A term paper is a paper that you write at the end of a term, which summarizes a specific idea or research project you’ve been working on. Although term papers are specific papers, you will have different guidelines, such as the page length, the subject matter, and the writing format, depending on your school and the class, as well as your grade level.

Read and make sure you understand the parameters of the term paper. A term paper, like a research paper or a thesis, is a paper for which a teacher or school can create any guidelines for that they wish. You should figure out how long it should be, what your topic should be, and what format you should write in, from what your teacher or syllabus says.

Decide on a topic for your term paper, if one was not assigned to you. The topic should be something that you are interested in, as well as something you know has a lot of information available. Try to choose something that will be easy to research with the resources that you have, as well.

Come up with an angle for your term paper. Writing about the Civil War is an idea, but you’ll need an angle, such as the particular battles of the war, or the outcome of the war, or the impact the war has today.

Research your paper based on the criteria that you were given — if you need five sources, find five and use them. Find good sources of research according to what your school or teacher considers to be appropriate, and according to the assignment — if you need a specific number of Internet or book sources, be sure to find and include them.

Come up with a thesis statement, or main idea, for your paper. This should be the overall main idea that you want to get across in your writing. After you’ve found that, you can come up with several proofs or points to support that main idea. Research your proofs or points and take notes on what you find.

Write a rough draft of your paper. Be sure that you include your thesis statement and points, and that you give information and details for your points. Then you can edit your rough draft and move on to a final draft.

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An essay is a short composition about a particular topic that is usually written from a personal perspective. Many students balk at essay writing; the mere thought of starting the assignment brings stress and anxiety. Students and instructors have identified common pitfalls experienced or encountered in the writing process. A frequently cited difficulty is writer’s block, a generic category which springs from various causes. Other weaknesses involve content, organization and grammar issues.

Treatment of Topic

Planning and Preparation

Content and Value

Organization and Structure

Grammatical Lapses

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As a student, your teacher may ask you to analyze a narrative. The very words may seem daunting, but rest assured all your teacher is asking you to do is analyze a story. A narrative is a story that may feature several themes, plots and characters. To analyze it, you need to examine the story focusing on a particular literary device or character that you want to discuss. To do this successfully, you need to have read the text and be able to discuss a certain aspect of the text that interested you.

Interact with the text. If you want to analyze a text, you need to have interacted with it. This can mean annotating your reader responses in the margins, asking questions and making statements. All this will help you understand the text more thoroughly and will enable you to do a better job analyzing it. Look at all the information you have written down. Answer some basic questions: What does all this information mean to me? How does this relate to my text? What conclusions can I draw from this?

Examine the text from a specific point of view based on your questions and your responses. Write down some of your ideas. Make a list of three to five ideas/reactions that you feel comfortable discussing. Identify which idea you can best talk about and start developing another list based on that one idea. Now what do you have to say about this narrowed down topic? This process will enable you to identify your topic.

Make connections and draw conclusions. Avoid summarizing the text because that is not analyzing. You need to now respond to the topic you have identified earlier. Write down what you have to say about your subject. Draw conclusions about your text and see if you can make connections to other parts on the text or to other readings, if relevant.

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