Vary
your sentence structure -
Nothing seems more unsophisticated than an uninterrupted
succession of subject-verb constructions. Take a series of
sentences like the following as an example: "Moby Dick
can symbolize both a manifestation of God or of the ultimate
evil.”. Here are just a few of the variations you can
make:
-
Melville
renders Moby Dick as simultaneously a manifestation of God
and as a symbol of the ultimate evil.
-
That
Moby Dick is subject to a dichotomy of interpretations is
evident in his depiction as both a manifestation of God
and of the ultimate evil.
-
We
may intimate that Moby Dick is a juxtaposition of both the
divine and the diabolical.
Combine
short sentences - Try reading your paper out
loud. If it seems choppy it can likely be remedied by your
grouping short sentences into longer, more complex ones. For
example:
"Gatsby’s
obsession with Daisy has deeper implications. He becomes
obsessed with escaping his own past."
This
would be much stronger if combined:
"Gatsby's
obsession with Daisy eventually translates into a yearning
to escape his own past."
Don’t
use passive voice -
Plain and simple. It makes your writing weak.
Bad:
"This fact was proven by Napoleons subsequent
actions."
Good:
"Napoleon proved this fact through his subsequent
actions." The object of the sentence should never
be turned into the subject.
Maintain
consistency in tense - Don't drift from
the present to the past to the conditional (from "he
is" to "he was" to "he would have").
Some
things to avoid wherever possible:
-
Starting
a sentence with "there are" or "there
were".
-
Using
the phrase "this shows" (as a
substitute say "evident in this fact is" or
"This interpretation belies the idea that").
-
Using
the word "quotation" when incorporating a
direct quote. This makes for an awkward break from your
natural thoughts, and creates an aura of
self-consciousness in your writing.
-
Exclamation
points.
-
The
first person or second person tense. Sometimes using the
first person plural (as in the previous example of
"we may intimate") is generally acceptable,
in that it conveys a universality that the "I"
or "you" voices preclude.
-
Confusing
commas and semi-colons. A semi-colon can be used to
connect two short, related sentences into a longer one:
”Trench warfare became standard during World War One;
it was used in all the major confrontations.". A
comma cannot be used in this way.
-
Confusing
"who" and "whom"; the
former is a subject, the latter an object.
-
Broad,
non-specific words like "good," "bad,"
"nice," "important,"
"vivid," and "thing". If
those are the only words you can use to express what
you're saying, it's likely not subtle enough to make for a
very good argument.
TERM PAPER HELP
