As everyone comes to
the end of their semester some of us are facing a variety of finals to test our
knowledge from the semester, whether it be a test, paper, or final project. To
me papers are the hardest part of college not just because they're frustrating
to write, but also because every professor grades differently. Today I am
providing my tips on how I have mastered writing my papers, as well as
adaptations for each set of rubric requirements.
Start
Early
Depending
on the extent of the paper you will determine how long you need to complete the
paper. As soon as I get assigned a paper I pull out the rubric and make a few
notes when they discuss it either on syllabus day or during lecture. While I
may not start the paper that day I also put down my first idea for the paper
topic before I forget it. I usually give myself a week for each paper and about
2-3 weeks for a research paper (depending on the extent of research needed).
Outline
Everything
I do involves an outline, but for papers they are crucial. As you collect
information from the book, lecture, or the internet I add it to my main points
on the outline as I work. This helps immensely when you go to form these facts
and ideas into actual paragraphs for the paper. Personally, I keep my outline
as questions with bullets or main points with short sentences to get the most
information into the outline without actually writing too much.
Office
Hours
If there
isn't an opportunity to ask questions about the paper in class or if you have
extra ones I always take advantage of office hours with my professor or
teaching assistant. Usually my outline makes its way to these appointments for
review and to ensure I am understanding the paper prompt correctly. This is
extremely beneficial after reading through their specific rubric and making
sure you are meeting their requirements and main points when writing.
Rough
Draft
Sitting
down to actually write the paper can be hard, but your outline has done most of
the work for you. The major point now is just turning into eloquent sentences
based on your bullet points. If you are trying to reach a page limit do not opt
for inserting extra fluff. Look back at your outline and see if there were
points you left out when writing or further elaboration of an aspect that could
be provided to the reader for better understanding. I often wind up adding more
to my introduction later based on everything I wound up writing.
Writing
Center
I believe
most, if not all, universities have a writing center on campus for students to
make appointments and have their papers reviewed. Often I find this beneficial
for more than just the grammatical correction. The order of sentences when read
by someone else can make sense in a different way or maybe even the movement of
paragraphs, so it helps to have someone else read it and have to defend why you
wrote it that way.
Peer
Review
I always
have my boyfriend or a friend read my paper before I turn it in. Every time
they find a typo or a grammatical error that I was self correcting as I read.
It can also be helpful when writing persuasive papers to see if it actually
persuades them or a research paper to see if they learned more.
Submit
After all
of those steps I make my final edits and check with the syllabus to ensure all
of the formatting is correct (cover page, font style, page numbers). Finally I
submit it on our university's online education platform or print and staple it
for class. *When printing from a google doc the formatting can change so be
sure to check your printed out version to make sure it looks right.
What are
your tips for writing a paper?
Best,
Shannon
