BEFORE WRITING
 

1. Explore the arguments on all sides - pro and con.

2. Be fair to the opposing side - Don't misrepresent.

3. Be aware of any assumptions you may be making. Can these assumptions be supported?

4. Audience. You are always writing with someone in mind. Choose your audience as an intelligent, fairly knowledgeable person, who nevertheless holds a position contradictory to your own. Your task is to convince her about the merit of your position. To do so, your tone matters.
 
 
 
 
 

ORGANIZATION
 

1. Introduction. Clearly explain the issue you are addressing, where you stand on that issue, and roughly how you will attempt to defend that stand. It isn't a detective novel, where the reader must wait until the end to see who did it. Be upfront, be bold.

2. Body. In the body is a development of the issue you're addressing, the argumentation for your position, the main objections to your argument, and your replies to those objections. You may also require a reply to the reply of your reply to the objections! The organization of these components can vary. Note: First and second year undergraduate papers are not long. A few well-developed arguments are better than many only sketched. Readers tend to jump on your worst argument and forget the rest. So make sure your worst argument is still adequate. If not, delete it. Also, the more arguments you present, the greater the chances of introducing inconsistency.

3. Conclusion. Here you sum up what your basic conclusions are. Note: readers assess how well the arguments support that stated conclusion, so don't try to hoodwink your reader by pretending a grander conclusion than that supported by your arguments.
 
 
 
 
 

WRITING
 

1. Use clear, concrete language. People tend to think that if they don't understand something, or have no good argument to give, an extra use of large words and never-ending sentences will conceal this from the reader. As Goethe remarked about human nature, when an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place. Remember who your audience is, though: one who is not so easily swayed.
 

2. Get to the point quickly. Don't waste time with fluff. Say, "In this paper I am arguing against the existence of God," or better, "God does not exist," rather than, "Philosophers for centuries have debated about the existence of God...." Your reader has already fallen asleep. She knows this already (recall who your audience is). Plus, you frankly don't have the space. The more superfluous words and phrases, the less space for good argument. A note about "I." It is common to be told not to use "I." Often it is redundant. "I think that ..." is entirely unnecessary. If you didn't think it, you wouldn't write it. When you're saying, "Hello," you don't say, "I'm saying Hello." But I'd rather you say "In this paper I am arguing that ..." rather than "This paper is arguing that ..." Papers don't have mental states. Too often when we delete "I" we're leaving a subjectless sentence, and that is a far worse crime.

3. Fit conclusion to premises. Don't claim more than you have shown.

4. References. Reference all work you've used, even if merely paraphrased. In fact, use quotations sparingly, if at all. Use quotations only if it is an exceptionally wonderful quotation, or you want to comment on the specific wording: even then, quote only the necessary. Page-length quotations are like fingernails on a blackboard.
 
 
 
 
 

REWRITING
 

1. Be clear! You may know exactly what you mean to say. Often, however, it is far from clear to anyone else. Check for missing links in your argument. "There is design in the world; therefore God exists" is missing: "Anything with design requires there to be a designer." (That God should be the designer requires a yet further link.) Explain the connections between your ideas -- even if they seem perfectly obvious to you. Points that seemed connected to you may not really be connected after all.

2. Check for grammar. After you let it sit for a day or two, do you STILL know what you were trying to say? Ask a friend to read it, not for content so much as for clarity. Does your friend understand what you were getting at? If not, assume it is your fault, not your friend's.

3. Check spelling and punctuation. If this isn't checked, the reader may assume other more important things weren't checked either. The reader loses confidence in your abilities, and the power to persuade is dissipated. Common errors: its-it's; their-they're-there; then-than; to-too; apostrophe use in general; run-on sentences; dangling modifiers; punctuation woes, spell-check-approved inanities....Never feel bad to look up words or grammatical rules. People think it's a sign of scholarship not to need a dictionary. This is false. It's a sign of scholarship if you use a dictionary.