The purpose of this article is to walk a student or writer through simple, but specific steps, to generate the best term paper possible.
The transition from writing high school level essays to college level essays is often a confusing one. Students that received "A’s" in high school find that their writing only earns "C’s" in college. This grading difference is due to what college professors expect compared to what high school teachers expect from their students. Unlike high school teachers, college professors expect that college students are able to write with perfect grammar, punctuation, spelling, and structure. In addition to these mandatory expectations, college professors also look at how well their students are able to analyze materials instead of simply just their ability to summarize information. By knowing what is expected and how to format an essay, students should be able to consistently write "A" term papers in college with minimal stress.
Follow Instructions
The first rule of thumb when writing an essay is to follow the professor’s instructions. Every professor has a different idea of what makes an "A" paper. Often a rubrics sheet will be handed out at the beginning of the semester by the professor that outlines what format they want their students to use, including: citation style, in-text citation requirements, and what reference sources are acceptable. Students should use this sheet, or guide as a map to their "A" paper.
Know What Kind of Paper You Are Writing
The second thing students should keep in mind is what kind of paper needs to be written. There are several different kinds of papers that college students are expected to write: analysis, informative, opinion, and persuasive. Each of these types of essays has specific requirements for research and structure. If a student fails to meet these specific needs, even a well-written essay will not receive a passing grade. Again this falls back to following directions.
Select of Specific Topic
Once the student has an idea of what their professor expects, and they know what kind of essay that they need to write, students can then decide on a topic. When formatting a topic or thesis statement, students will want to make sure that the topic is general enough to find information on, yet specific enough that it can be fully developed within the scope of their essay. For example, if the professor assigns a three to five page argumentative essay on a current event, the student should not make their thesis statement "The Bush Administration’s policies are bad." This is too broad a statement to be fully developed in 3-5 pages, and it lacks a focus. Instead they should focus the topic to one issue and apply it to who the issue affects. For example: "The Bush Administration’s Social Security proposal negatively (positively) impacts retirement for millions of Americans." The student should select either the negative or positive position depending on their opinion and their ability to find verifiable supporting evidence.
Finding Sources/Researching
Researching for an essay is where some students get into trouble. They don’t know where to look for sources, or what information they need. Again students should refer back to their rubrics sheet, and their professor’s instructions for the project to make sure that they use the correct forms of resource materials (internet, magazines, professional journals, books, etc.), and that the students use at least the minimum number of sources outlined by their professor. For example, the instructions may state that this 3-5 page essay will need to cite at least 5 different sources, with no more than 2 sources coming from the internet. Here is another point that needs clarification. Internet sources do not refer to published materials that are also in digital format online in a database or online library. Internet sources refer to personal or professional websites. In order to meet the cited source requirements for this assignment a student should try to select a variety of reputable source types like books and professional journals. If opinions are sought, then the student can then use one or two personal websites to locate personal and/or group opinions on their topic.
Before starting the research process the student should come up with a list of keywords and specific information that they need to find. This will help to direct their research process and their search for information. To generate a keyword list it is often helpful to brainstorm or create word clusters on the topic and the angle of their paper. For example, if the Social Security topic mentioned earlier is taken into consideration possible keywords could be:
Privatization social security plan
Bush social security
Social security in the news
Alternative solutions social security
Senior opinion social security
Working adult opinion social security
Data and statistics social security
With this list, students can then look for sources either online or at a public or university library. Public and university library searches are great for locating academic references like textbooks, professional journals, and other reference materials. However, with the development of online databases students don’t have to do a physical search in most cases, as they can just use a university sponsored, or premium online library to conduct their research.
When conducting research online, students should make sure that their sources are reputable. Personal websites really should be avoided, as information provided on these kinds of sites are not as reliable as professional websites. Personal website, while not a good reference source, are great places to find leads to keywords and other reputable sources. Students should look at the end of the personal websites for a bibliography or references cited lists. They can then use these lists to locate reputable sources of information for their essay.
If a student utilizes an online database or library they will need to make sure that they document where they found their sources. This can be done by either printing out their source pages or by taking notes. If the student takes notes instead of printing out the pages they will want to get the following information for every internet source that they use: author, date of the material, web page title, title of article, organization or publication title, date material was retrieved, and the website address associated with the source. While notes may provide students and professors with all of the information that is needed to located these sites again, I would highly recommend printing out their sources as they are found, as website updates or site maintenance may prevent the student’s professor from accessing these sources during their check for source authenticity. Also by printing out the source pages, students have the exact website address printed at the bottom of their sheets, and this helps to prevent mistakes when documenting web addresses in their bibliography or works cited page. For easy access, I also recommend that print outs of online resources be organized and kept neatly in a folder.
Organizing Your Paper
After you have finished your initial research you will want to outline your paper and set up your initial bibliography. Again follow the instructions provided by your professor regarding what elements are needed, what citation style is required, and any specific sections that are required. Not all professors require a title page, however if one is requested it should include: title of the essay, student’s name, class name and code, university name, and date. The main body of the paper will also need to have a header that provides a page number and either you last name, or the title of your essay. Again this information will depend on your professor’s requirements.
A general essay outline should look something like this:
1. Introduction
overview of the point of the essay
thesis statement
lead into supporting information
2. Point #1
supporting information
supporting information
tie to thesis
3. Point #2
supporting information
supporting information
tie to thesis
4. Conclusion
summarize findings
restate thesis in a concluding statement
Revise, Revise, Revise
Once your outline is developed, insert your resources from your notes making sure to cite sources according to MLA or APA standards. Again you will need to follow your professor’s preferences for in-text citation, footnotes, or endnotes.
In-text citations, also referred to as parenthetical citation, are simply short cues that direct the reader to where you found the information. For example, let’s say you use a statistic like "15% of Americans agree with the privatization of Social Security." If your professor requires parenthetical citation you will need to include the author’s name, date of publication, and page in parenthesis after the statistic.
EXAMPLE
-the privatization of social security is not a popular option, as only 15% of Americans agree with this option. (Author, year of publication, p. X). (APA style)
Once the sources have been inserted into your outline, you can then flesh out your first draft. Don’t worry too much about flow, transitions, and wording at this point. For the first draft you just want to get your information organized and put down in your own words. After you have the first draft written you can reorganize the information so that your supporting information builds an understanding of your topic in a logical fashion. For argumentative papers begin with your weakest point and end with your strongest point, and for informative papers use chronological ordering.
I find that it is helpful to read the essay out loud in order to find grammar and typing mistakes as well as word flow problems. As the student reads through the essay they should make notes of these mistakes and flow of information problems so that they can go back and make changes. This process will need to be repeated several times until the essay seems reasonably perfected.
Once a "good" draft is completed the student should then get out their rubrics sheet and use it as a checklist to make sure that their paper is formatted correctly and that it contains all of the elements that their professor is looking for. These elements will probably include:
Good transitions between paragraphs
Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation
Proper parenthetical citation, footnotes, or endnotes
Logical organization of information
Supporting information for each point made
Clearly stated thesis statement
Effective summary and conclusion
Properly formatted bibliography
Proper margins and spacing
Properly formatted title page
Proper headers and/or footers
Include name, class, university, and professor, and date on the title page, or on page one of the essay body
If there is time, it is also a good idea to have a friend or a student teacher read through the essay with a copy of the rubrics sheet to see if they think that the paper conforms to the standards outlined by the professor. They can make suggestions on revisions that need to be made, find type o’s that the student missed, and point out areas where the wording is confusing. With these suggestions a final revision can be done that makes the paper top notch.
Preparing the Paper to Hand In
When the essay passes all of the above tests then a clean copy should be printed out and bound according to the professor’s specifications. This may be as simple as stapling the pages together, to formally binding the pages in a plastic cover.
Hand the Essay In On Time
The final step to getting an "A" on a term paper is to turn it in on time. With these simple to follow steps any college student should be able to improve their college writing and hopefully