Student Guide to Writing a Term Paper

Publication Date: 12 Oct 2017
Author: Kelly Higgins

Term paper is a nightmare for many students regardless of their major or year of study. Frankly speaking, this type of paper has some special features, but you can cope up with this task if you pay enough attention and efforts. Here you will find detailed instructions and recommendations how to create a pretty good term paper step by step.

Step 1
We traditionally start with a choice of your topic for the term paper. It’s preferable to choose the topic yourself than to be assigned, because in this case you can work with a range of issues you are interested in. Quite often students continue to explore the issue they faced earlier, and it saves time to a certain extend and allows you to deepen knowledge in some specific sphere. Correlate the size of the topic with that actual amount of information you can process within the scope of your paper.

Step 2
Work with sources is the second step on the way to the perfect result. At this stage you actually provide research, and how successful you do it depends on your skills of analysis. Reading everything that was written by predecessors you need to realize what white spots you can fill. You should go to the library and work with books, because they are liked by lecturers and professors. Both primary and secondary sources must be reliable and relevant, otherwise your paper will have little validity. Be especially careful with the information on the Internet, for example, rely on serious Google Scholars. Make bookmarks and a list of souses and you will be able to quickly navigate.

Step 3
Starting point for your term paper is a thesis statement. You need to formulate the strongest idea you believe in and try to prove. The thesis prompts readers in what direction you will move and determines in a certain way what conclusions you will get. The thesis is often called a backbone of the paper, and that’s true. No doubts, you may change it if it’s required by the research and writing.

Step 4
It’s a high time to compare your thesis statement with the knowledge gathered during the research and create an outfit. Experience shows that it’s pretty hard to continue working without it. You may lose some idea or miss an important fact. By the means of the outfit you can feel the structure. If we consider the thesis as the backbone, the outfit should be called a skeleton. Note what you are going to talk about in the introduction, what points you need to describe, prove and explain in main paragraphs and imagine your conclusion.

Step 5
Writing the paper is one of the most responsible processes, but there are no reasons to worry, all preparation are done, so take a pen in your hands or sit down at the computer and open your text editor. The introduction is a part that students rewrite the most often. The main goals of it cover the following – introduce the topic, declare the thesis statement and grab reader’s attention. The body paragraphs are aimed to convince the audience and represent the arguments. The best correlation in this case is one argument – one paragraph. Finally your conclusion. It shouldn’t be extremely big. Summing up you make a reference to the thesis, provide the brightest ideas from the body and offer a hint to make the reader think of.

Step 6
At the editing stage you should take care of a style, a bibliography, quotes, spelling and punctuation mistakes. If you weren’t given strict instructions, it’s better to clarify what academic style use. Create intriguing title, if nothing comes on your mind – ask someone for advice. Remember that your prospect is only in your hands!