The Writing Center

by Ruth Rogers ‘07

As chaotic as life may seem at times, there is an order to the universe that is reflected in everything that exists. This order means that things don’t generally happen in a random sequence; instead they tend to start at the beginning, progress through the middle, and finish at the ending. Along the way, each step prepares for the next and each builds on the one that preceded it, so that what is happening flows smoothly from its beginning through to its ending. It’s good that this is how it works; otherwise we’d all be insane.

Imagine how confused you would be if days came in random order. What if you woke up next week expecting it to be Sunday, but found that it was actually Wednesday? And what if Wednesday was followed by Monday, then Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Saturday, until finally your week ended on Thursday? On any given day you might have homework due that hadn’t been assigned yet, or an exam over material you hadn’t learned. A friend might be angry for something you hadn’t said yet, and you might have a bruise in a place where you hadn’t been bumped.

“Obviously,” you’re probably thinking, “nobody could live that way. Things have to happen in the right sequence to make sense.” Of course they do. It’s a ridiculous example, and I know that. In fact it’s no less preposterous than what I’m going to say next: When you write a paper, you should always start it at the beginning, and finish it at the ending.

I realize that movies and stories don’t always begin at the beginning. Some of them, like Pulp Fiction and Memento, happen pretty much like the crazy mixed-up week I just talked about. But those are movies, and the characters in them don’t know any better, so they seem to take it in stride. We’re talking about real life, though, and real life always happens in order. For our purposes, the beginning really is the best place to start. From there you should progress smoothly and in sequence through the middle parts, with each part preparing the way for the next and each building on what came before. And finally, you should finish at the end. This makes things much less confusing for your readers, who in this case happen to be your instructors. Trust me — you really don’t want to confuse your instructors.

The Beginning: Tell Them What You’re Going to Tell Them

In accordance with my own advice, let’s begin at the beginning. In speech writing, there is an old adage that says:

Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.

It works just as well for papers as for speeches. The beginning is the introduction, and is where you “tell them what you’re going to tell them.”

Don’t label your introduction. APA style doesn’t allow the word Introduction as a level heading, because it’s assumed that what comes first is the introduction. Besides, if the reader can’t figure out from its content that it’s the introduction, then you haven’t done it right. Also, unless you’re writing a really monster-sized paper, you should be able to fit your introduction into a single paragraph. If you have to start a new paragraph before you’ve finished introducing your topic, something has probably gone wrong.

The introduction is where you lay the groundwork for the rest of the paper, telling the reader what your paper is about, why your topic is relevant and to whom (you and your reader, most likely), and what territory you’re going to cover. The trouble with this, obviously, is that it means you actually have to know at the outset what it is you plan to write; you can’t just dive in and figure it out as you go along. This really cramps the style of those spontaneous souls (myself included) who detest planning ahead, but it’s a necessary evil if you want to write good papers. It’s the very hardest part of the paper to write, too — once you’ve got the introduction written, the rest is all downhill. Well, except for a slight bump at the conclusion, but we’ll get to that later.

The Middle: Tell Them

When you’ve got your introduction figured out, you can progress on into the body of your paper. This is the “tell them” part, and it will usually contain multiple paragraphs. This is where flow is important. Each thought should progress smoothly into the next; each paragraph building on what came before and laying the groundwork for what is to follow. The first sentence of a paragraph is important to this flow, and generally should take one of two forms. It may be a topic sentence, sort of mini-introduction to the paragraph, preparing the reader for what is to follow, or it may serve as a transition, easing the reader smoothly from one paragraph to the next.

One slight variant on this theme is a paper which compares two or more things. In this type of paper you might choose to describe each thing in its own paragraph, and the order of the comparing paragraphs may not matter. There is still a flow here, though, because the paragraphs should be constructed similarly, and each should do its describing in the same way, examining the same attributes of each thing in the same ways. So while the order is less important, since it doesn’t matter which thing is examined first, there is still a flow, with a sense of smoothness and harmony as the reader moves from one paragraph to the next.

As you write each paragraph in the body of your paper, keep checking back to the beginning. Does what you are writing conform to what you promised in your introduction? If not, you either need to pull your paragraph back on course, or rethink whether your introduction really said what you meant it to say. Have you covered all the territory that your introduction said you were going to cover? If not, you’ve got more paragraphs to write, or again, you need to rework your introduction. If you do this continual checking and tweaking as you go along, keeping your paper on track as you go, you’ll still know where you are when you reach the end.

The Ending: Tell Them What You Told Them

Once you’ve said all that you planned to say, it’s time to finish. The last part of the paper is the conclusion, and for our purposes, it also consists of a single paragraph. This is where you “tell them what you told them.” It’s pretty much your introduction, turned around and stuck on the bottom so it’s looking back instead of forward. The hard part here is not so much figuring out what to say; you’ve said it all twice at this point, so it’s pretty much spelled out for you. The difficulty usually comes in finding a way to say it again without sounding redundant, and in a conclusive sort of way that wraps up the paper and leaves the reader feeling satisfied that all the loose ends have been caught up and woven in.

The conclusion will be a final check that your paper has said what it promised to say. It should contain each of the elements that you put into the introduction, only in a “now you see what I meant” sort of way, as it succinctly reviews the topic and the territory that was covered, making sure the reader now sees their relevance. And it should never, ever (pay attention!) ever contain anything new. If it wasn’t in the rest of the paper, it doesn’t belong here either. If you cite a reference in your conclusion, you are almost certainly breaking this rule. This bears repeating, so I will repeat it: Don’t introduce new material in your conclusion! And another thing: don’t start off your conclusion by saying “In conclusion…” That’s a cop-out. If the reader can’t tell by reading your conclusion that it’s a conclusion, you’ve mucked it up. Labeling it as the conclusion isn’t going to un-muck it, so forget the label and build yourself a conclusion worthy of the name.

You Can Do It!

It’s really not hard to learn how to build this framework. Get comfortable with how a paper should flow from beginning to end. Look for it in the sample papers that are available. Try to pick out the important elements in the introduction, and check them off as they are addressed in the body of the paper, while also watching for anything in the body that wasn’t covered in the introduction. Look at the conclusion. Are the elements you picked out of the introduction all accounted for? See how the writer moves from one paragraph to the next. Are the transitions smooth and seamless? Do the paragraphs have topic sentences or transitions?

Writing papers doesn’t have to be scary or exceedingly difficult. You just have to approach the process in a logical and methodical way. Begin at the beginning. Know what your topic is, and why it is important. Progress through the middle. Spell out the details in a logical order, flowing smoothly from one thought to the next, letting each element build on the last, until you’ve supplied the information you promised your reader. Finish at the ending, reviewing the goals set by your introduction and how they were met. Work at mastering this structure. It will give you a framework for writing that you can use for any paper you are assigned, a “plan of attack” that will make the process much less random and frustrating, both for you and for your readers.