Writing Center Mailbox: Questions and Answers
By Mary Lieske

My teacher doesn’t like slang in my papers, but I don’t know which words are ‘slang’. Help?
Here you need to remember just who your audience is. Ask yourself: would it be appropriate to say this to my (60-year-old) boss? If the answer is yes, then it’s probably safe to use it in your paper. If the answer is no, ask yourself who you would use that phrase with, and if it would be appropriate to say the same things to your teacher.

I want to know my paper is good before I turn it in, but I’m not comfortable letting my friends read it.
If you’re not comfortable letting your friends or peers read your paper, it’s probably because you don’t think the paper is good enough for them to read. Read it through and try to find the places you don’t want them to see, and ask yourself why you don’t want a friend or peer to read it. Be willing to change those parts until you’re comfortable with it. And remember: you can always come to the Writing Center to ask for help! We won’t criticize or make fun of you – we’re there to help. Sometimes, just knowing someone else has read your paper can be a real confidence booster.

I wanted a conference on grammar, but we ended up talking about structure. Why?
At the Writing Center, consultants are not proofreaders. We can help you with certain things (like learning to proofread), but we won’t do it for you. And remember that everything we work on is important – a better structure leads to a better argument, which improves the paper.

My paper sucks, and I had a hard time writing it. Is there anything I can do?
Usually, there is something you like in a paper – that’s why you wrote it! Pull that part out and scrap the rest. If there really isn’t anything you like about the paper, throw it out and start over. You must be willing to throw things out, or you won’t be able to properly revise.

I can’t find my thesis statement!
Thesis statements can be tricky; figure out what it is you’re trying to say (or prove) in the paper – that’s usually your thesis. Not all papers have an explicit thesis statement when you first write them. Why? Because it’s a first draft, you haven’t really figured out what it is you want to say until the end. That means what you’re really trying to say is in the conclusion; this isn’t a bad thing, but you should check with your teacher to find out if an explicit thesis statement is required.

My paper is supposed to be six pages long, but I have seven pages written – what do I do?
This problem isn’t as common, but it does happen. The first thing that you need to do is to go back over your work and make certain that everything in your paper relates to the focus. If you’re writing a history paper on the Romans, don’t write about the Greeks unless it’s relevant to the subject! If everything in the paper relates to the focus, then go back and take out the least important parts. This is important: do not take out the last or first points, take out the part that is the least relevant to the paper. Also, try talking to your teacher; chances are, if it’s only one page or only a half a page, they won’t mind having extra.