Academic Writing Proving your point…. Perrine’s Literature Structure, Sound and Sense 8th edition

Your goal is to convince your readers that your understanding and interpretation of a work is valid and important, and to convince them to share (agree) with your understanding Persuade your readers through various rhetorical means- through eloquent diction and structural devices, but most importantly with PROOF Readers want you to show them HOW the work (or element of the work) does what you claim it does Readers want access to your process of inference, analysis, and deduction that led you to your conclusion

Providing this PROOF is no easy task- this requires the development of your reading and writing skills When you develop an interpretation of a work and of the way it achieves that effect, you need to be able to point out EXACTLY how it communicates these meanings, and say how you experienced it CLEARLY and DIRECTLY Some forms of “proof” are better than others. Using your own personal experiences rarely help your readers (My anxiety, excitement and awkwardness skiing for the first time reminded me of the feeling character x felt….) This is NOT helpful to a reader (you assume, then, that the reader has experienced skiing for themselves and, therefore, understand your analogy) ARGUMENT by ANALOGY is not valid

Where to begin? As soon as possible after receiving the assignment read CAREFULLY and THOUGHTFULLY the work, mull over the prompt, and jot down notes (or underlining or highlighting if you own a copy) Make sure you read the material more than once Jot down a list of the ideas you have, select connecting ideas relevant to your prompt, and FORMULATE A THESIS STATEMENT that clearly expresses in ONE SENTENCE what you are about to argue Make a rough outline, rearranging you’re your ideas in the order that will best support your thesis Then begin to write using your rough outline as a guide

1st draft Write your first draft as quickly as possible- don’t worry about sentence structure, spelling, grammar, diction or verification of sources- concentrate on putting on to paper what is in your head and on your outline without interruption of thought Nothing is worse than sitting and staring at a blank piece of paper or at a blank monitor wondering- How do I start?- JUST BEGIN! JUST WRITE! Get something down on paper, it may look awful, but that is what revision is for!

revision Once something is on paper (or on screen) it is easier to see what needs to be done with it- revision 1)does your paper proceed from an introductory paragraph that ends with YOUR THESIS STATEMENT and the following paragraphs advance towards answering your prompt/demonstrating your thesis? 2) does your concluding paragraph restate your thesis in different words, sum up your paper or solve the problem? If not, analyze the difficulty. Are more examples needed? Do your paragraphs need amplification? Does the thesis itself need modification? *** remember you need to organize your paper according to your thesis***

Revision (continued) Make sure your stance in your statements and judgements are firm and forthright, not weak and wishy-washy “It seems to me that…”; “I think or feel…”; “this line could mean…”; “in my opinion…” are NOT effective (these are wishy-washy) The reader knows this paper expresses your thoughts; you need to warn them only when it expresses someone else’s (citations) Even of you are not 100% sure of your argument, write as if you are

Revison (continued) Now that you have revised for logic, coherence, confidence and completeness of argument, now edit for effectiveness of expression How many words can you cut out without losing meaning? Are your sentences constructed for maximum force and economy? Are they correctly punctuated? Do the pronouns have clear antecedents? Do the verbs agree with their subjects? Are the tenses consistent? Have you chosen the most effective words and spelled them correctly? Verify quotations and other references

Revision (continued) Write or type your final copy adhering to MLA formatting expectations Read over your final copy slowly and carefully (if at home, do it out loud), and correct any mistakes (omissions, repetitions, typographical errors) Do not omit this final step. It could mean the difference between a C and an A, or a C and an F.

Introducing quotations When writing about literature it is IMPERATIVE to quote from the work under discussion Quoted material provides essential evidence to support your argument or sets before the reader any passage you are going to analyze in depth Be careful not to OVER QUOTE. Do not let your voice be overshadowed. A paper should never consist of more than 20% quotations Avoid the unnecessary use of long quotations (readers tend to skip them!) Consider paraphrasing the quotation or using ellipses (remember the longer the quote the more you have to analyze it!) Do not use the quote to summarize what happened, use it instead to support or prove a point

Introducing quotations You need to be writing in P.E.E format (Point/Evidence/Explanation) Your POINT is one of your three arguments and functions as a topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph, then, is “proving” your argument through a series of E’s. (evidence/explanation; evidence/explanation etc) Your evidence is your quotations and/or paraphrasing from outside sources to support your argument You then must EXPLAIN how or why that quotation (EVIDENCE) supports your POINT Do not begin or end your paragraph with a quotation- if you do the reader will automatically know you did not follow the PEE format For EVERY quotation or paraphrase you MUST have an in paper citation (documentation that gives credit where credit is due)and a corresponding reference to that source on your WORKS CITED page.