by George Brosi

1. All academic writing is thesis-centered. In other words, because knowledge is so tenuous, scholars are primarily engaged in asking questions and giving tentative answers to those questions which they defend with argumentative talks and papers. Unless a student is specifically told not to respond with a thesis-centered argument, as may be the case in some journal-writing assignments, it is expected that all written and oral assignments should be thesis-centered.

2. Students are expected to communicate their own ideas, interpretations, and conclusions about the topic at hand in their own words. In scholarly work, ordinarily the student encounters various points of view and is expected to either choose a position which another scholar takes or to synthesize the positions of more than one scholar or to defend a personal position on the scholarly issues raised by the topic. Students are expected to understand the material first, and then to express their own positions in their own words.

3. Unless specifically asked not to, students are expected to respond to the views of others in their academic work. Students need to ascertain what thesis other scholars are defending, then, utilizing proper documentation, summarize, paraphrase or quote not just the scholar's conclusion, but the basic arguments. Most importantly, the student presents a thesis-centered argument in the context of the arguments of other scholars.

4. Proper documentation is required whether quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing the work of another. It consists of three parts. First, the source is introduced in the narrative or body of the student's work; then the source is used. Secondly, when the student is finished using the source in a written paper, the page number(s) is (are) given in parenthesis. Third, a Works Cited page at the end of the paper gives an alphabetical list of all sources used.

Literature Papers

Writing about literature in English 211 and 212 can be of fun, can be very intellectually stimulating, and can help the student achieve significant improvement in writing skills. All of these aspects can help students in other classes, in passing the University Writing Requirement and in life.

English 211 and 212 writing is based on the concepts learned in English 101 and 102. Thus a paper for English 211 and 212, like a good 101 and 102 paper, should have a strong, controversial thesis, should have specific support, and should have interesting and compatible introductory and conclusion paragraphs. Applying these concepts learned in English 101 and 102 to a slightly different task can really help students to more thoroughly learn them and thus become better writers for the rest of their lives.

Ideally, students come out of English 101 with a comfortable, even strong, personal voice or writing style and with good habits of combining thinking with writing. Hopefully, students come out of English 102 with this voice strengthened and a truly thoughtful approach to writing tasks. Another goal of English 102 is to aid students in acquiring the ability to augment that personal voice appropriately with properly documented material from other writers and speakers.

Unfortunately, some students do not truly internalize this ability and revert back to high school habits which sometimes are indistinguishable from purposeful intellectual dishonesty. This must be scrupulously avoided. If your 211 or 212 papers quote, paraphrase, summarize or use the ideas of other authors, including the introductory material from a textbook, you absolutely MUST give them credit whether you are making a written or an oral presentation! If you use a text's editor or any other source, without giving credit where it is due, you deserve an F on your paper and your teacher has the right to give you an F for the course!

The kind of writing that must be done in English 211 and 212 should be based on your personal reaction to the works you have read. You need to formulate a personal reaction to the work and find support for your position. Written presentations for English 211 and 212 will simply consist of arguments supporting your thesis perhaps enhanced by a little background material. Your voice and your reactions are paramount. The ideas of others may be brought in as support, but in a clearly documented and secondary role.