A Master’s Guide to Writing Papers: 6 Tips and Tricks from the Pros

The structure and organization of writing a paper are often complicated and confusing, but following these few simple steps will make your written assignments easy to read and understand. 

Some papers are easy to write, and some are not. If you’re a college student, you probably have student papers that you need to write. If it’s your first time writing a paper, there will be some techniques that work for certain subjects and then there won’t be any techniques that work for other subjects.

We all have to write papers in college—it’s almost inevitable! However, not everyone knows how to make their papers the best they can be; sometimes it’s because of time constraints, sometimes it’s because they don’t know how to do it on their own, and sometimes it’s just because they want some help with their writing. Here are some tips and tricks to help you make your paper as good as possible in no time at all without any special papers writing help!

Pick Your Topic

Before you start writing a paper, you have to pick your topic. If you don’t plan carefully, there’s a chance that your paper will turn out all over the place. Picking a topic may seem simple enough—after all, your teacher gave it to you—but if you want a good grade on your assignment, be sure to pick something that matches both your strengths and interests.

Here are some tips for picking just the right topic: Every writer has his or her own unique process for completing papers. Some writers like to start with an outline; others prefer diving in headfirst with no structure at all.

In college, you’ll probably find yourself working on several different types of papers during any given semester.

Avoid Plagiarism

Unless you’re submitting your paper for a Creative Writing class, there’s really no excuse for plagiarism. Whether it’s an MLA format paper or a Harvard referencing system, make sure you credit any sources correctly. Most importantly, don’t forget to cite yourself—if you use direct quotes in your writing, include them in-text with quotation marks and a citation at the end of your paper. It may seem like common sense, but many students overlook their own work when citing others.

Choose a Great Title

Choosing a great title is one of those things that can make or break your paper. A good title will be clear, well-written, explanatory, and informative. It should also summarize your paper’s argument without giving too much away before you’ve had a chance to state it in full.  And, last but not least, it should grab attention and leave readers wanting more. While there are no hard-and-fast rules for writing great titles (other than be clear), here are some tips for getting started

Outline Your Paper

A master’s thesis, by definition, is a long paper—one that can take weeks or months to finish. If you’re writing a longer thesis, there’s a good chance you don’t have time to write it in one sitting. To make sure you don’t run out of steam (and don’t plagiarize yourself), divide your thesis into sections. Make an outline with headers and subheaders, then jot down a few sentences for each section. This will help you get started on your paper without worrying about forgetting something important later on.

You can also use these notes as a guide while you’re writing so that you stay focused on your topic and don’t wander off-topic too much. Doing this might prove difficult at the start, but getting help from experts and knowing how to choose them as explained can make things easy.

Introduction Paragraph – Tell Them Why You Are Writing This Paper

An introduction paragraph is your opportunity to set up your thesis for your audience. This should be a very clear statement of what you are going to argue in your paper. You can also use an introductory paragraph as a way of establishing an audience and defining what you mean by the audience.

For example, I might write something like, This essay will discuss [some topic] with respect to [the audience]. In my case, I am writing about how to get better grades on papers for students at all levels (undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral). So my opening sentence would read something like This essay will discuss strategies that can help students improve their grades on papers.

Body Paragraphs – Provide Facts, Not Opinions or Speculation

You’re a writer, not an opinion columnist. So resist writing your body paragraphs with anything other than facts that are relevant to your topic. A good rule of thumb for each of your body paragraphs is that they must provide at least one piece of factual information.

This will help you sound authoritative, rather than like a speculator or someone just trying to make a point. And if you do include any speculative statements in your paper, be sure to cite them as such (e.g., Some people speculate that…). Otherwise, it may look like you’re making claims without any evidence to back them up—which could hurt your credibility.

No matter your reason for writing a paper,  there are plenty of places you can go to get your papers done right, e.g. masterpapers.

Share on:
This article was written by a guest contributor. We accept content from guest authors and publish their insights that are useful to our users. If anyone would like to publish an article, they can check out our Contribution Guide.