Tools & Tips
Tips for Essay Writers (a.k.a. How Not to be Boring!)
Below you will find a list of suggestions my former students found helpful as they revised their papers and prepared final drafts. All in-text citations shown in these examples are formatted according to the MLA style guide. All quotations are taken from the following sources:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005.
—. “The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me.” Here First: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers. Eds. Arnold Krupat and Brian Swann. New York: The Modern Library, 2000. 3-14.
Bird, Gloria. “The Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues.” Wicazo Sa Review 11.2 (Fall 1995): 47-52.
Beginnings
First sentence
Purpose: Capture readers’ attention; set the tone of the paper
Suggestions:
- Begin with a specific image, question, or statement rather than a generalization.
Weak first sentence:
Stereotypes have always been a part of our lives.
Strong first sentences:
What makes someone an Indian? Is it culture, tribal affiliation, blood? Is it the length of one’s hair or the war paint splashed across one’s face?
In his “Unauthorized Autobiography of Me,” Spokane Indian writer Sherman Alexie asserts that the breadth of Native American literature lies in the image of a bleeding nose broken on a reservation basketball court (4).
- Use your own words; this puts you — your voice — in control of the paper.
Weak first sentences:
“Poetry = Anger · Imagination” (Alexie, “Unauthorized” 10). “Survival = Anger x Imagination” (Alexie, LR 150). Put these quotes together and you end up with Poetry = Survival, which means storytelling is a way to survive.
Strong first sentences:
Thomas Builds-the-Fire tells stories — to himself, anyway. His fellow Spokane Indians shun his repetitive tales, and the Tribal Council finds his imagination threatening. Nonetheless, one little noise from Thomas is enough to inspire an under-appreciated wife to leave her husband, enough to offer “changes to the tribal vision” (Alexie, LR 93).
Thesis Statements
Purpose: Preview all components of your argument so your readers know what’s to come; give you something to refer back to if you feel your essay is getting off track
Incomplete Thesis:
Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves employs both positive and negative stereotypes of Indians, presenting the Sioux as noble savages and the Pawnee as violent, merciless savages.
Complete Thesis:
While stereotypes of savage Indians remain prevalent in popular films such as Dances With Wolves, Spokane Indian author Sherman Alexie subverts such stereotypes in his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by depicting modern Indian “warriors” who “fight” with words, compassion, and dance.
Introductions in General
Suggestions:
- Tell a story
- Explain what others say to situate your argument in a larger conversation
- Create a visual image
- Pose a question and its partial answer
- Always leave a little mystery to keep your readers reading!
Example Introduction:
Spokane Indian author Sherman Alexie has been calling a lot of attention to the hardships of reservation life in the seventeen books he has published over the last decade. However, not all Spokanes are happy with this attention. Case in point, Spokane Indian and professor of creative writing Gloria Bird argues that Alexie’s works concentrate solely on the negative aspects of reservation life, particularly alcoholism. She asserts that Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven “capitalizes upon the stereotypical image of the ‘drunken Indian’” (Bird 51). In this respect, Alexie’s book does no more to subvert stereotypes of Indians than does the 2002 film Skins, in which Graham Green’s character drinks himself to death due to his inability to cope with the cultural memory of Wounded Knee. Indeed, while presenting a few characters who choose not to drink, Alexie’s book primarily reinforces the stereotypes presented in Skins, confronting readers with continual images of Indians drinking, dying, and despairing.
Middles
Purpose: Provide examples that develop and support the claims stated in your thesis
Quoting
Purpose: Insert direct examples of your argument into your text
Suggestions:
- Frame all quotes. This involves discussing the quote before you insert it, blending the quote with your own words, and expanding on the quote after you’ve inserted it.
Distracting/confusing quoting:
Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a storyteller. “Imagination is the politics of dreams; imagination turns every word into a bottle rocket” (Alexie, LR 152). During Thomas’s trial, his stories reveal that he has an active imagination.
Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a storyteller. “Imagination is the politics of dreams; imagination turns every word into a bottle rocket” (Alexie, LR 152). This quote shows that Thomas can use his imagination to create powerful stories.
Framed/integrated quote:
Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a storyteller, which gives him a certain degree of power on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Even the Tribal Council admits that Thomas’s stories have the ability to “make significant changes in the tribal vision” (Alexie, LR 93). This power stems from the fact that stories both require and inspire imagination. And when the Spokanes begin to imagine, they can imagine possibilities; they can “[i]magine an escape” from the hardships that cause their despair (152).
Transitions
Purpose: Smoothly move from one topic to the next; alert your reader of a change in topic
Suggestions:
- Use transitional words and phrases:
also ~ moreover ~ secondly ~ yet ~ although ~ furthermore ~ lastly ~ instead ~ likewise ~ in addition ~ ultimately ~ ironically ~ consequently ~ next ~ as well ~ moreover ~ however ~ finally ~ therefore ~ nonetheless ~ nevertheless
In general
Use strong verbs. This makes you sound convincing, assertive, confident.
Weak verbs: think, feel, believe, it seems to me
Strong verbs: assert, propose, suggest, recommend, maintain, support, advocate, argue
Style Manuals
MLA
MLA (Modern Language Association) is the citation style most commonly used in the humanities. Download the MLA Cheat Sheet for information on how ti cite in MLA.
APA
APA (American Psychological Association) style is used primarily within the social sciences. Download the APA Cheat Sheet for information on how to cite in APA.
Chicago
Chicago style is used primarily by students and scholars of history.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
CSE
CSE (Council of Science Editors) is — obviously — used by those in the sciences.
http://library.osu.edu/help/research-strategies/cite-references/cse