Writing Your First College Paper



You, too, will spend time drafting papers in Barnard's
library in Lehman Hall

Greeting, potential-friends-to-be. I’m sitting in my room, trying to convince myself to stop eating peanut butter cookies, take a shower, and get down to work. The work, however, is daunting, and the cookies are good, so this is proving to be a very real challenge. While I work up the willpower to get down to business, let me tell you a little about…work. In particular, let’s talk about your first college essay. (After all, it’s only a few months down the road!) Barnard has a reputation for graduating super successful published writers, but even if that's not your end goal, Barnard will ask you to write. A lot. And teach you to do it well.

For context, let me tell you that I went to a public high school in Oakland, and my classes were very challenging. I felt well prepared. So I was pretty shocked (in not the best sort of way) to see my first essay grade. It was not exactly what I had in mind. In an effort to spare you a little of that same … excitement, I will try to tell you some of the things I’ve learned about college essays. Here we go:

1)     They are called papers, unless they are written in class for an exam.

2)     Most professors consider five pages to be a short paper. Maybe for some of you this seems about right, but it was quite the surprise for me. But don’t let yourself worry about it too much: you’ll find that you have plenty to say.

3)     In college, professors are seeking to ensure that you know how to research, analyze, and formulate arguments. This means two main things:        

a)      Don’t summarize! I’m sure you know this already, but they get serious about it in college.

b)     Reference the text a lot. That doesn’t mean that every other sentence should be a quote, but it does mean that your argument should fit the text, and not the other way around. Be a real stickler about not letting yourself distort the text to fit an argument that you made up. This is the one that got me, guys. Be good!

4)     Hooks/ grabbers/ etc. are a thing of the past. They sound pretty immature (“Isn’t it interesting how different we all are?”) and don’t really do anything (let’s be real: we are laughing at them, not with them.). Just get to the point!

5)     College profs care about big ideas, not big words. Be clear and concise, not bombastic.

6)     There are really smart, articulate people here who want to help you. Let them: email your professors for help, meet with TAs, go to the library, see a Barnard Writing Fellow. But don’t feel like you need to mindlessly follow every piece of advice they give. You are at this college, writing this paper because you are pretty darn smart yourself. So have faith!

I dare you to make this face while outlining your first paper.
But seriously, outlines are good. Add that to the list.

This list could go on for a while, but that should get you started, and pretty soon you’ll have a whole list of your own wisdom to bestow. In the meantime, however, let me say one last thing.

You go to college and write papers to learn and to become a better writer. Somehow this idea breezed right over my head at first, and I thought that I needed to be great right off the bat. So when I got my first paper back (which, we’ve already established, was not so great), I was really defensive. Think borderline angry. But the thing to remember is this: every little correction, every point off, every edit -- no matter how nit-picky -- is there to teach you how to become a better writer. No professor’s criticism of your paper is a criticism of you. So really do your best to swallow your pride and appreciate your prof’s efforts to turn you into the best writer you can be: it’s why you’re here!

And now, there can be no putting it off. The cookies are gone and the shower (and the library!) is calling. Farewell!

Chloe