How to Write an Excellent Term Paper: 13 Steps to an A

How to Write an Excellent Term Paper: 15 Steps to an A

One of the goals of higher education is to teach the student to think independently and instill in them the skills of scientific work. Therefore, in each course (in some universities, an exception is given to freshmen), a small scientific work is written. It is called a Term Paper, and this is not at all a “big abstract”, as some students think.

Are you sure you know how to write your term paper correctly? In this article, by graduateassignmentshelp.com, we will give you a clear manual for writing an excellent term paper! Here are the steps you need to follow to score an A in your Term Papers.

Preparatory stage

1. Choosing a topic: The choice of a topic is not always given to the student, but there is always a way to go about it. To begin with, you need to choose the right supervisor – from those teachers whose course topics are closest to you. Then – discuss with the teacher the range of topics that you can take for the course. If you come to the supervisor, not a week before the defense, but at the beginning of the academic year (or at least at the beginning of the second semester) and demonstrate your sincere interest, adequacy, and braininess, a normal teacher will consider several options with you. It is best to take a few topics from the teacher and a time-out for a week – to analyze the information and think which one is easier, more difficult, more interesting. At least in order not to be tormented by the question of “how to write a term paper on this crazy topic”!
2. Conducting general research: Encyclopedias, textbooks, dictionaries, review articles on the Internet will allow you to understand in general terms what the term paper will be about. Do not ignore this stage; otherwise, it will be difficult to draw up a coherent plan. But it’s not worth digging deep into the materials for now either – perhaps the teacher will make corrections to your plan, demand to focus on some questions, and omit others.
3. Planning: Once you have a general understanding of the topic of the course work, start drawing up a plan. More precisely, there should be two plans: short and thesis. First, make a short plan for writing a term paper; discuss it with your teacher. Then write the plan in the theses: for each paragraph, know the main points that you will discuss and the evidence you will support them with.  In other words, what question will you answer? My take is, better to rewrite the plan five times than to rewrite the entire term paper once!
4. Compilation of a list of references: Most teachers suggest the main data sources or works that you need to rely on when writing a term paper (this is another reason to come for a consultation, and not immediately hand over a finished term paper to the supervisor). But, in most cases, the books recommended by your teacher are not enough. Thus, you must carry out the work to find suitable literature yourself. The list of textbooks and encyclopedias will not work (although they can also be indicated), the list should contain research – articles in scientific journals and collections, monographs.

Do you need to write the practical part, do calculations and drawings? Be sure to clarify this issue at the very first consultation. Not all faculties have this requirement, but if there is, then this part is usually the most important; and probably, the most problematic one.

Collection of materials

5. Materials search strategy. So, the plan is approved, the teacher advised you something from the literature. What now – headlong into the pool of information? Yes, you can drown there (or, conversely, wander for a long time in search of materials on a topic that almost no one wrote anything about).

First, revise your outline and outline to get an idea of ​​what information you need to find. Then analyze the list of sources and literature. Divide it into parts:

“flagships” from which you will rip off most of the information;

Supporting materials, from which you will take a couple of quotes.

It is desirable that there be three to five “flagships”. Editing a chapter of someone else’s dissertation or compiling a couple of articles, you are unlikely to get the coveted “penny”.

6. Search for materials on the Internet. Active digitization of books, articles, dissertations, and sources has led to the fact that for the lion’s share of topics, “flagships” are easily searched for on the Internet. Even, for example, such a scourge of students-historians as sources on the Middle Ages has not been a scourge for five years now – enthusiasts have posted everything that can be found in Russian, plus they make new translations.
7. Working in libraries and archives. Alas, not all books and magazines can be found online. For example, due to the fight against piracy, some new books can only be bought. And the old ones may not yet be digitalized. And, of course, a “kind” teacher will definitely require that these materials be included in your term paper

Writing

8. Structuring and compiling the material: once you have assembled the required material, it needs to be sorted into chapters and paragraphs. This stage seems simple, but there are also pitfalls here. Some students, especially junior students, believe that the more information, the better. As a result, instead of 25 – 40 pages, the term paper contains more than a hundred. Needless to say, this is the wrong approach. You are required to isolate the main thing. As they say, the very pulp. The material that will be included in your term paper should support your personal conclusions.
9. Text uniqueness: Thanks to the Internet, it has become easier to find information for writing term papers and theses, but getting rid of plagiarism is another nagging challenge.  Most of the teachers now require work not only in printed form but also in electronic form – in order to drive them through anti-plagiarism systems. So after you have compiled there, proceed to the uniqueness of the text. And we can help.

The standard requirements are 70% unique (30% are not for quotes and terminology). But the teacher may have personal requirements for the uniqueness that needs to be considered.

10. Conclusions, personal opinion. Most students write term papers in the same way as abstracts. That is, it turns out just such a big essay-compilation, but the term paper is a small scientific work. Therefore, anyone who wants to write a term paper with excellent marks must use their brains, reflect, and analyze the material. Each paragraph and each chapter concludes with a personal conclusion on the topic. It is possible and even necessary to discuss with authors who have already written something on your topic (within the limits of adequacy, of course).

In general, the more independent the conclusions, the more original the course work, the higher the chance of getting an “excellent”. And even go with her to some scientific conference.

Submitting a draft to the teacher and making edits. It is better to hand over the work in parts, that is, chapters, or even paragraphs. First, the teacher sees that you are working. Second, you can change course in time if you screw it up. This item can be repeated many times. While some teachers don’t like to be pissed off too much, most welcome student activity.

11. Introduction and conclusion. Yes, these parts of the term paper are written last. With the conclusion it is clear – these are the conclusions. Why should the introduction also be written at the very end? But because while writing a term paper (and especially in the process of working on the practical part), your hypothesis can be refuted. In this case, you will put forward a new hypothesis corresponding to the conclusions.

Goals, objectives – everything should be linked to the conclusions in the conclusion. Therefore, these two parts of the term paper, its “framing”, are written in parallel. Since the term paper can be redrawn several times, it makes no sense to immediately write the introduction.

Interestingly, for most students, the introduction and conclusion are the hardest parts of the job, while for the professional student they are the easiest.

12. References, footnotes, table of contents, appendices, numbering. Now we carefully arrange books and articles alphabetically (by last name), taking into account the design requirements. Sources are usually identified separately (and can be divided into groups). In order not to bother with numbering, use automatic lists in the “Word”.

As for the footnotes, we said before – don’t leave them for last.

We put the appendices at the end of the work (these pages are not numbered). Let’s not forget about the table of contents and the title page. Almost done!

13. Proofreading, checking footnotes. The fewer mistakes and typos in the course paper, the more favorable the teacher will be to you. In serious work that claims to be highly appreciated, mistakes are unacceptable.

Is it easier?

If these 13 steps on the road to a great term paper seem overwhelming for you, get an online writer. Our expert will move with you from the very first step to the last; and you can secure a clean A.