Make sure you have a strong enough emphasis on the linguistic aspect, and a focus on American English, including the illustrative examples you choose.
It is legitimate to narrow down a topic so that you can discuss it in as much detail as it deserves.
State your goal in a thesis (a list stating "first I'll discuss this, then I'll look at that ..." is not the same!). The thesis may be formulated as a question in the introduction which is answered in the course of the paper, but it has to be clear from the beginning what the purpose of your discussion is.
Writing a term paper is not just an exercise in repeating information (otherwise we might conclude the course with a written exam without essay questions), but an exercise to develop your academic independence. If you are well informed about a subject, you are entitled to uttering your own authoritative opinion on that subject.
Have confidence in your own critical voice: feel free to draw your own conclusions from your observations, to criticize other scholars if you find their theses unconvincing. Point out correlations between phenomena which you perceive in your discussion, problematize your observations by discussing them argumentatively, not descriptively, problematize questions which you see arising from your observations even if there cannot be a satisfactory answer to the questions.
Take a critical stance in your paper: which theories do you find plausible, which do you find objectionable? If you do not comment on e.g. racist theories, you seem to acquiesce silently to these theories. It is your task as a scholar to develop a critical opinion of your own.
Don't argue subjectively (e.g. "I think that this theory is correct."). State why you think an argument is convincing or not ("This theory is plausible because ..." or "Scholar X overlooks that ...") - but the facts have to convince, not your personal inclination. And your own critical opinion should also be based on arguments rather than emotions, i.e. you should be able to write why you came to a certain conclusion rather than how you feel about a topic. In case of doubt, avoid the personal "I" - it always implies subjectivity.
Make sure that you deal with each main idea in as much detail/precision as the argument deserves - and illustrate your argumentation, if necessary.
Do not just present your findings, but analyze them as well. Don't just accumulate information descriptively, but show how your observations/arguments tie in with each other.
Think about whether your paragraphs and chapters follow logically from each other in the sequence in which you present them. Each argument you bring up has to tie in clearly with the rest of your paper and line of argumentation. Do not just string up your arguments like pearls on a necklace, but make clear why these arguments follow each other as they do in the sequence you chose (e.g. write transitions between paragraphs/arguments). Don't just offer your arguments in the sequence in which they pop into your mind - make clear that you have thought about how your arguments hang together. You can download an exercise here, if you wish to practice.
Make sure that your line of arguments does not lack important links and details which relate one argument to another, that your explanations are not too brief to connect your line of arguments - keep in mind that your readers are not telepathic! Sometimes you may be so involved in your topic than an argumentative connection is very clear in your mind, but that does not mean that it is clear in your readers' mind, so explain such connections.
Avoid redundancies - e.g. by a stringent structure of arguments.
Avoid one-sentence paragraphs: a paragraph is a thought unit which should comprise a complete argument, however detailed, and should tie that point in with your line of arguments as a whole. With a one-sentence paragraph, ask yourself whether your point here is so small that it can be dealt with in such a brief paragraph - in that case, is it worth including at all? Is it sufficiently tied in with the main line of your paper? More likely, such an argument deserves further elaboration.
If you juxtapose two differing theories, explain the similarities as well as the differences between the two, and the implications and consequences of these differences/similarities.
Don't ignore the historical context of your topic. If you present historical data, interpret the correlation between those historical developments and the linguistic phenomena you discuss. When did an event occur? Why did a development take place at a certain time? What influenced it? Why is it significant that it took place just then? How does a certain development illustrate the political and social background of the era in which it took place? And specify the historical context: don't write e.g. "At the time such-and-such a group immigrated ..." but state explicitly what century, decade, or year you refer to: "In the early 19th century, when such-and-such a group immigrated ... ."
Consider the following negative (and fictive) example:
"The first English settlement in America was founded in Virginia in 1607, but the development of the South differed markedly from that in the North. The plantation culture in the South was based on agriculture, while the North soon focused on industrialization. This difference was also reflected in the issue of slavery. In 1763, the so-called Mason-Dixon Line was drawn ..." This is vague and ambiguous: the passage suggests that industrialization in the North began between 1607 and 1763, which is simply wrong (the 2nd quarter of the 19th century would be more accurate), but because the sentence is sandwiched between two dates, it carries misleading implications. Furthermore, "soon" is not a precise historical determinant. That the Mason-Dixon Line was drawn was not in itself significant, but it gained importance in the 19th century as the border between the North and the South. The quote actually refers to the 19th century, but it sure doesn't say so.
If you discuss group-specific usages, do not omit the context in which these variants are used.
Make sure your paper has a conclusion - don't just stop writing. You might draw a comparing conclusion, or place your observations into a larger thematic context (e.g. "This problem is part of the larger topic X because ..." - "These observations about this linguistic variety have the following sociopolitical implications ..."), but be sure not to open an entirely new topic here.
Another strategy for a conclusion is to ask how the phenomenon you discuss may develop in the future - but be careful not to "open a whole new can of worms"!
Don't start an entirely new topic in the conclusion.
If you raise a question in the introduction, make sure it is answered in the conclusion.
Do not briefly allude to important critical aspects in your conclusion if you have not discussed them sufficiently in the main body of your paper.
Conclusions which are plain summaries, i.e. which simply repeat what you said before ("In my paper, I have shown that ..."), imply that you think your reader hasn't understood what you wrote before - but if the audience really hadn't understood your paper, then you haven't explained your arguments clearly enough.
Proofread your paper before handing it in.
Check your paper for grammatical and syntactic correctness - language mistakes also distract from your grade. Typical problems to avoid are:Leave a wide enough margin for me to scribble in.
Plagiarism, even if unintentional, will result in a non-passing grade. If you are not sure what constitutes plagiarism, consult the MLA Handbook or me.
frequently asked questions about term papers
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