Some teachers like students to begin with general statements and to end with specific examples. Some like papers that begin with the specifics and let the generalities flow from them. No teachers like papers that are all generalities, and only teachers of poetry relish papers that rely on specific images without any explanatory specifics, that contain many specifics, but that do have occasional generalities when needed to make the point perfectly clear to the reader. As I warned you before, it’s never safe in a college paper to let the reader infer the point; we professors read too many papers that have no point. We are always suspicious of papers that seem to be implying something by never quite spit it out. Leave the artsy stuff for your first published novel, or for graduate school at the very least.
By specifics, I mean facts, dates, quotations, information, stories. I want to see pictures in my mind as I read. I cannot comprehend pure abstraction. Idolatrous as it may be, I would clothe even the deity in some sort of form in order for my feeble mind to have something to imagine. If Newsweek runs an article comparing education in Russia and the United States, if will not begin with a generality like “Education in Russia is dogmatic and regimented, whereas education in the United States is permissive and value-free.” Instead, it will begin with a word-picture that the reader can see, specific images that bring the comparison to life: “In his fourth-grade class in Moscow, ten-year-old Gorby Snititovitch sits down quickly after carefully reciting his multiplication tables and the ten most important obligations of a good citizen to the state and its leaders. Meanwhile in Fairfax, Virginia, ten-year-old Stephen Whitebread draws pictures of airplanes in the margins of his math book while his teacher beams with pleasure at such examples of spontaneous creativity.”
Like a political cartoon, the picture says it all. But to be safe, Newsweek will then go on to state the generality illustrated by the comparison of the two images. The article will include facts from the two schools, number of hours spent at different specific tasks, the level of instruction reached in a school year, number of pates of literature read and discussed, and so on. The writer will add color and veracity to the points being made. Even the generalities drawn from the specifics will not be allowed to stand without some more specific backing. Education experts or cultural anthropologists will be cited to back up the truth of the comparison and the significance that can be drawn from it.
Specifics give a paper more authority. A student who writes that he can say anything he wants because this is a free country is less convincing than one who writes that he can say anything he wants because freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. But the student who writes that she cannot say whatever she wants because the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that the government can make no law “abridging the freedom of speech” of the people will be the one everyone listens to with respect. She sounds as if she knows what she’s talking about. Why? Because she was the most specific.
Being specific applies to whatever kind of paper you are writing. In a history paper, give the most detailed facts possible. Be sure to cite where you found them. Don’t paraphrase what King George said if in fact you can quote a phrase or line from the old tyrant himself. If you are analyzing Martin Luther King, quote the specific words that prove whatever point you are making. Do not talk in generalities about his “noble Southern rhetoric” or his “Baptist style” without also showing me examples. Do not refer to e. e. cummings’ “peculiar punctuation” without providing evidence. For all you know, I may find his punctuation normal and may therefore be sitting here wondering what you are talking about. If you are looking for ways to stretch you paper to the required length, you might even provide more than one example. But do not overdo it. Two or three are plenty.
In addition to citing specific examples taken from the text or from outside research, relating personal anecdotes from your own experience can be an excellent way to illustrate whatever point you are trying to make. To the frustration of journalists and scholars, Ronald Reagan used personal anecdotes instead of facts to communicate quite successfully with the public. But be careful. We scholars--- and we professors all like to call ourselves “scholars”--- do like to see a few hard facts, real quotes, or statistics among the personal story-telling. Anecdotes can illustrate but can’t substantiate. **
There are a few words that, if avoided, may help you to avoid vague writing. This does not mean these words cannot be used well, just that they should be used with caution, always checking to see if specifics accompany them.
** Excerpted from Sin Boldly! Dr. Dave's Guide to Writing the College Paper by David R. Williams