How to Write a Superior Academic Paper

It's amazing the level of fear that a simple research paper can strike into the heart of the average college student. When finals time comes around and papers are assigned - usually with intimidating length requirements of 10, 15, or more pages - you'd think an inescapable nuclear strike had been launched against the campus. Students slouch about with that beaten down, desperate look in their eyes, fretting constantly via MySpace and Facebook about how this is, without a doubt, the Finals Season To End All Finals Seasons.

Why? Can it really be that hard to simply offer and prove a simple thesis? Well, yes, if you simply sit down and type whatever comes to mind. However, with the right techniques, information, and mindset, you can build a simple, reliable method of producing quality academic papers with a minimum of hassle and stress. Here's how you do it.

Know What Good Academic Writing Looks Like

If I had to make a rough estimate, I'd say a solid 75% of the anxiety associated with writing academic papers is simple unfamiliarity. After all, what example do most students have of engaging, thought-provoking, academic writing? Reading assignments for classes are too often dry and pedantic, more focused on severe academic rigor than interesting the reader. That's all well and good for the progress of knowledge, and for the author's tenure prospects, but it just doesn't make for the kind of reading that you, or anyone else, will stand up and cheer about.

Luckily, there's another sort of example out there, and finding it is as simple as googling up the location of your nearest book store. Seek out the giants in your field - the folks who write informative, fact-heavy books about the subject matter, but do so in an engaging, confident style. Your watchwords here are "erudite and conversational." In virtually any field, you can find someone who discusses the topic with style and panache.

For example, when I studied History, I read a wide variety of works by authors such as Thomas Fleming and Stephen Ambrose - authors who had something to teach, but wrote such flowing, fascinating prose that I actually wanted to learn. You don't want to copy such authors' styles, and heaven help you if you go so far as to actually plagiarize their work. However, study the authors' calmly competent tone and diction - this is what professional academic writing looks like.

Once you have some idea of what you're going for, much of the anxiety, self-doubt, and desire to procrastinate fades away. And if you don't know who the giants of your field are, feel free to simply ask your professor for some reading suggestions. Not only will you get some good recommendations, he or she will probably be delighted that you're taking such an interest in their life's work. Couldn't hurt, could it?

Interest Yourself

Let's face it: if you just plain don't care about your topic, it's a lot harder to write a paper about it. That's simple human nature, and it's pretty much inescapable. So, if your professor has assigned you a very specific topic with little wiggle room, you have little choice but to put your head down and plow through it. Hey - nobody ever said college would be easy.

On the other hand, it's a common occurrence that a professor will assign you a paper on a vague, general topic, and ask you to devise your own thesis and mode of argument. This can initially seem intimidating, but it's really a gift. With some room to move, you can relate the topic to an area that interests you. With that accomplished, writing the paper can almost seem enjoyable... almost.

To cite another example from my own college career, a literature professor once asked me to write a paper about a topic of my choice, with the only requirement being that it had to include backing evidence and analysis from Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews and Samuel Richardson's Pamela. One outside source was also required. As luck would have it, I'd recently read and enjoyed a book by Ian McKendrick, entitled Birth of a Consumer Society, which dealt with the early roots of capitalism and consumerism. Having found this fascinating, I decided to try and illustrate the decline of the landed aristocracy and the rise of the capitalist bourgeois with McKendricks astute commentary, as well as literary analysis from the two assigned novels. It was a bit of a tough sell, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing the paper, and my professor respected me for writing about something that hadn't already been beaten to death in class discussion.

Outline It

The number one failing I notice in my fellow students' papers is incoherence. Without a clear, concise plan for how the paper should come out, many folks will simply sit down and start writing. Unless you have a huge range of knowledge on the subject, a photographic memory, and well above-average writing skills, this will lead to a sloppy, incoherent piece of writing without flow or clear direction.

The solution: outline it. Sit down and draw up a framework for your paper - what points you'll make, in what order, and what sources you'll use to back up those points. Make it as clear and concise as possible, giving each point due attention. You might even want to include the actual citation you'll use for each key fact. It might seem like an unnecessary pain in the neck, but take my word for it. A few extra minutes making a simple, easy-to-follow outline for your paper will save you hours of false starts and dead ends, and ensure that you're approaching the professor with a professional-looking product. Just sit down and do it.

By the by, I spent several minutes outlining this article before writing it up and submitting it for publication. If you're reading it at all, I must be doing something right.

The Basics - Polish, Polish, Polish

You'd think that, by the time someone gets to college, they'd know that you can't simply bang out a rough draft, run the spell check, and walk away from the class with an A. It just plain doesn't work that way. Yet, for some reason, I still regularly encounter students hunched over their laptop at two in the morning, pounding away at a paper that's due in six hours.

Get real. Give yourself time to create a quality product. Do the rough draft, and then put it away for a day - don't touch it, don't look at it, don't think about it. When you come back to it, you'll be amazed how many small but glaring errors you made. Have a friend or teacher look it over for you, keeping an eye out for coherence, clear logic, and quality citations. And while electronic spell-checks are indeed a delightful technology, it can't read minds; the computer has no idea if you meant to type "your" or "you're." Always supplement electronic editting with a human eye.

Chill, Dude

Writing a polished, engaging, informative academic paper might seem like an intimidating task, but it can be done. In fact, the hardest part is almost always bringing yourself to just sit down and do it.

The techniques discussed in this article aren't just mechanical instructions - they're supposed to give you a framework on which to build. Once you know precisely what you want to do, actually doing it is a simple matter of following your outline and having a buddy look it over for you. Don't freak out - if you put the effort in and give yourself time to write it correctly, you might be surprised how easy it really is.