Are you a student that has a term paper coming due soon? It can be hard to focus this time of year on your studies, and to have the time to get the research and writing done. Stress is a common factor for most students these days, and although it’s perfectly normal, it can be avoided. When you’re struggling with writing a term paper, it’s very helpful to have all of your materials prepared ahead of time, and have a schedule and organization method down. Start this by first taking all of the instructions from the teacher, whether online or on paper, and making one pile or one folder for them. Then add to this spot by finding old notes you’ve taken in this class that will be helpful, jotting down textbook page numbers that are related, as well as any journal articles, books, or other research you’ve done, if any, so far.
Now that you have it all in one spot, you can start making an outline. It’s really important to do that organization step first, because once you have everything in place, you save time later not having to look for something that you’ve misplaced or forgotten.
Start with the instructions from your teacher. Does he require an introduction, body, conclusion or any other type of specific format? Start a new document or get some paper and write down the different parts that will make up your term paper. This way, you can just file everything else under which category it applies to. So when you start researching, you can take the facts and studies you’ve found and put them where they’re going to be when you write your first draft. For example, put a poignant question at the very end of your conclusion, or a staggering statistic first in the introduction, and other relevant information throughout.
Now you are prepared enough to be able to write the first draft. Take it one section at a time, not necessarily in order; although you should do the conclusion last, you don’t have to write the introduction first. In fact a lot of students find it helpful writing in this order: body arguments, introduction, and then conclusion. Do whatever works for you, because this will help you to work faster. Taking the time to do all this outlining and organization will be more than worth it later.