"Guidelines and Advice for Writing Short Papers" by Dr. Steven Garfinkle

A good paper has three structural elements: Introduction, Body and Conclusion. 

Remember, paragraphs are your friends. They help to organize your work. Do not present your reader with a wall of text. Use paragraphs to arrange your paper in line with these structural elements: a paragraph for your intro, a paragraph (or a few short paragraphs) for the body of your paper, and a paragraph for your conclusion.

Introduction

• Your introduction should include your thesis statement and place it in an appropriate context.
• Your thesis should be a declarative sentence, or sentences, which introduces the governing idea of your paper.
• Your thesis should NOT just restate the topic.

Body

• This is where you must marshal support for your thesis.
• Proof often involves reference to the text(s)
• however, do not rely exclusively on quotes from the text to make your points.
   

Conclusion

• Here you should strive to make things easy for the reader by tying the previous two segments of the paper together.
• The conclusion is not merely a recapitulation of your thesis.
• At this point the reader should be convinced of your thesis!

• Papers should be in the form of an analytical argument.
  • Your analysis should be explanatory, and your arguments should convince the reader that you are right.
  • Your paper should NOT simply summarize the text(s) under consideration.
  • If you are unsure of whether your paper has progressed beyond summary to analysis, ask yourself if the reader could argue with your thesis. If so, then you have crafted an analytical argument and you now must seek to prove your thesis.
• All direct references to sources MUST be cited.
• Make sure that your paper is organized along the principles outlined above and be sure that the content of your paper supports your thesis.
• Proofread and spellcheck all written assignments. 

Lack of a thesis

• If you cannot summarize your main point in one or two sentences, then you will not be able to make a clear argument.
• Your paper must have a focus.

Failure to address the topic

• Make sure that your thesis responds directly to the topic.

Loss of focus

• Even if you have written an effective thesis statement you must be careful that the content of your paper supports that thesis.
• Examine your evidence and make sure that it is all relevant to your argument.

The ‘phantom’ thesis

• The ‘phantom’ thesis appears to take a stand but evades responsibility by using vague terms or simply stating the obvious.
  • Example: "Throughout human history, people have confronted issues raised by social inequality."
    • The reader’s response: What issues? What people? Does the author really intend to discuss all of human history in a short paper? 

Undefined terms

• Nothing is self-evident.
• Many terms commonly used in analytical essays have no fixed meaning.
• Do not assume that the reader will intuitively understand your use of such terms.
  • Some examples:
    • politics (do you mean government or power relations more generally)
    • class (based on wealth, prestige, birth?)
    • justice, human nature, etc. 

Arguing on the basis of shared assumptions 

• It is not effective to base your argument on an assumed agreement with the reader. What if he or she does not agree? This is frequently the problem with comparisons between ancient and modern society in which it is assumed that everyone agrees about the present situation.