how to write academic paper

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Philipps-Universitt Marburg; Institut fr Anglistik und Amerikanistik

Anca-Raluca Radu, MA, and Ingrid Thaler, MA

October 2004

HOW TO WRITE AN ACADEMIC PAPER:

SOME SUGGESTIONS

There are some rules and regulations, conventions that you should become aware ofbefore writing a term paper. They will be briefly introduced here:

HOW TO WRITE AN ACADEMIC PAPER: SOME SUGGESTIONS......................... 1

I. FORMAL OUTLINE ............................................................................................................................. 1

II. DECIDING ON A TOPIC..................................................................................................................... 2

III. STRUCTURE AND ARGUMENTATION ........................................................................................... 21. Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 22. Main Part......................................................................................................................................... 33. Conclusion (in a shorter essay or paper: concluding paragraph) ................................................... 4

III. DOCUMENTATION OF SOURCES................................................................................................... 4III.a In a Text ....................................................................................................................................... 41. Parenthetical Reference................................................................................................................. 52. Footnotes ....................................................................................................................................... 53. Quotations....................................................................................................................................... 5III.b Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 6

APPENDIX 1: Some Online Resources ............................................................................................... 71. Academic Writing ............................................................................................................................ 72. Miscellaneous but Relevant ............................................................................................................ 7

APPENDIX 2: Transitions and Conjunctive Adverbs (Connectives)................................................ 8

APPENDIX 3: Betreff: Plagiat ............................................................................................................... 8

I. FORMAL OUTLINE

1. Title page:

States the title of your paper as well as your university, institute, yourname, address, class you are writing the paper for, date etc.

2. Table of Contents or Index (which is either page 0 or 1).

3. The actual paper

4. Bibliography or Works Cited

WATCH OUT:

Every term paper and every essay needs page numbers!

Word can automatically produce a table of contents for your paper if youfollow the heading rules (see Einfgen > Referenz > Index undVerzeichnisse).


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5. Layout

margins: 2,5 cm left, 3 cm right, 2,5 top and bottom

spacing: 1,5 for main text, single for indented quotations longer than fourlines

size: 12 for main text, 10 for indented quotations longer than four lines

font: Arial or Times New Roman (use the same font for the whole text)

II. DECIDING ON A TOPIC

You need to know what you want to write about and be as specific as possible. If youdecide on a specific text, for example, you do not need to include all the informationyou consider relevant about the work in general, but rathernarrow down orlimityourscope in a practical and specific sense, meaning only include information that isrelevant to your thesis. Move away from the holistic Referatapproach to developingyour own thesis with which you read the text.

Example: Let us suppose that you would like to write about Bram Stoker's Dracula. Itwould not make a lot of sense to call the paper simply "Bram Stokers Dracula"because it would be much too unspecific and you would never be able to cover allaspects that can be found in the novel.Instead: Think about aspects or elements in a text that you find relevant andinteresting OR: a theoretical approach with which you want to read the text.Examples: "The East vs. the West in Stokers Dracula"

"The New Woman in Stokers Dracula""Vampiric Narratives of AIDS? Coppolas Bram Stoker's Dracula andNorringtons Blade""The relationship between science and vampirism in Bram Stoker's

Dracula and Stephen Norrington's Blade""Vampires and Cinema in Bram Stoker's Dracula and Shadow of theVampire"

If you are not sure whether you have sufficiently narrowed down your topic, thefollowing three questions may help:

a) What?: What is the topic of your paper? What are you dealing with?b) How?: What methods do you use for your analysis?c) In what order?: In what order do you present the main arguments of

your paper?

III. STRUCTURE AND ARGUMENTATION

A term paper should adhere to logical argumentation and be consistent in itsstructure which follows a certain scheme:

1. Abstract

Function: introduces the reader to the topic and is a preview or outline of the contentand structure of the paper. It has to observe several formal rules and contains aspecific set of information.Formal aspects:

- an abstract is not longer than one page

- an abstract contains at least two paragraphsContents:- a. the first paragraph contains yourtopic statement, i.e. it says what you

intend to examine in your paper. This paragraph begins with a short overview

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of the main trends of criticism relevant to your topic and formulates yourposition in relation to these.

e.g. Criticism of Margaret Laurence's novel The Diviners includes essays and books on a largevariety of topics, such as metafiction, ethnicity, myth, history, the author's Scottish background andits influence on her work, autobiographical elements, regionalism, as well as feminist readings ofher work This paper expands on the topic of memory and imagination as it emerges from thenovel. I maintain that in The Diviners memory is presented as an active process of recreation ofpast events and feelings, on the one hand, and as a process of reconstruction of place andidentity, on the other.

- b. the second (and, as the case may be, following paragraph/s) include/s yourthesis statement, i.e. how your intend to conduct your analysis

briefly outlines how you want to approach the topic (method) andwhat aspects in which order you focus on.

mentions the various aspects that you analyze in the selectedtext and also outlines the theories you use.

e.g. In her memoir Dance on the Earth Laurence makes the distinction between thosememories of her childhood of which she is herself aware and which she can actually rememberexperiencing, and those memories which were transmitted to her by other people (Laurence1989: 24). This distinction, however, does not allow for the claim of accuracy and objectivity inconnection with either of these two kinds of memories. In The Diviners Morag revises herchildhood with the aid of photographs. She calls the events evoked by them "totally inventedmemories" (Laurence 1974: 18) and qualifies them as "quite untrue. Or maybe true or maybenot" (Laurence 1974: 16). She can paradoxically remember composing her memories eventhough she is no longer able to identify the facts that have generated them. []

2. Main Part

Here you bring arguments to "prove" the thesis of your introduction and elaborate onthe aspects you have mentioned in your introduction.WATCH OUT:

Every paragraph should constitute a logic unity of meaning which deals with apart of your overall argumentation and should be placed according to thestructure you have outlined in your introduction. No one-sentenceparagraphs!!!

Do not list many disconnected details that may be interesting observations butare not related to the coherent structure of your paper.

Think about transitions from one paragraph to the next. At the beginning, aparagraph should also refer to the preceding paragraph.

NO-NOS:

one-sentence paragraphs consisting of single sentences that are not related toone another are a sign of poor writing style because the text is not logicallystructured and not based on arguments.

Too many subheadings: not every paragraph needs a subheading. It is totallyunnecessary especially in Proseminarpapers between 10 and 15 pages. Aterm paper needs to be read smoothly without the headings. Headings andsubheadings do not substitute for transitions between the paragraphs (seeAppendix 2)

Summaries of texts which comprise a whole chapter. It is sufficient to brieflysummarize the plot of a text in no more than two paragraphs at the most in theIntroduction. The reader of your paper knows the contents of the work on

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which you write your paper. Summarize the plot only if this is indispensable toyour argumentation.

3. Conclusion (in a shorter essay or paper: concluding paragraph)

Summarizes the main arguments of the paper and adds the results of themain part to the thesis of the introduction.

One may repeat the thesis and topic statement but should necessarily repeatthe various arguments.

A good strategy to find out whether a paper is well structured is to read theintroduction and then the conclusion because they should convey the paper'sfocus, methodology as well as your conclusion(s).

GENERAL REMARKS:

whatever you write about, a critical re-evaluation as well as accurate

documentation of your sources are essential to an academic paper. Yourpaper should be based on a consistent line of argumentation that constitutesyour own approach. You need to document your sources to avoid plagiarism!

Your argumentation needs to be based on textual evidence. Whatever youargue, prove your arguments with examples from the text. This avoidssuperficial interpretations and trains you to read a text closely and critically.

Not only quotes from sources that you have done during your research foryour paper need to be documented, but also if you take over someone elsesideas and re-phrase them in your own words.

III. DOCUMENTATION OF SOURCES

You have to document all cases where you quote or use somebodyelses text! Plagiarism is the most severe crime in the humanities.If found out, you will not receive credit and you will not be given theopportunity to write an alternative paper for the course. Andremember that your instructors have discovered the Internet aswell.The last page of your paper must be a statement by which you

guarantee that you have not used any unacknowledged sources.(see Appendix 3)

III.a In a Text

All references to primary and secondary sources should be included in the text Youmust include all the information necessary for finding the quotation using eitherfootnotes or parenthetical reference, and the bibliography at the end of your paper. Ifyou are quoting short passages up to three lines of text, integrate them into your own

sentence. Use English quotation marks.

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1. Parenthetical Reference

There are two ways of acknowledging sources within the text. The easiest andmaybe also most sensible way are parentheses. Bibliographical information is addedat the end of your sentence in brackets (NAME [YEAR]: PAGE). The same applies, if you

are only alluding to a secondary source without actually citing it (CF. NAME [YEAR]:PAGE). You have to specify the year only when you use several works by the sameauthor.

e.g. Using the anti-Semitic stereotype of world literature, Shakespeare's Shylock fromthe play The Merchant of Venice, he presents "various views of the Jew held by realgroups of people at the end of the century" (Cooper 279), including Jews themselves.

Complete reference in the BibliographyorWorks Citedmust follow.

2. Footnotes

Quoting in the text:a) First mentioning of a book:1

Alan Cooper, Philip Roth and the Jews (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996) 279.1

Neil K. Besner, Introducing Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women:A Reader's Guide (Toronto:ECW Press, 1990).

b) Second and further mentioning of a book:1

Besner 15-6.

c) Two books by the same author:- first mentioning1 Linda Hutcheon, Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox(London: Routledge, 1991).1

Linda Hutcheon, The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary English-Canadian Fiction(Toronto: OUP, 1988).- second and further mentioning: quote one relevant word from the title1

Hutcheon, Narcissistic3-7.1

Hutcheon, Postmodernism 47.

d) First mentioning of an article in a scholarly journal:1

Deborah Bowen, "In Camera: The Developed Photographs of Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro,"Studies in Canadian Literature 13.1 (1988): 21.2

Sanford Pinsker, Shylock: A Legend & Its Legacy, Jewish Exponent, 194/16 (15 October 1993): 2x.

e) Second and further mentioning of an article:1

Bowen 21.

f) Several articles by one author: cf. several books by one authorName, relevant word from the title page.Hutcheon , Narcissistic22

3. Quotations

Their position in their text is based on their length:

Less than four lines: in quotation marks incorporated into the text More than four lines: Set it off from the text by indenting it (usually one inch).

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Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice,that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wifeunderstand his character. Hermind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman ofmean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she wasdiscontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get herdaughters married; its solace was visiting and news. (2)

Formatting for indented quotes: 10 pts, single spacing, 1cm left and 1cmright, 6 pts before and after the passage

Emphasis

When quoting, stick to the original emphasis in the text unless you think it absolutelynecessary to add your own. In that case write (emphasis added) and for originalemphasis (emphasis original).

Quoting in parentheses is preferred in American and English Studiesinternationally.

III.b Bibliography

book(monograph):

Last Name, First Name. Title of book. [editor/translator if any]. Place:Publisher, Year.Auerbach, Nina. Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago, IL: U of ChicagoP, 1995.

essaycollection:

Last Name, First Name, ed. Title of book. Place: Publisher, Year.

Thomas, Sheree R., ed. Dark Matter: A Century of SpeculativeFiction from the African Diaspora. New York: Warner-Aspect,2000.

multipleeditors:

Last Name, First Name and First Name Last Name, eds. Title ofbook. Place: Publisher, Year.Gordon, Joan and Veronica Hollinger, eds. Blood Read: The Vampireas Metaphor in Contemporary Culture. Pennsylvania, PA: U ofPennsylvania P, 1997.

article (book): Last Name, First Name. "Title of article." Title of book. Ed.Name(s) of editor(s). Place: Publisher, Year. Pages of article.Schumann, John. "The Pidginisation Hypothesis." SecondLanguageAcquisition. Ed. Evelyn Hatch. Rowley, MA: Newbury House,1978. 256-271.

article(journal):

Last Name, First Name. "Title of article." Title of journalVolume.Issue (Year): Pages of article.Jordan, John J. "Vampire Cyborgs & Scienific Imperialism: AReading of the Science-Mysticism Polemic in Blade." Journal ofPopular Film & Television 27.2 (1999): 4-15.

article(newspaper):

Last Name, First Name. "Title of article." Title of newspaper DayMonth Year.: Page(s) of article.Clarke, Liz. "Van Riebeecks Secret Letters Spark Outrage."Herald Tribune 20 Dec. 1992: 16.

anonymous

article/entry(referencebook):

"Title of article." Year. Title of book. [editor, if applicable]. Place:

Publisher. Page(s)of article."Van Riebeeck, Jan." 1997. Encyclopaedia Britannica.Micropaedia, vol. 10. 15th ed. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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60.

website: Name, First Name. "Title of page." Date. [n.d. if the website hasno date]Date you viewed the page. Address.Cody, David. 1988. "Atheism." 30. Sept. 2003.http://65.107.211.206/victorian/history/Whig.html.

film: Title. Director.[Performers]. Distributor, year of release.Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. [Perf. KeanuReeves, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins.]Columbia, 1992.

PLEASE REMEMBER : Books, journal titles, magazine and newspaper titles are either placed in italics

or underlined. Essays, short stories etc. are NOT, use quotation marks instead. UP = University Press; similarly: University of California Press = U of California

P; for publishers, just list the name if they are well-known, i.e. Random House,Macmillan, Vintage, Houghton Mifflin, Routledge etc.

If you quote from an essay in an anthology, you need to list the author of theessay and the essay and not simply the whole collection of essays.

For further details, please consult Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers ofResearch Papers. 6th ed. (New York: MLA, 2003).This summary is loosely based on: Mario Klarer, Einfhrung in die Anglistisch-Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft(Darmstadt: Primus-Verlag, 1997), 96-105. PartIII also makes use of Korte, Barbara. "Style Sheet for Quotations andDocumentations: English Seminar Freiburg." Homepage. 9 December 2003. 17December 2003. http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/institut/lskorte/StyleSheet.pdf

APPENDIX 1: Some Online Resources

1. Academic Writing

William Strunk, Jr: The Elements of Style (standard American textbook)http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

Dartmouth College Composition Center:http://www.dartmouth.edu/~compose/student/index.html

Advice on Academic Writing (University of Toronto):http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html

Writer's Handbook (Writing Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison):http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/handbook.html

2. Miscellaneous but Relevant

Evaluating Internet Resources:http://www.library.georgetown.edu/internet/eval.htm

The Heath Anthology of American Literature Online:http://college.hmco.com/english/heath/litlink.html

Project Gutenberg: Primary Texts Onlinehttp://promo.net/pg/

The Literary Link (useful materials, tips and links, as well as suggestions forteachers)http://www.theliterarylink.com

Anglistik Uni Dsseldorf (link collection)

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http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/ulb/ang.htmlRepresentative Poetry Online (RPO)

http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/index.cfmE-text sources

www.bartleby.com

www.bibliomania.comLiterary Terminology

http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm

APPENDIX 2: Transitions and Conjunctive Adverbs (Connectives)

accordingly, as a result, consequently, subsequently, in conclusion,therefore, hence, thus, in this way, likewise

besides, furthermore, moreover, even more, what is more, in addition,first(ly)/second(ly), etc., finally, in the first place, next, then, also

still, nevertheless, nonetheless, however, now, even so

for example, for instance, similarly, in other words, that is, specifically

on the contrary, on the one hand, on the other hand, conversely, instead,otherwise

as a matter of fact, indeed, certainly, actually, in fact, after all

anyhow, anyway, at any rate, of course

at the same time, meanwhile

APPENDIX 3: Betreff: Plagiat

Versicherung

Ich versichere hiermit an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstndig verfasst,

ganz oder in Teilen noch nicht als Prfungsleistung vorgelegt und keine anderen als die

angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.

Smtliche Stellen der Arbeit, die benutzten Werken im Wortlaut oder dem Sinn nach

entnommen sind, habe ich durch Quellenangaben kenntlich gemacht.

Dies gilt auch fr Zeichnungen, Skizzen, bildliche Darstellungen und dergleichen sowie fr

Quellen aus dem Internet.

Bei Zuwiderhandlung gilt das Seminar (PS, SE etc.) als nicht bestanden keine

Scheinvergabe.

Ich bin mir bewusst, dass es sich bei Plagiarismus um schweres akademisches Fehlverhalten

handelt, das im Wiederholungsfall weiter sanktioniert werden kann.

Marburg, den ........................................ .......................................

Datum Unterschrift

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