How to Write a "Schaffer Paper"

For this course, and hopefully for all of your academic career, you will be expected to write a certain number of high-quality papers. Your success in this endeavor will depend wholly upon your ability to satisfy a number of criteria, criteria that are nearly universal in the evaluation of written work. These are:

• Thesis statement and development;
• Good use of supporting evidence (and dealing well with contrary evidence);
• Structure;
• Presentation, including good spelling, grammar, and style;
• Ensuring that the work you present in your paper is your own, and that any references used are properly cited;
• Investing your own thoughts into the work.

This handout is intended to help you to do these things. Here, I'm assuming at least a passing remembrance of things that should have been learned in first-year composition classes. If you find that you need further assistance, please visit the Writing Center as soon as possible. Writing is not something that you can immediately improve; it takes work, and utilizing this course as your only means of improving your writing (which we can all use) may not be beneficial to you.

You should also invest in two additional sources. The first should be a good spell- and grammar-checker. Most current word processing software has these included; if not, Grammatica is as good as they come, and its moderate expense will serve you well through your university career and on into the future. The second is a good writing manual. The Chicago Manual of Style and the Modern Languages Association Writer's Handbook are excellent resources - they'll help you work out the principles that go behind the writing. You should also make sure to use these resources when writing papers. Sadly, they don't work through osmosis.

Arguments

The kinds of papers you'll be writing for this course (and hopefully for your other courses) will require you to develop an argument. This isn't just a matter of saying 'I'm right, you're wrong - through a lot of filler writing. (For an idea of what an argument is or isn't, see 'The Argument Clinic' in The Secret Policemen's Other Ball.) Rather, an argument is a way of showing how you see the world and a means for convincing others that this is a good and proper way of understanding how the world works. It involves having a clear idea of what you want to say, a good command over the data through which you came to understand the world, and showing why your understanding of the world is better than others - . In order to do this, though, you have to know what you want to say. This is probably the most difficult, and most scary thing about writing. Writing involves taking a risk - putting your ideas on the line and subjecting them to possible challenge. You have to be open to the ideas and viewpoints of others, just as they have to be open to yours. It's a scary thing, but success in developing an argument in your papers will generally result in seeing an 'A - on the last page. It just means you have to think (a lot) about your work, your perspective, and your understanding of the order of things.

In this view, paper writing becomes a form of a 'sales pitch': You have to sell your ideas to your reader so that they will 'buy it. - So, for those who might say that university doesn't teach you any real-world skills, tell them you know how to persuade - how to sell.

Thesis statement and development

1.         Thesis statement

The single best way to improve a paper is by having a good, strong thesis statement. A thesis statement serves a number of functions in a paper. First and foremost, it tells the reader what it is you're writing about. This is what you're taught in all composition courses - to make sure you have a statement such as the following:

'This paper will examine the relationship between the economy and society.'

This statement shows your reader exactly what you'll be writing about - the relationship between the economy and society. However, there are a number of problems with it. First, it's vague. Assuming that this statement would appear in a paper for this course, there's no way you can talk about the entire relationship (or set of relationships) between the economy and society in a 6-12pp paper. So the statement needs to be focused a bit more:

'This paper will examine the relationship between the performance of the stock exchange and concepts of membership in society.'

This is more specific: It limits the topic area you'll have to cover in the paper, meaning that more can be done with it, i.e. the analysis can be more in-depth. But, there's no sense of what you are going to say about this relationship. In other words, all this thesis statement does is give an idea of what the topic of the paper is; it doesn't provide any clues as to what you are actually going to say. This is what a thesis statement is supposed to do: It's supposed to give your reader a hint about where you will be with your argument at the end of the paper. This statement serves that a bit better:

'This paper will argue that changes in the level of performance of the stock exchange directly affect the sense that members of society have of their personal worth to others.'

Now, this statement tells your reader what the topic is (the relationship between the economy and society), what the precise relationship you'll be discussing is (the relationship between the performance of the stock exchange and our sense of membership in society), and what you want to say about this relationship. This here is an excellent thesis statement, because it provides a road map to the paper.

You want your thesis statement to provide your reader with all of these things. The idea behind writing a paper is to show your reader not only what you think about a particular topic, but also how you think about that topic - in other words, the thought process you engage in during your analysis. This is the basis of an argumentative paper, what you'll be writing for this course.

Having a good thesis statement, though, is not the only key to getting an A. The thesis statement also sets out an obligation between you and your reader - now that you have a good thesis, you have to do your best to defend this thesis. (I won't say 'prove,' because that implies that we sociologists can prove anything. We can't.) One of the key questions your reader will ask while evaluating your work is this: How well does the author defend the thesis they set out.

2.         Thesis development

So, you have to defend your thesis. How can you do that? Well, the first thing to do is this: You have to make sure to develop your thesis well. Depending upon the nature of the question you are responding to, there are a number of different ways to do this: a literature review, providing a detailed ethnographic context for your response, detailing the experiment you performed, etc. In all of these, the key thing is to show your reader exactly how you came to understand the world in the way that you do (at least in response to the question you're answering). You need to provide your reader with the tools they need to understand your topic in the way that you do. So, you should detail the process by which you came to your response to the question.

Let's take the thesis statement above as an example. Suppose that, in preparing this paper, you did a study of how two authors talked about the relationship between individual human beings and the capitalist system. You then interviewed a number of people about how they felt when the stock market rose, fell, or stayed the same, as well as why they felt that way. You then took one of the author's ideas and integrated them with your interview data to come up with your thesis.

In order to adequately develop your thesis, then, you'd have to do the following:

• Detail the ideas of the two authors on the relationship between individuals and the capitalist system;
• Show why you see one author's ideas as better than those of the other;
• Detail in a thematic way the results of the interviews you conducted;
• Show how you integrated your author's ideas with the interview data.

In other words, you've got an outline. The outline shows the path you took to come to your ideas about the relationship between the stock exchange and our sense of personal worth. It also shows your reader how they can come to understand things in the way you do - the goal of any argumentative paper.

Use of supporting evidence

The main difference between argument-based papers and 'position/opinion papers' is this: In an argument, you must use evidence to support how you came to the conclusion you did about your topic. This means that you can't just use any old evidence you find; rather, you have to be tactical about your use of sources. One of the easiest ways your reader will know that there's no argument is if you just string together reference material (quotes, etc.) - seeing these 'patchworks of quotations - sets off all the bells and whistles that prevent you from getting an A.

So, what constitutes a good, tactical use of evidence?

• First off, it needs to be stuff that directly supports what you want to say. The works you cite should say roughly the same things you'll be saying in your papers, or should help you in developing what you want to say. That doesn't mean that you should 'parrot - what the authors say; rather, you should use quotations, citations, etc., that provide insight into how you see things. You don't necessarily need (save in the case of 'book reports') to provide your reader with 'everything I ever wanted to know about X, but was afraid to ask.'You do need to give your reader all of the tools you used to come to your conclusion.
• Second, you need to do something with your evidence. One of the keys to writing a good paper is to not force your reader to figure out why you're using certain evidence - always show your reader how your evidence supports your argument. This means, for example, 'bookending' quotations with statements regarding why you're referring to the particular bit of evidence (before the quote), and how the evidence supports your argument (after the quote). 'Hanging quotations' are one of the surest ways your reader can tell that you're relying upon them to develop your argument for you.
• Third, you need to be judicious in your use of quotations. As I said above, 'patchworks' show your reader right away that you're not doing the job you set out for yourself. Don't overuse quotations. Also, make sure that you directly quote only those passages or pieces of evidence that most strongly support your argument (or, if you're putting the authors in a debate between themselves, those that most strongly oppose another author's position). One way to make sure that you don't overuse quotes is to put them in after you've written your argument. That way, you can choose the best places to quote something directly.
  

Finally, you need to make sure that you deal well with evidence that contradicts your argument. In shorter papers, you can pretty much ignore evidence contrary to your position. However, as the papers get longer, you have to deal with contrary evidence. You need to show why the stuff you're using in the development of your argument makes more sense to you than stuff that contradicts your argument.
Structure

Your paper must have a strong internal structure. Writing an outline before you write the paper is one way to ensure that your paper has a strong structure. Also, including a path statement - a statement that tells your reader the path you will take in the development of your argument - will greatly improve the chances of maintaining the structure you want to develop. The path statement should follow your thesis statement, in the following manner:

'This paper will argue that changes in the level of performance of the stock exchange directly affect the sense that members of society have of their personal worth to others. In order to do this, I will first outline the views of Marx and Durkheim on the relationships between the individual and the capitalist system, showing that Durkheim's views are more relevant for understanding how an individual's sense of self can be bound up with the performance of the economy. Then, I will discuss a set of interviews conducted with 10 people about how the performance of the stock market affects their sense of personal worth. Finally, I will present my ideas on the psychological and social processes that tend to create a personal investment in the success of the abstract institution of the stock market.'

You can see how this path statement helps the paper. It gives a clear indication of the direction in which your argument will be going, and provides the reader with a set of signposts by which they can find themselves in your argument. It also keeps fresh in your head the structure of the paper. Finally - and this is, again, risky - it sets up an obligation between you and your reader, and provides your reader with the means to evaluate your paper.

But, it's not only the paper that needs a strong structure. Each paragraph also needs a structure. You should deal with one main idea per paragraph and develop it fully. The paragraph should start with a general statement about the idea being dealt with; move to an expansion of that idea; use evidence to support your statements about that idea; and then provide a linkage - a bridge - to the next idea you'll be dealing with.

You can see how the structure ties into the development of your thesis. Remember the game 'PB&J' from summer camp or grade school - where someone has to be told exactly how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, pretending that they know nothing about the stuff that goes into PB&J? Well, that's how you need to envision paper writing - showing your reader (whom you should presume knows nothing about your topic) exactly how to come up with your conclusions about how a particular part of the world works. The structure of the process is what works to develop your thesis. So long as you have a good structure that fully handles the process of the development of your thesis, you should be fine.

Presentation: Spelling, Grammar, and Style

You can succeed at everything we've discussed so far and still choke on a paper. How? By leaving the paper sloppy. Spelling and punctuation errors; grammatical problems; and bad style, both in writing and presentation - all these things can sink even the most well-argued papers.

One of the commonsense requirements of writing a paper is that you'll proofread it. These days, there's no excuse for not proofreading - word processing programs have software that can check spelling, punctuation, grammar, and style problems, and current ones can even change them while you're writing. This, of course, makes it even more infuriating for your reader if they spend most of their time fixing 'stupid little mistakes.' Make sure that you spell- and grammar-check your work before submitting it for evaluation. A nicely-polished paper can make a weak argument look stronger, and an ugly paper can make a strong argument look weak. Furthermore, for this course, no paper that is not spell- and grammar-checked or proofread will be accepted for evaluation. It's no longer that difficult to ensure that your work is clean, and it's infuriating to your reader when you don't take the time to submit your best work (and then expect a good grade). Hence, if your paper has an egregious number of spelling and/or grammar mistakes, it will automatically lose one full letter grade and may be returned to you for editing; and in no case will it be accepted for re-evaluation after it's been out three days. Avoid this at all costs. Take the ten minutes to read through your work.

You should also be aware of certain mistakes that get made. One of the most prevalent SLMs (stupid little mistakes) is this one: using 'it's - instead of 'its.' 'It's - = 'it is'; 'its - is the possessive of 'it.' Another is making sure that when you cite an author, you spell the author's name correctly. Most of the people we'll be reading for this course won't show up in a spell-checker, so you'll need to pay careful attention to this. Also, make sure you spell your professor's name correctly. In my case, it's: S - C - H - A - (no 'e - ) F - F - E - R.

Finally, other things to remember: Quotes that end up being longer than four typed lines should be 'offset' - indented from the body text, and single-spaced, such as:

In pre-modern settings basic trust is slotted into personalized trust relations in the community, kinship ties, and friendships. Although any of these social connections can involve emotional intimacy, this is not a condition of the maintaining of personal trust. Institutionalized personal ties and informal or informalized codes of sincerity and honor provide (potential, by no means actual) frameworks of trust. (Giddens 1990:63)

Also, note the citation format: (Author Year: Page). That's the way it should be every time you cite something, at least for this course. Other courses will require different formats; make sure you check with the professor or course handouts about this.

Plagiarism

Sadly, this is something that has to be discussed. You may be tempted to obtain other sources for your work outside those permitted in the writing of your papers (generally, no outside sources for this class). There are a huge number of places where you can get papers (of dubious quality, I might add) that you think respond to the questions I will pose to you, or sources written by more scholarly folks that fall outside the purview of this course. You may also be tempted to use the authors' own words to represent your understanding and analysis of them.

DON'T BE. I will find out. And I do not take kindly to plagiarism. Any work that appears to be academically dishonest will be taken as such, and the immediate penalty will be an F on that particular assignment at the very least, and an F in the course and submission to the university bureaucracy for judicial board proceedings at the very most. There will be no exceptions to this rule. It is expected that you understand MU policies regarding academic dishonesty and will avoid engaging in these behaviors.

In your papers, you should be sure to either directly quote material that supports your claims about the world (in this case, the entire quote should be within quotation marks and must be cited), or paraphrase material that you do not want to directly quote (and cite it). If you have any questions about the proper use of reference materials, please ask me as quickly as possible. I hate being the bad guy, but I will do it if I have to.

Your own thoughts (yikes)

Having survived my undergraduate years, I know how appealing it is to do the minimum amount of work possible. Just merely responding to the question using what the professor said in class can give one an extreme amount of security - and a grade no better than a 'B'. But, part of the university experience is supposed to be figuring out how to think on your own - coming up with your own ideas of how the world works and why it works in the way it does. This is one of the few places in the world and the few times in your lives where you have the opportunity to expand your mind and be able to state your ideas without fear of recrimination or personal attack. For the rest of your lives (save if you choose to stay within the university), you and your thoughts will often be beholden to another - your boss, your spouse, or others - and often you will be legally required to keep things to yourself or to sell your ideas to others. Finally, this is the time in which you figure out what kind of a person you are; this, of course, requires that you think about things in different ways and figure out which way you want to see and be in the world. What I'm trying to say is this: Do you really want to be and think like part of the herd, or do you want to be the penguin in the hawaiian shirt?

For this course, and hopefully for the rest of your lives, you will be required to think differently about the world. Your mind will be bent. And the assignments you'll be asked to do will require that you deal with this. The only way to get an 'A' in this course (aside from writing papers that succeed on all the previous issues) is to invest your own thoughts into your work. You should strive to think beyond the authors' words; to see how what they say applies to your own life; to see how the world has changed beyond what the authors saw or could have envisioned; to see how what the authors say can be utilized in changing the world. For the papers you'll be writing, you should not merely respond to the question, but make the question a part of yourself and go beyond it. Find a way to apply the question to your own life, and find bridges between your own life and the questions we'll be dealing with in this course. That is where success in this course lies.