Sämi’s 80 Writing Hints

                       How to write better papers:

Style:

0)    keep the language simple in order to express complex ideas—not the other way round!

1)    use a person’s whole name the first time you mention him or her in your paper, after that you can use the family name only.

2)    even if you keep on writing about the same person, mention his or her name at least once in each paragraph.

3)    avoid expressions such as “clearly,” “in fact,” and “indeed” because they are often meaningless (remember Ezra Pound’s advice to T.S. Eliot: “perhaps be damned!”).

4)    Also see my comments on Franglais!

Composition:

5)    an outline will help you organize your paragraphs.

6)    chapters are usually at least three paragraphs long.

7)    avoid too much repetition of your points: be concise! Don’t waffle—be succinct!

8)    rather than announcing that you want to do something, do it (and elaborate your argument).

9)    your argument should be intrinsically connected—simply numbering the issues won’t help because it does not provide a connecting argument
à here is a bad example:
*1. Napoleon, 2. The French army in Algeria, 3. A new museum in Paris, 4. The glory of French culture, 5. Napoleon’s love affairs.

10)     taxonomies are fine as an organizing principle, but transitions are also very important because they provide causal connections in your argument and make it ultimately convincing or not convincing (see paragraph structure!).

11)     make your argument progress from point to point. Your argument should flow … think of linear progression and avoid making the reader go back and forth between different issues.

12)     avoid “diagonal” development by association ….
à remember: paragraphs and chapters should focus on a “topic,” i.e., they should have a conceptual center!
à guide the argument via these topics. Transitions by opposition may lead in any strange direction (… avoid too many “buts” in a row).

13)     signposting: imagine texts as landscapes. Give guidance to the reader: at the beginning say where you want to go, what you expect; later remind us where you’ve been, where we are, and where you will go now. This helps readers to orient themselves in your argument!

Formal things, layout:

14)     book titles are in italics:
à He was reading Oliver Twist.

15)     in handwriting you underline because you cannot use italics! Because both have the same function, you should never mix them (as I am doing here!).

16)     “articles,” “poems,” or “chapters” of a book are in quotation marks:
à William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow” is an objectivist poem.

17)     emphasis is also indicated with italics:
à If you do this, I’ll quit!

18)     … when you are presenting a technical term for the first time, you can put it between quotation marks!
à Next is the officer’s rank of “colonel.” A colonel is …

Punctuation:

19)     introduce quotations with a colon (for finite sentences):
à As Whitman writes: “Trippers and askers surround me, / People I meet …”

20)     or: introduce quotations with a comma (for partial sentences):
à As Whitman writes, “trippers and askers surround” him.

21)     No comma before “that”:
à Whitman writes that “trippers and askers surround” him.

22)     place a comma before the grammatical subject of the main clause if the adverbial clause can be misread as the main sentence:
à While she was leaving, Peter sang a song.
à Because I didn’t eat, Peter called the doctor.
à When, once again, I didn’t hit, Peter said I should get new glasses.
à *If the children were hungry before they will be even hungrier afterwards!

23)     put appositives, interjections between commas:
à The new teacher, a very strange person, didn’t know much.
à My kindergarten teacher, whom I loved very much, died last year.
But: no comma for defining clauses! (hint: often you can drop the relative pronoun):
à The dog that I loved best died last night.

24)     put expressions such as however, for example, for instance, etc. always between commas, of course!
à He does, however, like Spanish wine.
à He, for example, likes Spanish wine.
à They would go to Spain, for instance.

25)     no commas for defining clauses (such information is relevant; it is a defining element that should not be separated from the noun phrase):
à The man whom he was talking about was Jesus Christ!
à The woman who loved Romeo was Juliet.
à It was the time when the days started getting short.

26)     but put non-defining clauses between commas (they merely provide additional information and are not necessary for the definition of the noun phrase):
à The man, whom they all recognized, was Napoleon.
à The man who loved her, who was a famous pianist, was Chopin!
à It happened in the fall, when the days started getting short.

27)     run-on sentences: if two clauses can be grammatically freestanding (with different subjects and predicates), separate such finite sentences by a period or a semicolon (;), but not by a comma! Commas usually separate lists. The only reason to use a semicolon instead of a period is to indicate the close association of the two separate statements:
à Fribourg is in Switzerland, Freiburg in Germany.
à Fribourg is in Switzerland; Freiburg is in Germany.
à Dogs bark at night; cats sing love songs.
Remember: short sentences are sexy!

28)     lists of two are connected with “and”:
à Lakoff and Johnson are …
à *Lakoff, Johnson are … (= Franglais!)

29)     use single quotation marks within double quotations marks. Always switch back and forth.
à “He shouted, ‘Help!’ But it was too late.”

Syntax:

30)     word order: remember SVO and ASVOA (Adverbial-Subject-Verb-Object-Adverbial):
à I love Lucy.
à He gave me a book to take home.
à Today I will be driving my new car to school for the first time.

31)     avoid long insertions and chopped-up sentences (German syntax). Remember: English syntax should flow naturally and use as few commas as possible. There is, usually, no comma between SVO in English, except for insertions …
In short: too many insertions make for a bad style!
à *Today, on first October, a Monday, I will be driving my new car, a Chevy, to school, for the first time.
à Today is Monday, first October. I will be driving my new Chevy to school for the first time.

32)     generally split up long and confusing sentences: always simplify!
à *In the other direction is Huningue there are two borders the German border and the Swiss border.
à In the other direction is Huningue. There are two borders, the German border and the Swiss border.

33)     parallel grammatical structures are preferable
(use the same prepositions and generally repeat the given grammatical structures: this makes your argument easier to decode!):
à Bob likes to go to the mountains and Billy likes to go to the sea.
This is better than:
à *Bob likes to go to the mountains and Billy enjoys swimming.

Expressions:

34)     “on the other hand” must always be preceded by “on the one hand.” Otherwise use the expression “conversely.”

35)     if ≠ when (causality ≠ temporality):
à When it rains it pours.
à When it’s over, he’ll go home.
à If he loses, he’ll go home.
à If you say so, it must be true!

36)     like ≠ such as (similarity ≠ example)
à Many industrial cities are like Mulhouse.
à There are very few industrial cities such as Mulhouse.
à Alsatian sounds like Swiss German.
à It’s difficult to learn a language such as Alsatian.

37)     use “when” for time and “where” for space:
à It was at the moment when it happened that I realized …
à Rome was the place where the meeting took place.
à It was in class when it happened.
à It was in class where it happened. (What the difference here?)

38)     use “between” for two items or opposition; use “among” for three or more parties!
à *The teacher created a need for dialogue among the pupils.

Franglais:

39)     avoid Franglais: not *his husband but her husband!
à *She was making love to his husband.

40)     watch your third person:
*Not only does she takes care of her husband, …

41)     for pourrait: differentiate between “could” vs. “would” or “may”:
“Could” comes from “can” and has to do with ability.
for intentional possibility, use “would”:
à *Female proletarian writings could only be welcomed from two different angles.
for arbitrary decision, use “may”:
à *One could wonder if that is true!
à *This can also suggest that … (i.e.: You may suggest!)

42)     do not use “equally” (également) when you mean “at the same time.”
“Actually” (really) does not mean actuellement (now).

43)     learn the difference between “the whole” or “every” (sg) and “all” (pl).
The French “tous” means both!
à *We realize that all around us is polluted.
à *All milk is polluted.
à *At night the whole cats are grey.

44)     avoid “thanks to” when there is no thanking involved.
E.g., for causality, use “by”:
à *It is shaped thanks to different influences.
à *Thanks to the newspaper they learned that she got married.

45)     don’t mix up comparative and superlative!
Moins means less; le moins means the least. The same applies to plus!
à *What is the most important is the money!
à *Even in the worse moments of my life, …

46)     “consider” takes a direct object—only translate the French comme in a comparison!
à *She considered him as the best! But:
à Shakespeare is considered the best English writer; I consider him better as a playwright than as a poet!

Number:

47)     use correct singular or plural!
à *One of the founder of proletarian fiction …

48)     be careful about number: in English you usually don’t follow the grammatical number of the word but the intended number of the concept!
à A lot of people are poor.
à The police have arrived on the scene of the crime.

49)     much ≠ many (“much” is only used for uncountable quantities; use “many” with countable items):
à There were many lumps of sugar in his tea.
à There was much sugar in his tea.

Reference:

50)     the reference of pronouns always has to be clear
(note: in English it is perfectly good style to repeat proper names):
à I told Jack to inform Pete because Pete doesn’t know.
à Sandra will always respect Angela, who is, like Angela’s sister, a very important person in her life, but Sandra will never ask Angela for help.

51)     this ≠ it! Remember: pronouns always stand “for” a “noun.” If you want to refer to a larger unit, a phrase or a paragraph or some issue, use a demonstrative (“this is” rather than “it is”):
à My training in the Circus was an important period in my life. It was when I met my wife. (“It” here refers to “my training.”)
à My training in the Circus was an important period in my life. This is what you have to understand! (“This” here refers to the whole previous sentence.)

52)     the relative pronouns “who” and “whom” are used for people—“which” is used for things:
à The actor, who was American, appeared in a TV show.
à The actor, whom she didn’t like, was American.
à The film, which was by an Italian director, was about bicycles.

53)      “this” always refers to something close, in immediate proximity—“that” refers to something more distant:
à This is my hometown.
à That was my hometown.
à This is what I like and that is what you like!
à Look at this car over here and at that car over there!

54)     Hence you always “come here,” but you “go there”:
à On Tuesday he comes here and on Thursday I’ll go there!

Prepositions:

55)     look up prepositions in the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary when you are uncertain. In many cases you simply have to memorize them with the verb:
à as well as; not *as well than!
àhonorable on her part; not *honorable from her part.
à I have no control over this; not *I have no control on this!

56)     in ≠ into (static position ≠ movement/placement):
à He was in the house.
à He went into the house.

Linking words and logic of argument:

57)     use conjunctions and disjunctions meaningfully, depending on whether the argument is parallel or opposite!
à *They call her the “All-American girl” and she is in fact Japanese!
à *He is bigger but stronger!
à *He works hard but he succeeds.

58)     avoid double disjunctions in the same sentence: they make your argument complicated and invite inconsistencies! Avoid too many buts in a row!
à *Still, I don’t feel bad that I did it, however, I couldn’t avoid it, but it would have happened anyway.
à *The man has a gun. But he fights. He finds a dragon but he shoots it. But it doesn’t die. But it eats him up. But …

59)     don’t use disjunctions in a conjunctive argument:
à *I am a peaceful man but I dislike fighting.
à *I hate fish but I don’t like vegetables.

60)     the disjunction used after negations is “yet”:
à She is not an idealized figure, yet she is powerful.

61)     avoid two causal adverbials in the same sentence—usually this doesn’t make sense (limit yourself to one causal reference per sentence—otherwise things get too complicated):
à *Therefore I love her because she is so pretty!
à *For all of these reasons we have to do it, if necessary.

62)     generally avoid hypotactic connections when not necessary
(better place the two issues in a so-called “paratactic,” parallel structure):
à *In order to get out of the car to open the door he looks for the handle to pull on it!
Better:
à In order to open the door and get out of the car he looks for the handle and pulls on it!

63)     generally, watch the logic of your argument. There is more logic in good writing than you think!

Time:

64)     if you want to use the perfect tense—learn how to use it (for …, since …, etc.)

65)     remember that a text is always in the present: use the present tense when you refer to it:
à “When Ahab dies …” (because he dies in a book—the text is always there!)

66)     only refer to story events in the past (or future) in relation to other story events:
à At the end of the novel Ishmael remembers how Ahab was killed by the whale.

Literary criticism:

67)     avoid mentioning the critics you quote only in brackets; or even worse, only in the footnotes!

68)     generally integrate quotations into your main text.

69)     quotations don’t explain themselves (not even if you quote famous critics). Comment on them! The reader wants to know what you think and see your mind at work.

70)     always let us know exactly whose opinion you are reporting (the author’s? a critic’s? your own?).

71)     put page reference always at the end of the quotation.

72)     block quotations are at least 5 lines.

73)     avoid ending a paragraph on somebody else’s words: always have the last word in your own paper (note: we are interested in your ideas!).

74)     … but only be personal when it is necessary!

75)     material which interrupts the development of your argument can be put in the footnotes.

76)     don’t present background information which is not relevant to your argument. E.g., only summarize the parts of the plot that are relevant to your argument
(always remember: discussion is more interesting than summary!).

77)     avoid conclusions that merely repeat what you’ve said before.

78)     the paper should be structured by your argument, not by the linear progression of the text you are discussing; it should be structured by you, not by the author you are writing about.

79)     have all of the sources you quote in the bibliography; don’t put them in footnotes. Alphabetize your sources by the author’s last name!

80)     also give author and title for web sources (together with URL and date accessed).