Good Papers: CLASS HANDOUT



Critical Thinking on Paper

“What is a good paper?” Many first-year students are accustomed to answering this question with the response: “What the teacher wants.” In this class, I have a different answer to this question that I hope you’ll think about. A good paper is not a particular thing or a definable object. A paper is good insofar as it fulfils a specific function: persuasive critical thinking. The good paper persuades its audience to think critically about the subject or topic its author has chosen to discuss. The Book of Job is a good paper; Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount” is a good paper; Chuang Tzu’s parable-like stories are good papers; and Machiavelli’s Prince is a good paper. Although these authors wrote in very different ways (dialogue, sermon, parable and essay), each of them forces their readers to re-examine and criticize basic assumptions about the four things all humans want to know: Where did I come from? Where am I going? What should I eat? Who should I sleep with?

In this class we’ll be following a format -- the essay format -- that I’d like you to practice. Once you’ve demonstrated you can write a good essay in the format I describe below then you can work on other creative ways of persuading your audience to think critically. I evaluate your writing with emphasis on three key qualities: well-defined thesis, logical progression and the rational use of evidence:

Well-defined thesis: A well-defined thesis is one that is indicates an interesting and abstract idea that you wish to explore. A good thesis is not a topic. A topic might be: “Is Plato’s Republic the ideal state?” To turn this into a thesis means deciding what your own criteria for an “ideal” and a “state” are, and then framing your argument in terms of those criteria. You might develop a thesis such as: “In the Republic Plato makes the mistaken assumption that goodness is the object of knowledge. Plato is wrong, and so his Republic is not an ideal state.” Now at this point you have your work cut out for you. What is Plato’s theory of knowledge; why is it wrong; and why is knowledge important to a theory of the state? And because that thesis organizes and defines your argument, it is well-defined.

Logical Progression: Your argument has to move forward from point to point – it has to go somewhere. It should not compare and contrast two ideas; that is boring. It should not describe a book we read in class; if it is on the syllabus then I have already read it, and if it’s not on the syllabus then you shouldn’t be writing about it. Your argument needs to be critical; it needs to prove something. The key to persuasive critical writing is a logical progression made by solid transitions. Look at each paragraph and ask two questions: Does this paragraph build logically on the one before it?; Does this paragraph build a logical bridge to the one that comes after it? A typical six-page essay might have eight to ten paragraphs.

Rational Use of Evidence: Prove it! You have to prove it. Quote it, paraphrase it, allude to it, argue with it and against it. Bring evidence into each and every paragraph. Two key rules to remember are: Don’t generalize; be specific and Be specific; don’t generalize. Use block quotations, and then “unpack” them by explaining the ideas those words represent. Embed terms from the block citation as you explain the argument or apply the evidence from your sources. Choose one citation to emphasize a particular point. Cite examples to illustrate what you say about the reading. Cite your evidence using the parenthetical style in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers in Hayden Library or at the bookstore.

OK, now we’ve set up the ground-rules of argumentation for your essay, we need to set up a format. It’s simple: Your essay should be six pages long, double-spaced and typed. You must include 15 to 20 citations. I recommend no more than two “block” or indented citations, and five to seven full-sentence citations. The rest should be “embedded” citations. “Embedded” citations refer to a few words or to a phrase which you have cited from the book, poem or play you’re writing about. These requirements are the same for all three papers.

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