by The Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University. Collectif serves as a companion to the Center’s Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California™. The collection features timely articles, essays, and creative works (e.g., creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, photography, art, etc.) that complement our annual Report to ensure that the Center is driving important conversation on achieving gender equity.

The anthology’s name, Collectif , (a collective or group) is a reference to Mount Saint Mary’s roots in Le Puy, France. The Sisters of St. Joseph formed in Le Puy in 1650 and their first charge was to provide vulnerable women avenues for economic security. Sisters taught widows, sex-workers, and other women how to make lace – a practical skill that provided a steady income. As the Sisters grew in numbers, so did their ambitions. They crossed the globe building schools and colleges to educate women. In 1925, Mount Saint Mary’s was established to “equip women to reach their fullest potential. Today, we carry forward their mission, and we do so with many partners — as a collective, or collectif .

About the Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University

The Center is a hub for intersectional gender equity research, advocacy and leadership development. Our vision is to find solutions to persistent gender inequities and work with partners to eradicate them in our lifetime. The Center produces vital data at the local, regional and national levels. Collectif brings scholars, advocates, activists, thought leaders, and artists into conversation as we address complex issues and challenges facing women, girls, families and communities.

Submission Guidelines

Selection Criteria . Research papers, case studies, oral histories, stories, poems, essays, visual art and hybrid forms of written expression are eligible. Selections may:

• Answer a question related to the costs of being a woman and what women need to achieve economic parity
• Utilize original data – qualitative or quantitative – or provide support to drive conclusions made in the paper.
• Utilize Report data in creative and thought-provoking ways
• Demonstrate an intersectional or hybrid approach.
• Selections may range in length from 1-15 pages.

Eligibility . Submissions from all academic and artistic disciplines will be considered.

Application . The application should be 1-2 pages long, single-spaced and include the following items:

• Name, organizational affiliation and title of the project
• The question or subject under investigation
• The methods employed to investigate the question. Depending on discipline, this description may vary to include qualitative or quantitative methods, theoretical or interpretive approaches, etc.
• Data sources utilized, if necessary
• Hypotheses/anticipated conclusions
• A description of the medium and focus of the submission piece.
• Brief discussion (1-2 paragraphs) of how the proposed submission intersects with both the annual theme and Center mission:

Gender equity is a core focus of the Center’s work. Through collaborative efforts, the Center hopes to find solutions to persistent gender inequities and work to eradicate them in our lifetime. Explain how your proposed work is in alignment with the Center’s mission and the theme of Collectif .

Call for Papers circulated

Proposal Deadline. Due electronically to JoAnna Novak

Applicants are selected and notified of award

First full draft due for peer-review

Revised papers are returned to JoAnna Novak

November-December

Center copyedits final documents and works with graphic designer to typeset collection of articles

January 2025

Center distributes Collectif to subscribers and stakeholders at kickoff salon

For any questions and to send the complete proposal electronically, contact:

JoAnna Novak, [email protected] Editor-in-Chief, Collectif

Professor, Creative Writing at Mount Saint Mary’s University

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Research paper

How to Write a Research Paper | A Beginner's Guide

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research.

Research papers are similar to academic essays , but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research. Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic, engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate.

This step-by-step guide takes you through the entire writing process, from understanding your assignment to proofreading your final draft.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Understand the assignment, choose a research paper topic, conduct preliminary research, develop a thesis statement, create a research paper outline, write a first draft of the research paper, write the introduction, write a compelling body of text, write the conclusion, the second draft, the revision process, research paper checklist, free lecture slides.

Completing a research paper successfully means accomplishing the specific tasks set out for you. Before you start, make sure you thoroughly understanding the assignment task sheet:

• Read it carefully, looking for anything confusing you might need to clarify with your professor.
• Identify the assignment goal, deadline, length specifications, formatting, and submission method.
• Make a bulleted list of the key points, then go back and cross completed items off as you’re writing.

Carefully consider your timeframe and word limit: be realistic, and plan enough time to research, write, and edit.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
• Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
• Missing reference entries

There are many ways to generate an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming with pen and paper to talking it through with a fellow student or professor.

You can try free writing, which involves taking a broad topic and writing continuously for two or three minutes to identify absolutely anything relevant that could be interesting.

You can also gain inspiration from other research. The discussion or recommendations sections of research papers often include ideas for other specific topics that require further examination.

Once you have a broad subject area, narrow it down to choose a topic that interests you, m eets the criteria of your assignment, and i s possible to research. Aim for ideas that are both original and specific:

• A paper following the chronology of World War II would not be original or specific enough.
• A paper on the experience of Danish citizens living close to the German border during World War II would be specific and could be original enough.

Note any discussions that seem important to the topic, and try to find an issue that you can focus your paper around. Use a variety of sources , including journals, books, and reliable websites, to ensure you do not miss anything glaring.

Do not only verify the ideas you have in mind, but look for sources that contradict your point of view.

• Is there anything people seem to overlook in the sources you research?
• Are there any heated debates you can address?
• Do you have a unique take on your topic?
• Have there been some recent developments that build on the extant research?

In this stage, you might find it helpful to formulate some research questions to help guide you. To write research questions, try to finish the following sentence: “I want to know how/what/why…”

A thesis statement is a statement of your central argument — it establishes the purpose and position of your paper. If you started with a research question, the thesis statement should answer it. It should also show what evidence and reasoning you’ll use to support that answer.

The thesis statement should be concise, contentious, and coherent. That means it should briefly summarize your argument in a sentence or two, make a claim that requires further evidence or analysis, and make a coherent point that relates to every part of the paper.

You will probably revise and refine the thesis statement as you do more research, but it can serve as a guide throughout the writing process. Every paragraph should aim to support and develop this central claim.

The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing - try for free!

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.

Try for free

A research paper outline is essentially a list of the key topics, arguments, and evidence you want to include, divided into sections with headings so that you know roughly what the paper will look like before you start writing.

A structure outline can help make the writing process much more efficient, so it’s worth dedicating some time to create one.

Your first draft won’t be perfect — you can polish later on. Your priorities at this stage are as follows:

• Maintaining forward momentum — write now, perfect later.
• Paying attention to clear organization and logical ordering of paragraphs and sentences, which will help when you come to the second draft.
• Expressing your ideas as clearly as possible, so you know what you were trying to say when you come back to the text.

You do not need to start by writing the introduction. Begin where it feels most natural for you — some prefer to finish the most difficult sections first, while others choose to start with the easiest part. If you created an outline, use it as a map while you work.

Do not delete large sections of text. If you begin to dislike something you have written or find it doesn’t quite fit, move it to a different document, but don’t lose it completely — you never know if it might come in useful later.

Paragraph structure

Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of research papers. Each one should focus on a single claim or idea that helps to establish the overall argument or purpose of the paper.

Example paragraph

George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” has had an enduring impact on thought about the relationship between politics and language. This impact is particularly obvious in light of the various critical review articles that have recently referenced the essay. For example, consider Mark Falcoff’s 2009 article in The National Review Online, “The Perversion of Language; or, Orwell Revisited,” in which he analyzes several common words (“activist,” “civil-rights leader,” “diversity,” and more). Falcoff’s close analysis of the ambiguity built into political language intentionally mirrors Orwell’s own point-by-point analysis of the political language of his day. Even 63 years after its publication, Orwell’s essay is emulated by contemporary thinkers.

Citing sources

It’s also important to keep track of citations at this stage to avoid accidental plagiarism . Each time you use a source, make sure to take note of where the information came from.

You can use our free citation generators to automatically create citations and save your reference list as you go.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

The research paper introduction should address three questions: What, why, and how? After finishing the introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about, why it is worth reading, and how you’ll build your arguments.

What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the background, and define key terms or concepts.

Why? This is the most important, but also the most difficult, part of the introduction. Try to provide brief answers to the following questions: What new material or insight are you offering? What important issues does your essay help define or answer?

How? To let the reader know what to expect from the rest of the paper, the introduction should include a “map” of what will be discussed, briefly presenting the key elements of the paper in chronological order.

The major struggle faced by most writers is how to organize the information presented in the paper, which is one reason an outline is so useful. However, remember that the outline is only a guide and, when writing, you can be flexible with the order in which the information and arguments are presented.

One way to stay on track is to use your thesis statement and topic sentences . Check:

• topic sentences against the thesis statement;
• topic sentences against each other, for similarities and logical ordering;
• and each sentence against the topic sentence of that paragraph.

Be aware of paragraphs that seem to cover the same things. If two paragraphs discuss something similar, they must approach that topic in different ways. Aim to create smooth transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

The research paper conclusion is designed to help your reader out of the paper’s argument, giving them a sense of finality.

Trace the course of the paper, emphasizing how it all comes together to prove your thesis statement. Give the paper a sense of finality by making sure the reader understands how you’ve settled the issues raised in the introduction.

You might also discuss the more general consequences of the argument, outline what the paper offers to future students of the topic, and suggest any questions the paper’s argument raises but cannot or does not try to answer.

You should not :

• Offer new arguments or essential information
• Take up any more space than necessary
• Begin with stock phrases that signal you are ending the paper (e.g. “In conclusion”)

There are four main considerations when it comes to the second draft.

• Check how your vision of the paper lines up with the first draft and, more importantly, that your paper still answers the assignment.
• Identify any assumptions that might require (more substantial) justification, keeping your reader’s perspective foremost in mind. Remove these points if you cannot substantiate them further.
• Be open to rearranging your ideas. Check whether any sections feel out of place and whether your ideas could be better organized.
• If you find that old ideas do not fit as well as you anticipated, you should cut them out or condense them. You might also find that new and well-suited ideas occurred to you during the writing of the first draft — now is the time to make them part of the paper.

The goal during the revision and proofreading process is to ensure you have completed all the necessary tasks and that the paper is as well-articulated as possible. You can speed up the proofreading process by using the AI proofreader .

Global concerns

• Confirm that your paper completes every task specified in your assignment sheet.
• Check for logical organization and flow of paragraphs.
• Check paragraphs against the introduction and thesis statement.

Fine-grained details

Check the content of each paragraph, making sure that:

• each sentence helps support the topic sentence.
• no unnecessary or irrelevant information is present.
• all technical terms your audience might not know are identified.

Next, think about sentence structure , grammatical errors, and formatting . Check that you have correctly used transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas. Look for typos, cut unnecessary words, and check for consistency in aspects such as heading formatting and spellings .

Finally, you need to make sure your paper is correctly formatted according to the rules of the citation style you are using. For example, you might need to include an MLA heading  or create an APA title page .

Scribbr’s professional editors can help with the revision process with our award-winning proofreading services.

Discover our paper editing service

Checklist: Research paper

I have followed all instructions in the assignment sheet.

My introduction presents my topic in an engaging way and provides necessary background information.

My introduction presents a clear, focused research problem and/or thesis statement .

My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and (if relevant) section headings .

Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or thesis statement.

I have used appropriate transitions  to clarify the connections between sections, paragraphs, and sentences.

My conclusion provides a concise answer to the research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been supported.

My conclusion shows how my research has contributed to knowledge or understanding of my topic.

My conclusion does not present any new points or information essential to my argument.

I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to ideas or information from a source.

I have included a reference list at the end of my paper, consistently formatted according to a specific citation style .

I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any feedback from my professor or supervisor.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers, headers, spacing, etc.).

You've written a great paper. Make sure it's perfect with the help of a Scribbr editor!

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

• Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide
• Writing a Research Paper Conclusion | Step-by-Step Guide
• Research Paper Format | APA, MLA, & Chicago Templates

More interesting articles

• Academic Paragraph Structure | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples
• Checklist: Writing a Great Research Paper
• How to Create a Structured Research Paper Outline | Example
• How to Write a Discussion Section | Tips & Examples
• How to Write Recommendations in Research | Examples & Tips
• How to Write Topic Sentences | 4 Steps, Examples & Purpose
• Research Paper Appendix | Example & Templates
• Research Paper Damage Control | Managing a Broken Argument
• What Is a Theoretical Framework? | Guide to Organizing

What is your plagiarism score?