Four Easy Steps to a Better Paper

1) Make sure you answer the question with a clear THESIS:
Your paper needs to have an argument to guide it and it is your responsibility to make sure that this argument is clear to your readers. You would be surprised how many student papers do not directly and EXPLICITLY spell out their thesis (which in Paper #1 means their answer to the question about the Revolutionary War). Instead the papers have no thesis or have a thesis that is implied but not stated. Students tend to dance around an argument rather than simply saying what they mean. Sometimes they don’t know what they mean. Sometimes they are reluctant to make an argument for fear being wrong. Others try to sound intelligent and end up writing incoherent nonsense rather than stating their point in clear and simple prose. Whatever the case, starting your paper with no argument, a weak argument, or a vague argument is a sure formula for a lousy essay.

By contrast, the most successful papers tend to be those that make a definitive argument that directly addresses the question being asked and then proves that argument using straightforward language. To make a good thesis, here’s what to do. First, take a stand. There is no one right way to answer the questions for Paper #1. Intelligent and reasonable historians have long disagreed over the answers. Your job is not to worry about giving the right or wrong answer. Instead, your job is to develop an INFORMED OPINION based on your research that answers the question. Second, frame your argument so that it is absolutely clear what your stand is. Good writing is about communicating clearly. It is not about showing how many S.A.T. words know, how adept you are at the “thesaurus” button, or how complicated you can make your thesis. That kind of writing is generally ineffective, and, in this class, it will earn you comments on your paper like “WHAT????” or “YOU HAVE NO THESIS” written in enormous red letters. And if you get comments like those in your first paragraph (which is where your thesis should be in a 5-7 page paper), you’re off to a terrible start. So, try to get off to a good start instead: state your thesis boldly and clearly right in the first paragraph.

2) Organize your paragraphs coherently: Good writing takes planning.
One of the biggest pitfalls of student writing is poor organization, which usually results from poor planning. Too often students write without mapping out their essay before they write—usually because they’re rushing to meet a deadline. The result is typically rambling, stream of consciousness essays, filled with paragraphs that start and end almost at random and that are clogged with competing ideas, none of which gets much development. Students who write these lousy papers often complain: “You should grade me on my ideas instead of my writing! This is a history class not an English class!” When I hear this, I frown and I shake my head at the ignorance on display. You may think that you have great ideas, but if your thoughts aren’t well organized and clearly conveyed, I can’t tell what are trying to say. If no one but you can follow your reasoning—if you have to explain to me or anyone else the different parts of your argument because none of us understood it from reading your paper—then your paper has a problem. If readers don’t understand what you wrote, it’s usually not their fault. It’s your fault for not organizing your ideas well and explaining them clearly.

The key to element to good organization is the paragraph. Each paragraph needs to develop a single part of your main thesis. Consequently, you need to take some time before you write to decide what each paragraph is going to argue. And as you plan out your paper, tell yourself over and over and over: Each paragraph makes one argument. One. Not two, not three. One. For example, if you are writing a paper on the experiences of Loyalists during the way, you need to divide the topic into paragraphs, each of which focuses on some aspect of the wartime experience. Maybe you have one paragraph on wartime repression of Loyalists by Patriots, one on Loyalist militias, one on Loyalist attacks on Patriots, one on the lack of British support, and so on. The paragraph on Patriot persecution of Loyalists needs to address that issue alone. Don’t talk about Loyalist militias or attacks on Patriots, or lack of British support here. Just stick with documenting the different ways that Patriots repressed Loyalists. The other topics may be related to that repression (like the lack of British support making Loyalists vulnerable, or Loyalist attacks prompting Patriot repression). But you should not develop those ideas here. Instead, given them their own paragraph, where you can explain that point and provide specific examples and quotes. And for this paragraph stay on message: it is only about Patriot repression of Loyalists.

3) Start each paragraph with a STRONG TOPIC SENTENCE.
This is one of the easiest ways to improve your writing. Just as the paper’s thesis statement guides the whole essay, the topic sentences of each paragraph guides that whole paragraph. In general, the first sentence of each paragraph should specify the argument that the paragraph is making. The rest of the sentences in the paragraph work to prove this single argument. Think of the topic sentence as a signpost that alerts readers to where the paragraph is going. For example, if you are writing a paragraph about the persecution of Loyalists, the topic sentence of the paragraph should say something like: “Loyalists were often persecuted in their home towns for their support of Britain.” This sentence gives the reader a good sense of what the paragraph is going to argue. (I would expect the rest of the paragraph to develop the point with evidence showing different ways that Patriots persecuted Loyalists). By contrast, a bad topic sentence provides no real guidance about the point the paragraph is trying to make. Here are a few examples of lousy topic sentences: “Many Loyalists stayed in their home towns”; “Samuel Johnson was a Loyalist in Virginia”; “Loyalists in Philadelphia were alarmed when British troops abandoned the city.” None of these sentences lets us know that the paragraph is about Patriots repressing Loyalists. Each is a poor signpost for the arguments that follow. Here’s another bad example common to student writing: a topic sentences that makes an argument that is so vague that it only gives a hint of what follows: “Loyalists who stayed in their home towns faced big problems during the war.” This is a little more helpful than the previous examples, but it still doesn’t give the reader a clear sense that the paragraph is about persecution. Again, your job in writing topic sentences is to make clear signposts to guide the reader through the paragraph. To do this you have to be EXPLICIT about what the paragraph is going to argue. Here’s a good way to ensure that your topic sentence is effective: When you finish writing a paragraph, go back and look at the VERY FIRST SENTENCE and ask yourself: “Does this sentence make an argument that the rest of the paragraph works to prove?” If your answer is no, then you need to write a better topic sentence for that paragraph (or rethink what the paragraph is trying to do).

4) Prove your arguments with evidence.
You must support your argument with specific examples and quotes. Using evidence effectively is one of the most difficult parts of writing analytical essays. It is a matter of quantity and quality. For example, if you are trying to prove an argument about the persecution of Loyalists, you need to get several different examples of the things that Patriots did to Loyalists that you consider to be persecution. It is not enough to make broad statements that Patriots persecuted Loyalists, you must also SHOW the persecution with specific examples. Thus, you can report that “Patriots treated loyalists poorly sometimes beating them up for no reason other than their support for England.” To make the point stronger, you should provide specific examples. Perhaps the next sentence would be: “For example, in Pennsylvania, Patriot groups threw stones through the windows of Loyalist homes, tarred-and feathered Loyalists, and even tied one man to the back of a horse and dragged him through the street, nearly killing him.” You should also provide quotes that help to dramatize the case. For example, you might say: “In the words of one leading historian, the ‘persecution of Loyalists was so extreme that it verged on mindless vigilantism.’” Again, the idea is to SHOW me what you mean with EVIDENCE from the sources you have read, not just TELL me what your argument is.