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me writing assignments you receive at Harvard will explicitly ask you to present an "original" thesis, claim,

or idea. But even when the word "original" isn't mentioned, you should assume that your professor expects

you to develop a thesis that is the product of your own thinking and not something drawn directly from a

source and planted in your paper. Occasionally an assignment will require only a summary of your reading,

particularly if the instructor wants to make sure you have understood a particularly complex concept

however, some assignments may !e worded in a way that leaves expectations am!iguous you may !easked, for example, to "discuss" or "consider" a source#, and you may think you are only expected to

summari$e when, in fact, you are expected to make an argument. %hen in dou!t a!out whether you are

supposed to make an argument in your paper, always check with your instructor to make sure you

understand what you're expected to do.

&he expectation that you will say something original in every college paper may seem daunting. fter all,

how can you, an undergraduate who has !een studying a particular su!(ect for as little as one semester,

know enough to make an original contri!ution to a field that your professor may have spent a career

studying) *ndeed, it would !e impossi!le for you to come up with an idea for every paper you write that no

one has ever thought of !efore, and your instructors reali$e this. %hen they ask you to come up with an

original idea, they may !e signaling different expectations, depending on the context of the assignment.

Below, you'll find a general framework for thinking a!out originality in different situations you will encounter

in college.

Writing situation #1: Short non-research papers

*n the context of certain assignments, it's enough to come up with a thesis that's original to you+a thesis

that you arrived at after thinking a!out the material you read, rather than an idea you encountered in one of 

the assigned sources. &his will !e true for the papers you write in xpos, as well as for many of the short

papers you write in your -en d and concentration courses. or these papers, your instructor does not

expect you to come up with an idea that no one else has ever written a!out. /ather, for these types of

assignments, your instructor is most interested in your thought process, your analytical skills, and the way

you explain why you think what you think. But why, you may !e wondering, would anyone !other writing a

paper that presents an idea that other scholars have written a!out already)

Here's the short answer to that question0 &here is real value in discovering an idea for yourself, selecting the

!est evidence to support it, and taking the necessary steps to argue for it. 1ot only does this process allow

you to show your professor that you are capa!le of sophisticated thought, it also helps you learn

!oth what  you think a!out a topic or issue and how  to think through a pro!lem or set of pro!lems. &his kind

of thinking is necessary preparation for the longer pro(ects you'll do later in your college career when

you will  !e expected to say something truly original. *t's impossi!le to tackle those pro(ects+from a senior

thesis to original la! research+if you haven't had the experience of arriving at an idea, fleshing out an

argument, and presenting it to an audience. &his preparation will serve you well as your college coursework

!ecomes more speciali$ed, and it will also !enefit you when you leave college. %hether you go into

!usiness, law, education, medicine, or another field, you'll find yourself in circumstances in which your

analysis of a particular pro!lem, and your use of sources to solve that pro!lem, will !e crucial to your

success.

%hile the specifics of the assignments for short papers will vary, remem!er that whenever you're asked to

make a claim, you're expected to do your own thinking. *n other words, writing a paper a!out a claim that

has !een worked over in class, in section, or in your readings will not leave you room to do much thinking of 

your own. 1or will writing a paper a!out a claim that will strike your readers as patently o!vious, simple,

and unargua!le. *f you are interested in an idea that has come up in class, or one that seems o!vious, you

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should work on extending or complicating this idea, or coming up with a counterargument that changes the

way the idea should !e considered. lso, keep in mind that when your instructors tell you not to consult

outside sources, they are often doing so precisely to encourage your original thinking, and you should heed

their instructions. %hen an assignment specifies that you avoid outside sources, you should generally take

this to mean that you should not do any outside reading in preparation for the assignment, including even

 (ust a quick %e! search for !ackground on a topic.

Writing Situation #2: Short research papers and term papers

%hen you are assigned a research paper or term paper for a course, you will often !e asked to write 23453

pages in which you respond in some way to sources you identify and locate yourself . s with the shorter

papers you write for your courses you will generally not !e expected to come up with an idea that has never

!een considered !efore although your instructors will certainly !e pleased if you do#. 6o how will you know

if your idea is original enough)

&he key to answering this question is to think carefully a!out the context of the course and to decide what's

reasona!le for you to do given the scope of the assignment. or example, if you've !een asked to find five

sources of your own, your paper will not !e original enough if your argument simply echoes one of these

sources, or if it echoes a source that was actually assigned in class. On the other hand, if you locate three

sources, each of which offers different answers to the same question, your paper will !e original if you can

make your own argument for which answer makes the most sense and why.

7our argument will not, however, !e original enough if you make the same argument as one of the sources

without acknowledging why that source is stronger than the others. or example, if you were writing a!out

race in Bra$il, and you were asked to read and consider two opposing theories on the topic, you might agree

with one theory and then present your argument for why it is the stronger idea. Or you might decide that

!oth theories fall short, as /on 6erko does in the 533845339 issue of Exposé. 6erko lays out the theories

he's considering in his first paragraph and then stakes out his own position in paragraph two when he

writes, "The reality of race in Brazil does not precisely fit either of these theories, however. Rather, I argue

that the syste of race in Brazil follows a roughly !ipolar odel, and the two poles are white and

nonwhite"#$%&. 6erko goes on to explain what he sees as the flaws in the opposing theories and to provide

evidence for his own interpretation. &he result is a paper that does not simply restate the position of one of

his sources !ut, rather, uses those sources to inform his own thinking.

%hen you are undertaking research in a field, it's always a good idea to check in with your instructor to

make sure that you are not overlooking important work in that field and that the sources you are choosing

are significant and appropriate for your pro(ect.

Writing Situation #3: The junior tutorial paper and the seniorthesis

%hen you write a su!stantial piece of work that takes a semester or more like a (unior tutorial paper or a

senior thesis#, the expectations for originality are different !ecause of the length of the essay you'll write

and !ecause of your assumed expertise in the field. s you gain experience in your concentration, your

knowledge of the ma(or ideas in your chosen field will expand, you will develop your a!ility to ask more

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k64744&pageid=icb.page303967http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k64744&pageid=icb.page303967http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k64744&pageid=icb.page303967http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k64744&pageid=icb.page303967http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848

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rigorous questions in that field, and you will !e a!le to answer those questions in ways that are original not

 (ust to you !ut to your readers. t this point in your college career, you'll have had the opportunity to learn

who the ma(or thinkers are in your field and how to identify the important literature on what research has

taken place on your topic. 7ou'll !e a!le to find the most important current scholarship on a topic or the

most recent findings related to your research question. 7our expertise, along with the time you'll have to

devote to the pro(ect, means that you will !e well4equipped to say something original a!out your topic.

ven when you write these longer papers, it's still important to understand what it means to say something

original. cademic work is very speciali$ed, and scholars !uild theories and ideas !ased on the knowledge

and ideas that they have studied. *n practical terms, this means that ideas evolve slowly, and every original

idea doesn't have to !e as ground!reaking as E :mc5 or ;ierkegaard's "leap of faith." %hile there's nothing

wrong with hoping to discover a new element to add to the periodic ta!le or to figure out the true identity of 

6hakespeare, it's more likely that your ideas will !e original in any of the following ways0

7ou might discover, in your study of a particular topic, that no one has considered a question or pro!lem

that interests you. Or you might !e interested in a question that has !een asked !efore, !ut decide to use a

text or series of texts to answer that question in a new way. or example, you might look at newly released

government documents to consider a question a!out how the /eagan administration shaped economic

policies. %hile the question may have !een asked !efore, the newly availa!le data will allow you to provide

a fresh, original perspective. 6imilarly, for a senior thesis in a la! science or social science concentration,you might collect and analy$e your own data in pursuit of an answer to a question that other scholars have

attempted to answer !efore with different types of data. *n psychology, for example, you might conduct an

experiment under the supervision of a professor and then analy$e your data. *n a sociology or anthropology

course, you might conduct a series of interviews and analy$e them in order to answer a question in a new

way.

s appealing as it might seem to discover an entirely new idea, it's (ust as valua!le to add a new step or a

new way of thinking to an idea that someone else has already presented !y considering new data, or,

alternatively, to refute an idea !y pointing out a new way of looking at the existing data. *t's also valua!le+

and original+to consider ideas in relation to each other that have not !een considered or connected to each

other in this way !efore.

%hether you're working on a short assignment or a semester4long pro(ect, remem!er that even in thecontext of all the thinking that has come !efore yours, you are always capa!le of in(ecting your own unique

point of view into a paper. *n fact, you're doing your own thinking all the time, long !efore you start writing

+in class discussion, in the dining hall, and in your instructor's office hours. %hen you !ring sources into the

equation, you're a!le to go !eyond your gut reactions and feelings "capitalism is good"# to develop more

nuanced ideas "capitalism does a !etter (o! of creating incentives for innovation than other systems" or "a

capitalist society protects human rights !etter than other societies"#. 6ources also allow you to gain access

to competing arguments and interpretations, and help to lay the groundwork for your own thinking. %hen

you read what has already !een written on a particular topic, or when you analy$e data that has already

!een produced in addition to new data, you !ecome more qualified to contri!ute to the conversation.

epartmental %riting ellows, -eneralducation %riting ellows, and House tutors are all excellent resources. &he Harvard %riting ?ro(ect

pu!lishes a num!er of guides to writing in different fields, and the %riting =enter offers general writing

resources in addition to individual conferences.

Before you can use sources effectively, you need to know how to locate them, how to know if they are

relia!le, and how to distinguish clearly !etween the ideas in a source and your own ideas. &he information

on this site provides an introduction to the research process, including how and where to find sources, how

to decide if a source is relia!le and useful, how to use sources accurately and effectively in your papers !oth

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page123715http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup107786http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106849http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106849http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page123715http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106848http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup107786http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106849

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to strengthen your own thinking and writing and to avoid plagiarism, and finally, how to integrate source

material into your writing and how to cite sources responsi!ly.

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