Writing is a form of thinking. It is often hard to start writing, because you don't yet know EXACTLY what you think. Make life easier on yourself and start by informal, free-flowing brainstorming. Jot down your thoughts and ideas, formulate questions, note lines or passages you think are important or interesting. Don't worry about organization, grammar, spelling now. The perfecting will be later. Free your mind. Remember: You can't know what you think until you see what you say. After you've done this, you're ready to begin sketching an outline and then drafting.

In your pre-writing you will have come up with many different ideas and observations. But you need to get them in some kind of order. In particular, this is the stage to begin making your thesis more precise and putting the basic organizational structure of your argument together. It doesn't have to be a formal, numerical outline -- rather it can take the form of any kind of map or 'pre-planning' you prefer.  But you need to have some kind of plan before you undertake the full drafting.

After you've sketched out an outline, you will begin filling it in by drafting. In the drafting stage, you want to pay special attention to your THESIS STATEMENT. Perhaps the best incentive to have a thesis is that if I don't find one (a thesis statement), the highest grade you can get is a C.

But seriously, a few words about THESIS STATEMENTS: Every paper must take a stand. A thesis is your controlling argument and guides the direction of your entire paper. It serves several functions for you as a writer and for your reader and it has several characteristic features:

a) A thesis narrows your focus.

b) A thesis alerts you to what you need to include -- and what does not belong.

c) A thesis provides you with a PURPOSE--to persuade your readers that your argument (interpretation) is right.

d) A thesis needs to be DETAILED, SPECIFIC, and UNIFIED

e) A thesis needs to be an INTERPRETATION, not just an opinion or observation. For example:

Opinion: Gilgamesh is a brilliant story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Observation: Gilgamesh is about an ancient hero.

Interpretation: In contrast to what we might expect from a conventional heroic tale, the story of Gilgamesh reveals that it is through his failures rather than his successes that the hero gains the most insight into the meaning of life.

f) A good thesis does more than tell what the text is "about." Rather, it tells what kind of an intellectual response the reader should have to the text. It tells what a text means, what position an author has taken, what ideas dominate the text and find support or rejection in it. Don't just DESCRIBE! ANALYZE!

g) A thesis is like a first impression -- it should gain the reader's interest and make her want to know more.

All GOOD papers are papers that have been revised at least once. The more a paper has been revised, the better it gets. When you are revising your draft, here are some questions to ask yourself:

a) What is my controlling argument/thesis? You should be able to state this in one sentence.

b) Does every part of my essay help to advance that argument?

c) Have I included convincing evidence for each point? Are there tangents that should be cut?

d) When I quote, do I analyze how the quotation proves my point? The importance of a certain passage may be obvious to you, since you've been studying the text for weeks. But will it be clear to someone less familiar with the primary text? Don't just toss in a quotation without linking it to the argument of your paper -- this is a "dropped" quotation (i.e., you have just "dropped" it in without weaving it with the rest of your analysis, leaving it to your reader to guess how the quotation is related to your argument).

e) Does every paragraph develop one (and only one) idea fully? Remember to think of paragraphing as a way to help your reader follow your argument. A paragraph that is one sentence long needs to have further development. A paragraph that goes on for two pages has either taken on too complex of an idea or has more than one idea and should be cut.

f) Have I said everything as clearly and directly as possible? Remember, a good way to have a direct and clear style is to AVOID PASSIVE VOICE constructions. If you don’t know what passive voice is, we need to talk.

g) Have I avoided vague generalities? Is my prose specific and free of cliches? Papers which begin with expressions like "In today's society...." or "Throughout human history..." often suggest to the reader that broad platitudes will follow.

h) Does my conclusion add to the essay rather than only summarize? See the notes below on conclusions.....

When you are revising, I highly recommend getting a peer review of your essay. You might swap essays with a classmate or a roommate. Or, you can go to the University Writing Center. You might ask your peer reviewer to try to respond to the questions above.

Yes, yes and yes. This is non-negotiable. To avoid these errors, make sure you proofread carefully. How you say something cannot be separated from what you are saying. If I'm spending time correcting mechanical or typographical errors, I'm not able to attend to your argument. Computer spell-checks are easy to use and having your essay on disk makes it incredibly easy to go back and correct these kinds of simple errors.

Definitely avoid expressions like, "In my paper, I will..." Also, try NOT to use "I" in your paper. This is for the simple reason that almost all of the time, it's unnecessary. For example, "In stanza three, I think that Homer uses his most complicated imagery." Since this is your paper, who else would be thinking this about the imagery? Your sister? Your second grade teacher? Just say: "In stanza 3, Homer uses his most complicated imagery."

What very tense should I use when writing about literature?

Use the present tense. Don't say, "In Book I, Athena spoke to Zeus who then promised to help Odysseus." Instead, say: "In Book I, Athena speaks to Zeus who then promises to help Odysseus." Why must you do this? Simple: Because it's the convention. Rules are rules. Sure, there may be times when the past tense is appropriate (i.e., "In stanza four, the poet reflects back on how he felt as a child and what he saw in Nature"). But, by and large, think in the present tense.

Integrating evidence by quoting passages needs to be done cleanly and coherently. When quoting poetry in the text, you will need to maintain an indication of line breaks. This is done as follows: "I met a little cottage Girl: / She was eight years old, she said" (1-2). If you are going to quote four or more lines of poetry (or prose), you will need to offset and indent the quotation, as follows:

    I met a little cottage Girl:
    She was eight years old, she said;
    Her hair was thick with many a curl
    That clustered round her head. (1-4)

With poems, include line numbers, with plays, novels, and stories, include page numbers. Note the punctuation for page numbers with quotations above.

Do not cite lines of poetry or prose and leave them abandoned in your essay. Quotations cannot stand alone, but must be integrated into your prose. You also need to follow up your quotation with a phrase or two illustrating why the quotation is in there and useful (and not just "filler"). This is called a DROPPED QUOTATION, and they are very vexing to me. In order to avoid a "d.q." DON'T DO THIS:

    Homer opens his epic in a very interesting way. "Sing in me Muse."

As you see, the above quotation is "dropped." To correct this, you can simply and easily insert a colon to connect your sentence with the quotation, and then add a clarification as to why the quotation is being quoted.

Homer opens his epic in a very interesting way: "Sing in me Muse." Thus, he identifies a female deity as the source of his creativity.

Again, be sure to adequately discuss the quotations you include so that it is crystal clear to the reader why they are included. Random quotations are easy to identify as "filler." Passages you quote should be clearly and significantly related to your argument.

Your conclusion should do two things. It should sum up your paper AND offer some further reflection for the reader. You'll need to review your thesis, but NOT restate it word for word. That's dull. Rephrase it to remind your reader what you've just so clearly shown them. But just summarizing is boring, and you certainly wouldn't want the reader's last impression to be, "What a boring paper." The larger reflection should help prevent that. Is should help to open up the ideas you've been talking about specifically in the poem and connect them out again to wider concerns and questions. For example, you might wish to connect or contrast your conclusions about Gilgamesh with other ancient texts, like the Odyssey. How is this poem unique or different? Give the reader something to chew on and ponder for him or herself. One final note: NEVER start your conclusion with "In conclusion...."

Always have another copy of your paper, on disk or photocopied. When my cat is angry with me, she likes to take her revenge by shredding valuable paper (like your essay) with her teeth. I'm not kidding about this. I try to protect papers, but she is wily and deceptive. Besides, it's always best to play it safe.

This documents represents my best efforts to anticipate questions I have from students about writing essays. I've been teaching writing since 1987 (I was very, very young when I started) and it seems that every class always comes up with a question I never anticipated. If you have a problem or question that isn't addressed on this handout, ASK, ASK, ASK!!!! Although I am intuitive, I'm not a mind reader. The only "silly" or "stupid" question is the one that goes unasked. It's always better to ask -- and it could save you valuable grade points. Answering your questions is my job and helping you to get the best possible grade is my goal as a teacher.