When you are faced with writing a paper for a class, you have a choice to make. You can either simply fulfill the stated requirements of the assignment (BOR -ING!), or you can decide to have some fun and fulfill the stated requirements of the assignment. I prefer the latter of the two, and here’s why.
Teachers and professors who give writing assignments don’t do so to find out more about their subject. They’ve spent years of school doing just what you’re doing: writing endless, fact-filled papers. And now, they spend endless hours reading endless papers just like the ones they wrote when they were younger. Don’t get me wrong; they do like their subject. After all, it’s what they chose to major in, teach and research. However, after all those years and paper after paper of the same facts presented in the same way, it has to get a little bit tedious, even for those dedicated souls who are absolutely in love with their subjects.
My advice – advice that could mean the difference between an A+ and a B- – is to shake things up a little bit. You need to ask yourself how you can take the same old information and present it in such a way that the teacher finds her subject fascinating again. What can you tell your professor about his subject that he doesn’t already know? What viewpoint can you take that will look at the information in comparison or contrast to other information with which it is not normally paired?
For example, suppose my subject is The Globe Theatre. In a normal paper, I could state the facts about why it was built, when it was built, and by whom. I could bring in the major writers whose works were first presented there, and even speak of the reasons people went to the theatre in the Shakespearean days. (And, yes, it was usually a lot more than just to see the stage play!) With sufficient research and average writing skills, I would probably garner a grade of B. Respectable, but not excellent.
If, instead, I wrote a paper containing all the same facts, but written from the point of view of a groundling (one of those people standing in front of the stage because they couldn’t afford anything more than standing room) who had come to see a specific play and who dreamed of one day writing a play that would be performed on that stage, then it gets interesting for the reader. It becomes significant, imperative and personal. When you can make that happen, your grades go up, even with the same exact information.
Now, you have to make quite sure that this approach is permissible, because if the teacher only wants the boring type of papers and you throw them one of this sort, they can become miffed, but it’s perfectly allowable to ask if that type of approach would be acceptable. It can even whet their appetites for the finished product. This can easily result in the upward shift of your grade point average!
Another example of enhancing your paper is to find one or more facts, or even controversies, relating to your topic. In a paper I once wrote on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I theorized that Ophelia drowned herself because she found herself pregnant with Hamlet’s child. With her father and brother recently killed, and having been spurned by Hamlet himself, she was without a male protector. She would have faced a life of shame with no other option than to become a prostitute, an option even stated in Hamlet’s line: “Get thee to a nunnery,” a reference not to a convent, since England had broken ties with Rome and the Roman Catholic Church, but to a brothel. I theorized that since this was unacceptable to her, she committed suicide.
In this example, I was able not only to gloss over many other parts of the play that may not have been as interesting to me, such as the fight scenes and murders, but to concentrate on things that were significant and personal to me as a woman.
Narrowing the focus of your topic in this way gives the instructor what he or she wants: information that can enhance them as a teacher to their students, and as a knowledgeable expert among other teachers. By giving them something interesting to discuss, even as a theory, with their peers, you add to their stature. They will be grateful, and it will show up in your grade, even if they don’t necessarily agree with you.
By taking a stance that might be unpopular, you can also improve your grade. In a paper I wrote for a US History class, I argued that, according to the Declaration of Independence, the Civil War was an act of aggression from occupying forces upon a people looking to establish their right of self-governance based upon their lifestyle. That is to say: according to the Declaration, the North had no right to prevent the Southern secession from the Union in order to establish a government that represented their needs and desires. This was not a popular view, and in light of the alternative in terms of human rights, not the morally acceptable view, but legally and politically, it was provable. And, using the Declaration of Independence, I debated the legal point and won.
This brings up a very trenchant point. You don’t need to present your own opinion in order to write an A paper. You simply need to present facts in such a way as to capture the attention and imagination of the reader. If you can do that, you will get the highest grade possible, given your writing skill set. Your B will become an A, your C, a B, and so forth.
Do practice vocabulary drills, be sure you spell-check everything, and get a friend or tutor to check your paper for fluidity, but keep in mind the things I have said here. To get a higher grade on a paper, be different. Write outside the normal parameters. Make it interesting, intriguing and thought-provoking. Take your reader to a different place than the same place they were when they started. If you can do this, then you have the ability to shift your writing grade upward every time.
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