Tips on Writing Term Papers
Whether it’s the first paper that you are writing or it’s the fortieth or fiftieth writing assignment that has been given to you to write, that does not matter, a term paper might be a little overwhelming at first when you start off writing but as you keep on writing it you get used to it. These term paper tips can however help you plan out for a smooth progress. If you are able to plan it well, you may be able to avoid the common pitfalls that get the students in trouble.
Firstly, start gathering any sources that are available to you at an early stage. You may however, don’t have to just start off writing if you don’t want to, at the moment – but make sure that you have done some research so that you know that you can write whenever you make up your mind to start writing. If you wait around to gather the sources that you may need at the time when you think yourself to be ready to write, you may just find out that your topic didn’t actually work. This would waste your time as you already took time to make up your mind for writing that specific topic and now, when you were just beginning to write it, you realized that the topic does not have enough sources available for you to help in the process.
Always use flag pens or highlighters to mark any information that you think might help you in the process of writing so that you just don’t miss out any point just because you didn’t have time to go back and look into the sources for important points. So it is always a good idea to have a highlighter or a flag pen with you while you read through any material relating to the topic so that you highlight the important points and write them down in your paper wherever needed.
Create a research time line and always stick to it. Restrict yourself to a specific time in which you will just research and collect all the facts and figures that you may need to justify your point and then move on with your study. Do all the research work accordingly so that you don’t miss out any information that is authentic.
Learn the Ways of looking into a library and introduce yourself to the librarian. This would always help you to complete your research in less time and collect more appropriate information. There is always a proper way to do things. The same goes for research. You should know the shelves that may have books that would relate to your work, as you would not want to waste your time looking for the facts by opening thousands of books each day and ending up with just a handful of information that you required.
Use a variety of sources for your study. Don’t just stick onto a few books on a specific topic; mix your research with some journal articles and interviews from experts which would allow you to make comparisons and be sure of the facts that you are giving out in your paper. Obviously you would never want the reader to find out that the facts that you have given to prove your point are different from those that he has written in a book. So make sure to make your sources authentic and exact so that nobody could question you in future.
Learn to take notes always with research note cards. This would help you put together all the information in the end and then picking out only the information that is reliable and fits the requirements of the topic. This would also make sure that you don’t leave out any point in your study as you would have it written with you already in form of notes so you can always refer back to it whenever you want to.
Leave to avoid plagiarism while writing any paper. Don’t think the professors or the respective teachers would not get to know if you copy good structured sentences from Internet. Well there are various ways in which they can catch you. There are a number of plagiarism detection software’s online and a lot more from where they may get hold of any thread of sentence which has been copied by you. However, using one short sentence (just three words long) from the internet can get you a failing grade on your paper.
Don’t get too much overwhelmed with the information on your paper. Try to write just the information that is exact and relevant to the topic avoiding any extra information that does not match the requirements.
Include any statistics and results that you have to support your findings and assertions. If you give statements that are not supported with facts, the statements are of no use at all. And if you write about an observation it is necessary to present the facts. There are two reasons why should do that, firstly this tells the reader that you have done your research and that you are not giving away conclusions in the air and secondly it creates a better and clear picture if there are facts and figures that support the argument as people generally want to listen to the facts and not the opinions. So it is always a good idea to write down the facts and do make sure that you present the citations as well.
Writing a draft in the beginning is a tip that is very helpful. However, when you have written the first draft you should always revise it a few times before submitting it in. Nobody writes perfectly on the first pass. Write a draft then put it down for a day, take then a look at your thesis statement to see if the rest of your paper supports that statement or not. After doing all this you may start on with a second draft that would however, be better than the first one.
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Category: Writing
Keywords: term papers, term paper writing, term paper help