How to Write an Awesome Paper if You're Not a Professional Research Paper Writer

Even amateur writers can still complete awesome research papers. School is designed to nurture the quality of a student's writing. Over time, the student can develop a better writing style and expert use of the English language. Students that want to write a professional-quality of paper should use the following steps.

Organize Ideas

The entire point of writing a research paper is for the student to present their ideas. For the reader to understand the ideas, the paper must be written in a logical format. Students should edit and reedit their essay until the argument makes sense.

Think Active

Active voice is always better than passive voice because it makes the essay more engaging and interesting. An example of a passive voice sentence would be, “The book was read by me.” In comparison, active voice would state this sentence as, “I read the book.”

Bombastic Verbosity Not Required

Bombastic verbosity is a great example of using big words when small words will do. Long words do not impress the reader; they only distract from the argument. If the student really wants to make their perspective clear, they will say it concisely.

Read the Paper Aloud

Even the best writers will read their essay aloud. Mistakes or errors that the student missed while they were writing are easier to catch aloud. In addition, having a friend or classmate edit the essay can help.

Brevity is an Art Form

The art of good writing is in brevity. There are no reasons for using paragraphs to describe something that could be adequately explained in a single sentence. Instead of rambling to fill up the word count, students should edit their paper so that only the relevant data is included. If a particular fact, sentence or quote does not support their argument, it should be deleted.

Check the Required Format

Nothing is worse than writing an essay in MLA style only to discover that it should be in APA. Before turning in an essay, students should make sure that they have followed all of the style guidelines. In addition, they should take out the original prompt for their essay. The teacher may have listed specific requirements in the prompt that need to be adhered to in the essay. Over the course of writing the paper, it is easy for the student to forget a specific requirement, so they should always recheck.

Recheck the Thesis

The last step is to go back to the thesis and make sure that it lines up with the argument. As the student writes the paper, they may end up deviating from the original thesis. If this happens, they should either modify the thesis or change the argument in their paper.