Questions
Short answers here, full guides and articles behind each one.
Questions students ask me
The questions that come up most often in coaching, answered briefly here and at length in the guides.
How do I make my thesis statement more specific?
A vague thesis usually names a topic rather than a position. Test it by asking whether a reasonable person could disagree with it. If nobody could, it is a description, not an argument.
The fastest fix is to add the grounds. Take the claim you already have and finish the sentence with because, and then name the two or three reasons your paper will actually defend. If you cannot finish that sentence, the problem is the research, not the wording.
What makes an academic source credible?
Credibility is about the process behind a source, not the confidence of its tone. Ask who wrote it, what evidence they present, whether it was reviewed before publication, and who benefits from the conclusion.
Recency matters differently by field. A 1970s study can be foundational in linguistics and obsolete in clinical psychology, so check how the source is treated by newer work that cites it.
How long should an essay introduction be?
Roughly ten per cent of the essay is a workable starting point, but length is the wrong thing to aim at. An introduction has a job: establish the question, indicate why it matters, and state the position the paper will defend.
If yours runs long, it is usually carrying material that belongs in the body. If it runs short, the thesis is often missing.
How do I use sources without relying on quotations?
Quote when the exact wording is the evidence, which is rarer than most drafts assume. For everything else, paraphrase and cite, because paraphrasing forces you to show that you understood the argument.
A useful check: read a paragraph and remove every quotation. If nothing of your own reasoning is left, the paragraph is a collection of sources rather than an argument.
What is the difference between a research paper and an essay?
An essay argues a position, mainly through reasoning and interpretation of a limited set of materials. A research paper builds a position out of a body of existing evidence, and the survey of that evidence is part of the work.
Practically, the research paper asks more of your source handling and organisation. The argumentative logic is the same.
How can I sound more academic without sounding complicated?
Academic register comes from precision and hedging that matches your evidence, not from long words. Writing suggests rather than proves is more academic than any amount of vocabulary.
Most drafts get clearer by cutting nominalisations and empty openers. Prefer researchers argued to an argument was put forward by researchers.
Ask something else
If your question is not here, send it to me. Questions that come up more than once tend to become articles.