For the final papers

Some of you had questions about format and citations for your final paper. One of the easiest ways of finding out how to cite a certain source is by checking with the Online Writing Lab at Purdue. They should have formats for all of the sources you might have.

Here are some random points of advice that even seniors forget (I have edited journals as well as digitized senior theses):

• The introduction should provide the opening to the argument and end with the thesis
• Each body paragraph of the paper should make a distinct move within your argument, marked by your topic sentence.
• The conclusion is then the site where you tie together the bag you opened in the introduction.
• Introductions and conclusions usually need rewrites when the rest has been formulated as they may say things about your paper that may have been true when you started out but not anymore.
• Make sure that your paper actually does argue your thesis. If it doesn't, you may have to add paragraphs or construct a new thesis that better represents your argument. 
• Your title should say more about your argument than just what film you are reading.
• As the peer edit sheet says, quotes should be kept to a minimum and when they are used you should spend at least three times as much ink tearing the crap out of that quote. 
• Block quotes are then extremely rough to incorporate as they demand much more analysis. 
• At the same time as block quotes really need to be justified, so do sentences long enough to form a block quote. For the most part you can cut them up into smaller sentences, or even cut clauses out. Sure, we see philosophers and other theorists construct sentences with 30 clauses taking up a page and a half. In order to do that you have to be in control of that sentence to a degree that very few people are.

That's what i have. Think about this as you are editing your papers, and if you want me to take a look at them you should get them to me before 5pm today so I can turn them around today as well.