How to structure a term paper

How do we start?

When you get a task to write a term paper you need to know a lot of rules. Term papers are not hard variants of writings, the only thing you need is to structure your time, and in this case, you will succeed. So, how to structure a term paper?

Let’s make some rules in order to be always on time.

1. Plan everything. Take a notebook with dates and write everything in order not to forget about something. At least before three weeks ahead, the period of passing the paper write it in your notebook. This is very helpful, believe us!
2. Choose a proper topic! When you think about the topic, always think about picking interesting one, which will be innovative, or the one which has a lot of dissertations on the Internet where you can read more, to come up with ideas and write more.
3. Find resources that will be interesting to you! It could be everything! Library, Internet, professors, textbooks, and commentaries.

Okay, with preparation everything is good. What to do next? How to structure the term paper further?

Make researchers. Read as much as you can and take notes. This is probably the only one process that will take most of the time. Be patient here and have fun with learning. Though, even this process has its own peculiarities.

1. The Notebook Method – buy any notebook, or take if you have and write everything you want in it. Merits of it – everything is in one place. Demerits – it will be hard to organize and find something when you will be ready to start an essay.
2. The Book Method – gather all the books near you and sit in front. As you find something to use in your paper, type it on the computer. If you find something on the Internet, copy it or links with it. Merits of this – everything is in one place. Demerits – it will take a really long time.

You may also think about how to structure a term paper proposal? Well, it isn’t hard too. When you want to borrow someone’s thoughts, you have to remember that you need to avoid clear plagiarism. That is why remember next things:

• It should look like that – write author’s name on the top with one his thought. Not all of them.
• Try to write everything in bibliographical order; it will help you not to get lost and to find each quote or thought easily.
• Don’t forget to write own thoughts as well. Who knows – maybe you are a future star and now you are thinking about something historical and valuable?
• After you finished taking notes, organize cards in stacks of main topics, introduction, and conclusion. This forms your outline.

Tips for Research

After you finished with copying everything, making notes and ordering all those information you may move further – writing an essay.

• First of all, think about the thesis statement. It is the one which will summarize the whole text in one sentence. It is like the main idea that you will talk about and support further.
• Make an outline. If you ask now how to structure a term paper outline, then we are happy to help. It is a skeleton of your paper. It can look like this
  • Introduction with thesis and hook
  • Body with an argument (three different arguments are the best thing in each essay; each of them has to start with a new abstract). Explanation of the argument. Summary after each argument.
  • Conclusion

Now, a little bit more thorough information about the structure of a paper.

1. The outline is good – you see what you will get, but it is better to start with a body. Yes, because it contains all of your main points and supporting details.
2. After that make a Conclusion. It isn’t a very big thing – usually one paragraph. Here you can summarize everything you have just told in the Body of the text. You can later add something else, but you will have a bigger amount of ready information.
3. The introduction should be written at last. Its role is to catch the reader’s attention and make him feel that this essay worth reading. You should start it with a hook sentence, which grabs attention, and ends with a thesis.

This is a complete answer to the question of how to construct term paper.

Nevertheless, it isn’t the end. After all these, you have to start proofreading everything you wrote. Look for all mistakes and correct them. Ask someone to read your text and do the same. Or ask someone to listen while you are reading aloud.

After this, you can rewrite according to the mistakes you have found. Don’t forget to make sure that all corrections fit the main thesis and reread everything to make sure that the paper makes sense.

Let’s summarize all the information above before moving to the common mistakes people do while writing.

1. Choose a topic
2. Find resources
3. Take notes/research
4. Write thesis
5. Make an outline
6. Write body, conclusion, and introduction
7. Proofread and edit
8. Have someone else proofread
9. Edit final copy
10. Watch for the common mistakes

And that’s it!

Common Mistakes

1. Using 1st or 2nd person is a mistake. Never use the words I, You, We or They in a paper.
2. Don’t forget that all verbs have to be in one tense.
3. Don’t forget to use different kinds of conjunctions to make the text better. It will look awkward if you will start writing about the sky and continue with snakes – everything has Don’t put more than one idea in a paragraph.
4. Always pay attention to the format, margins, intervals and so on. It plays a big role too.
5. Always switch on a spell check. It is good that you can see mistakes by yourself, but a spell check won’t damage any cause.
6. Lack of clarity is a very bad thing in the essay. Don’t beat around the bush.
7. Never say things that are based only on your thoughts. There always has to be evidences of your words.