Essay writing has become a common practice in most academic institutions. Academicians, lecturers and tutors many times expect their students to submit assignments in essay formats or written in prose form. The essays that students write must have the right content and format for one to score high marks. The writing techniques gained through such exercises are very important and are well applicable in the business world. Business people apply essay writings skills in producing project progress reports, tender applications and project proposals.

Traditionally essay prompts were thought to be meant for the teacher’s chance to carry out an evaluation of the student’s understanding of the lesson learnt. However, a good prompt will also give the students an opportunity to examine their understanding, and make their own judgments and observations on the subject matter.

Many examining bodies at high school, college and university level have used an essay prompt technique to provoke the student into research. This is to help them develop independent thinking in order to generate new ideas from the subject matters they have handled in the classrooms and learning experiences. A good essay prompt should therefore provoke the students through a clear guideline of the requirements of the teacher and the limits of the essay. It is normal in practice that a vague prompt will elicit a vague response (garbage in garbage out policy). This is why our writers in many academic fields covered in many parts of the world take time to develop provocative, logical and authentic prompts. These are found to be useful not only to the instructor, but also to the student who needs to do essay writing to gain experience and for knowledge development.

Research Paper – Basic Guidelines

Steps in writing a good research paper

1. Choose a good writing topic: While writing a research paper the first step is in choosing a good topic to write on. There are available many research paper ideas. Choose from them the one that suits you the best. The topic that you choose to write on should be interesting to the reader and writer both. The topic should be such that there is enough research material available to work on. A vague, obscure topic would not be a good idea to work on, while a topic with too much of available material to work on, would also confuse the writer. A topic that is too broad, like the ill effects of pollution would have too much to write a paper on. While a topic that takes up the ill effects of pollution on wild ducks in a remote village of Siberia would have very little to work on. So always choose something that is more specific and direct, like the fast disappearing rain forests of Latin America. It would have plenty of information to work on, yet not too much so as to overwhelm the writer.

A term paper is a theoretical or researched paper written by students during an academic quarter, term or semester, depending on which unit of measure a school uses. It is a course component contributing a significant part of a course grade and due at the end of the academic quarter, term or semester. Term papers are normally meant to be original works intended to describe an event, situation, and concept or argue a point or disseminate information. They discuss the topic to detail depending on the intended scope, coming up with a number of pages. It is a common practice that the phrases “term paper” and “research paper” are interchangeably used, however, it is worthy noting that they have a difference. A term paper involving an academic research is also a research paper, whereas that which is theoretical is not. A research paper can as well be a term paper if it is part of a course grade and due at the end of the academic quarter, term or semester. Therefore, not all term papers are research papers, and not all research papers are term papers, although each can take the other’s form.
How to write a term paper is something you need to take on with care so that you avoid mistakes as much as possible.

It is unfortunate that some students perceive research as only a pre-requisite for their research papers. Many feel that they have to write good research or term papers in order to attain good academic grades. This is wrong, and they must note that research is a phenomenon used beyond academic circles. It may be used in society by various organizations depending on the area of interest, to supplement problem solving, decision making, optimal allocation of resources and coordination of organizational activities. Therefore, your research ideas will dwell much on what you intend to achieve, rather than whether your research is academic, social, cultural, economic or political.

There is almost an endless list of excellent research ideas; however, they are only left out due to the fact that some are abstract whereas others require advanced skills to discover. We can say that they are out there in isolation!

While initially preparing for a research project, you need to have a subject from which ideas are generated. From the ideas, research questions can be formulated and these play an important role in making your research paper or term paper interesting.
Before you take on to come up with ideas, first consider the purpose of your paper and the level at which you are writing. Take time to plan. Ensure that your formulated questions are challenging and are possible to solve, and that they are open and focused. Check for the gap between the existing and what it ought to be. Explore the resources to include but not limited to books, the internet, tests, observations, interviews. Be analytical and imaginative taking into consideration the relevant information. Keep taking short notes as phrases for ideas as they come into your minds. Think of the effectiveness of your suggested presentation, always not forgetting the problem you intend to solve or the difference you intend to make. In your presentation, you may be guided by essay writing service providers.

Research exercises are first planned in research proposals. It determines the research direction, its endurance or failure. A proposal serves as an action plan for research, constituting three chapters; Introduction, Literature review and Methodologies. It is complemented with references, budget and timetable. Students obliged to do research submit research proposals to their supervisors before real research exercises. Supervisors approve the proposals for research exercises to commence. Learning how to write a research proposal is key for research students.

Achieving a successful research paper depends on the researcher’s skills and ability to choose a subject, formulate a topic, focus on a meaningful thesis, thoroughly investigate the subject, analyze the information and report the results.

Research paper writing takes the following broad sequential procedures;
• Pre-writing: Decide on the subject and topic you are conversant with. Narrow down your topic to specific ideas. Consider your reader’s needs, interests and level of understanding of your subject. Gather the necessary information.
• Planning: Decide on the preliminary thesis to choose, structure and organization.
• Drafting: Write your ideas, discover and include new ones. Do not bother of paragraphing, sentences, grammar, spellings or punctuations.
• Revising: Emphasize the accuracy and relevancy of your content, ensuring proper structure and organization.
• Finishing: Cater for grammar, mechanics and proofreading to achieve a final copy.

There are various essay types depending on the intended purpose, use or style. For any given essay writing, its organization and presence of the relevant fields are paramount.

Writing an essay outline is one way of giving a structural framework of your essay. The outline serves as the skeleton on which the body of your essay is built. An essay outline can contain the headings, subheadings and major ideas, all crafted into three broad parts – the Introduction, Body and the Conclusion. The references can be cited along with the text or added at the end of the essay.

The introduction is the first chapter of a research paper. It starts from the research proposal stage, but it is critical to understand the difference between the introduction of a research proposal and that of a research paper. At the proposal stage, the introduction is presented in a future tense expressing the intensions and expectations of the researcher, whereas that of the research paper is in the past tense, revealing what actually happened.