The following are a few tips on writing papers, based on common errors or shortcomings that show up in student papers. These are "pet peeves" of Professor Chapman, things that he often has to point out on papers that are commonly neglected or misunderstood by students.

Also, check out the resources online at the bottom of this page for other writing tips.

1.  Padding and "throat clearing" -- It is very common for students to open their papers with some grand pronouncements about how the Internet is changing the world, how computers are very important to learn how to use, how the "digital divide" is a serious issue, etc. This kind of "throat clearing" is unnecessary and superfluous. Get to the heart of what YOU have to say -- we know all that other stuff.  Remember that a good model I suggested for your paper is a memo to a supervisor or boss who needs to know what he or she needs to know about the issue you've chosen to write about, and that person is not likely to have time to wade through things everyone knows already, and is also likely to be annoyed if you include such material. You don't need to get into the argument in an abrupt, mechanical way -- it's always a good idea to figure out how to make your lead paragraph interesting -- but don't fill the first page with a lot of padding and obvious information. Your papers should be lean and to the point, and the best papers will have a point that is not common knowledge.

2.  Quotes -- All quotes should be referenced sufficiently so that I can find the sources if I need to, and beyond that I don't care how you reference your paper, i.e., whether you use footnotes or endnotes, whatever, as long as it's consistent and clear to the reader. HOWEVER, you should always include some identification of who it is you are quoting IN THE TEXT of the paper -- don't make the reader go to a footnote or an endnote to find out who is being quoted. You should also say something about why this person is worth quoting, such as their title, position, reputation, published work, etc. In other words, I deplore the academic style of quoting, in which academics will write, "Jones says," or "As Jones says," without telling us who the hell Jones is or why we should listen to Jones. Instead, use the journalistic form, which would go something like this: "Jane Jones, author of the 1997 book *Being Named Jones*, says," and so on. Also, a mild correction: if you use the word "says" as a quote, the implication is that Jones said it to YOU, as in an interview. If this is true, use the word "says." If you have not spoken to Jones, use "has written" or something else that is literally accurate. Such as, commonly for student papers, "As IBM Vice President Jane Jones told the magazine InfoWorld in January 1999," and so on.

SIDEBAR: I know this is heresy to say at a university, but academic writing is typically the WORST WRITING on the planet. I know many of you are conditioned and trained to write like your professors, which is a often a mistake. You should strive to write well, not like someone else. Unfortunately, most academics can't write well. Do yourself a favor and UNLEARN whatever you've learned from reading academic journals or similar sources, and write well instead. You'll do much better, in the long run. (See George Orwell's classic 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language."}

3.  Spellcheck -- Spelling errors are unacceptable, especially since everyone should have access to a spell-checking program and all the papers should be thoroughly proofread.

4.  Capitalization -- It's surprising to me how many people casually mangle the rules for capitalizing words. Capitalization is applied uniformly to proper nouns and almost nothing else. "The Internet" is capitalized, because "Internet" is a proper noun, which, incidentally, always takes a definite article as well. "The World-Wide Web" and "the Web" are capitalized for the same reason. "Web sites" is a phrase of two words, and Web is capitalized. "Information revolution" is not capitalized. The "digital divide" is usually not capitalized. In general, use capitalization very sparingly. Words like "capitalism" are not capitalized because they are common nouns, not proper nouns. It's a good idea to consult a style sheet for rules about how certain words are spelled, hyphenated or capitalized, and the Associated Press Style Guide for technology-related terms is the most widely accepted standard.

5.  Nouns Turned Into Verbs -- A widespread and annoying tendency in American English is for nouns to be turned into verbs, in a fashion that qualifies as misuse. The most annoying and common example are the non-verbs "impact" or "impacted." "Impact" should not be used as a verb. (Use "affect" or "affected" instead.)  There are other cases of this -- avoid them. The word "parent" is not a verb, for example, so there's no verb "parenting."

6.  Anthropomorphism -- Another common problem in student papers: attributing to inanimate objects or to concepts what can only be attributed to human beings. Computers, for example, cannot have intentions. Technological systems cannot think, or intend, or be aware of something. Governments cannot believe anything. And so on.

Here's a Web page with some other common writing errors (and some I've already mentioned):http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/wrerrors/wrerrors.html

Another one: http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/Editing.html

Here's another one: http://www.arc.sbc.edu/writingerrors.html