WRITING IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

SOME BASICS… Do I need an outline to start? Smart writing is an a flexible, reflective process Cleaning your room before mother comes to town… 80% of the work involved in making something great first involves making things messier. Spacing your work out is more important than how much total time you spend… But cramming in the first part of writing can be really helpful, too.

WHY IS ORGANIZATION MORE IMPORTANT THAN GRAMMAR OR EVEN ELEGANCE? How many paragraphs do I have to work with? Why is the thesis statement the most important sentence in a paper? Why do you need an argument? What are topic sentences and what makes them effective? (1) They summarize the main point & only that point of the paragraph (2) They link back to the thesis or explain the departure Paragraph length: How long is too long? How short is too short?

HOW DO YOU WRITE MORE CLEARLY? Use a professional tone: – What is being “chatty”? – Do you need to use big words (precision and trade-offs)? – Why are synonyms important? – “This I believe” Some grammar fundamentals that are critical: commas and semi-colons More grammar that is critical: vague pronouns, noun-verb agreement, and tense shifts Irritants: Random capitalization, their/there, apostrophes gone amuck

HOW DO YOU SUPPORT ARGUMENTS WELL? Why do you need to support your arguments? Situate your argument into a larger context Authority to move the paper along instead of logic and analysis Show that other folks believe this, too What kind of evidence should you use?: Use short (5-7 words) quotes versus block quotes Data rocks Making the most of examples

HOW DO YOU USE CITATION PROPERLY? What’s plagiarism?... Patch-writing is unacceptable When do I need to cite?: (1)When quoting or using specifics from somewhere (2)When paraphrasing (3)To support your argument Where do you put cites, and how are they formatted? How do you cite on-line materials and lectures?