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SHORT, BASIC GUIDE TO ADDING DETAILS IN COLLEGE PAPERS

            A paper in college or in professional life really lives or dies by its details.  Most good papers have a lot of details.  These can range from personal-experience stories to interviews, quotations, statements of facts, descriptions of objects, lists, charts, figures, artwork, and—in short—any other kind of specific detail that helps explain the basic general ideas in the paper.  Often details also are visual in nature.  They either are, themselves, pictures, graphs, figures, or the like, or they make people imagine a visual image (such as happens when telling a story).  Here are a few guidelines for some basic types of details.         

1.      How To Add Personal-Experience Stories: If you are writing the kind of paper (e.g., an argument) in which personal-experience stories sometimes are helpful, there are several guidelines for developing them. 
(a) They need to be of sufficient length for you to really call them a “story”: often, such stories are about 50-150 words and sometimes, occasionally shorter, and in very long essays occasionally longer. 
(b) As the “Main Draft 1 Cover Sheet,” Side 2, states, often a good story example starts (or ends) with the meaning or purpose of the story, then a phrase like “For example.” 
(c) Next, the story will describe a specific event and start with its own topic sentence: 1-2 sentences using the 5 W’s of journalism to summarize the exact place and time of the event.  For example, “My friend John (who)  was driving up and down (what)  Main Street (where)  on March 10 last year (when),  carefully looking for his girlfriend (why/how).”
(d) Finally, you tell the story step by step, using plenty of 5W’s detail and, often, including as many of the five senses as you can in brief but descriptive sentences describing how people and places looked, sounded, smelled, tasted, and/or felt to the touch.  For more information, see Chapter K2. of CollegeWriting.info.
    

2.      How To Develop a Bibliography: (a) A bibliography is your list of sources for your paper—the books, journals, Web sites, etc. that you have used to write the paper.  You place this list of sources last in a paper.  You also may add to it additional sources that you did not use but that tie in well with your subject.  (b) There are many bibliography systems for different disciplines: e.g., literature uses MLA; history uses Chicago (CMS); social sciences and nursing, APA or ASA; science, CBE; etc.  Each uses its own ordering system, typing method, and, in the accompanying paper, a numbering system to show where the sources have been used.  (c) In an English course, choose MLA unless otherwise permitted.  For more details, see a grammar handbook’s section on bibliographies.

3.      How To Develop Supporting Quotations and Paraphrases: (a) Quotations (“Q’s”) and paraphrases (“P’s”) are your transfer of other people’s words or ideas to your own paper.  Often the best papers have several Q’s and/or P’s per page.  (b) You also must provide a reference to the source—author or reading—of each Q and P so that you can never be accused of plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a highly unethical form of cheating in which, purposefully (or even accidentally), you let readers think that someone else’s words or ideas are your own. (c) Here are guidelines for use:
      - quotation: the exact words of a source; place them in quotation marks (“Xxx xxx”) and name the source.
      - paraphrase: someone else’s idea; write it using your own words (no quotation marks) and name the source.
      - general knowledge: such as in an encyclopedia or other reference book (no quotations, no source)
      - your own idea (no quotations, no source; however, if others have thought of it, mention their names, too).
(d) Q’s and P’s may support, explain, develop, or expand what you say.  See also Ch. Q4. in CollegeWriting.info.
          

4.      How To Develop Graphics (Tables, Charts, Pictures, et al.): Graphics are used much more in business and how-to books than in the academic liberal arts.  If you are in a course that encourages or requires graphics, here are a few simple guidelines: (a) Allow adequate blank border space around and/or within graphics.  (b) Title/number most graphics so readers know what they are, and refer to them in your text by number or location.  Do this titling outside of any box or table you create so that the computer audio reading devices of blind people will be able to more easily read the titles.  (c) Place graphics within your pages, not at the end in a separate section.  (d) You may hand draw your own graphics on your printed copy.  If you do, you be very precise and professional.  It is best to start with an MS Word box or circle first, then finish with a ruler and thin, dark ink.  (e) To make boxes and tables in MS Word, click on the “Table” tool.  To shade or color them, right click on “Tables,” mark the table, and click on the paint can.  (f) To do columns, go to “Format” and “Columns.”  (g) For clip art or pictures from another file, charts, and auto shapes (e.g., a circle for a pie chart), click on “Insert” and “Picture.”  To make a circle, click on “AutoShapes” and, on the resulting “Drawing-AutoShapes” toolbar, click on the oval icon.  To color an auto shape, mark it; then, on the “Drawing-AutoShapes” toolbar, click on the paint can. For more information about how to develop graphics, see "H5. Graphics."  ( 7-15-04 )

5.      User Interface--How To Create Clear, Logical, Sensible Graphic Signs, Titles, and Symbols: It is possible to create either confusing signs, titles, and symbols, or clear ones that guide readers easily to what you want.  This is an important craft, and to make good UI (User Interface) signs, you need to pay attention to commonsense details.  A good Web article, "Ten UI Lessons from the Real World," is at http://www.componenthouse.com/article-21. 

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Most recent update: 14 Mar. 2008
     

Contents and Page Design © 2002-2004 by Richard Jewell.  Nonprofit copying for education is allowed. Images courtesy of Barry's Clip Art, Clip Art Warehouse, The Clip Art Universe, Clipart Collection, Microsoft Clip Art Gallery and Design Gallery Live, School Discovery, and Web Clip Art Home page:  http://collegewriting.info   Contact the author by going to www.Richard.Jewell.net.  I welcome questions, suggestions, and notes about links.

    
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