12 Things Your Term Paper Must Have

Doctor Research has been writing term papers for decades. Here he shares his twelve best term paper writing secrets. Every term paper must have these twelve things to be successful.

1. Footnotes or Citations. Footnotes tell you who wrote the book you’re citing. Citations do the same thing but not at the foot of the page, instead usually in the text itself. The most popular citation style is the MLA in-text citation style. Another popular style is the APA style. In Europe they use the Harvard style. Doctor Research likes the footnote style best, but of course he is familiar with all the different citation methods.

2. Introduction. A paper without an introduction is like a person without a head. All kidding aside, an introduction is so important that even Aristotle talked about how necessary it is. He wrote about introductions in Rhetoric. Great book, by the way.

3. Body. Every paper needs a body. Without a body you’re not saying anything. The body is where you write most of the pages of the paper.

4. Conclusion. A paper without a conclusion is like a song without a finale. Your conclusion will be good if it summarizes your argument and then adds a little look to the future. This was Aristotle’s wise recommendation anyway. There are, of course, other ways to structure your conclusion. One of them is the frame technique, where you repeat an idea stated in your introduction. The point is that a good term paper should have a conclusion.

5. Comparison. All good term papers today also contain some comparison. This means you compare two things that are similar. This is really easy since the human mind works by comparing things all the time, as Immanuel Kant told us.For example, in a paper on WWII you could compare it to the Vietnam War or to WWI, saying that in all three conflicts a lot of people were killed. This shows the similarity of the wars.

6. Contrast. Good term papers also contain contrast. This means you show how two things are different. For example, you could contrast WWI and WWII, saying that in WWI the atomic bomb was used. This is a major difference between the wars.

7. Format. All good term papers have a standard format. This includes one inch margins and Times New Roman (or similar) font. The reason for standard format is that it makes it easy for your teacher, who can focus on the content and not get distracted by weird fonts or margins that are too wide or too narrow.

8. Indentation. All good research papers have proper indentation. Each paragraph must be indented five spaces. If you’re using Microsoft Word just hit TAB and the program will indent for you.

9. Title page. All term papers need a title page, unless your teacher spcifically said not to use one.

10. Your name. Unless you put your name on it, he won’t give you credit!

11. Spell check. You should spell check your work to remove errors.

12. Grammar check. Don’t let a computer do the grammar check. Even the best computers are still not too good at this. Instead send your essay or term paper to Doctor Research and if he has time he’ll proofread it for you for free.