A brief chronology of English

55 BC Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar Local

inhabitants
AD 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain speak
Celtish
436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete

449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins

450- Earliest known Old English inscriptions Old

480 English

1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England

c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English Middle

English
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools

1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the
first time

c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales

c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins

1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press Early
Modern
1564 Shakespeare is born English

1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published

1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established

1616 Shakespeare dies

1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published

1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London

1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary

1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence

1782 Britain abandons its colonies in what is later to become the USA

1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary Late

Modern
1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded English

1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published

BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH usually refers to the period in the history of the English language covering the years from 449 (or 450)
to 1100 (or 1150). Around the year 450, England was invaded by the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, and the
Jutes). These Germanic tribes are regarded as the “founders of the English nation.” The account of these invasions is
found in the Benedectine monk Bede’s work Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was completed in 731
(Baugh and Cable 2002). The earliest records of the language date back to about 700.
MIDDLE ENGLISH covers the period from 1100 (or 1150) to 1500. William of Normandy, a French territory conquered
England in 1066. The French rule brought change to the English language. The Anglo-Saxons chronicle existed until
1154. By that time, the English language had taken on new futures different from the ones of Old English.
MODERN ENGLISH covers from the period 1500 to the present in the history of the English language. The introduction
of the movable printing process into England by William Caxton in 1476 made possible the production of uniform copies
of big numbers of books. The increase in the number of books, in literacy production, and in travel and explorations
brought change to the language from the time of the Renaissance in the 1500s.
THE ANGLO-SAXON is the term that came about with reference to the Teutonic tribes that invaded England. The term
is often used to refer to “the earliest period of English” (Baugh and Cable 2002).
THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE is the family of languages to which English belongs.
CELTS were “original inhabitants of the British isles before the arrival of the Romans.”
DIALECT is a variation of a language.
CASE is the choice of form depending on the function of words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives) in the sentences in an
inflected language.
STANDARDIZATION suggests an “ideal norm or model of usage.
MUTUALLY INTELLIGIBLE LANGUAGE indicated that the language are distinct from each other and are not
dialects of the same language.

Outlining Strategies
Outlining your first draft by listing each paragraph's topic sentence can be an easy way to ensure that each of your
paragraphs is serving a specific purpose in your paper.  You may find opportunities to combine or eliminate potential
paragraphs when outlining—first drafts often contain repetitive ideas or sections that stall, rather than advance, the paper's
central argument.
Additionally, if you are having trouble revising a paper, making an outline of each paragraph and its topic sentence after
you have written your paper can be an effective way of identifying a paper's strengths and weaknesses.

Example Outline
The following outline is for a 5-7 page paper discussing the link between educational attainment and health. Review the
other sections of this page for more detailed information about each component of this outline!
I. Introduction
A. Current Problem: Educational attainment rates are decreasing in the United States while healthcare costs are
increasing.
B. Population/Area of Focus: Unskilled or low-skilled adult workers
C. Key Terms:  healthy, well-educated
 
Thesis Statement: Because of their income deficit (cite sources) and general susceptibility to depression (cite sources),
students who drop out of high school before graduation maintain a higher risk for physical and mental health problems
later in life.
II. Background
A. Historical Employment Overview: Unskilled laborers in the past were frequently unionized and adequately
compensated for their work (cite sources).
B. Historical Healthcare Overview: Unskilled laborers in the past were often provided adequate healthcare and benefits
(cite sources).
C. Current Link between Education and Employment Type: Increasingly, uneducated workers work in unskilled or
low-skilled jobs (cite sources).
D. Gaps in the Research: Little information exists exploring the health implications of the current conditions in low-
skilled jobs.
III. Major Point 1:  Conditions of employment affect workers' physical health. 
A. Minor Point 1: Unskilled work environments are correlated highly with worker injury (cite sources).
B. Minor Point 2: Unskilled work environments rarely provide healthcare or adequate injury recovery time (cite sources).
IV. Major Point 2: Conditions of employment affect workers' mental health
A. Minor Point 1: Employment in a low-skilled position is highly correlated with dangerous levels of stress (cite
sources).
B. Minor Point 2: Stress is highly correlated with mental health issues (cite sources).
V. Major Point 3: Physical  health and mental health correlate directly with one another.
A. Minor Point 1: Mental health problems and physical health problems are highly correlated (cite sources).
B. Minor Point 2: Stress manifests itself in physical form (cite sources)
VI. Major Point 4: People with more financial worries have more stress and worse physical health.
A. Minor Point 1: Many high-school dropouts face financial problems (cite sources).
B. Minor Point 2: Financial problems are often correlated with unhealthy lifestyle choices such unhealthy food choices,
overconsumption/abuse of alcohol, chain smoking, abusive relationships, etc. (cite sources).
VII. Conclusion
A. Restatement of Thesis:  Students who drop out of high school are at a higher risk for both mental and physical health
problems throughout their lives.
B. Next Steps:  Society needs educational advocates; educators need to be aware of this situation and strive for student
retention in order to promote healthy lifestyles and warn students of the risks associated with dropping out of school.

Introduction/Context
Your introduction provides context to your readers to prepare them for your paper's argument or purpose.  An introduction
should begin with discussion of your specific topic (not a broad background overview) and provide just enough context
(definitions of key terms, for example) to prepare your readers for your thesis or purpose statement.
Sample Introduction/Context: If the topic of your paper is the link between educational attainment and health, your
introduction might do the following: (a) establish the population you are discussing, (b) define key terms such
as healthy and well-educated, or (c) justify the discussion of this topic by pointing out a connection to a current problem
that your paper will help address.

Thesis/Purpose Statement
A thesis or purpose statement should come at the end of your introduction and state clearly and concisely what the
purpose or central argument of your paper is. The introduction prepares your reader for this statement, and the rest of the
paper follows in support of it.
Sample Thesis Statement: Because of their income deficit (Smith, 2010) and general susceptibility to depression (Jones,
2011), students who drop out of high school before graduation maintain a higher risk for physical and mental health
problems later in life.
Background
After the initial introduction, background on your topic often follows. This paragraph or section might include a literature
review surveying the current state of knowledge on your topic or simply a historical overview of relevant information.
The purpose of this section is to justify your own project or paper by pointing out a gap in the current research which your
work will address.
Sample Background: A background section on a paper on education and health might include an overview of recent
research in this area, such as research on depression or on decreasing high school graduation rates.
Major & Minor Points
Major points are the building blocks of your paper. Major points build on each other, moving the paper forward and
toward its conclusion. Each major point should be a clear claim that relates to the central argument of your paper.
Sample Major Point: Employment and physical health may be a good first major point for this sample paper.  Here, a
student might discuss how dropping out of high school often leads to fewer employment opportunities, and those
employment opportunities that are available tend to be correlated with poor work environments and low pay.
Minor points are subtopics within your major points. Minor points develop the nuances of your major points but may not
be significant enough to warrant extended attention on their own. These may come in the form of statistics, examples from
your sources, or supporting ideas.
Sample Minor Point: A sample minor point of the previous major point (employment and physical health) might address
worker injury or the frequent lack of health insurance benefits offered by low-paying employers.
The rest of the body of your paper will be made up of more major and minor points. Each major point should advance the
paper's central argument, often building on the previous points, until you have provided enough evidence and analysis
to justify your paper's conclusion.
More Major and Minor Points: In this paper, more major points might include mental health of high school dropouts,
healthcare access for dropouts, and correlation between mental and physical health. Minor topics could include specific
work environments, job satisfaction in various fields, and correlation between depression and chronic illness.

Conclusion
Your conclusion both restates your paper's major claim and ties that claim into a larger discussion. Rather than simply
reiterating each major and minor point, quickly revisit your thesis statement and focus on ending the paper by tying your
thesis into current research in your field, next steps for other researchers, your broader studies, or other future
implications.
Sample Conclusion: For this paper, a conclusion might restate the central argument (the link between lack of education
and health issues) and go on to connect that discussion to a larger discussion of the U.S. healthcare or education systems.

The Structure of Academic Texts

Structure is an important feature of academic writing. A well-structured text enables the reader to follow the
argument and navigate the text. In academic writing, a clear structure and a logical flow are imperative to a cohesive
text. Furthermore, in many university assignments the correct use of structure is part of the final assessment.
Most academic texts follow established structures.

Common structures
The structure of your writing depends on the type of assignment, but two common structures used in academic
writing are the three-part essay structure and the IMRaD structure. Even shorter essays that are not divided into titled
sections follow such a structure. Longer texts may be further divided into subsections.

The three-part essay structure

The three-part essay structure is a basic structure that consists of introduction, body and conclusion. The
introduction and the conclusion should be shorter than the body of the text. For shorter essays, one or two paragraphs
for each of these sections can be appropriate. For longer texts or theses, they may be several pages long.

Introduction
Your introduction should include the following points:

 Introduce your topic

 Place your topic in a context
 Provide background information
 Point out the aim of the text
  Describe how you will fulfill the aim
 Provide a thesis statement or research question
 Suggest what your findings are
 Explain why your topic is interesting, necessary or important
 Give the reader a guide to the text
 Catch your reader’s interest

The statements you make in the introduction are to be developed in the body of the text and returned to in the
conclusion.
You may write the introduction at the beginning or at the end of the writing process. It can serve as a guide to your
own writing, but be aware that you most likely will have to go back to it and edit it as the writing progresses.  

Body
This is the main section of your text and it should also be the longest. Depending on the length of the text, the
body may be divided into subsections. If your text is divided into subsections, remember to briefly introduce each
section. For longer works you may also need to conclude sections.
The body of the text is where you as a writer and researcher are the most active. It is the most substantial part of the
text; this is where the research or findings are presented, discussed and analyzed. This is also where you present your
arguments that support your thesis or answer your question. The structure and contents of this main part may differ
depending on your discipline.

Conclusion
In the conclusion you should return to the thesis or problem that you presented in the introduction. But be
careful to not merely repeat what you wrote in the introduction; instead, show your reader how what you have written
sheds new light on the problem presented at the beginning. For longer works a brief summary of your findings may be
in place, but this should not be necessary for shorter texts. Be careful that your conclusion is not just a repetition of
what you have already written. In your conclusion, you may also evaluate and explain whether or not you have
reached the aim or solved the problem presented in the introduction, and how. No new material should be introduced
in the conclusion, but it is quite common to suggest topics for further studies.

The IMRaD structure (Introsuction, Methods, Results, Discussion)

- Most commonly used format for papers that are based on experimental studies.
- For Medicine, this is the only format used in writing up papers.

Introduction
John Swales’ CARS (Creating A Research Space) Model
(CARS I)

 Making a claimto centrality which tells the reader why this area is interesting and worthy of research.
 Review previous work that is relevant and making general claims about your topic.
 At this stage, what you aim to do is to Position yourself in relation to previous work.

(CARS II)

 Establish your niche – to do this, you might counter some claims that often researchers have made.
 Raise a problem that needs an answer, a problem that previous work has not been able to solve, or the
solutions are somehow incomplete or they introduce new problems that also need to be solved.
 Indicate a gap where there is lack of research.
 Continuing or developing an existing tradition – apply someone else’s ideas to new material.

(CARS III)

 Occupy the space that you’re staked out.

 Present a statement of purpose
 Provide an outline
 Broader significance of your research – How will it contribute to discussions of the topic?
 Convince the reader of the importance of your work.
Method
In this section you describe how you have conducted your study. This is where you present your material and your
research as well as any previous research and background material. You describe what method or methods you have
used and how you have come up with your results. You may also explain why you have chosen a particular method.
However, you should be aware that there can be differences between disciplines in the contents and structure of this
section.
Results
In this section you report the results of your research. Usually the results are not discussed or analyzed in this section
but you may have to explain some of your findings to avoid misunderstandings.
Discussion
The discussion is the section where you as a writer are the most active and it should be the most substantial section of
the entire paper. You should interpret, analyze and discuss your results as well as compare and contrast them to
previous research.
Sometimes papers that use the IMRaD structure will have a separate conclusion and sometimes the conclusion will be
merged with the discussion. Be sure to check with your instructor what is expected of you.

Other parts of academic papers

Apart from the parts that are treated in the above sections about the three-part structure and the IMRaD
structure, academic papers also consist of other often quite formalized parts.

Title
The title should catch the reader’s attention and interest and also indicate what to expect of the paper.
Many academic titles consist of two parts where the first part catches the reader’s attention and the second part is
explanatory. Look at the titles of other academic papers and articles within your discipline for inspiration on how to
construct titles.
Most often you are required to use a certain format or template for your title page. Make sure to check the
instructions or ask your course teacher to find out what is expected of you.

Abstract
An abstract summarizes the main contents of your thesis and should give the reader a well-defined idea of
what the thesis is about. Readers often use the abstract to determine whether or not the text is relevant for them to
read.
It is recommended that you read abstracts that are written within your own discipline to learn what is expected of you,
since what is included in an abstract may differ in each field of study.  Make sure that your abstract has the length that
is required in the assignment and keep in mind that shorter assignments do not usually require an abstract.

Table of contents
Longer works usually have a table of contents. You will most likely be expected to use a certain format according to
the template you are using. Otherwise most word processors will have formatting tools you can use to create a table of
contents. Make sure to structure your table of contents in a way that makes the relationship between sections and
subsections apparent to the reader.

Reference list
The reference list is placed after the text. Any appendices should however be placed after the reference list. The list
should include all sources you have used in your work. How to construct the list and how to cite sources differ
between disciplines and reference systems.

Paragraphs
A paragraph is a collection of sentences that deal with one topic or idea. When a new paragraph begins it signals to
the reader that the focus shifts to a new idea or thought. At the same time, all paragraphs should connect to the main
topic.
Topic sentence and supporting sentences
Paragraphs consist of sentences. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence that presents the main point or theme of
the paragraph. This sentence is most often near the beginning of the paragraph. All other sentences in the paragraph
are supporting sentences that connect back to the topic sentence. These sentences develop the idea that is expressed in
the topic sentence. This development may for example be a deeper analysis, a contrast or an illustrative example. The
last sentence of the paragraph is the concluding sentence or transitional sentence. It sums up the contents of the
paragraph and leads the reader to the following paragraph. It is important to transition smoothly from one paragraph to
the next. Otherwise the impression will be that the paragraphs are piled onto each other rather than constitute one
coherent text.
The length of each paragraph depends on its contents. This means that the length of paragraphs may vary. That is, you
should not begin a new paragraph simply because you feel that now it is long enough. However, if a paragraph is very
short it could be an indication that something needs to be developed. If it is very long it could be an indication that it
contains more than one central idea.

Paragraph development
Paragraphs can be structured in different ways. The internal structure of each paragraph often depends on the idea that
is treated in that specific paragraph and its relationship to the surrounding paragraphs as well as to the text as a whole.
Your topic and the purpose of the paragraph should determine its organization. For example, if your purpose is to
illustrate the differences between two theories, your topic sentence should tell the reader that you are about to contrast
two theories. You may then describe first one theory, then the other, and finally contrast the two.

Critical Approaches to Literature

Described below are nine common critical approaches to the literature. Quotations are from X.J. Kennedy and Dana
Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages
1790-1818.

 Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be
examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work
itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—
that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work
together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
 Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by
actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.”
Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical
critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that
writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by
knowledge of the author’s life.... [B]iographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with
irrelevant material.”
 Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and
intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key
goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
 Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary
works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches,
including the so-called “masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender
criticism, however, is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated
western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’
assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—
by questioning, for example, why none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of
a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual
identity influences the reader of a text” and “examin[ing] how the images of men and women in imaginative
literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”
 Psychological Criticism: This approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature
and literary criticism. Fundamental figures in psychological criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose
“psychoanalytic theories changed our notions of human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like
wish-fulfillment, sexuality, the unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how
“language and symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”; and Carl
Jung, whose theories about the unconscious are also a key foundation of Mythological Criticism. Psychological
criticism has a number of approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three approaches:
 1. An investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and how does it
relate to normal mental functions?”
2. The psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical circumstances
affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior.
3. The analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.
 Sociological Criticism: This approach “examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in
which it is written or received,” exploring the relationships between the artist and society. Sometimes it examines
the artist’s society to better understand the author’s literary works; other times, it may examine the representation
of such societal elements within the literature itself. One influential type of sociological criticism is Marxist
criticism, which focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often emphasizing the ideological content
of literature; because Marxist criticism often argues that all art is political, either challenging or endorsing (by
silence) the status quo, it is frequently evaluative and judgmental, a tendency that “can lead to reductive
judgment, as when Soviet critics rated Jack London better than William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Edith
Wharton, and Henry James, because he illustrated the principles of class struggle more clearly.” Nonetheless,
Marxist criticism “can illuminate political and economic dimensions of literature other approaches overlook.”
 Mythological Criticism: This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary
works.” Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological
criticism “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and
symbols common to different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythlogical criticism is the archetype, “a
symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism
from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of
primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”—often deriving from
primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the
collective unconscious.” Another critic, Northrop Frye, defined archetypes in a more limited way as “a symbol,
usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary
experience as a whole.” Regardless of the definition of archetype they use, mythological critics tend to view
literary works in the broader context of works sharing a similar pattern.
 Reader-Response Criticism: This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature” exists not as an artifact
upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to
describe what happens in the reader’s mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that  reading, like writing, is a
creative process. According to reader-response critics, literary texts do not “contain” a meaning; meanings derive
only from the act of individual readings. Hence, two different readers may derive completely different
interpretations of the same literary text; likewise, a reader who re-reads a work years later may find the work
shockingly different. Reader-response criticism, then, emphasizes how “religious, cultural, and social values
affect readings; it also overlaps with gender criticism in exploring how men and women read the same text with
different assumptions.” Though this approach rejects the notion that a single “correct” reading exists for a literary
work, it does not consider all readings permissible: “Each text creates limits to its possible interpretations.”
 Deconstructionist Criticism: This approach “rejects the traditional assumption that language can accurately
represent reality.” Deconstructionist critics regard language as a fundamentally unstable medium—the words
“tree” or “dog,” for instance, undoubtedly conjure up different mental images for different people—and therefore,
because literature is made up of words, literature possesses no fixed, single meaning. According to critic Paul de
Man, deconstructionists insist on “the impossibility of making the actual expression coincide with what has to be
expressed, of making the actual signs [i.e., words] coincide with what is signified.” As a result, deconstructionist
critics tend to emphasize not what is being said but how language is used in a text. The methods of this approach
tend to resemble those of formalist criticism, but whereas formalists’ primary goal is to locate unity within a
text, “how the diverse elements of a text cohere into meaning,” deconstructionists try to show how the text
“deconstructs,” “how it can be broken down ... into mutually irreconcilable positions.” Other goals of
deconstructionists include (1) challenging the notion of authors’ “ownership” of texts they create (and their ability
to control the meaning of their texts) and (2) focusing on how language is used to achieve power, as when they try
to understand how a some interpretations of a literary work come to be regarded as “truth.”