给外国学生的写作建议：Writing Papers in the United States by Peter Timmann

angeikimUID: 4857

Writing Papers in the United States—A Guide for Foreign Students

by Peter Timmann

it is likely that as a student you have written many papers and essays in your home country. You may feel confident about writing essays in English because of your past writing experience. Perhaps your only concern is that some weaknesses in grammar and vocabulary will cause problems between you and your American instructors. Many foreign students in the United States have thought this way and have been disappointed when their teachers returned papers or compositions with critical comments on the content rather than the form. The reason for the students' unpleasant surprise is that paper writing in the United States generally follows certain rules and conventions. This guide will help you attract a reader's attention, state clearly what you want to achieve, structure your ideas effectively, keep the reader's attention, and conclude your paper—all within a format familiar to American readers.

This guide will not teach you much about grammar or style. If you need help in those areas, you can contact your university's writing lab or writing center, practice on PLATO or a similar computer program, consult native speakers, study books, or take additional English courses.

I shall assume that you already adequately understand prewriting, the process of finding a topic and generating and organizing ideas. Presumably you have had to write papers that required some research. Should you need assistance with any aspect of prewriting, you can talk to your instructor or refer to the list of books at the end of this guide.

One last word. In any academic setting you are expected to indicate all of your sources. You must never plagiarize, that is, use someone else's words or ideas without acknowledging the source.

Topics, Thesis, and Introduction

While prewriting steps are the same in most cultures, the actual structure of a paper in the United States may be quite different from the papers you have written in your home country. Put very simply, American instructors will expect you to write papers following this format: state the point you wish to make (introduction and thesis); prove your point (body of the paper); and sum up what you have written (conclusion).

Foreign students (as well as many Americans) are often not aware of the crucial distinction between a topic and a thesis and, therefore, write papers without a purpose. If, for example, an instructor asks students for a paper on the general topic "Public Transportation in the United States," students will frequently research the subject conscientiously but write down only their findings. These students might give statistics and show that most people travel by car, plane, and bus while only a few take the train. Their papers deal with the topic by describing a situation without facing issues and taking sides, leaving the reader without a sense of direction.

A writer gives the reader a sense of direction by writing a thesis. This thesis provides the specific, central idea of the paper. For example, for the previous topic, the thesis, or focus, could be "The federal government should stem the decline of passenger railroads by imposing additional taxes on gasoline and plane fuel." In this example, the writer indicates to any reader that this paper on public transportation has a specific message that goes beyond just giving topical information. The writer now has a focus for the essay and the reader knows that he or she will be confronted with a new idea. A thesis, then, gives a specific focus to the topic and thus to the whole paper. It signals to the audience that reading the paper will be worth their time.

Usually, however, a paper will not start with the thesis. Rather, the writer will build up to it. A new idea or perspective on a subject may not arouse a reader's interest without some preparation. Therefore, the writer must get the reader's interest before the reader has actually reached the thesis. The introduction to a paper has two functions: it "hooks" the reader and it builds toward the thesis. The transportation paper could, for example, open with the following question: "Why do many more travelers in Europe than in America prefer trains to cars and buses?" The attention of the average American reader will probably be aroused more by that question than by first discussing the invention of the wheel.

Most likely you would not still be reading this guide if it began, "Ever since humanity learned to read and write, people have been faced with the question of how to tackle a problem in writing." Such a general statement is not interesting enough to hold the attention of the reader who cannot afford to waste time. It is important to remember, then, that the introduction to your paper must catch your reader's attention and lead up to the thesis. The thesis, in turn, must reflect the writer's fresh approach to the topic so that the reader feels sufficiently motivated and curious to read the whole paper.

The Body of the Paper

After capturing the reader's initial interest with the introduction, the writer is responsible for taking the reader through the paper, step by step. In other words, the writer maps out a course for the reader. Even if a paper has an interesting introduction and an original thesis, the writer must not assume that the reader will agree with or follow the ideas presented without questioning their logic and validity. The writer must structure the sequence of ideas carefully and logically to avoid confusing the reader. Each paragraph should deal with one central idea, introduced early, preferably in a topic sentence, so the reader knows what to expect in the paragraph. A reader will be able to follow an argument better if the writer has developed the ideas logically and has provided transitions between paragraphs.

Once the central idea of the paragraph is established, the writer should make sure that the focus remains on that idea. American readers expect writers not to stray from their point. The writer who deals with several major ideas in one paragraph will definitely confuse readers. When starting the previous paragraph, I was tempted to write that the focus of a paragraph should be on one idea and that the central idea ought to be well supported. While revising the paragraph, I realized that the question of support requires its own paragraph. I had put two ideas from my outline into a single paragraph. By following an outline closely, writers will usually avoid the mistake of treating several ideas together, as additional ideas are often afterthoughts that occur while the writer is writing a draft. If the new ideas are valuable, the writer must change the structure of the paper, providing proper paragraphs for each idea.

Should new ideas not deserve separate paragraphs, the writer may still be able to use them, together with other evidence, to support the paragraph's main idea. It is not enough to merely state one's idea. Ideas must be supported to become forceful and convincing. If you were writing the paper on public transportation and argued that trains are a safe mode of transportation without showing evidence, a reader, thinking of some recent train accident, might disagree and say that trains are unsafe. After reading such an unsupported statement, the reader may no longer believe anything you have written. Your statement would be much more convincing if you backed it with statistics that prove the relative safety of rail transport. Writing without support results in unconvincing papers. By giving evidence, then, you make sure that you keep the reader with you throughout your paper.

Other means of keeping your readers with you, of reminding them that you are still following your initially set course, include transitions and cues. Most readers find it difficult to follow a writer's train of thought if not given the connections. I have already explained the importance of logical structure, focusing on one idea, and supporting your ideas. If you follow these hints, you will give your readers a lot of help in finding their way through your paper. You will make it even easier for them if you use an idea from your last paragraph as a transition to lead your readers into the following paragraph. In this way, you will avoid creating the impression of jumping from point to point.

Transitions are not only desirable between paragraphs, they are also necessary between sentences within one paragraph. From your own reading you probably know that one cannot keep all of the author's ideas in mind. The reader's short-term memory will have to work less if the writer has placed the important points of the sentences at the end. If you take a moment to look over the last three sentences, you will find that the main points appear toward the end, thus making it less of an effort for you to keep up with my flow of ideas. And, if you review the last two paragraphs, you will see how often I gave you cues, in this case, how often I reminded you of the necessity to keep the reader with you throughout your paper.

The Conclusion

Have you ever read an article or a book and wondered at the end what it was all about? Your readers will not have such reactions if you tell them in the beginning what you want to do and if you help them see where they are going while they are reading your ideas. My hints are mainly meant to assist you in writing the most common college essays, expository papers (essays in which you introduce and explain ideas), but you will also be able to apply these hints to the three other main categories of writing (descriptive, narrative, and argumentative) as well as to writing essay examinations.

Let us assume your readers have followed your ideas to the end of the paper. You will still need to signal to them that the paper is over. Earlier in this guide I told you that paper writing in the United States consists of three steps: say what you want to do, do it, say what you have done. I have covered the first two and will now explain the third. In your conclusion you must take up your thesis in such a way that the reader can see how successfully and convincingly it has been treated. Just as it is not enough to merely state the thesis in the opening paragraph without preparation, it is insufficient to have only one concluding sentence. A good conclusion will not only state what the writer has tried to show but will also give the reader some additional information or ideas. Such additional ideas can, for example, point out questions raised by the paper. The purpose of new ideas at the end of the paper is to keep the readers from putting the paper away without thinking about it. While the "hook" in the opener makes the reader curious about the paper, a new idea in the conclusion forces the reader into continued thought about the author's ideas.

Please do not think that since you know how to attract a reader, how to present your ideas effectively, and how to keep a reader's attention throughout the paper, you can sit back and relax. Your newly acquired skills can only be a beginning. You will certainly need to revise each paper you write. Force yourself to do this even though you may not want to look at your paper again once you have finished the draft. One rule of thumb for your revisions should be to remember that a part of writing tends to be "make-believe." That is, you have to pretend to be writing for an audience, not just for your instructor. Learning to write well takes a long time, and all good writers revise their work several times. You will be able to learn much more about writing by reading articles and books more consciously. Try to find out how other authors attract and maintain your interest. I wish you success!l

The author is Referent, International Hochschulbeziehungen, Universitat Hamburg, Moorweidenstr 18, 2 Hamburg 13, Federal Republic of Germany.

Books for Further Reading

Many companies have published handbooks on writing. In addition to these two examples, you will find many more in college bookstores and libraries.

Hodges, John C., and Mary E. Whitten. Harbrace College Handbook. 10th ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.

Fowler, H. Ramsey, and Little, Brown editors. The Little, Brown Handbook. 3rd ed. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1986.

Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1984. This book describes the generally accepted format for writing in the humanities. It contains a list of publications governing formats in other fields, such as biology, chemistry, geology, linguistics, mathematics, medicine, physics, and psychology.

tomatoeggsUID: 82073

呵呵，angei, 我刚想也介绍介绍如何写critical and reasoning 之类的导书，也在图书馆看到 Further Reading 这本书，确实不错的。问题就是一定要适应全部都是英文来说理。