Formative English

Sohail Ahmed

Guidelines for Writing Scholarly Papers

Writing, even just a brief essay, is one of the most difficult tasks that you will face in

college. It comes more naturally to some than to others, but it is almost never easy. And

like everything else, writing clearly and effectively requires practice. This handout seeks to

address the basics of writing, but there is no substitute for actually sitting down and

putting your thoughts on paper in logical and coherent form.

Scholarly writing has its own set of rules and conventions that are different from those of

creative or technical writing. Written work in this class will be expected to conform to

these standards, the most important of which are outlined below.

What is the purpose of the scholarly paper?

It’s a way to help you synthesize your ideas and clarify your thinking about important

issues in the field in relation to those of other scholars.

What does a scholarly paper contain?

For the purposes of fulfilling the requirements of the Master’s degree, your professor will

assign requirements for the paper. At a minimum, it should contain the following parts:

� Title page – follows APA format: paper title, your name, date, name of responsible

professor;

� Abstract – 100-150 words, provides a brief overview of the purpose and major

claims of the paper;

� Introduction – provides background as to why the topic of the paper is important

and states the key question or theme that the paper deals with;

� Review of relevant literature – this is the body of the paper. It explores several

important ideas that scholars have raised in response to the key question or theme

you have outlined in your introduction. Each of these ideas needs to be elaborated

upon and synthesized, meaning that you must relate the scholars’ ideas to each

other, explaining what they have in common and how they differ. It is also important

to include examples, which may come from the research literature or from your own

experience. Remember to cite (following APA format) every author whose ideas you

discuss.

� Conclusion – reiterates the main points raised in the body of the paper, drawing

conclusions in response to the key question or theme of your introduction. It may

also describe implications for practice or future scholarly research.

� Reference list – follows APA format and provides citation information for each of

the sources mentioned in the paper.

Formative English

Sohail Ahmed

Style Sheet for Student Papers

General Format: Papers shall be typed, on 8 ½ by 11 inch white paper, double-spaced, 12

point type, with 1 inch margins all around. Pages are to be numbered sequentially in the

lower right corner. The paper should be stapled once, in the upper-left corner.

Title Page: Unless instructed differently, do not use a title page. Put your name, date, class

and instructor’s name in the upper-left corner of the first page; the title of the paper is to be

centered below this, with the text of the paper following.

Quotations: Place quotations of two lines or fewer into the text, beginning and ending

with quotation marks. Place quotations of 3 lines or more in block format, without

quotations marks, as follows:

Hazrat Ali (R.A) said: “Meet people in such a manner that if you die they should weep for

you and if you live they should long for you.”

“A companion during his sickness: Allah may make your illness a means for writing off your

sins, because there is no reward for sickness but it erases sins and makes them fall like

(dried) leaves: Reward lies in saying by tongue and doing something with hands and feet.

Certainly Allah, the Glorified admits into Paradise by virtue of truthfulness of intention and

chastity of heart, whomever He wishes from among His people”.

Basic Structure:

The introductory paragraph should engage the reader’s interest by setting out clearly the

question that the paper is attempting to address, how you plan to address it, and why it is

worth addressing in the first place. Often it is wise to begin with a brief story or anecdote,

or a particularly powerful statistic, or an appropriate quotation. The key here is to make

the reader want to keep reading.

The thesis statement is a summation of your main point; this should generally appear at the

end of the introductory paragraph. Before writing, try phrasing your thesis as a simple

assertion (“The planet is running out of manganese”), and then develop it as you write by

being as specific (and, indeed, as provocative) as you can: “Thanks to over-mining by

Pakistan corporations, there is a very real possibility that the next generation will be forced

to live in a world without manganese.”

You should then provide background information, basic material about the subject, to

provide context for the reader. Continuing the above example, you would want to say

something about what manganese is and what it is used for. Depending on the amount of

background you think is necessary, you might want to include this in the introductory

paragraph; for longer essays a separate paragraph (or more) may be required.

The real “essence” of your paper will be the actual points of discussion. These will be a

series of paragraphs that support your thesis statement, with each point occupying one or

Formative English

Sohail Ahmed

two paragraphs, depending on the essay’s overall length. In this case, one might showcase

statistics on how much manganese there is left in the world; another could contain

statistics on how quickly the manganese supply is being depleted. The actual number of

points, of course, depends on how much you have to say.

One of the hallmarks of good writing is the ability to move back and forth smoothly

between general statements and concrete details. Each paragraph should start with a

generalization—sort of a minute thesis statement. The rest of the paragraph should

provide specifics to back it up; these might include reasons (Corporations have been over-

mining manganese because….), or statistics (In the past twenty-five years more than 20

million tons of manganese have been taken from the earth.). Always remember, however,

that every sentence in any given paragraph should be devoted to making one individual

point, and nothing else.

The concluding paragraph should flow logically from the rest of the essay, but it should be

more than simply a restatement of what you have done. For a paper of more than three or

four pages, you might want briefly to summarize your main points. The concluding

paragraph might also offer some guidance for action (The time has come to stop the

rampant depletion of the manganese supply….).

Things to Avoid:

Contractions: Words like “didn’t,” “couldn’t,” and “wouldn’t” should not appear in

scholarly writing. Instead use the full words. Apostrophes should only be used to indicate

possession (for example, Sohail’s presidency).

Passive Voice: “Sahil chopped down the cherry tree” sounds a lot better than “The cherry

tree was chopped down by Sahil Ahmed.” The former is simple and straightforward; the

latter is wordy and clumsy. Occasionally you will have no choice but to use passive—for

instance, when the subject of the sentence is unknown—but in most cases you should use

the active voice.

First or Second Person: In scholarly writing, the author is assumed to have “distance”

from his or her subject. You should therefore write as an outside observer, not a

participant, and you should treat the reader in the same way. This means that pronouns

such as “I,” “we,” or “you” are inappropriate. Note that this document is not an example of

good scholarly writing (it is, rather, a piece of technical writing).

Incomplete Sentences: Every sentence must have a subject and a verb, unless it is part of

a direct quote. There are no other exceptions to this rule.

Slang: In conversational English it is perfectly acceptable to use phrases such as “bumped

off” to describe a killing, or “laid back” to describe someone with a relaxed attitude toward

life. However, such language has no place in scholarly writing (unless it is part of a direct

quote). In general, try to imagine how a reader one hundred years from now would react

Formative English

Sohail Ahmed

to your words. What would your reaction be to a paper that referred to something as the

“bee’s knees” (an expression that was in vogue one hundred years ago)?

Dumb Mistakes: College students ought to know better than to confuse “its” with “it’s,”

“there” with “they’re” or “their,” and “who’s” with “whose.” At the college level students

should know that subjects must agree in number with verbs, and pronouns with their

backgrounds; for example, “Each of them had their own ideas” is wrong. “Each of them had

his [or her] own ideas” is correct. Errors like this will cause the reader to question the

basic intellectual capacity of the author.

Things to Do:

Use Proper Style for Notes and Bibliographies: Whether you use footnotes or endnotes,

make sure they, as well as your bibliography, conform to the proper style.

Pay Attention to Tense: By definition, historical events are things which happened in the

past; therefore it only makes good sense to use the past tense when discussing them. The

only exception to this rule comes when you are referring to a primary source of some kind,

such as an important document, a book, or a piece of art. For example, you would write,

“The Declaration of Independence states that ‘all men are created equal.’”

Proofread: If there is one rule that every writer (scholarly or otherwise) will agree on, it is

that the first draft is never the last. Go back over what you have written again and again,

until you are completely satisfied with the result. Ask yourself some hard questions: Is my

introductory paragraph sufficiently enticing to the reader? Are all of my statements (and

particularly my thesis statement) clear and easily understood? Have I given the reader

enough background to understand my argument? Do all of my points of discussion back up

what I said in the thesis statement? Does my concluding paragraph follow logically from

the rest of the essay?

Also, be sure to check spelling, grammar, and usage. Spell-check is a handy feature, but it

will only get you so far. Matters like subject-verb agreement and word choice may sound

petty, but they are vitally important. Sloppiness in this regard will suggest to your

reader—even if it is only your instructor—that you have not taken your subject

seriously. And if that is the case, why bother to read your work at all?

Sources:

Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 1998. Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.