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Robert Cutillo

Paragraph Structure ... Again

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Edited by Robert Cutillo, Sunday, 19 Aug 2018, 16:05

I still struggle with paragraph structure in my essays, but I am getting better. To begin, make your claim. Then present your evidence. Finally, explain why the evidence you have chosen supports your claim. If the paragraph is too long, add a sentence summarising the paragraph. I know I've blogged about this before, but for some reason I seem to forget this structure. I think I get carried away with what I'm writing, to the point where it becomes uncontrolled.

I also use too many quotations in my essays. I have to remember to use quotes only when they have been worded in such a perfect way that it shouldn't be paraphrased or summarised. Ideally, the quote should be short and be introduced in some way. For example, John Smith said 'keep it short and sweet' when he was writing about evidence. Of course, remember to reference.

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Me in a rare cheerful mood

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I got so much conflicting advice from tutors about how and when to use quotes, their length, how many to use, how to lay them out and the occasions when best to use them that it put me right off.  I found there is a stress-free way to deal with quotations in essays: never use them.

Across my seven modules I did use one quote: in the final essay 'Without justice there can be no lasting peace—a critical discussion' of my final module.  It argued you can have peace without justice and the (recently deceased) Kofi Annan had very conveniently said “without justice, there can be no lasting peace”.  It was too useful and so I used it in the introduction, saying I was going to dispute that claim—which I did.  So the only time I used a quote was so I could argue against it.

Robert Cutillo

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Hmm, that's interesting, Simon. It never occurred to me to leave quotes out completely. Have your tutors said anything about it?


Me in a rare cheerful mood

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Never.  You don't get or lose marks for using them nor not using them.  But if you don't use them, you can't be accused of plagiarism for mis-referencing them.  Also every argument is in your own words so it is you making the argument rather than hiding behind someone else's word, which seems stronger to me.  It also meant I never spent any time thinking about which quotes to use, where and when to use them or anything like that.  It's a personal thing, but using quotes would be alien to me now - I would be writing the essay around the quotes rather than making an argument all of my own.

Robert Cutillo

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This is great, Simon, thank you. This is the clearest way anyone's ever explained this to me smile