how to start to write a paper.ppt

Designing a Research Topic and Searching the Secondary Literature
Useful ReadingThere are many useful books and practical guides around now that teach you ‘how to write a thesis’– consult the reading list for this course. Having looked at a fair sample, I have found the following two titles most helpful:
Nigel Fabb and Alan Durant, How to Write Essays and Dissertations: A Guide for English Literature Students, 2nd edition (London: Pearson, 2005) – straightforward practical guide, breaks down the process of writing a thesis into its basic phases, offers plenty of useful tips
Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, latest ed. 2003) – a more discursive, ‘philosophical’ approach to the topic; many practical tips but emphasis on the nature and process of research
A caveat“No single formula can guide everyone’s research: you’ll spend time searching and reading just to discover where you are and where you are going; you’ll spend time in blind alleys; and you’ll learn more than your paper requires. In the end, however, that extra work will pay off: not just in a good paper, but in your ability to deal with new problems more effectively.”Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 29)
What is a thesis?
A thesis is a contract: you ask a question and then you answer it
Your central question can take the form of several subsidiary questions, or form a sequence of questions, which then make up your argument
The questions you ask do not have to be ‘big’, but they have to be specific
You have control over your own questions, but: es with responsibility
Your questions might change in the process of writing
Make sure your thesis answers the questions you are asking
Ideally, questions should be structured around intellectual problems, not around ‘gaps’
What any thesis needs: Topic (specific enough, not too broa