Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

Build your argument around answers to readers' questions
Planning your argument
Writing your paper

6.2.1 Identify (or Invent) Target Readers Interested in Your Question

You cannot anticipate your readers' questions unless you have a good idea of who they are and what they know. That's a problem for many class papers, since you have no obvious readers but your teacher—who isn't reading as herself (see the Caution below). That's why teachers often set up research papers so that your target readers are your classmates. If not, you have to select at least one target reader for yourself. Your best choice is someone you know who would be interested in your question and who knows as much about it as you did before you started your research. (Even better if you know two or more such people.) Have them in mind when you imagine your readers' questions. If you don't know such a person, invent one. The more you can imagine specific, familiar people asking you questions, the better your argument will be.

CAUTION

Write for Target Readers, Not Your Teacher

Your teacher may be your only reader, but don't write with only your teacher in mind. First of all, teachers generally judge papers not as themselves but from the point of view of your target readers, who know less than they do. Second, you risk making unconscious assumptions that distort your argument: you will fail to explain matters your teacher already understands but readers don't, fail to anticipate questions that readers might have but your teacher won't, and generally produce a paper that is fully suited neither to your teacher nor to your target readers. Once you identify your target readers, write only for them.

6.2.2 How Arguments Grow from Questions

You already know about asking the kinds of questions whose answers will compose your argument because you ask and answer them every day. Consider this exchange:

A: I hear you had a hard time last semester. How do you think this one will go? [A poses a problem in the form of a question.]

B: Better, I hope. [B answers the question.]

A: Why so? [A asks for a reason to believe B's answer.]

B: I'm taking courses in my major. [B offers a reason.]

A: Like what? [A asks for evidence to back up B's reason.]

B: History of Art, Intro to Design. [B offers evidence to back up his reason.]

A: Why will taking courses in your major make a difference? [A doesn't see the relevance of B's reason to his claim that he will do better.]

B: When I take courses I'm interested in, I work harder. [B offers a general principle that relates his reason to his claim that he will do better.]

A: What about that math course you have to take? [A objects to B's reason.]

B: I know I had to drop it last time I took it, but I found a good tutor. [B acknowledges A's objection and responds to it.]

If you can see yourself as A or B, you'll find nothing new in the argument of a research report, because you build its argument out of the answers to those same five questions.

✵ What is your claim?

✵ What reasons support it?

✵ What evidence supports those reasons?

✵ How do you respond to objections and alternative views?

✵ How are your reasons relevant to your claim?

If you ask and answer those five questions, you can't guarantee that your readers will accept your claim, but you make it more likely that they'll treat it—and you—with respect.