Write a Paper in a Night
Everyone writes a paper the night before it's due at one point or another in their study life. Here is a step by step guide & some helpful tips.
Steps
Essay Help
Doc:Essay Template,Ozymandias Essay
Writing Your Own Paper
- Choose a topic that will have an abundance of information (if you are allowed to pick your own).
- At this point, you're probably not shooting for something mind-blowing and original.
- Search for information.
- If you Google your topic, you're sure to get a lot of information quickly, but databases available via your library's website will have the most accurate and acceptable-to-professors/teachers information.
- Make sure to list the web address of information you might use in a word document as you go along so you don't lose it (and you can turn that into your bibliography page, if you add a little more info!)
- Skim sources and grab and pull quotes that you can use in your paper as you go along.
- Make an outline of what you're planning on writing in Microsoft Word, or another word processor like Pages, TextEdit, or Notes.
- As you go to write, you can fill in sentences where you previously had an idea.
- Format your paper (margins, etc.) for the style that you are using.
- Be sure to check your outline or ask your teacher/professor what format you're using. Some require title pages while others need the title information on a header or in the top left/right corner.
- Double-space your paper from the very beginning. If you are using a citation format that requires footnotes, if you single space everything and then double space it at the end you will have to spend A LOT of time going back and making sure the sentence you were citing is still on the same page as the citation itself!
- Create a Works Cited or Bibliography page if you don't have one yet - Don't wait until later to make one, it will be time consuming and a lot harder.
- Get started writing!
- Write a thesis statement in your opening paragraph.
- This should include or hint at everything you plan to talk about in your paper.
- Your thesis and first sentence should also be interesting and attention-grabbing. Make it so your professor wants to read your paper.
- Make sure you include a lot of citations within your paper. It is usually mandatory, it will make your paper longer.
- Say something about EACH and EVERY citation that you use. If your teacher doesn't know why you used a citation because you don't have an explanation for it, it will look like you were just sticking random quotes in.
- For your last paragraph rewrite your first paragraph. Word it a little differently, and give it a good conclusion statement.
- Write a thesis statement in your opening paragraph.
- Ask yourself:
- Did you talk about everything you talked about in your thesis?
- Did you add other things to your paragraph that weren't listed in your thesis?
- Add or Subtract from your thesis to accommodate what you actually wrote!
- If you have time:
- Spell Check & Grammar Check
- Double check your documentation. Here is a good website for citing papers. http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
- Have someone look over it for you.
Tips
- Save your progress!
- E-mail your paper as an attachment when you are done to yourself so you have a back-up if your computer crashes, or you need it in another location.
- Don't wait until later to make a Works Cited or Bibliography, it will be time consuming and a lot harder, just write it as you go along & find information.
- Be sure to read and re-read the requirements for the paper. If you've been given a rubric, keep it nearby and check it repeatedly while writing. Losing 10% of your grade because you forgot to discuss some required topic or forgot to format your bibliography correctly is definitely not an optimal outcome.
- Single-space everything and double space it all at the end. It will make you feel a lot better about your progress - unless you want your citations to stay where you want them, as mentioned above!
- Find someone you know who stays up late who could edit your paper & give you ideas as you go along! (your mother might be a good example)
- If you are able to, find a topic that you already know something about and are a little bit interested in.
- If you find lots on the same topic from your info search, use that information and group it into a paragraph in itself!
- Remember never to use personal pronouns, but don't be afraid to make bold gutsy statements, as if you actually believe what you are writing about. Remember to add a sentence or two after each bold statement that will offer support.
- Cover pages are no longer accepted in MLA style papers, so don't waste your time with that unless it is specifically required by your professor.
- Believe in yourself! If you pace yourself carefully and spend your limited resources (time) wisely, you can do it.
- Live several hours ahead of your mother (i.e. go to college on the East Coast of the United States or or study abroad) so she can help edit it.
- Be sure to get some type of energy drink or coffee just in case you have to stay up all night to write this paper.
Warnings
- Don't assume that your teacher won't read or check a quote. Even if you are desperate for time, the teacher may randomly choose one of your citations to double check.
- Don't have high expectations for your grade. However, if you get a good grade, pat yourself on the back for figuring out how to write a paper last minute.
- This strategy is designed to ensure that you get a paper in on time, not a way of slipping through college.
- Make sure you have a good idea of what you can get away with spacing, margins, and citing style wise. This can be a very risky way of adding size to your paper if your teacher catches on.
- Remember, not only has your teacher seen students try most of these tricks before, but s/he will also have the papers of many other students sitting immediately next to him or her. Even if you think your professor won't be able to tell that you used 2.05 spacing to clip an extra line off of every page, it's easy to tell this when you hold up two papers next to one another.
- Do not pull information, i.e. paragraphs, directly from the Web without citing them. Besides, having hyper links in your paper might give away the lack of time and caring that you gave toward a paper.
- This is not recommended. Try to get that paper done before the night before it's due!
- Unless your teacher is amazingly cool, don't use Wikipedia (or any other Wiki) to cite information.
