A term paper essay is one of the big hurdles for most collegiate students. While some work hard throughout the year and produce a well thought out essay at the end of the term, others crumble under the pressure and submit unsatisfactory work that affects their scores at the end of the year. You term paper essay is one of the most important essays you will have to write in your academic career.
Unlike homework essays, classroom essays or examination essays that you have written in school, a term paper essay is serious business. You will be marked on the basis of your term paper at the end of the academic year. They are also crucial because they determine your ability to find mentors to guide you with your thesis or dissertation should you intend to undertake further studies.
If you are struggling to write an essay for your term paper, here are some simple tips for you to keep in mind:
- Choose your topic carefully:
- There are a number of considerations you need to keep in mind when choosing the topic for your term paper essay. Sometimes you may be assigned a topic or given certain parameters within which you are expected to present your essay.
- Pick a topic within the scope of your subject and specialization.
- A term paper is not expected to be creative but innovative ideas are always recommended.
- Write about something that interests you or something that you are passionate about. A topic like that will always be easier to work on as you will feel inspired and motivated to put your best foot forth.
- Be specific and choose a topic that you will be able to do justice to within the limitations of the resources you have access to. It is better to present your essay on a narrow but specific topic rather than a broad but vague one.
- If you choose to work on a topic that has already been covered in class, find ways to put your own spin on it with a unique approach and innovative arguments.
- Construct a hypothesis:
- Your term paper essay must be research oriented. It is meant to present your knowledge and learning in the field of your specialization. Think carefully about your topic and come up with a verifiable hypothesis.
- At first, think of your hypothesis in the form of a question or a set of thorough questions you intend to address in the course of your research and present in the form of your essay. However don’t allow it to influence your research that makes it biased from the start.
- Reassess your hypothesis after your research to ensure that you’re heading in the right direction.
- Once you have settled on your hypothesis, arrange your data and arguments convincingly in a matter that proves it conclusively without a doubt.
- Be careful and ensure that your hypothesis keeps the scope of your term paper essay strictly on topic.
- Conduct ample research:
- There is no shortcut alternative to thorough research for your term paper essay. This is not a creative writing essay that you can pen spontaneously or a simple experiment that you can copy off of the internet. Your essay must be detailed and well researched.
- Begin by reading other essays from eminent scholars in your field. Research your topic and look for evidence to support your intended hypothesis.
- Keep an eye out for any discrepancies and be ready to mould your hypothesis to fit the evidence you have collected and not the other way around.
- Collect both primary and secondary data in the form of surveys, fieldwork and personal research as well as treatises, case studies and other academic journals to substantiate your arguments.
- You need to conduct through research in order to obtain hard facts that you can use in your term paper essay.
- Use your research to understand the background of your topic so that you can utilize your knowledge to draw reasonable inferences from it.
- Plan out your essay:
- Don’t start writing your term paper essay until you have planned out every detail. It is the planning and research that takes time. Once you have this ready, it’s only a matter of putting pen to paper and executing your ideas.
- Brain storm for ideas and come up with points. Research your ideas and flesh them out.
- Use charts and maps to help you connect the ideas to one another. Draw up a skeletal frame and then fill in the details.
- Plan out your favourite arguments and choose the evidence you will present to support it.
- Try to strike a balance between being analytical and persuasive in order to make your essay more impactful.
- Alternate between hard evidence and anecdotes so that your material is informative but interesting and illustrated in an engaging manner.
- Once you have fleshed out the body of your essay, get a second opinion from your teacher, mentor or your peers before you commit to a final draft.
- Structure your essay:
- Your term paper may be structured in a variety of styles, depending upon the nature of your topic and research.
- Scientific essays benefit from a thesis structure that begins with a hypothesis, presents primary and secondary data and is clinched with an effective conclusion that drives home the points and proves the hypothesis conclusively.
- For a social studies term paper essay, you may be required to include an abstract. The five paragraph essay structure begins with a hook, ends with a clincher and incorporates different arguments in the body of the essay in the order or descending importance. It is specially suited to social studies or humanities subjects.
- Focus your arguments so that they are coherent and flow into one another. You do not want your essay to come across as disjointed and messy.
- Include citations:
- Term paper essays always need to be substantiated by evidence, citations and references.
- Use quotes to illustrate and strengthen your arguments but don’t let them overpower your original arguments. You need to come up with original arguments and a different perspective on your topic.
- However, in order to demonstrate your familiarity with your material you must also include information from published researchers, experts in your field and other texts.
- Always include citations within quotation marks so that you are never accused of plagiarism. Do not attempt to pass of somebody else’s work as your own because you will get caught and be heavily penalized.
- Ensure that your essay includes a detailed bibliography that lists your sources and references. This helps examiners fact check your essay and also proves that you have taken the trouble to conduct thorough research.
- Review your essay:
- Writing an essay for your term paper is serious business. You cannot afford to make careless errors. Always revise your work before submitting it.
- Fact check your data when you conduct your research, write multiple drafts of your term paper essay until you are satisfied and prune all unnecessary words from your essay.
- You do not want to ramble in an essay. Ensure that your essay sounds succinct and to the point.
- Weed out all spelling and grammar errors that could cost you valuable marks and annoy the examiner.
- Write-read-review and repeat every paragraph while typing your essay. This helps you save valuable time rearranging your arguments to make them connect and form a coherent whole. Further it helps you check for mistakes after every paragraph, which is more effective that rechecking an entire essay for errors.
- Once you are done with your term paper essay, you may want to apply for financial aid or a scholarship. If you need help constructing a scholarship essay, try these 5 Tips to help you compose a scholarship essay.
With these detailed tips in mind, you should have no trouble writing an essay for your term paper, just remember to manage your time and optimize your resources for the best results.
