Optional Writing Topic Summary: Writing About Literature

This online source of information went through the basic steps in setting up an essay. First you have to determine whether or not you are arguing a point in your paper because this affects the thesis.  If your writing an argumentative paper you need to be able to prove your point and your thesis has to be debatable and the question that is to be answered throughout the writing of your paper. It gave examples of how to turn a poor thesis into a good, strong and even controversial thesis that argued a point that would be proved or disproved later on in the essay.

Next was the discussion of topics and how to choose a topic when one is not assigned.  It really has a lot to do with what you pull out of the information that you find and how deeply you read into information. Which leads into gathering information, a good place to start is to scour the internet and get a general idea for what you are trying to research but the real, edited and reliable information can only be found in the library or in the online catalogs associated with the JC’s library. The remainder of the information was on how to add quotes and how to support them with your own words to work them smoothly into your paper. This lead into the MLA format and how to write the source of the information in your paper and how to write the bibliography at the end of your paper.

Last semester I took the LIR10 course and we analyzed internet information versus resources from the library and we discussed how much of what is on the internet is unrestricted and unproven because it is not edited. The internet is a very good place to start but when it comes to hard facts you are better of going to a place where the sources are noted and the material is edited. As I was reading the article on the internet it had step by step instruction on how to insert your name and page number on every page and I had no idea how to do this so I immediately opened a new document and tried it, I will use this on my future papers because it not only looks more professional but it also keeps you more organized. In addition to all of this, the information that was given on how to write a better thesis statement in an argumentative paper was very helpful and really shows that having a good thesis statement will help you write a better paper.