You are now ready to begin writing your paper. If you did all of the preliminary work described above, writing your paper should prove to be a relatively easy process. Even at this point, however, there are a few caveats worth keeping in mind.

The Introduction

As you write your introductory paragraph(s), remember that your introduction is yet another vehicle to entice the reader to delve into your paper.  It might be helpful for you to remember that that Latin term for "introduction is "exordium" which literally means "beginning a web." Your introduction should captivate the reader so that he is caught in the web of your writing. Try to find an interesting way to state your thesis to the reader so that he will both understand your project in writing the paper and will want to read on further.

Writing Drafts

Many students mistakenly believe that the first draft of their paper will be adequate enough to serve as their finished product. Usually this is a recipe for disaster. A well written paper usually has to go through several revisions before it is suitable enough to be handed in to an instructor.

After you have written a first rough draft of your paper, read through it again with a critical eye. Sketchy sections may have to be beefed up with additional information; irrelevant or tangential material may have to be eliminated or relegated to your footnotes. You may also have to add transitional sentences or paragraphs to show the reader connections between ideas. Entire paragraphs may have to be shuffled around to see where they fit best. Remember, if your writing seems confusing to you, it will undoubtedly appear even more so to your reader.

Before you hand in your final draft, go through your paper one last time. Check for spelling and grammatical mistakes; tighten up awkward sentences by eliminating excess verbiage; and replace boring verbs and adjectives with more dynamic ones.

After you’ve finished writing multiple drafts of your paper, and believe that you now have the most perfect bit of research ever produced by mortal man, then, and only then, should you find another intelligent person to read over your writing. You will probably be surprised to discover how many mistakes still remain in your paper. Remember: your College Writing Lab is available free of charge to help you at this stage in your writing. Take advantage of this valuable service!

Notes on Grammar and Style

1. Titles of books and journals should be put in italics; titles of articles should be placed in quotation marks.

2. Foreign terms not used frequently in English should be put in italics.

3. Numbers up to ten should be written out; for numbers greater than ten use Arabic numerals.

4. The first time you use a person’s name in your text, write it out fully [e.g., Immanuel Kant]. After that you need only to give the person’s last name [e.g., Kant]—unless, of course, you are referring to two or more persons with the same last name.

5. The paragraph is the basic building block of a paper. Every time you make a new point, you should create a new paragraph. Avoid single sentence paragraphs at all costs, since it is impossible to make any intelligent point in only one sentence. Also, refrain, if possible, from paragraphs that are too long, since they are apt to confuse the reader. Try to begin each new paragraph with a sentence that either leads into the topic or helps with the transition from the previous paragraph.

6. Reread your writing with an eye to eradicating unnecessary verbiage. Your writing should be concise and to the point. Check every sentence you write with an eye to eliminating excess words, and every paragraph with an eye to eliminating excess sentences.

7. Make an effort to vary the sentence structure of your paper. Nothing is more monotonous to a reader than a string of simple sentences following one after the other. After you’ve finished writing your paper, go back over it to make sure that you have a nice mix of simple, compound and complex sentences in each paragraph. You should also avoid beginning your sentences in the same way too often in the same paragraph or using the same words repeatedly within one paragraph (this is what a Thesaurus is for).

8. Periods and commas are not the only types of punctuation that you can use in your paper. Why not try to incorporate semicolons (;) , colons (:), dashes (—) in your writing on occasion.

   More Information about Grammar

   Helpful Tips on Wring Style