Is your paper due tomorrow or in a few hours? Sorry! This one isn’t for you- but we promise to write one tailor-made for you soon! So, keep watching this space for it. This one is for those who plan ahead and go through a few drafts before the final version. A term paper can make or break your grade, so here’s a tried and tested method to scoring well and learning in the process!
We’ll let you decide the timeline based on your needs, but follow these steps to a magical land of a good grade.
Step 1: Prep
This includes any and all work that takes you from title to content in your paper.
1. Research
If you don’t have good background research your paper ends up being a poor piece of work. This is the most important stepping stone. First off don’t just google the title as is. Create a plan to decide how you want to go about it. Is it argumentative? Perhaps speculative? Maybe you prefer hard facts and nothing else. Depending on your approach alter the way you search to get the most relevant material.
Pro-Tip: Have all your research in a single document with clear demarcations of your source. This prevents having to search multiple documents and misquoting the source in your bibliography.
2. Outline & Grouping
Once you have all your research, it can be overwhelming. The best thing to do is create outlines and subheadings for your paper. Once you have a clearer idea of the flow and how much you want to write, group your research into those subheadings. If you feel like there isn’t enough information, find more.
3. Elimination
The process of elimination is one to do with care. You don’t want to use information from sources that aren’t verified. Don’t forget that sites, where users can edit the information (such as Wikipedia), are not accepted by most universities as a reliable source. If parts of your research material don’t fit into your outline, it would be best to eliminate it. No one wants to read irrelevant material, so don’t bother including it.
Step 2: Writing
The writing part is about being as creative as possible in as few words as possible.
1. Format
As mentioned earlier, understanding the format/style of writing helps guide the flow of content. If you collect all the scientific facts you need on a topic but opt to write a speculative paper on the future possibilities, your information will be insufficient and makes your content appear ill-prepared. If you’re putting in days/weeks worth of effort, the paper should reflect it.
2. Content
When it comes to the actual writing of the paper, it depends entirely on you! It’s all about your personal style of writing. As a rule of thumb, keep it simple. Don’t use more words that you need to get a point across. It becomes evident quickly when you’re trying to reach a certain word count without making any sense.
Step 3: Editing
Although it’s an integral step, a lot of students tend to skip this one and lose marks.
1. Elimination
Eliminate, again? That’s right. You have to remember that if you can’t get through a full reading of your own work, no one can. Anytime you feel your thoughts drifting off, find a way to eliminate whatever bores you. Knowing what to edit out is an art and if you’re confused, trade papers with a friend and help each other out.
2. Proofreading
Did you check your “yours” and “you’res”? What about “there”, “their” and “they’re”? Sounds silly? Probably because it is. It would be heartbreaking to write the best term paper of your life only for the professor to point out the difference between “fair” and “fare”.
This one might have been a long read, but it will help you with your next submission. So… time well spent, right?
Tags-The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Term Paper, Tips to write your term paper, top tips to tackle your term paper, Best tips to write your term paper
