Writing Papers for College

Delaware students getting their degree online might be familiar with writing papers for classes from High School. Often more is expected of the college level paper though. The most frequent writing assignment is a research paper. Here are some tips to writing a successful research paper:

• Find a topic: In some cases you will be given the topic or a set to choose from, for your research. If not then make sure you choose a topic that is relevant, narrow and within reach. You don't have to wow anyone with ground breaking research, so choose something that can be accomplished in the allotted time and is not overly complicated.
• Do the researchWhatever your topic or assignment, make sure you do research on your topic from multiple, reliable sources. Be thorough, but do not overload yourself and provide the temptation to get to broad or complex when writing your paper. Take notes and earmark pages in sources so you can return to them and document them later for the bibliography or inline notes that some papers will require.

• Organize the information: It is important that your paper be easy to read and understand. Use your notes and research to create an outline for your paper. After you create your outline step back and look at how the information is being presented and ask yourself if it stays focused and does it have a good flow that makes it easy to understand? Can you make easy transitions from one section to the next?
• Draft it: Write a rough draft from your outline. Remember though it is a rough draft and you shouldn't jut call it done once it is written. Go back and re-read it, try reading it out loud to make sure it sounds clear and comfortable. If you are satisfied with how it sounds, go back and check for grammar and spelling errors before calling it complete.
• Introductions: A good introduction will introduce your topic, then your idea about the topic, either hypothesis, research question or persuasive statement and give some hint at what is in the body of the paper. It should also provide for you the focus of the paper.
• The main body: The body of your paper will be several paragraphs. To keep your focus narrow, let each paragraph stick to a single main idea. Make sure each of them remains relevant to the focus provided by the introduction. Also try organize and write paragraphs so they segue one into the next.
• Conclusion: Your conclusion should restate the main idea from the introduction and key points of from the body without getting specific.

You probably need to include a bibliography to show what sources you used in your research. The style of these can vary so be sure to find out what style your instructor is looking for.

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