This document provides tips for writing good summaries, theses, essays, and other academic works. It discusses focusing the writing on the intended audience, constructing a clear thesis statement, using topic sentences and coherent paragraphs to develop ideas, employing active verbs and concise language, and editing to simplify writing. The overall message is that good writing involves careful consideration of audience, clear organization of ideas, and revision to communicate effectively.

1. Writing Good
or,
ways to improve on a thesis,
research paper, essay, critical
review, or book chapter in 28
easy lessons

2. Audience
• The audience for your essay?
• The best educated student in the
seminar.
• Not the professor
• Test:
• Would I know what this term meant
before I wrote the paper?

3. Thesis Statement
• Every essay, book, or article has
one main idea.
– A “controlling” idea
• The thesis statement, properly
constructed, is that main idea.
• It is the principal idea, thought, or
causal relationship you propose to
convey to a specific audience of
readers.

4. Several general rules on
thesis statements
• Not necessarily the first sentence in
the paper;
• Should be a complete sentence;
• The thesis sentence should have a
workhorse verb
– Avoid "this paper will discuss;" ”this is
very interesting;" or ”this has many
implications."

5. Testing the clarity of the
thesis sentence
• Count the number of ideas you have
written:
– narrow it down
• Reverse the order of the sentence
– what is the main focus?
• Test out the idea:
– Use counterfactual analysis

6. Counterfactual Analysis
• Testing the relative merits of a
particular statement, idea, or thesis.
• “Contrary to fact, conditional.”
• Conditions to be met:
* Must be close in time
* Must be within the feasible;
* Facts must be accurate;
* Must have some relationship to
acceptable body of literature.

7. Paragraphs
• A paragraph is a mini-essay
• The topic sentence its thesis
statement
• The ideas expressed in the
paragraph should cohere
– (from the Latin, glue: to stick together).

8. The best paragraphs
• Supply details and evidence;
• Use a clear organizational plan;
• Employ cohesive and transitional
devices;
• Develop the idea sufficiently to
suggest a convincing argument.

9. Sentence clarity
• Verbs: Active vs. Passive Voice
• Use active verbs unless there is no
comfortable way to get around using
a passive verb.
• "Joe saw him" is strong. "He was seen
by Joe" is weak.
• How often was he seen? Once? Every
day? Once a week?

10. Sentence Clarity (cont.’d)
Verbs: Active vs. Passive Voice
There were a great Dead leaves
number of dead covered the
leaves lying on the ground.
ground.
At dawn the The cock's crow
crowing of a came with
rooster could be dawn.
heard.

11. Sentence Clarity:
Nominalization
• Nominalization is the conversion of a verb
into a noun; substituting the action verb with
a “to be” verb.
• Generates a “passive construct” in which the
actor (subject) becomes less obvious.
• Some examples:
– His reflection on X is (he reflected that)
– Her insistence on Y was (she insisted that)
– The U.S. war declaration occurred (the U.S. declared war)
– Weapons of mass destruction (weapons that massively
destroy)

12. Sentence Clarity (cont.’d)
Nominalizations
Nominalized Changed to main verb
“Public support for the “The public weakly supported
Johnson administration the Johnson administration
was problematic due to…” because. . .”
“Summers stated that a “Summers showed that the
declaration of war was U.S. failed to declare war at
lacking when the U.S. the beginning of the conflict.”
became involved in the
conflict.”

13. Sentence Clarity (cont.’d)
Nominalizations (cont.’d)
Nominalized Changed to main verb
“Machiavelli’s strong “Machiavelli believed
belief [in] power being strongly that power
the only goal in life is was the singular goal
a backdrop for the to pursue in life.”
picture he tries to
paint.”

14. Put statements in positive
form
• Make definite assertions.
• Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating,
noncommittal language.
• Use the word not as a means of
denial or in antithesis, never as a
means of evasion.

15. Put statements in positive
form
He was not very He usually came
often on time. late.
He did not think He thought the
that studying study of Latin a
Latin was a waste of time.
sensible way to
use one's time.

16. Express even a negative in
a positive form
not honest dishonest
not important trifling
did not remember forgot
did not pay ignored
attention to
not different similar
not notice overlook
not many few
not often rarely

17. Place negative and positive
in opposition
“Not charity, but simple justice.”
“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that
I love Rome more.”

18. Use definite, specific,
concrete language
A period of It rained every
unfavorable day for a week.
weather set in.
He showed He grinned as
satisfaction as he pocketed the
he took coin.
possession of
his well-earned
reward.

19. Example
Objective consideration of
contemporary phenomena
compels the conclusion that
success or failure in competitive
activities exhibits no tendency to
be commensurate with innate
capacity, but that a considerable
element of the unpredictable must
inevitably be taken into account.
(recast by George Orwell)

20. Example
I returned, and saw under the sun,
that the race is not the swift, nor the
battle to the strong, neither yet bread
to the wise, nor yet riches to men of
understanding, nor yet favor to men
of skill; but time and chance
happeneth to them all. (King James
version, book of Ecclesiastes)

21. Simplify: omit needless
words
• Vigorous writing is concise.
• A sentence should contain no
unnecessary words, a paragraph no
unnecessary sentences.
• For the same reason, a drawing should have
no unnecessary lines and a machine no
unnecessary parts.

22. Simplify
Some common tendencies:
the question as to whether
whether
he is a man who he
owing to the fact since, because
that
in spite of the fact
though, although
that

23. Simplify
Example:
Such preparations "Tell them that in
shall be made as will buildings where they
completely obscure all have to keep the work
Federal buildings and going to put
non-Federal buildings something across the
occupied by the windows." (FDR,
Federal government frustrated with the
during an air raid for Blackout order,
any period of time Federal Regulations,
from visibility by 1942)
reason of internal or
external illumination.

24. Avoid Redundant Modifiers
completely finish true facts
basic free gift
fundamentals various different
final or eventual personal beliefs
outcome
consensus of
terrible tragedy opinion
past history each individual
future plans anticipate in
advance

25. Avoid Redundant
Categories
During that period of TIME, the
membrane AREA became pink in
COLOR and shiny in
APPEARANCE.
During that period, the membrane
became pink and shiny.

26. Replace a Phrase with a
• the reason for
Word
• due to the fact
that
• owing to the fact
that • because, since,
• in light of the fact or why
that
• considering the
fact that
• on the grounds
that
• this is why

27. Replace a Phrase with a
Word
• as regards
• in reference to • about
• with regard to
• concerning the
matter of
• where. . .is
concerned

28. Last Words (for now)
• Key to writing is. . .writing
• Key to good writing is editing
• Key to editing is willingness to learn
• Good writing is good thinking
• We write to learn as we learn to write