Caveat Scriptor: The following tips and guidelines for freshman composition
classes are provided by P. Aaron Potter, an instructor of English at the
University of California, Riverside, for the benefit of his composition students.
Other composition students or instructors are welcome to make use of
this material with the understanding that while much of it reflects generally
accepted writing practice, it is also indicative of the personal tastes of
the author and should in no way be considered an authoritative document.
This is advice I give to my students on how to succeed at writing
in my class -- your mileage may vary. All material is solely
a product of P. Aaron Potter and does not reflect the official policy or
opinions of the Department of English, the University of California, the
government of the United States, or the United Federation of Planets.
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Organize your material before you begin your first draft. Create
a scratch-outline with a logical flow before you begin composition -- it
will reduce the amount of time you spend searching for appropriate transitions
and segues ten-fold, at the very least. A surprising number of students
are under the missapprehension that their work is at its best when it is
written extemporaneously. This may be true for a vanishingly small
number of essays which are intended to reveal emotional aspects of some personal
event in a stream-of-consciousness style exercise. For every other
assignment, including the relation of first-person events and opinions, outline
first, compose afterwards. For a suggested approach to the writing process
itself, see the Writing Process page.
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Before you begin proofreading: Give yourself some time! Take a break
of at least a few hours between the time you complete your first draft and
the time you begin proofreading. This will allow you to approach your material
from a fresh perspective, without the clutter of what you meant to
write getting in the way of your assessment of wat you did write.
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Use your spell-checker. It's not cheating...it's merely a tool, and
no-one is under the impression that it's doing your writing for you (unless,
of course, it is. See the section on "malapropism" errors above).
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Have someone else read your paper. A third party can provide you with
a number of benefits: for example, they may detect grammatical and mechanical
errors which you have missed. More importantly, they can provide valuable
feedback regarding your ability to communicate your thesis: after reading
your paper, what is their impression of your argument, its strengths and
weaknesses? If it differs significantly from what you intended to convey,
you probably need to re-approach your material.
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To check the 'flow' of your paper, try reading it aloud. Non-sequiturs, logical
jumps and lack of transitions and transitional phrases are sometimes more
evident upon reading the paper out loud.
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Double and triple check any references, bibliographic notations, proper names,
or quotations from outside materials. When you quote or refer to external
sources, you are efectively puting words in the mouths of other authors:
misrepresenting them or their positions is a grievous and avoidable error.
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Make certain you include your name on your paper.
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