need help with a modern American literature paper. ASAP.

This made everyone feel uncomfortable. Ex. Many people believe that we should be more open and tolerant in ou r society, and that we should not close our doors to new immigrants. This would make our country better. 2. Making the paper ALL ABOUT ME. Cut, “I think,” “I Believe,” “To me,” “In my opinion” or anything like it. It makes your paper stronger to cut these phrases, and if you have too many, it sounds like you are not writing about the subject, but relaying your opinion or your perspective. Ex. When I watched the film, I found it really compelling. To me, the film tells its viewers that we need to be more aware of how we treat others and our environment. In my opinion, the whole purpose of the scene with the giant ants was to show us that if we keep treating the environment poorly, nature will turn on us. I think that kind of visual metaphor makes the story more meaningful. I believe the director knows that the message will sink in more if we see it, rather than just having some character preach at us. 3. Shift in Verb Tense — This most often occurs when writing about a narrative (film, story). You start wit h the past and shift to the present or the reverse. Ex. David and Jennifer fought over the remote, and then they are zapped into the tv show, and they see that they are Bud and Mary Sue. Betty, their tv mother, came in and told them to come for breakfast. Mary Sue can’t believe all the food, but David told her she had to eat it. 4. Clichés and Clichéd phrases — these most often occur in the intro and conclusion, but can occur elsewhere. Often they are simply inaccurate (see the first example), but they ca n also just be lazy — i.e., instead of taking the time to explain an idea, you toss in a cliché because everyone will know what you mean without you needing to explain it.. Ex. “Since the beginning of time . . .” “ A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link” “out of the woods” “it’s a dog eat dog world. 5. Sweeping generalizations and using absolute language. When you make a sweeping generalization or use absolute language (no one, everyone, all,etc), you open y ourself for the easiest of attacks — i.e., well I know someone who does or doesn’t do what you claim. Ex. All Americans feel this way. No one ever thinks that. Everyone thought it was a problem to change color. People always vote responsibly. It is human n ature for people to protect their kids. It is just part of being an American to leave home at 18. 6. Mixing up there, their, and they’re or its and it’s. Do I really need examples here? 7. An intro that says nothing or that just repeats the topic. Your introduction should set up your entire paper. Thus, since the topic you were given is your starting point and NOT your ending point, if you only repeat the topic in your own words, you are not offering the reader an idea of what you plan to argue and how. Ideally, your intro will set up the main structural divisions of the paper. Also, the intro allows you to set clear parameters (what you will cover and what you will not). You can narrow th e approach so that your reader will not expect you to cover everything. 8. Audience. You must remember that your reader is not in your head. You should assume an intelligent reader, but you should not assume that the reader knows how you think, that the reader agrees with you, or that the reader has understood or interpreted the subject as you have.

When writing a paper, you are in a dialogue with the reader, but the reader is not there. It is your job, therefore, to anticipate where the reader will not a lready understand what you are claiming. Similarly, if you cannot assume the reader already agrees with you, then you cannot rely on one example as sufficient evidence to prove your points. 9. Summary for no reason. You want to assume an intelligent audie nce, and yet you cannot assume the audience knows what you know. As a result, you will at times need to provide information to the reader. However, you should only provide the information that you need to in order to make your argument. If you provide summ ary or a story or film, you should only do so in order to make some key idea, or to illustrate a point. Summarizing everything or summarizing without clearly indicating why does not help your argument at all. 10. Transitions. You need to move your reader smoothly through the paper. You should always offer some transition between paragraphs, and ideally each transition will show how each paragraph furthers your larger point. You should also offer transitions between examples. Rather than just present an ex ample and then move on, you can explain how the example illustrates the point in question. Transitions are the cement that holds the bricks (your evidence) together.