Writing your Paper: General Guidelines!

1. The argument: general introduction

The argument must be an interpretive hypothesis your paper
formulates and demonstrates. The argument should be
recognizably yours. !
!
You should take responsibility for what you argue, so you should
always say “I”, not “we”. You are not an impersonal entity, but a
human being, with a name and a surname, who is making a claim,
and who wants to persuade other people that he or she is right –
and, very often, that someone else is wrong. !
This means that the argument should always be in conversation with other
arguments. Arguments are always connected to previous debates, to what
we know, and to what we know we don’t know. Much like Victorian explorers,
you should also complement of rectify a preexistent body of knowledge. You
should explore uncharted territory in order to add new countries to existing
maps.!
Being a hypothesis that needs demonstration, the argument
should be supported by textual and contextual (historical,
cultural, literary) evidence. !
!
If you don’t use quotations and comment on them
extensively, you fail to provide evidence. !
2. Preparing the argument!
The argument should be formulated and tested a long time before
starting to write, talking to teachers, colleagues, experts. As a student,
you exist in a community. You are not Frankenstein in his castle, you
are part of a world-wide team of scientists. Your work has a social
dimension. !
!
What you write should enter a conversation, or try to redirect it. Your
argument should say: “ Hey guys, you forgot this, take a look, it’s
important””
On the practical level, what should you do to prepare your
argument? !
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The first and most obvious piece of advice: you should read a lot
and take a lot of notes before writing. !
!
You should carefully select the textual quotations you mean to use,
develop your analysis and interpretation gradually, and make sure
that they can be argued logically and consistently. !
Note that you may not use all of the quotations you select,
but it’s good to have a firm grasp on the text(s) you want to
discuss: you may for example decide to provide short
references to secondary passages that could contribute to
the demonstration of your thesis.
At the practical level, this means that questions of style and
presentation should come into play later, only when you have
an argument and you have developed a sense of how to
demonstrate it persuasively. !
!
Very often, however, you have new ideas even at the writing
stage. This means that you may have to change the
argument and modify the overall structure of your paper
considerably.!
2.1. Using theory to make a good argument!
A theory offers you categories you will use in our analysis:
“genre”, “suspense”, “narrative”, “inference” are, to mention
a few obvious examples, part of very different theoretical
apparatuses (semiotics, narratology, etc) that sometimes
overlap. Their meaning can change considerably
depending on the apparatus(es) you deploy.!
!
Theories are important for a number of reasons. For one thing,
they make you see things. They give you models that help you
rationalize your perception of phenomena. Theoretical
understanding is based on ready-made, but open-ended,
definition of phenomena that help us perceive and explain
them.!
Theories, however, are not written in stone. They exist to be
contradicted and perfected. This is taken for granted in strictly
scientific research. According to the influential epistemologist
Karl Popper, all scientific theories should be falsifiable. !
!
If you read something that does not lend itself to test and
falsification, it’s unscientific balderdash. Literary criticism is
filled with such things, with vague claims that don’t mean much.
Be wary of vague concepts. They serve only those who
formulated them. !
You should also keep in mind that using a theory is not like joining a
religion (although at times some theoretical schools have acquired
the status of a lay cult: see, for example, deconstruction and the
stunning influence of Jacques Derrida in the US in the 80s). You
should use more than one theory in order to develop a rich
understanding of textual phenomena.!
!
E.g. You can combine, in the same paper, the idea of “parody” as
developed by Hutcheon and Daniele Barbieri’s theory of graphic
narratives.!
The place of the theory in the paper changes, of course,
according to your purpose, and to the public you have in
mind. For example, if you are writing for an audience of
narratologists, you may want to highlight that you are
using a specific theory more carefully and extensively,
engaging in a conversation with the field of narratology. !
In most literary criticism, it is common to integrate the
theory in your discourse, because you don’t address an
audience of theorists. In criticism, you don’t engage in a
conversation with theory (“narratology”, etc.), but with a
specific field of literary studies (Defoe studies, eighteenth-
century studies, etc.). !
3. Transforming an argument into a structure!
A paper should be well structured, and this means
that the paper should be consistent, that it should be
governed by logical sequentiality. Everything should
play a part in the demonstration of your argument.
Every step should lead to the next one. Your
argument should build up in a gradual, and wholly
consistent, cumulation of significant statements.!
You should always check, therefore, that each part of your
paper is consistent with your argument. !
!
At a local level, moreover, you should make sure that
paragraphs are well connected. Always check the last sentence
of a paragraph and the first sentence of the paragraphs that
follows. The last sentence of a paragraph should set up the
onset of the next paragraph.!
3.1. Paragraphs !
Paragraphs are logical units, and the building blocks of your
papers. Please note that in Italian paragraphs are larger
sections with a title or a number, while the smaller blocks of
texts we are discussing now are commonly called “capoversi”.
From now on, we will call them “paragrafi” also in Italian.!
As I have highlighted, paragraphs should have solid
connections, both external and internal. Loosely
connected paragraphs can be acceptable in creative
writing – for example in Tristram Shandy and in Ulysses –
not in academic writing. !
!
Paragraph should also have solid internal organization.
There’s no such thing as a template for a perfect
paragraph. However, we can highlight some principles
based on common sense (for a thorough, useful
discussion of paragraph structure see A. Fowler, How to
Write). !
In general, paragraphs have one or more
introductory sentences that establish a connection
with the previous paragraph and prepare the more
specific sentence(s) that articulate the core
meaning of the paragraph. !
To sum up: make sure that each paragraph is well
connected to the preceding paragraph and to the
following one, that it contains a clear-cut topic
sentence, and that the idea in the sentence is
developed, demonstrated, and supported in the
sentences that follow.!
4. Quotations!
Quotations play a crucial part in humanistic papers.
Economists, chemists, and physicists have experimental
data. We have quotations.!
!
Quotations are the data we use to support our argument.
However, quotations in themselves are not enough. They
should be analyzed and interpreted. !
!
In other words: each quotation is followed by lines of
comment. !
!
Each quotation gives you an opportunity to develop
your argument, to highlight more nuances, or supply
more evidence, of the phenomenon you want to
explain. Each quotation gives you the opportunity to
specify your position.!
!
You should also quote from critical or theoretical works
if you want to define the methodological foundations of
your argument (theory) or complicate/contradict a
previous critical idea (criticism). !
 5. Specific kinds of paragraph: the introductory
paragraph, the conclusions!
!
You should frame your paper with an introductory and a conclusive
paragraph.!
!
Introductory paragraphs supply context information for your
argument. For example, they can summarize the results of previous
studies on your subject. Or they can highlight the lack, and the need,
of studies such as the one you are going to present to readers.!
They should, moreover, contain your thesis statement: a
clear sequence of sentences that state, in advance, what
you are going to demonstrate in the paper. This will help
readers follow the line of reasoning you want to pursue. !
!
For example: “In this paper, I will argue that Quentin
Tarantino’s movies are characterized by a consistent use
of analexis that has the function of normalizing improbable
events, re-setting the expectations of the audience.”
The conclusive paragraph should sum up your
findings, adding final remarks that can also open up
new paths for research. It usually includes ideas that
do not appear in the thesis statement. !
!
6. Style and idiom!
It’s obviously difficult to write idiomatically in a foreign
language. Your (and my) sentences could be grammatically
correct, but unidiomatic. !
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Writing idiomatically is the result of long training and self-
training. You can’t learn how to write idiomatically overnight.
Through practice and study, you should develop your own
idiomatic idiolect: a set of phrases you can use safely. !
However, you will always explore new territories. At
times, you will feel insecure about your style. Learning
how to write in a foreign language – as well as in one’s
native language, to say the truth – is a never ending
process. !
— Imitation. Before writing a paper, read theoretical
and critical writing you like, try to imitate the style of a
master who manages to convey his or her idea
strongly and clearly (for example W. M. Abrams, or
Ian Watt).!
— Using specific dictionaries. For example, the
Oxford Collocations Dictionary, which exemplifies the
idiomatic use of most words, is a powerful writing tool.!
— Using the internet. If you google sentences or phrases,
you can check how frequently they are used in English.
Note that you can also check how often sentence
structures are used by substituting superfluous words with
an asterisk: “Google is a * tool for on-line research.”
7. Peer review!
Exchange papers with your peers to make sure that your
argument is intelligible and persuasive. In good cultures of
writing, reading each other’s works is essential. !
Always keep in mind that writing is a social activity. Solitary
geniuses don’t exist, and if they ever existed, they were not
really solitary – they had had good teachers, and read a lot.!
In other words: if T. S. Eliot had Ezra Pound, !
Roberto has Silvia