Dartmouth Writing Program

What is an academic paper?

Writing for College

How It Differs From Writing in High School

One of the first things you'll discover as a college student is that writing in college is different from writing in high school. Certainly a lot of what your high school writing teachers taught you will be useful to you as you approach writing in college: you will want to write clearly, to have an interesting and arguable thesis, to construct paragraphs that are coherent and focused, and so on.
Still, many students enter college relying on writing strategies that served them well in high school but that won't serve them well here. Old formulae, such as the five-paragraph theme, aren't sophisticated or flexible enough to provide a sound structure for a college paper. And many of the old tricks - such as using elevated language or repeating yourself so that you might meet a ten-page requirement - will fail you now.
So how does a student make a successful transition from high school to college?
The first thing that you'll need to understand is that writing in college is for the most part a particular kind of writing, called "academic writing." While academic writing might be defined in many ways, there are three concepts that you need to understand before you write your first academic paper.
1. Academic writing is writing done by scholars for other scholars. Writing done by scholars for scholars? Doesn't that leave you out? Actually, it doesn't. Now that you are in college you are part of a community of scholars. As a college student, you will be engaged in activities that scholars have been engaged in for centuries: you will read about, think about, argue about, and write about great ideas. Of course, being a scholar requires that you read, think, argue, and write in certain ways. Your education will help you to understand the expectations, conventions, and requirements of scholarship. If you read on, so will this Web site.
2. Academic writing is devoted to topics and questions that are of interest to the academic community. When you write an academic paper, you must first try to find a topic or a question that is relevant and appropriate. But how do you know when a topic is relevant and appropriate? First of all, pay attention to what your professor is saying. She will certainly be giving you a context into which you can place your questions and observations. Second, understand that your paper should be of interest to other students and scholars. Remember that academic writing must be more than personal response. You must write something that your readers will find useful. In other words, you will want to write something that helps your reader to better understand your topic, or to see it in a new way.
3. This brings us to our final point: Academic writing should present the reader with an informed argument. To construct an informed argument, you must first try to sort out what you know about a subject from what you think about a subject. Or, to put it another way, you will want to consider what is known about a subject and then to determine what you think about it. If your paper fails to inform, or if it fails to argue, then it will fail to meet the expectations of the academic reader.

Constructing An Informed Argument

What You Know

When you sit down to write an academic paper, you'll first want to consider what you know about your topic. Different writing assignments require different degrees of knowing. A short paper written in response to a viewing of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, for example, may not require you to be familiar with Hitchcock's other works. It may not even require you to have mastered the terms important to film criticism - though clearly any knowledge you bring to the film might help you to make a thoughtful response to it.
However, if you are asked to write an academic paper on the film, then you will want to know more. You will want to have certain terms in hand so that you can explain what Hitchcock is doing in key moments. You will want to be familiar with Hitchcock's other films so that you can understand what themes are important to him and his work. Moreover, if you are watching this film in an upper-level film class, you will want to be aware of different critical perspectives on Hitchcock's films and on films in general, so that you can "place" your argument within the larger ongoing conversation.
When you sit down to write an academic paper, ask yourself these questions:

What do I know about my topic?

• Can I answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, how?
• What do I know about the context of my topic?
• What historical or cultural influences do I know about that might be important to my topic?
• Does my topic belong to any particular genre or category of topics?
• What do I know about this genre?

What seems important to me about this topic?

• If I were to summarize what I know about this topic, what points would I focus on?
• What points seem less important?
• Why do I think so?

How does this topic relate to other things that I know?

• What do I know about the topic that might help my reader to understand it in new ways?

What DON'T I know about my topic?

• What do I need to know?
• How can I find out more?

What You Think

You'll discover as you consider the questions listed above that you are moving beyond what you know about a topic and are beginning to consider what you think. In the process of really thinking about your topic, your aim is to come up with a fresh observation. After all, it's not enough to summarize in a paper what is already known and talked about. You must also add something of your own to the conversation.
Understand, however, that "adding something of your own" is not an invitation simply to bring your own personal associations, reactions, or experiences to the reading of a text. To create an informed argument, you must first recognize that your writing should be analytical rather than personal. In other words, your writing must show that your associations, reactions, and experiences of a text have been framed in a critical, rather than a personal, way.
How does one move from personal response to analytical writing?

Summarize.

First, summarize what the primary text is saying. You'll notice that you can construct several different summaries, depending on your agenda. Returning to the example of Hitchcock's film, you might make a plot summary, a summary of its themes, a summary of its editing, and so on. You can also summarize what you know about the film in context. In other words, you might write a summary of the difficulties Hitchcock experienced in the film's production, or you might write a summary of how this particular movie complements or challenges other films in the Hitchcock canon. You can also summarize what others have said about the film. Film critics have written much about Hitchcock, his films, and their genre. Try to summarize all that you know.

Evaluate.

The process of evaluation is an ongoing one. You evaluate a text the moment you encounter it, and - if you aren't lazy - you continue to evaluate and to re-evaluate as you go along. Evaluating a text is different from simply reacting to a text. When you evaluate for an academic purpose, it is important to be able to clearly articulate and to support your own personal response. What in the text is leading you to respond a certain way? What's not in the text that might be contributing to your response? Watching Hitchcock's film, you are likely to have found yourself feeling anxious, caught up in the film's suspense. What in the film is making you feel this way? The editing? The acting? Can you point to a moment in the film that is particularly successful in creating suspense? In asking these questions, you are straddling two intellectual processes: experiencing your own personal response, and analyzing the text.

Analyze.

This step in constructing an informed argument asks you first to consider the parts of your topic and then to examine how these parts relate to each other or to the whole. To analyze Hitchcock's film, you may want to break the film down by examining particular scenes, point of view, camera movements, and so on. In short, you'll want to ask: What are the components of Hitchcock's film, and how do these components contribute to the film's theme? How do they contribute to Hitchcock's work as a whole? When you analyze, you break the whole into parts so that you might see the whole differently. In the process of analysis, you find things that you might say.

Synthesize.

When you analyze, you break down a text into its parts. When you synthesize, you look for connections between ideas. Consider once again the Hitchcock film. In analyzing this film, you might come up with elements that seem initially disparate. You may have some observations that at first don't seem to gel. Or you may have read various critical perspectives on the film, all of them in disagreement with one another. Now would be the time to consider whether these disparate elements or observations might be reconciled, or synthesized. This intellectual exercise requires that you create an umbrella argument - some larger argument under which several observations and perspectives might stand.

Choosing An Appropriate Topic

Many students writing in college have trouble figuring out what constitutes an appropriate topic. Sometimes the professor will provide you with a prompt. She will give you a question to explore, or a problem to resolve. When you are given a prompt by your professor, be sure to read it carefully. Your professor is setting the parameters of the assignment for you. She is telling you what sort of paper will be appropriate.
In many cases, however, the professor won't provide you with a prompt. She might not even give you a topic. For example, in a psychology course you might be asked to write a paper on any theory or theories of self. Your professor has given you a subject, but she has not given you a topic. Nor has she told you what the paper should look like. Should it summarize one of the theories of self? Should it compare two or more theories? Should it place these theories into some historical context? Should it take issue with these theories, pointing out their limitations?
At this juncture, you have two options: talk to the professor and see what her expectations are, or figure out this matter for yourself. It's always a good idea to talk with the professor. At the very least, you'll want to find out if the professor wants a report or a paper. In other words, is your professor looking for information or argument?
Chances are she'll want you to make an argument. It will be up to you to narrow your topic and to make sure that it's appropriately academic. As you think about a topic, ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you formed an intellectual question? In other words, have you constructed a question that will require a complex, thoughtful answer?
• Is the question provocative? Startling? Controversial? Fresh?
• Will you be able to answer this question adequately in a few pages? Or is the question impossibly broad?
• If the question seems broad, how might you narrow it?
• Does your question address both text and context? In other words, have you considered the historical and cultural circumstances that influenced this text? Have you considered what other scholars have said about it?
• Will your reader care about this question? Or will she say, "So what?"

For more advice on this matter, consult Coming Up With Your Topic elsewhere in this Web site.

Finding a Rhetorical Stance

When writing an academic paper, you must not only consider what you want to say, you must also consider to whom you are saying it. In other words, it's important to determine not only what you think about a topic, but also what your audience is likely to think. What are your audience's biases? Values? Expectations? Knowledge? To whom are you writing, and for what purpose?
When you begin to answer all of these questions, you have started to reckon with what has been called "the rhetorical stance." "Rhetorical stance" refers to the position you take as a writer in terms of the subject and the reader of your paper.

Consider Your Position

Let's first consider your relationship to your topic. When you write a paper, you take a stand on a topic. You determine whether you are for or against, passionate or cool-headed. You determine whether you are going to view this topic through a particular perspective (feminist, for example), or whether you are going to make a more general response. You also determine whether you are going to analyze your topic through the lens of a particular discipline - history, for example. Your stance on the topic depends on the many decisions you have made in the reading and thinking processes.
In order to make sure that your stance on a topic is appropriately analytical, you might want to ask yourself some questions. Begin by asking why you've taken this particular stance. Why did you find some elements of the text more important than others? Does this prioritizing reflect some bias or preconception on your part? If you dismissed part of a text as boring or unimportant, why did you do so? Do you have personal issues or experiences that lead you to be impatient with certain claims? Is there any part of your response to the text that might cause your reader to discount your paper as biased or un-critical? If so, you might want to reconsider your position on your topic.

Consider Your Audience

Your position on a topic does not by itself determine your rhetorical stance. You must also consider your reader. In the college classroom, the audience is usually the professor or your classmates - although occasionally your professor will instruct you to write for a more particular or more general audience. No matter who your reader is, you will want to consider him carefully before you start to write.
What do you know about your reader and his stance towards your topic? What is he likely to know about the topic? What biases is he likely to have? Moreover, what effect do you hope to have on the reader? Is your aim to be controversial? Informative? Entertaining? Will the reader appreciate or resent your intention?
Once you have determined who your reader is, you will want to consider how you might best reach him. If, for example, you are an authority on a subject and you are writing to readers who know little or nothing about it, then you'll want to take an informative stance. If you aren't yet confident about a topic, and you have more questions than answers, you might want to take an inquisitive stance.
In any case, when you are deciding on a rhetorical stance, choose one that allows you to be sincere. You don't want to take an authoritative stance on a subject if you aren't confident about what you are saying. On the other hand, you can't avoid taking a position on a subject: nothing is worse than reading a paper in which the writer has refused to take a stance. What if you are of two minds on a subject? Declare that to the reader. Make ambivalence your clear rhetorical stance.
Finally, don't write simply to please your professor. Though some professors find it flattering to discover that all of their students share their positions on a subject, most of us are hoping that your argument will engage us by telling us something new about your topic - even if that "something new" is simply a fresh emphasis on a minor detail. Moreover, it is impossible for you to replicate the "ideal paper" that exists in your professor's head. When you try, you risk having your analysis compared to your professor's. Do you really want that to happen?

Considering Structure

In high school you might have been taught various strategies for structuring your papers. Some of you might have been raised on the five paragraph theme, in which you introduce your topic, come up with three supporting points, and then conclude by repeating what you've already said. Others of you might have been told that the best structure for a paper is the hour-glass model, in which you begin with a general statement, make observations that are increasingly specific, and then conclude with a statement that is once again general.
When you are writing papers in college, you will require structures that will support ideas that are more complex than the ones you considered in high school. Your professors might offer you several models for structuring your paper. They might tell you to order your information chronologically or spatially, depending on whether you are writing a paper for a history class or a course in art history. Or they may provide you with different models for argument: compare and contrast, cause and effect, and so on. But remember: the structure for your argument will in the end be determined by the content itself. No prefab model exists that will provide adequate structure for the academic argument. (For more detailed advice on various ways to structure your paper, see Writing: Considering Structure and Organization.)
When creating an informed argument, you will want to rely on several organizational strategies, but you will want to keep some general advice in mind.

Introductions:

Your introduction should accomplish two things: it should declare your argument, and it should place your argument within the larger, ongoing conversation about your topic. Often writers will do the latter before they do the former. That is, they will begin by summarizing what other scholars have said about their topic, and then they will declare what they are adding to the conversation. Even when your paper is not a research paper you will be expected to introduce your argument as if into a larger conversation. "Place" your argument for your reader by naming the text, the author, the issues it raises, and your take on these issues. (For more specific advice on writing a good introduction, see Introductions and Conclusions.)

Thesis Sentence:

Probably you were taught in high school that every paper must have a declared thesis, and that this sentence should appear at the end of the introduction. While this advice is sound, a thesis is sometimes implied rather than declared in a text, and it can appear almost anywhere - if the writer is skillful.
Still, if you want to be safe, your paper will have a declared thesis and it will appear where the reader expects it to appear: at the end of the introduction. Your thesis should also be an arguable point - that is, it should declare something that is interesting and controversial. Because your thesis is probably the single most important sentence in your paper, you will want to read more about it in Developing Your Thesis.

The Other Side(s):

Because every thesis presents an arguable point, you as a writer are obligated to acknowledge in your paper the other side(s) of an argument. Consider what your opponents might say against your argument. Then determine where and how you want to deal with the opposition. Do you want to dismiss the opposition in the first paragraph? Do you want to list each opposing argument and rebut them one by one? Your decisions will determine how you structure your paper.

Supporting Paragraphs:

Every convincing argument must have support. Your argument's support will be organized in your paper's paragraphs. These paragraphs must each declare a point, usually formed as that paragraph's topic sentence.
A topic sentence is like a thesis sentence - except that instead of announcing the argument of the entire paper, it announces the argument of that particular paragraph. In this way, the topic sentence controls the paper's evidence. The topic sentence is more flexible than the thesis in that it can more readily appear in different places within the paragraph. Most often, however, it appears at or near the beginning. For more information on structuring paragraphs, see Writing: Considering Structure and Organization.

Conclusions:

Writing a good conclusion is difficult. You will want to sum up, but you will want to do more than say what you have already said. You will want to leave the reader with something to think about, but you will want to avoid preaching. You might want to point to a new idea or question, but you risk confusing the reader by introducing something that he finds irrelevant. Writing conclusions is, in part, a matter of finding the proper balance. For more instruction on how to write a good conclusion, see Introductions and Conclusions.

Using Appropriate Tone and Style

OK: you think you understand what's required of you in an academic paper. You need to be analytical. Critical. You need to create an informed argument. You need to consider your relationship to your topic and to your reader. But what about the matter of finding an appropriate academic tone and style?
The tone and style of academic writing might at first seem intimidating. But they needn't be. Professors want students to write clearly and intelligently on matters that they, the students, care about. What professors DON'T want is imitation scholarship - that is, exalted gibberish that no one cares about. If the student didn't care to write the paper, the professor probably won't care to read it. The tone of an academic paper, then, must be inviting to the reader, even while it maintains an appropriate academic style.
Remember: professors are human beings, capable of boredom, laughter, irritation, and awe. Understand that you are writing to a person who is delighted when you make your point clearly, concisely, and persuasively. Understand, too, that she is less delighted when you have inflated your prose, pumped up your page count, or tried to impress her by using terms that you didn't take the time to understand.
In short, then, good academic writing follows the rules of good writing. If you'd like to know more about how to improve your academic style, please see Attending to Style, elsewhere in this Web site. But before you do, consider some of the following tips, designed to make the process of writing an academic paper go more smoothly:

• Keep the personal in check. Some assignments will invite you to make a personal response to a text. For example, a professor might want you to describe your experience of a text, or to talk about personal experiences that are relevant to the topic at hand. But if you haven't been invited to make a personal response, then it's better not to digress. As interesting as Aunt Sally's story about having a baby out of wedlock is, it probably doesn't have a place in your academic paper about The Scarlet Letter.
• Rely on evidence over feeling. You may be very passionate about a subject, but that's no excuse to allow rhetoric alone to carry the ball. Even if you have constructed some very pretty phrases to argue against genetic engineering, they won't mean much to your professor unless you back those pretty phrases with facts.
• Watch your personal pronouns. Students often wonder if it's OK to use the pronouns "I" and "you" in a paper. In fact, it is OK - provided you use them with care. Overusing the "I" might make the reader feel that the paper was overly subjective. In fact, when a writer too often invokes himself in the first person, he may be doing so to avoid offering proof: "It's my own personal opinion, and I have a right to it. I don't have to defend it." But of course, he does. As to using the pronoun "you": Do you really want to aim a remark directly at the reader? Doing so draws the reader closer to the text and invites a more subjective (and sometimes more intensely critical) response. Remember: certain academic disciplines (the sciences, for example) would frown on the use of these pronouns. When in doubt, ask.
• Watch your gendered pronouns. When you write, you'll want to make sure that you don't do anything to make your readers feel excluded. If you use "he" and "him" all the time, you are excluding half of your potential readership. We'll acknowledge that the he/she solution is a bit cumbersome in writing. However, you might solve the problem as we have done in this document: by alternating "he" and "she" throughout. Other writers advocate always using "she" instead of "he" as a way of acknowledging a long-standing exclusion of women from texts. Whatever decision you make in the end, be sensitive to its effect on your readers.
• Be aware of discipline-specific differences. Each of the academic disciplines has its own conventions when it comes to matters of tone and style. If you need more information about discipline-specific matters, check out a style manual, such as the MLA or APA style sheets.
• Avoid mechanical errors. No matter what audience you're writing for, you'll want to produce text that is error-free. Errors in grammar and style slow your reader down. Sometimes they even obscure your meaning. Always proofread your text before passing it on to your reader. If you find that you are making a lot of errors and want help with grammar and style, consult a handbook or see Attending to Grammar and Attending to Style elsewhere in this Web site. You might also contact RWIT for help.

Tips For Newcomers

For those of you who are just beginning your academic careers, here are some tips that might help you to survive:

• First of all, keep up with your reading and go to class. You can't hope to be part of a conversation if you are absent from it.
• Pay attention not only to what others are saying, but also to how they are saying it. Notice that sound arguments are never made without evidence.
• Don't confuse evidence, assumption, and opinion. Evidence is something that you can prove. Assumption is something that one can safely infer from the evidence at hand. Opinion is your own particular interpretation of the evidence.
• Pay attention to the requirements of an assignment. When asked for evidence, don't offer opinion. When asked for your opinion, don't simply present the facts. Too often students write summary when they are asked to write analysis. The assignment will cue you as to how to respond.
• Familiarize yourself with new language. Every discipline has its own jargon. While you will want to avoid unnecessary use of jargon in your own writing, you will want to be sure before you write that you have a clear understanding of important concepts and terms.
• Don't make the mistake of thinking that because something is in print it has cornered the market on truth. Your own interpretation of a text might be just as valid (or even more valid) than something you've found in the library or on the internet. Be critical of what you read, and have confidence that you might say as much.
• Pay attention to standards and rules. Your professors will expect you to write carefully and clearly. They will expect your work to be free of errors in grammar and style. They will expect you to follow the rules for citing sources and to turn in work that is indeed your own. If you have a question about a professor's standards, ask. You will find that your professors are eager to help you.

Written by Karen Gocsik
Last modified: Tuesday, 12-Jul-2005 11:27:37 EDT
Copyright © 2004 Dartmouth College
www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/what.shtml

"QUOTES FOR THOSE WILL BE GOOD WRITER"

Inspirational Quotes

"I've got a folder full of rejection slips that I keep. Know why? Because those same editors are now calling my agent hoping I'll write a book or novella for them. Things change. A rejection slip today might mean a frantic call to your agent in six months."

- MaryJanice Davidson

"Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves?"

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Believe in yourself and in your own voice, because there will be
times in this business when you will be the only one who does. Take
heart from the knowledge that an author with a strong voice will
often have trouble at the start of his or her career because strong,
distinctive voices sometimes make editors nervous. But in the end,
only the strong survive."

- Jayne Ann Krentz

"This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never end. Keep believing. This is also for published writers grown jaded by the process. Remember how lucky you are."

- Terry Brooks

"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."

- Isaac Asimov

"Dig until you hit rock. Then take out that jackhammer and go a little deeper."

- Allison Brennan

"The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

- Thomas S. Monson

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

"Screw the fear."

- Jo Leigh

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain."

- Dolly Parton

"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

- Christopher Reeve

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

- Les Brown

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

- André Gide

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

- Albert Einstein

"If you've FINISHED writing a novel you are amongst the elite!!! You ARE NOT A FAILURE IF YOU CANNOT LIVE OFF YOUR BOOKS. You only fail by NOT TRYING."

- Nadia Cornier

"There's no comparison between what's lost by not trying and what's lost by not succeeding."

- Francis Bacon

"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean."

- Christopher Reeve

"I dwell in possibility."

- Emily Dickenson

"And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more."

- Erica Jong

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great."

- Mark Twain

"It never enters my mind that I can't do
something I set out to doing.”

- Anne Stuart

"When asked, 'How do you write?'
I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'”

- Stephen King

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

- Agatha Christie

“There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that second-best is anything but the second-best.”

- Doris Lessing

“I have learned to kick guilt in its ass and keep going.”

- Karin Tabke

“You don't find time to write. You make time. It's my job.”

- Nora Roberts

“A one-page breakthrough starts an avalanche.”

- Nancy K. Haddock

“If you don't think there is magic in writing, you probably won't write anything magical.”

- Terry Brooks

“It takes a village to write my books.”

- Catherine Morris

“Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have the possibility of being great.”

- Cher

“As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles.”

- Walt Whitman

“It's never too late--in fiction or in life--to revise.”

- Nancy Thayer

“A window of opportunity won't open itself.”

- Dave Weinbaum

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Claus. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams.
If you don't, who will?"

- Jon Bon Jovi

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

- Calvin Coolidge

"There were days when I wondered if I was a glutton for punishment or simply delusional. However, my writing must have been improving because one day I found myself with three agents interested in my latest manuscript."

- Lois Winston

"You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done."

- Brig. Gen. Chuck Yaeger

"Never, EVER give up. Not ever. Not EVER. Ever EVER!"

- MaryJanice Davidson

"The only thing that I have done that is not mitigated by luck, diminished by good fortune, is that I persisted. And other
people gave up."

- Harrison Ford

"We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world."

- Marianne Williamson

"I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this."

- Cormac McCarthy

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

- George Bernard Shaw

"It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or fortune but just yourself that kept things from you."

- Lillian Hellman

"There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

- Anonymous

"If we don't risk it all, we may as well not write at all."

- Anne Stuart

"Act out the laws of your inner self, trust the inherent correctness of your instincts... In this way you will meet with success."

- I CHING nr. 32

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

- Stephen King

“Opportunities are all around you. Find one.”

- Liz Jarrett

“There is no agony like having an untold story inside you.”

- Zora Neale Hurston

“I cannot imagine life without books any more than I can
imagine life without breathing.”

- Terry Brooks

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about,
but the music words make.”

- Truman Capote

“Perfection belongs to the Gods; the most
we can hope for is excellence.”

- Carl Jung

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

- Joan Didion

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

- Yogi Berra

“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.”

- Keanu Reeves

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

- Jack London

“It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us.”

- Joanne Kathleen Rowling

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

- Albert Einstein

“The most essential gift for a good writer is a
built-in shockproof shit-detector.”

- Ernest Hemingway

“The key to success is not through achievement,
but through enthusiasm.”

- Malcolm Forbes

“The muse whispers to you when she chooses, and you can't tell her to come back later, because you quickly learn in this business that she might not come back at all.”

- Terry Brooks

“If your ship hasn't come in--swim out to it.”

- Mary Engelbreit

“When you reach for the stars, you might not get them, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.”

- Leo Burnett

“The quickest, easiest way to produce something beautiful and lasting is to risk making something horribly crappy.”

- Chris Baty

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

- Abraham Lincoln

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.”

- Goethe

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”

- Thoreau

“Beliefs are limits to be examined and transcended.”

- John Lilly

“Your biggest problem is yourself. Getting out of the way and letting your imagination take over is the best way.”

- Jerry Cleaver

“Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

- Patrick Dennis (Aunt Mame)

“Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul - the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”

- Napoleon Hill

“For as he thinks within himself, so is he.”

- King Solomon

“If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.”

- William James

“Change can come in either of two important ways: Start behaving positively or stop behaving negatively.”

- Dr. Phil McGraw

“Whether you think you can, or think you can't,
you're probably right.”

- Henry Ford

“Those who identify with the Tao
Are likewise welcomed by the Tao.
Those who identify with Power
Are likewise welcomed by Power.
Those who identify with Failure
Are likewise welcomed by Failure.”

- Tao Te Ching

“Sometimes it is not good enough to do your best;
you have to do what's required.”

- Sir Winston Churchill

“Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.”

- Betty Ford

“A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.”

- Desiderius Erasmus

“To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there.”

- Richard Bach

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

- Thomas Edison

“My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine.
Everybody drinks water.”

- Mark Twain

“What I like in a good author isn't what he says, but what he whispers.

- Logan Pearsall Smith

“Self-trust is the first secret of success.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't
wait to get to work in the morning. I wanted to know what
I was going to say.

- Sharon O'Brien

“The main rule of writing is that, if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.)"

- Neil Gaiman

“Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

- W. Somerset Maugham

“He is able who thinks he is able.

- Buddha

“The expert at anything was once a beginner.

- Hayes

“Don't put your characters on a treadmill. They need to go new places, face new challenges, and do new things.

- Ally Carter

“Read, read, read. Read everything-trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.

- William Faulkner

“Believe that life is capable of unbelievable wonder.

- James Dillet Freeman

“People say I don't take criticism well, but I say,
what the hell do they know?

- Groucho Marx

"All writers are crazy. So never mind what the editors and your
family and your critique group tells you. Submit your
manuscripts and keep submitting until you get an offer.
Then you can be crazy, with a paycheck."

- MaryJanice Davidson

"I don't give in, I don't give up, I don't take no for an answer."

- Doris Roberts

"If we stop we die, we're like sharks baby, keep moving through the water in the hunt for our next meal."

- Karin Tabke

"If you really want something you can figure out
how to make it happen."

- Cher

"Even my failures enrich my life.
Maybe more than my successes at times."

- Anne Stuart

“If you are ever completely satisfied with something you have written, you are setting your sights too low. But if you can't let go of your material even after you have done the best that you can with it, you are setting your sights too high.

- Terry Brooks

“Believe in yourself and in your own voice, because there will be times in his business when you will be the only one who does. Take heart from the knowledge that an author with a strong voice will often have trouble at the start of his or her career because strong, distinctive voices sometimes make editors nervous. But in the end, only the strong survive. Readers return time and again to the unique, the distinctive, storytelling voice. They may love it or they may hate it, but they do not forget it.

- Jayne Ann Krentz

“I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else.

- Dolly Parton

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle

“Wake up with a smile and go after life...live it, enjoy it,
taste it, smell it, feel it.

- Joe Knapp

“Some women wait for something to change and
nothing does change so they change themselves.

- Andre Lorde

“Don't be afraid your life will end. Be afraid that it will never begin.

- Grace Hansen

“If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.

- Terry Brooks

“I like good strong words that mean something.

- Louisa May Alcott

“A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

- Anonymous

“The Author's Prayer:
Our Father, which art in Heaven,
And has also written a book...

- Anon

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

“I have decided, on reflection, it is best just to remember that sometimes the magic really works.

- Terry Books

“The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It's the lack of a DEADLINE.

- Chris Baty

“Human beings, by changing the inner beliefs of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

- William James

“You are never given a dream without being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however."

- Richard Bach

“Traveler, there is no path. Paths are made by walking.

- Mahado

“Create a character who is both proactive and sympathetic, someone with a hole in her life, but who is willing to risk all for her goal. When readers care, you can get away with almost anything.

- Bonnie Hearn Hill

“Make us laugh or cry, and we'll get you a deal.
Make us do both, and we'll get you an auction.

Agent Andrea Brown

“The toughest part of getting to the top of the ladder, is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

- Anonymous

“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

- Anne Rice

“I see something happen, read or hear about an event, and the first question that pops into my mind is, How can I use that in a story?

- Terry Brooks

“When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.

- Anne Sexton

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

- Ray Bradbury

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you plant.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined.

- Henry David Thoreau

“The future belongs to those who believe in the
beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, brain surgery."

- Robert Cormier

“If you are hungry, you should eat. If there is a hunger
in your soul, you must dream.

- unknown

“Fiction writers are strange beasts. They are, like all writers, observers first and foremost. Everything that happens to and around them is potential material for a story, and they look at it that way.

- Terry Brooks

"Be like Mae West, brash and bold and brave."

- Anne Stuart

“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to
be much use being anything else.

- Winston Churchill

“The best way of predicting the future is inventing it.

- unknown

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately,
no one knows what they are.

- W. Somerset Maugham

“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.

- Althea Gibson

“Each day comes bearing its own gifts, untie the ribbons.

- Ruth Anne Schabacker

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the
harder I work, the more I have of it.

- Stephen Leacock

“Make voyages. Attempt them. There is nothing else.

- Tennessee Williams

“Trying to explain in rational, analytical fashion how we come up with our plots and our thematic structures threatens in an odd sort of way to reveal that we are all just humbugs hiding behind a velvet curtain.

- Terry Brooks

“The ones who never fail, are the ones who never try.

- unknown

“I will act as though what I do makes a difference.

- William James

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails...explore...dream....discover.

- Mark Twain

“I only write when I'm inspired, and I make sure
I'm inspired every morning at 9 a.m.

- Peter DeVries

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action; and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. You must keep that channel open. It is not for you to determine how good it is, nor how valuable. Nor how it compares with other expressions. It is for you to keep it yours, clearly and directly.

- Martha Graham

“I write when the fear of not writing overcomes my fear of writing.

- unknown

“I can say, I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it makes me uncomfortable. Or I could say, get used to being uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?

- Barbara Streisand

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

- Jimmy Dean

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.

- Muriel Rukeyser

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

- Albert Einstein

“I will write every day because I love to, not because I have to.

- unknown

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

- Henry Ward Beecher

“All that's required to write comedy is a sense of humor. And you can write it without leaving the comfort of your own personality.

- J. Kevin Wolfe

“The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don't change.

- Terry Brooks

“There is no perfect time to write. There's only NOW!

- unknown

“Books aren't written -- they're rewritten. Including your own.
It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the
seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.

- Michael Crichton

“You have to protect your writing time.
You have to protect it to the death.

- William Goldman

“Don't tell me the moon is shining;
show me the glint of light on broken glass.

- Anton Chekhov

“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.

- Tom Clancy

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is
more difficult than it is for other people.

- Thomas Mann

“I love deadlines. Especially the whooshing sound
they make as they fly by.

- Douglas Adams

“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look
so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see
the one which has opened for us.

- Helen Keller

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you
it's going to be a butterfly.

- Buckminster Fuller

“How does one become a butterfly" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

- Trina Paulus

"This is a stamina game, so don't despair if you run down a blind alley and have to start over, or if you get another rejection letter. Every successful writer has gone through that, but they kept writing and didn't quit until they made it happen."

- Tim Maleeny

"If you're a voracious reader and you write something that you want to read, odds are other people will want to read it, too."

- Tim Maleeny

"This is business. Don't look for an easy way in. You will get stuck."

- Jane Porter

"Success is when persistence meets preparation."

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

"Be shocking, be daring, be bold, be passionate."

- Jane Porter

 The Source :

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