Good questions will elicit detail useful for the paper and make the interview lively and fun for both of you. Plan out questions ahead of time. Try some of these:

Describe a typical day at your workplace.

How did you arrive in this field or job? Would you choose it again? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I read an article that said one of the challenges in your field is [ . . . ]. How does this issue impact you?

People have this impression [ . . . ] about your career. In what ways is this accurate or inaccurate?

What is something people don’t generally know or realize about your field?

I’ve been thinking about/hearing about [ . . .] in your field. What can you tell me about that?

How do publications or organizations help you in your field?

Before your interview, write out specific questions related to the theme or direction you plan to take in the paper. When you make arrangements, let your candidate know how much time you think you will need, and at the end of the interview, ask if you can contact him or her again in case you need more detail.

We’d be happy to help you write out questions before spring break! Or check out this handout of other suggestions. How to Interview for the Worker Profile

-So, my professor says that I should quote more, but I just don’t know how.
-I use quotes in every paper. I quote all the time. Practically every sentence has a quote or a paraphrase. Why doesn’t my professor like it?
-I quote well, but my professor thinks I should ‘integrate’ them more. What does she mean?

All of these concerns and questions are good ones to have because they give us a place to begin. The answer for each is surprisingly similar because it involves how we think about quotes.

So here are some questions to get you thinking.

1. Why would someone use a quote?
2. If you want to use a quote, why use it? Does it illustrate better than you are able? Will it promote your argument? Show a hole in it with which you can wrestle?
3. Why quote right there?
4. Have you summarized, analyzed, and synthesized it into your paragraph?

“BUT that’s just how to think about it! How do I actually go about it?”

That’s also a good question because that depends on context. I like to introduce the author of the quote earlier in my summary of what the quote says and use the name in a phrase just prior to the quote. That looks a bit like:

In his text concerning the great influence the water bottle has had on the college campus, author J. Doe promotes investigating the contents of water bottles in every classroom. Doe writes, “Water bottles are certainly important for hydration, but they are also locations of contamination! Therefore, students who not properly trained in sanitation techniques will become ill or make others ill unless administrations crack down on water bottle use” (45). Concerned with the…

There are other ways of incorporating quotes that can also be very effective. This is just a starting point. When your own paper still stumps you, bring it in and we’ll take a look at it together. That is the best kind of help for me!

Two pairs of eyes is better than one.

Congratulations to all freshmen on finishing your first CORE semester. Good luck tonight, if you are putting on finishing touches on your portfolio. We enjoyed talking with many of you as you worked on your final revisions.

Probably the phrase we used most often this week is “Topic Sentence”! Begin most paragraphs with a sentence that names a position the paragraph supports. You’ll find the paragraph is  easy to write. A paragraph that begins with a fact will be harder to guide to be a support for your thesis.

Secondly, use key phrases from your thesis statement as you write your paragraphs. This will help the reader recognize your arguments.

We will be open days next week, but not evenings or Sunday, Dec. 15. See you daytimes!

So you have just received your essay assignment, and now you want to get started. But where should you begin? Should you just start writing, hoping that it will all make coherent sense in the end? Obviously, you don’t want to start writing without a plan, for it is easy to deviate from a specific topic and start talking about something else. So how should you get organized and get your essay started?

The first thing you need to do is analyze the essay prompt. Within a set of instructions given to you by your professor, you need to figure out exactly what he or she is asking of you and what your essay topic should be about. For example, say you are given the following prompt:

“Describe the events leading up to the American Revolution, and analyze the effects of Great Britain’s new taxation policy on the colonists’ need to revolt. Was ‘taxation without representation’ the biggest issue for the colonists?”

This prompt tells you exactly what you need to focus your essay on. Firstly, you need to describe the events leading up to the American Revolution. In this part of your essay, you would simply tell your reader what happened, leaving your own personal opinion out of the discussion. In the second portion of your essay, you would analyze the effects of Great Britain’s new taxation policy on the colonists’ need to revolt. This will require you to move beyond a mere description of this taxation policy and towards a more in-depth look at how this change in policy affected the colonists’ need for independence and self-determination. The third part of the prompt is asking for your educated opinion: was this policy change the biggest issue for the colonists? Here you would either argue in favor of this view or against it, giving supporting evidence from the course texts and lectures to back up your claim.

Now if your prompt is not as specific as the one mentioned above - say if your professor asks you to write a 10-page paper on some aspect of the American Revolution, then you might need to brainstorm for ideas, keeping in mind that your topic needs to be focused and specific. Writing a 10-page paper on the entire revolution would be too general and superficial (there are whole books committed to the American Revolution!). Instead you need to narrow your topic to a specific aspect of the revolution. “Women and the American Revolution” and “warfare technology of the American Revolution” are narrowed topics, but even these will need to be narrowed further. “How women helped further a sense of patriotism during the American Revolution” and “how new military tactics and technology influenced the American Revolution” are good examples of narrowed, focused topics.

Now that you’ve analyzed the prompt and what your professor expects of you, it’s time to formulate a thesis statement and plan your essay. Some people come up with the thesis first and then plan out the essay; others wait until after they have established a conceptual framework to write a good thesis. The best method is, of course, whichever way works for you. In coming up with a thesis statement, make sure it describes your essay topic and your opinion of it (see the section on Writing your Thesis Statement for more information).

Planning your essay requires that you outline which topics you plan to discuss. You need to outline your essay from start to finish, whether you find it more helpful to come up with a very detailed outline of everything you plan to discuss in each paragraph of your essay or whether you find it easier to briefly note what will be discussed in each paragraph. In our above example, you would start with an introduction (that includes your thesis statement), then you would (using as many paragraphs as you need) describe the events leading up to the American Revolution, analyze the effects of Britain’s new taxation policy, and then give your educated opinion as to whether this policy change was the biggest issue for the American colonists. You would finish your essay with a conclusion that not only restates your thesis but also, and more importantly, states how your essay topic is significant.

Now that you’ve planned your essay, you can begin writing it. The essay pre-writing stage is indeed very important because it allows you to look at not only what you’ll be writing but, more importantly, how and in what way you’ll be getting your point across. Write more coherent and thought-provoking essays - and make the writing process itself easier - by taking time to thoughtfully plan your essay.

Eric Gutierrez
Writing Center Consultant

THE BLUE LIGHT SHOW: episode 2

How is peer editing going for you? Will your struggles with paper #3 stand as evidence that Simone Weil may be right? In this 5-minute pod cast students from Prof. Berrier’s CORE class explain how to set up a good peer editing group and ponder Weil.

 

 THE BLUE LIGHT SHOW, EPISODE 2: CORE class chats about peer editing and Simone Weil: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You’ve probably heard time and again how important it is to have a thesis statement in your essay. But what exactly is a thesis statement, and where in your essay should you put your thesis once you’ve come up with it?

Its helpful to think of your thesis as a one-sentence summary of your essay topic and your attitude or opinion of your topic. In essence your essay will explain and elaborate on your thesis in much greater detail.

For example, let’s say you find yourself writing about the following topic

the Internet and its effect on college life

and you decide that your thesis statement should be

“The Internet has an impact on college life.”

then writing an essay describing the fact that the Internet does have an effect on college life would be to make a general observation. You wouldn’t be engaged in an analytical discussion about a topic because you fail to explain how this topic is significant. Instead, as one of my old profs would say, you’d be writing a “duh” paper. It’s clear that the Internet has an impact on college life. So what?

In order to write an effective essay about the Internet and its effect on college life, you would have to include your take on this matter; that is, how this topic is significant in your eyes. Is the Internet beneficial for students? How so? Or do you feel that the Internet (and all the time spent on Facebook and Myspace) is too much of a distraction for college students? How so? Remember also that you should choose a side and stick with it. To say that the Internet has both positive and negative aspects would be “straddling the fence,” and you never want to do that. Instead, argue a particular side but acknowledge briefly the opposing viewpoint – what they believe, why they believe it, and what makes their belief wrong in your eyes.

Thus an effective thesis statement, which will be argued throughout the rest of the essay, will include a topic and your opinion of the topic . But where in your essay should you insert the thesis statement? Generally your thesis should be placed at the end of your introduction paragraph. Because the thesis lets your reader know exactly what the essay will cover, it should be placed in your intro after your attention-grabbing sentence(s). This way the reader will know exactly what you’re arguing and will be able to follow along as you explain and prove your thesis.

Eric Gutierrez
Writing Center Consultant

 

 THE BLUE LIGHT show - A Reading From Genesis: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Introducing the Valparaiso University Writing Center’s first shot at having a podcast! We’re excited to explore all of the possibilities– from recorded rants about thesis statements to readings from CORE.

Our first podcast is a reading of Genesis, trying to bring to life the oral tradition from which it came. We *totally* took advantage of the sound effects and music to create a space for the story to come to life.

Listen, then give us a sentence or two about what you think of our first podcast. Do you have any ideas? What worked for you? What would you like to hear?

How many times have you heard this writing advice: Show us, don’t tell us. Readers prefer action over narrative so they can picture events as they may have happened. But how do you carry out this advice? You have already used adjectives and adverbs and told what happened . . .but this still may be telling, not showing.

With a few additions, you can easily revamp a passage to show.

(1) Add dialogue: Let people talk to show their feelings and motives.
(2) Add movement: Let people move around to show what’s happening and what they’re thinking. You can imply many complex ideas with through people’s actions.
(3) Add examples that show: Give readers more than one example. In fact, this might be where you can add the dialogue and action.
(4) Replace “is/are” verbs with verbs that show action: grabbed, argued, flung, considered, extolled, worried, announced, etc.

Compare these two paragraphs in this pdf–it will show you the idea, rather than our just telling you the steps! how-to-show-more-tell-less.pdf

CORE tip: Apply these techniques to revisions of your creation paper. Maybe showing more will bring it to life even more.

When you sit down to write your papers, you probably have a couple goals in mind:
1) getting the paper done by the deadline (which might be very soon),
2) answering the prompt in such a way as to obtain an “A” or at least a passing grade, and 3) providing evidence and support for that prompt from either the text that you’re discussing (CORE or CC) or from various bibliographic sources (for your history, economic, business classes). Thinking about how your writing style, word choice, thesis and argument affects the strength and personality of your writing voice…probably not on your radar, especially not at 3:00 am the day before your paper is due.

BUT I would like to argue that thinking about your writing voice is one of the most important things you can do to develop good writing (and good grades) both when you are taking some time to improve your writing skills and when you’re staring down the gauntlet at the paper due date.

A few reasons why:
–If you assert a weak thesis and argument in a strong manner, your paper still may be better than a paper with a strong thesis that is clouded by and unclear paper structure, poor word choice, and long, complicated sentences. And conversely even if you assert a strong thesis, if your voice is weak then your paper will be weak.
–A paper with a confident tone and clear ideas is more enjoyable to read from a professor’s (and writing consultant’s) standpoint.
–Writing is more fun when you feel confident in what you’re saying and you have the tools to know how to say what you want well.
–Being aware of your style and writing habits (both bad and good) can tell you what mistakes to look for in earlier drafts, what to focus on in your writing, and how much time and effort you’ll need to put into different aspects of your writing. [For example, if you’re great at using imagery and making your voice unique and accessible, you’ll probably have little problem writing narrative essays, but you might have more difficulty confining yourself to a thesis and a more formulaic writing prompt].

So, given these reasons what are a few things you can do to develop your writing voice?

–Save your first drafts and your early papers, wait a few weeks and then look for your own bad writing habits - are my sentences simple or complex? do I use a lot of prepositional phrases and extra clauses? do i focus on my thesis and refer back to it throughout my paper or do i find my thesis after writing a draft? (You could set up an appointment at the writing center and have a consultant go through these with you!)

–Name three ways that make your writing different from the writing of your peers (perhaps after you do a peer review). For example, perhaps you are most comfortable with short, clear sentences or maybe you’re great at using metaphors. In your next paper, focus on those strengths and begin to intentionally work on strengthening your writing gifts in those areas. When you’re confident in how you structure your ideas, your writing voice will take on a new tone of authority, and that’s the goal!

–Pick up one of your favorite authors or borrow a classmate’s paper (preferably someone who got an A!) and notice how they use their language. Why is it that you pay attention to what they are saying? Anything noticeable about the way they present their ideas? Interesting word choice? Sentence structure? Think about ways you can synthesize some of these ideas into your own voice and make it into your own.

Easy Tidbits for you last-minute writers (give yourself 20 minutes to work on voice stuff):
–Scratch all passive sentences and change them to active voice wherever possible.
–Use active verbs and descriptive adjectives.
–Scratch ALL COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE! Do not dumb down your prose! If it sounds like something you wouldn’t say when you’re dressed up in a suit and giving a formal presentation in front of the peers you respect the most…it shouldn’t be in your paper either.
–Look at your introduction and conclusion: make sure they are concise and not broad but focus on getting your reader to your thesis/subject of the paper and then provide a way of tying up loose ends in your conclusion and answering the question “why I read this.” If you structure your ideas well at the beginning and end it will at least structure and frame any madness that is in the body of your paper.

Good Luck! And come in and talk to me on Thursday and Friday afternoons if you’d like to really make your voice come through strong on paper!

Your friendly writing center consultant,

Hannah Cartwright

Have you ever wondered how Adam and Eve passed their time in Eden? You’ll find out what the Genesis account left out in these excerpts from the diaries of Adam and Eve, “discovered” by Mark Twain. Who knew Eden was at Niagara Falls?

Follow the couple’s first few days–”This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way,” notes Adam.

About her creation, Eve takes a speculative stance: ” . . .if I am an experiment, am I the whole of it? No, I think not; I think the rest of it is part of it. I am the main part of it, but I think the rest of it has its share in the matter. Is my position assured, or do I have to watch it and take care of it? The latter, perhaps. Some instinct tells me that eternal vigilance is the price of supremacy.”

What does the couple think about the apples? Find out in their diaries.