Undergrad Academic Papers

iting term papers and essays can be an intimidating chore for many students. Fear and procrastination can lead to stress, delay and ultimately poor grades. In fact, that is exactly what happens for most students. This article will let you in on the secret of undergrad academic writing, and give you a few basic tips for how to get top grades on a term paper.

I once submitted a terrible paper. The writing was awkward, the conclusions were weak, the research was sloppy. At the time I was frustrated and tired, disappointed in myself for having allowed procrastination and laziness to defeat me. To my shock and amazement, I received the top grade in the class. That was when I learned the secret of undergraduate academic writing.

For Top Grades,

For my terrible essay to receive that grade, it had to stand out from all the other papers the instructor had to evaluate. My classmates must have turned in some truly awful writing for mine to be a higher quality, but that is not uncommon.

Ask any of the poor unfortunates who are tasked with grading undergraduate papers. The vast majority of student papers are unreadable rambling garbage. When writing a term paper, you are not competing with the great essayists of the world. Your output is being compared to that of your peers.

Of course you should write the best paper you can, always. Work hard, do the research, write a couple of drafts. But the most important thing you can do in writing an essay is to have a clear, easy to follow structure. You could have the best ideas in the world, but if you cannot state them clearly you will not get a good grade.

The terrible paper on which I got a fantastic mark followed a clear outline, and was written clearly. Although my arguments were weak and my conclusion was worse, at least it was easy to understand them. I suspect my instructor had spent days trying to understand incoherent, unfocused essays when she came to mine. Though the paper was weak, it was easy to understand. The importance of this key fact just cannot be