Model Papers from the Disciplines
Professional writers often read other writers to think about new techniques. Although reading a good paper cannot teach you everything you need to know about writing in a given discipline, it can be enormously helpful. The papers below were winners of the Writing Center essay contest from 2007-2009. We hope you find them helpful for expanding your writing repertoire. (You may also want to browse Additional Model Papers, collected in earlier years.)
It can be even more valuable to ask your professors for sample essays that they admire. In fact, if your field is not represented below, please encourage your professors to send us a good paper in that discipline.
English 114/116 Essays Literature History
Natural Science Philosophy Bioethics Social Science
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Photography and Fascism at Abu Ghraib” |
“My Secret” |
“Israel's Withdrawal Gaza: Legitimizing Civil by Aya Shoshan '10 English 114: Writing Seminars 1 Professor Andrew Ehrgood |
"'The Moral Meaning of a Pause': Ethics Committees and the Cloning Debate" |
“When Culture Trumps Law” |
“Choosing Terms” |
“Vignettes From a Carpetbagger: Four Parables of the Katrina Era” |
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| History | |
“Meanings in Canada’s Vimy Ridge Memorial” by Michael Birnbaum '08 HIST 423: Cultural History of World War I Professor Bruno Cabanes |
“Regarding the Body: The Spectacle of Dissection and its Uses in the 18th Century” |
“The Progressives’ Attempts to Link America’s Rural Past and Modern Future” |
Masking of Egyptian Insecurities” |
“Dissidence in China and Eastern Europe and the Search for a New Pragmatism”
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“The Impossibility of P. Grad. 4 in the Thebaid and Implications for Ptolemaic Rule” CLCV 204: Alexander and the Hellenistic World |
| Literature | |
“Within You, Without You: Cannibalism and Consciousness in the Transatlantic World” |
"'Both Soles of Every Sinner Were On Fire': Contrapasso in Canto XI" by Alice Baumgartner '10 Directed Studies: Literature Professor Shameem Black |
“The Prophet Who Protested Too Much” |
“Want, Need, and Reason: Milton and Cause” |
“From Ass to Audience: Imagination as an Act of Translation” by Carina del Valle Schorske '10 English 129: The European Literary Tradition Professor Laura Frost |
“Holiest Love: The Spiritual Valediction in by Alexandra Schwartz '09 ENGL 125: Major English Poets Professor George Fayen |
“Fly Sex: Adaptive manipulation of offspring sex ratio in Drosophila melanogaster” |
“Recombination in Mitochondrial DNA: by Christina Hueschen '10 E&EB 122: Principles of Evolut., Ecology/Behavior Professor Stephen Stearns Teaching Fellow: Jeremy Draghi |
“Evaluating the influence of evolution on human brain size” |
“‘Junk’: Breeding Innovation and Complexity” |
“Telling a Lie to Save a Life: Kant's Moral Failure by Brian Earp '10 Directed Studies: Philosophy Professor Gregory Ganssle |
"Save Yourself from Yourself" |
"The Lottery of Babylon and the Justice of Random Chance" |
“Mill’s Failed Critique of Kant, and Further Critiques of Both Philosophers” by Noah Lawrence '09 Directed Studies: Philosophy |
"The Prisoner Dis-Analogy as a Defense of Stem Cell Research on Spare Embryos" |
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“Suffering and Redemption in the Eyes of Lincoln” by Katerina Apostolides '06 |
“Pressured Justice: Activating the Courts for the Protection of Female Laborers” by David Wheelock '09 PLSC 373: Comparative Judicial Politics Professor Frances Rosenbluth Teaching Fellow: Stephen Engel
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“Fixing Poverty: What Government Can and Cannot Do To Make America Better” by James Kirchick '06 PLSC 203: Inequality and American Democracy Professor Jacob S. Hacker Teaching Fellow: Nicole Kazee |
“Imagined Identities: The Tibetan Government-in-exile and the Western Vision of Tibet” by Emily Kruger '08 ANTH 455: Religion and Globalization in East Asia Professor Gareth Fisher |
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