Please use technical language ("jargon") carefully and only where necessary. If you understand the jargon you will use it where ordinary language fails to express ideas with sufficient precision.
If you do not understand the jargon but use it in the hopes of impressing the reader, you will achieve the opposite. We will experience your work as a spoof of specialized language in a field that is dear to us. If we think your parody is unintentional we will be tempted to laugh; if we see it as intentional our feelings will be hurt.
Likewise we will feel defensive if your argument is based unreflectively on opinions widely held by the general public. After all, we flatter ourselves by thinking that we have taught you something you did not think about before you took this class. If an argument seems completely obvious to you, think of not making it. Karl Popper argued that if an idea is not falsifable, i.e. it is not possible to prove it wrong, then it is not a scientific idea. In our field we cannot always be scientific, but we do generally value ideas that are falsifiable more than those that are not.
Consider working with a writing lab at your college. They give advice both to students who have trouble writing essays and to more confident writers who just want some comments! If you give us your essay two weeks before the deadline or earlier, we will read it and return it with comments, so that you can improve it before handing it in.
For important general advice on academic writing, please click here.
