How to survive writing a paper in 12 painless steps!

Here are some steps you can take when you are writing a paper. These steps are recommendations – you don’t have to follow every step. Look through

them and decide which ones work best for you.

Step One: Come up with a topic.*Avoid topics that are too broad or you may be overwhelmed.

(ex. – Writing about world history is way too broad of a topic to cover in an academic paper.)

*Avoid topics that are too specific or you may run out of things to write about.(ex. – You won’t be able to find enough info. about the history of the Rite Aid store in Canton.)

*Find a topic that is somewhere in between the two examples given above. World history is too big to cover and the history of Rite Aid in Canton is too small. You could, however, write about the history of the city of Canton or the history of the Rite Aid Corporation.

*Make sure you don’t base your topic idea on an assumption. For example, writing about why everyone likes chocolate ice cream more than any other flavor assumes that everyone’s favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate. It doesn’t matter how well you write your paper if you choose a topic that is faulty to begin with.

Step Two: Freewrite about your topic. What do you already know? How do you know it? What do you need to know? How can you find out? If you need to do any outside research to learn about your topic, this is the time to do it.

Step Three: Write a very low stakes draft. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar or clarity – just write out everything you want to cover in your paper.

Step Four: Read through your low stakes draft and then read through your assignment again. Add any information you are missing to your draft. Mark any sections of your draft that seem to stray away from your topic and/or your assignment. Think about cutting these sections.

Step Five: Take a deep breath! You’ve accomplished a lot! Don’t forget to take breaks when you start to feel frustrated.

Step Six: Read through what you have written and come up with a game plan. What information needs to come first? What next? What information needs to be grouped together in order to make sense? Reorganize your ideas so they flow in a logical order. Typically, there are two ways to organize your ideas – by topic or chronologically. Choose which way works best for your topic and use it to help you lay out your ideas in an easy to follow order.

Step Seven: This is a great time to get some outside feedback. See if you can get a peer, a teacher, or a tutor to look over what you’ve done so far. Ask specific questions of your reviewer so that he/she will be able to give you the most beneficial feedback.

Step Eight: Consider the feedback you’ve received. You don’t have to take every suggestion, but pay close attention to how a reader perceives your ideas so far. If they are confused or misunderstand something, you probably need to reword or explain more.

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Step Nine: Perform a reverse outline on your paper.*Reread your paper and sum up your main idea in one or two sentences. Write

this at the top of your paper.*Next to each paragraph, summarize the main idea of that paragraph in a couple

of words. Make sure to summarize what the paragraph actually says, not what you want it to say. Mark any paragraphs that seem to have more than one main idea. You may want to split these into two paragraphs.

*Look over the summaries you’ve just written. Do you see any paragraphs that have very similar main ideas? Think about grouping these paragraphs together.

*Reread each paragraph again. This time you are thinking about why you’ve included each paragraph. In a couple of words, write next to each paragraph what it accomplishes for your paper. You may need to refer to the summary of your main idea at the top of your page in order to do this.

*Now that you’ve identified why you’ve included each paragraph, double check to make sure that all of your paragraphs are necessary. If you have a beautifully written paragraph that does nothing to further the ideas in your paper, cut it.

Step Ten: This is the best time to write your introduction and your conclusion because at this point your ideas are very solid and you know what you want to say in your paper. See the attached handout for some intro. and conclusion ideas.

Step Eleven: Clean up your paper. Now is the time to look at spelling and grammar. A great way to catch typos is to read your paper out loud. Mark any typos you find. Also mark any areas that trip you up as you read. You might want to reword these areas so they are less confusing. Make sure you’ve included in-text citations after ALL of your quotes and summaries. If you include quotes and summaries from outside sources in your paper, make sure you don’t have any quote bombs – or quotes that seem to appear abruptly in your paper. To avoid quote bombs, lead into each quote by telling your reader where you got the quote. Follow up your quote with a tie-in sentence that lets your reader know exactly how the quote fits with your ideas. Look for any places where you shift focus. Do you include transition sentences to help your reader anticipate this shift?

Step Twelve: If you included any outside sources in your paper (direct quotes and summaries) make sure you include in-text citations and a Reference List.

Congratulations, you’re done! Now it’s time to celebrate!

Document created by Emily RussellITT composition tutor

Summer quarter hours: Tues., Wed., Fri. noon – 6:00 p.m.