Two Key Questions

Consistently ask yourself, “says who?” and “so what? as you review your writing.

Academic writing demands that you do more than tell your professor your opinion. Rather, academic writing requires that in saying “X is true,” you prove that with the use of citations from scholarly sources.

Before you submit your work, make certain you have done this by asking yourself “says who?” for every claim you make as fact.

For example, I cannot state:

Dogs are the best pets for all humans.

Rather, I need to show how that is proven to be true through citations:

Dogs are the best pets for all humans (Smith, 2019).

Before you submit your work, also ask yourself “so what?” about each major piece of your writing, each quote, etc. The “so what” question means you evaluate if it’s necessary to include that sentence, paragraph, etc. Can you make the same point in less words? Are you being repetitive? Is this fact/quote/anecdote interesting but not really necessary? Solid work shows evidence of thorough self-editing (it gets easier with practice!).

Avoid submitting long strings of opinion or paragraphs full of information you learned without citation. The more advanced of a course you are in, the more I expect to see advanced writing. Rely more on paraphrasing and less on quoting!