This page contains the main steps of
term paper writing which will help a student or a writer to generate the best possible term paper. Students usually feel that high school level term papers differ from college ones. Therefore, those students who received ‘A’ for papers at school find that their mark is lower in college.
The difference is in criterion of college professors if compared to high school teachers. At college a student is expected to raise his writing abilities, to produce
term papers with correct grammar, spelling, sentence structure and punctuation, to be able to give an analysis of the material provided, to summarize information and to format a paper in accordance with style standards.
Thus, the first thing you should keep in mind is to adhere to your professor’s instructions. Make sure you understand term paper instructions, if not – ask the professor to clarify vague points. Besides, you should ask about specific instructions concerning writing reference page, in-text-citations and what sources the professor will accept.
The next thing a student should keep in mind is to understand types of term papers and to know what type of paper you are expected to write: critical, analysis, narrative, descriptive, opinion, or argumentative. Moreover, you need to learn specific requirements for writing these types of term papers.
When you know the type of term paper you should produce, and what the professor expects you to write, you can start thinking over a topic. A choice of term paper topic will depend on the type of work you need to write and on the professor’s instructions. Try to choose a topic which is not too general and which is not well-researched. However, you should not make it too narrow, because it will be difficult to find enough information for writing a term paper. The next step is to produce a thesis statement for your term paper.
It must contain the main idea of a paper which can be found in all parts of your work. A good thesis statement is a well-thought statement which consists of two or three sentences. It must reflect you own position towards the problem discussed in the work: either a positive or a negative one. Remember, that you will need to support your viewpoint with facts and statistics from reliable sources.
Finding sources is another important step towards a good mark. Look through the number of sources in the instructions sheet and try to find online resources, journal articles, and books in order to start the research of the material available.