Finishing the Paper: Revising and Submitting
Q: What should I do in my conclusion?
For very short papers of the sort that we'll be writing in this class, you do not need to write a separate conclusion. If you do write one, it should consist of nothing more than a brief, clear, and catchy summary of the key conclusion you establish in your paper.
Q: My paper is shorter/longer than the specified length. Should I be worried?
If your paper exceeds the maximum length I've provided for the assignment, you need to go back through and revise your work so that it fits under that length. I stop reading and grading right when you reach the upper bound of the target length. The mere fact that you have fallen short of the target length for the paper will not count against you when I grade your paper. Your grade will be based on the quality and thoroughness of your writing, not on the sheer amount of material you write. Generally, it's generally better to give me a shorter, focused, and tight paper than a longer, unfocussed, and scattered one. Even so, if you find yourself short of the target range and think you have nothing more to say, but you have a sneaking suspicion that you haven't said enough, you can always come see me and we'll figure out what you can add to make your paper more substantial.
Q: OK, I think I'm done writing. What should I do next?
If you have time—if you've started early—you should revise your paper. Good papers are not written; they are rewritten, built through the careful revision of several drafts. Beware handing in the first draft that you put onto paper. This will seldom earn you the grade that you want in college, and it will almost never earn you the grade you want in my classes.
Even if you think you've written a great paper, it is worth your time to get some feedback and help from your classmates, from the writing tutors, and from me. It's a sad fact of life that sometimes what we have written isn't as good as we think it is, and that just about every paper could be improved.
You should do the usual grammar and spelling checks. Read your paper aloud to yourself to see how it hangs together. Avoid trying to sound artificially scholarly or learned in your prose (e.g., "This is not unlike ... .", or "Oftentimes, when one encounters an instance of argumentation of this sort ... '). Put an emphasis on clarity and concision. Here's a routine that you should follow for getting any paper in shape:
| For each paragraph, ask yourself what point it expresses, and ask yourself whether that point is necessary for project of the paper. If not, delete the paragraph. | Then, for each sentence, ask yourself whether it makes a necessary contribution to the point of the paragraph. If not, delete the sentence. | Then, for each word, ask yourself whether it makes an essential contribution to the sentence. If not, delete the word and rewrite the sentence accordingly. |
I know that it is hard to get rid of material that you've written. You've worked hard in writing it, and throwing stuff out seems to move the completion of your paper even further away. Some of what you're throwing away may even be excellent, interesting, and correct material, the only defect of which is that it is just not relevant to your project. But your paper will be much better for eliminating the unnecessary. It is true that in a paper you have written for me, including unnecessary stuff will not directly help or hurt your grade. However, including lots of unnecessary material crowds out the important things that you could write that would improve your grade.
Q: How do I hand my paper in? [Repeated from getting started page.]
All final graded, versions papers written for my courses must be submitted in electronic form, as a computer file. (That said, you should still always, always keep an extra, printed copy of your paper.). ("First versions" of papers that will be commented on and revised should usually be submitted in double-spaced, printed form with reasonable margins; check your particular paper handout for details.)
- Acceptable digital file formats include: plain text (.txt), HTML (.html), rich text (.rtf), Microsoft Word (.doc), and LaTeX (.tex). (Other formats might be acceptable, but check with me in advance.)
- For final digital versions, you do not need to worry about matters like size of margins, double-spacing, or any other such formatting issues.
- Acceptable ways of submitting your assignments include: sending it as an e-mail message, attaching a file to an e-mail message, or providing a floppy disk, ZIP disk, or CD-ROM with your file on it.
It is your responsibility to make sure that an electronically submitted paper reaches me; if you do not have an e-mail message from me within 24 hours telling you that I received your paper, contact me immediately. Papers lost in electronic transit are your responsibility ("The server ate my homework" is not an acceptable excuse!). And, as I say above: Always, always keep an extra, printed copy of your paper.
Q: Why are you having everyone submit papers electronically now? That is kind of weird, isn't it?
There are a number of reasons:
Ease of Collection and Return
This way all of my grading files are on disk, and I don't have to tote around papers. And when I am done grading your paper, I can get it back to you right away, even if it's three days until our next class.
Permanent Records of Papers
At the end of the term, if you're just short of the next-higher letter grade, I can trot out all of your old assignments, with my comments, and consider whether your overall performance might merit a boost. Also, if in the future you have a question about your work or your grades, or if you need a letter of recommendation, I will find records of your work by searching through my hard drive, rather than by sorting through a huge box down in my basement.
Ease of Submission
Now you don't have to wait around for your printout, find a stapler, or make your way to the Philosophy department if you're late. And you can submit your paper any time, day or night.
Deterrence of Cheating, Present
Electronic files make it easier for me to check for cheating, by submitting a suspicious paper to various search engines and services, or by e-mailing it (with all names deleted) to an expert on the topic who might recognize some text that I don't. And since I can now easily keep these papers forever (see above), I can catch plagiarists years after the offense if I come across the source material. So now you—well, not you, you'd never cheat, but the person sitting next to you—will have yet another reason to avoid submitting work that comes from somewhere else.
Deterrence of Cheating, Future
Future generations will be less likely to use hand-me-down papers if they know that some anal retentive instructors (like yours truly) keep electronic records of every paper ever given to them.
Ease of Commenting
I type more legibly than I write, and more quickly.
Environmental Reasons?
Perhaps surprisingly, this is not one of my reasons for making the switch. While I'd like to think that electronic submissions are environmentally friendly because they save paper, I'm not sure that this benefit isn't outweighed by the environmental costs that accrue from the additional electricity I use in grading electronically.