Comments on Medium Paper Draft -- Spring '01

Failure of Sentence Outlining

• No paper used sentence-outline sentences as topic sentences.
  Some papers varied markedly from planned outline.
  Long drafts not following sentence outline will be returned.
   
  
• Bad: Good topic sentences in the outline were jettisoned for weak ones.
   
  
• Worse: Paragraphs didn't have topic sentences.
   
  
• Worst: many paragraphs didn't have a point.

Problems with writing

• Introduction didn't introduce topic strings that drove text.
   
  
• Tenses varied through the paper. In doubt, use present.
   
  
• Overlong subjects (1.5 lines long) defeat reader.
   
  

Other problems.

• Figures: Several papers had no figures. Those figures there were
       (1) had no caption; (2) were not used in text.
   
  
• No point of view: Several papers listed facts or events without any motivation or point of view to animate the text.