Adding Finishing Touches to Your Term Paper

Now that you’re working with a near final draft of your term paper, it’s time to add those finishing touches that can make the difference between a passing grade and an excellent grade. All weak areas and errors you may have missed earlier need to be addressed. Here’s how to add those finishing touches to your term paper:

Clarity

When writing and revising your term paper it’s always good to ask yourself the following questions: Is my writing clear? Is it well organized in a logical way? Is it supported by evidence that my readers will understand without having questions of their own?

Look for ways to make your term paper more clear by checking for the thesis statement, topic sentences, and transitions. Additionally, look for ways to eliminate words that may confuse the reader within each sentence. Remember all the details within each paragraph needs to relate directly to the topic sentence and argument.

Revision

To best revise your term paper you need to keep a keen eye for ways to rewrite and rework the information you’ve presented. This means finding opportunities for adding, deleting, substituting or re-ordering content. The best way to approach revision is to do so at three levels: looking at your overall essay, looking at entire paragraphs, and then looking at individual sentences. Keep your central idea and argument in mind and look for ways to further the purpose of your term paper.

Editing

As soon as your term paper reflects what you want to say exactly and in a well-organized way, it’s ready for the final draft. Edit the term paper once more to meet specific conventions of style, tone, and consistency. You’ll want to double check for format, sentence structure, correct grammar, word usage, spelling, and punctuation. There are a number of components you will need to check, and since most of the corrections are usually minor you’ll definitely want to read each sentence closely.

Citation

In researching your term paper you should have kept a detailed record of the sources used. If your record of information consulted and borrowed – such as quotes, facts, and ideas – then you shouldn’t have a problem listing these in whatever citation method your area of discipline or professor requires.

Adding the above finishing touches is sure to take your academic assignment to the next level. Master these steps and you’ll begin to write quality term papers in no time.