Small Things Can Make a Big Difference When Writing Papers
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
Writing a good paper for your college courses is a skill that can take some time to develop and refine. While doing good research, writing well and organizing your paper are essential, the little things that help support those can be just as important in separating a good paper from an average one. Additionally, these are all things that there is no excuse not to fix before turning in your paper as they are easy to do and won’t take a large amount of time.
There are few things that will annoy your professors and teaching assistants more than the failure to proofread your paper. Papers that are not edited before being handed in look sloppy and appear like they were done at the last minute. Even if you are doing your paper at the last minute it shouldn’t look like it. Take the time to use spelling and grammar check tools and read over your own paper for mistakes at least once. Better yet, get a friend to read over it and highlight things you might have missed. While it might only count for a few points off of your grade, those points could mean the difference between a higher grade and a lower one.
Next, if you’re writing a research paper, make sure you have your citations in order. There are several different formats for writing out citations, so check with your professor to ensure that you’re using the correct one before you begin. You’ll want to make sure all your sources are correctly laid out in your bibliography and that you’ve referenced them throughout your paper whenever you’ve used information from them. Not citing your sources is plagiarism, even if you don’t intend to, so avoid any potential problems by being careful ahead of time.
Last but certainly not least, make sure you’re actually following your professor’s instructions for the paper to a tee. Not doing so can not only mean some minor mistakes in formatting but also some major mistakes in content, sources and purpose that could leave you with a pretty poor grade. If you ever have questions about anything regarding your paper, however silly they may be, just ask. It’s always better to confirm than to have something that could hurt your grade be wrong later on.
While remembering to do all the small things that are necessary when writing a paper won’t guarantee you an A, after all content is king, they will help ensure that whoever is reading your paper will see the hard work and thought you put into pulling it altogether. Even if you don’t think a class will make or break your college career, it’s better to leave a good impression with a professor rather than a bad one and turn out the best work you’re capable of doing.
