Prepared by Mikhail Gershovich of Baruch College's Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute

I. Organization, structure, and coherence, briefly (and a bit vaguely)

“Essay-ness”

It is important that your essay has a clear sense of “essay-ness” – that is, that it has a beginning, a middle and an end. This sort of structure makes it easier for your reader to follow your thinking.

1. The beginning: Your opening paragraphs need to establish what you will be doing in the essay and the texts you will be working with. Your early paragraphs set up what happens throughout the rest of the essay.

2. The middle: This is where you work to make the points you wish to make. The paragraphs in the middle of your essay will present the bulk of your ideas about the two readings in response to the exam question. Remember that each main point gets its own paragraph and that you need to move smoothly from paragraph to paragraph (see above). It’s crucial that you stick to your plan and do what the beginning of your essay suggests you’ll do.

3. The end: This is where you bring together everything you’ve done earlier in the essay. For example, if you’ve devoted the earlier sections of your essay to considering and synthesizing readings A and B, your ending paragraphs should consider what the two readings say in light of your own experiences. The end is important – don’t blow it off. Develop the end as fully as you can.

Paragraphing

1. Each paragraph of your essay needs to develop one, and only one, main point or idea.

2. Make sure that your reader knows what that point or idea is right from the start. The topic of a given paragraph should be obvious right away (the first sentence of a paragraph is often called the “topic sentence”).

3. Develop the main point of each paragraph as fully as you can. Use specific detail to back up your point. Avoid brief, undeveloped paragraphs. (See “Essay F”)

4. Each sentence of the paragraph must relate to the point you are trying to make and, it follows, to every other sentence in the paragraph. Sentences which do not support the idea a given paragraph is working to develop will appear to stick out and will take away from the unity and coherence of that paragraph and the essay as a whole.

5. Avoid switching topics mid-paragraph. If you find yourself moving off the topic in a given paragraph, begin a new one.

6. Avoid rough transitions from paragraph to paragraph. Make sure that each paragraph follows smoothly from the one before it and leads easily into the one that follows it.

II. Often confused words

III. Possessives, plurals and the apostrophe

To denote a plural, add s or es; you do not need an apostrophe to designate a plural.

Add an apostrophe and s to a noun to denote a possessive:

For a singular noun, place the apostrophe before the s: “today’s world,” “Thomas’s argument”
For a plural noun that ends with an s, use the apostrophe after it: “my grandparents’ house,” “my friends’ cars”).
If the plural noun does not end in s (“women”, “men”, “children,” “mice”), add an ’s: “children’s toys,” “men’s room,” “women’s hats”
Possessive pronouns (“hers,” “its,” “theirs,” “ours,” “yours”) do not use an apostrophe.

IV. Commas and Semicolons.

Don’t use a comma (,) every time you hear a pause in a sentence but in four places:

1. Before but, and, so, yet, and nor when they connect two independent clauses (each one could be a complete sentence on its own): “The professor was sick and at home, so a substitute gave us the exam.”

2. To separate individual items in lists of three or more items): “the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker” “make a left, a right, another left and then a right.” (note that there is no comma after the “and” before the last item.

3. After a lead-in (the introductory part of a sentence): “However,” or “Although Thomas is right,” “After lunch,” “In his essay,”

4. Use commas around an insertion: “That was, however, the wrong way to go.” “I got to class, although just a little bit late, before everyone else.”

“But,” “However,” “Although” (From J. Silverman et al., Rules of Thumb, 4 th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1999.)

These three words are used to reverse meaning, but they are punctuated differently.
These three words are used to reverse the meaning; however they are punctuated differently.
These three words are used to reverse the meaning although they are punctuated differently.

Semicolons (;) are used to connect two closely related (and complete) sentences. Make sure that each half of the divided sentence can stand as a complete sentence on its own.

“Give the computers their heads, I say; let them go their way.” (Thomas, p. 5)
“It’s not that you’re wrong; it’s that my suggestion is more effective.”
“The professor was very good; however, the substitute was better.”

V. Working with the readings.

1. Don’t assume you remember the titles of the essays; read them over again and make sure you’ve written them as they appear on the exam materials. Remember also to put titles within quotation marks. (e.g., “Housewives’ Hours”)

2. The first time you mention an author write out the full name, every time thereafter use the author’s last name. Do not refer to the author by his or her first name. Be sure to spell the authors’ names correctly each time.

3. To avoid plagiarism, put all borrowed material in quotes. You can use your own language when you summarize or paraphrase, but if you borrow the authors’ language be sure to use quotation marks. Ex. from “Essay A”:

Mistakes are necessary and Thomas points out that if we were completely free of making them, “we could never get anything useful done.” He mentions that “wrong choices have to be made as frequently as the right ones” for the human mind thinks and makes decisions based on right and wrong alternatives.

4. Be sure to integrate all quotations. Quotations that are not integrated into the fabric of an essay are often called dropped quotes. Ex. from “Essay P”:

It is is a tool that is subtle to people but without errors, there will be no advancements. “If it is a big enough mistake, we could find ourselves on a new level, stunned out in the clear, ready to move again.”

You can avoid dropped quotes by using a signal phrase. Signal phrases often include the author’s name and an appropriate present tense verb (it is conventional to talk about the text in the present tense). Sample uses of signal phrases:

Thomas argues that “if it is . . .”
“If it is a big enough mistake,” says Thomas, “we could find . . .”
In the words of Lewis Thomas, “if it is a big enough mistake . . .”
Thomas claims that errors can have positive effects: “If it . . .”
According to Thomas, “if it is . . .”

Some verbs often used in signal phrases:

These are not necessarily interchangeable so make sure that you use a context appropriate verb. To insist, for example, is not the same as to suggest, or admit, or observe. Choose your verb carefully.

Use a comma after the signal phrase and before the quotation unless you use “that” or a colon after the signal phrase. Otherwise, all punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. See examples above.

5. When quoting, you do not have to use the full sentence of your source. You may use parts as long as they are well integrated into your own sentence. (See example from “Essay A” in #3 above.)

You can also use the ellipsis mark (. . .) to condense a long quoted passage. The ellipsis tells the reader that you’ve removed a portion of the original quotation. Ex:

Thomas argues that if our brains were “capable of responding only when a correct decision was to be made, . . . we could only stay the way we are today, stuck fast.”

Note that you do not need an ellipsis after the signal phrase or at the end of the quote if you’ve cut off the beginning or the end of the passage you’re quoting. Be careful not to take out material essential to understanding the passage you are quoting and that whatever remains after you’ve inserted an ellipsis is grammatically correct.

VI. Active verbs.

Try to use an active rather than a passive voice. Note the difference below:

Passive “It is pointed out by Thomas that human error is necessary for progress.”
Active “Thomas points out that human error is necessary for progress.”

To change passive voice to active, locate the verb (“pointed”) or verb phrase, and who it is that’s performing the action (Thomas), and make that person or thing the subject of the sentence. Another example:

Passive “Fred was scolded by his mother for staying out late and not taking out the garbage”
Active “Fred’s mother scolded him for staying out late not taking out the garbage.”

The verb phrase here is “was scolded” and “Fred’s mother” is the one doing the scolding. In the second sentence, “Fred’s mother” is the subject, not “Fred” as in the first sentence.

Passive voice is not wrong, but often considered less effective than an active voice. Although the passive voice is not uncommon in academic writing, many readers and writers prefer the active voice.