Through my time at Lafayette, I have written way more term papers than taking exams. At first, the task of writing over ten pages of thesis-driven work is rather daunting. However, if you create a process that works for you, I would argue that writing a paper is much preferable to taking an exam. Here are some of the tips I’ve picked along the way!
1. Do A LOT of thinking before writing
Before your fingers touch a keyboard, it is essential to brainstorm. In most of the research papers that I have had to write, we were allowed to choose a topic of interest. However, I would urge you to brainstorm beyond the topic selection. Some questions to consider are: How accessible is information? Has there already been a lot of research regarding this topic? Is my concept original? Overall, you want to find the balance of having an interesting research topic but also having enough time to complete the research within your allotted time.
2. Design your general outline
Once you’ve settled on your topic and completed your brainstorm, it should be pretty easy to sketch out the flow of your research paper. While it may seem like an annoying extra step, this outline will be useful when you’re up late at night writing and you find yourself on a complete tangent. You’ll very glad that you have an outline to reference.
3. Include your supporting evidence in the outline
I personally like using my outline as a very rough draft. I plug-in all of my quotes, evidence, and key points in the outline. Then all you have to do is fill in your opinion and analysis (kind of like completing a puzzle).
4. Focus on one section at a time
Typically a research paper is broken down into sections (e.g. introduction, literature review, methodology, conclusion). A 10-15 page paper sounds overwhelming, but writing 2-3 pages seems completely feasible. Therefore, I typically write each section of my papers individually. Then once I have completed writing each section, I combine my documents and add the appropriate transitions to make one cohesive paper.
5. Work on your citations/bibliography as you write
Taking research methods in the International Affairs department, I learned that when working on a large research project, keeping track of your citations is essential. It would be a nightmare if your paper is flagged for plagiarism just because you missed a citation! Thus, I encourage you to cite everything as you go, even in your preliminary outline. I encourage you to download Zotero, a useful application that helps create citations and store your sources!
I hope some of these tips will be helpful in your final papers this semester. Good luck!