When you find a book that is written about your topic, check the bibliography for references that you can try to find yourself.

Most writers find that the topics listed during the brainstorming or idea mapping stage are broad—too broad for the scope of the assignment

Discussing your ideas with your instructor will help ensure that you choose a manageable topic that fits the requirements of the assignment.

You can also limit the time period from which you will draw resources.

A research plan should begin after you can clearly identify the focus of your argument.

Having to write a research paper may feel intimidating at first.

You will need to put your thoughts together in a logical, coherent manner.

A research paper presents an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources.

The text Successful Writing stresses that when you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened.

Omit any general claims that are hard or impossible to support.

Replace any linking verbs with action verbs

Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis.

For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and example

A factual statement often is not considered arguable.

A strong thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and to remain focused on the topic

A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic

A thesis is generally one to two sentences long and appears toward the end of your introduction.

What do I want to write about it?

A thesis is not your paper’s topic

A thesis statement is an argumentative central claim in a paper; the entire paper is focused on demonstrating that claim as a valid perspecti

After developing an outline, a good next step is refining your thesis statement.

Nevertheless, your conclusion should accurately reflect the paper’s subject and provide the reader with closure.

Proofreading is an important step in the writing process. One technique is to read your paper aloud, which will help you catch errors you might overlook when reading silently

As you build support for your thesis in the body paragraphs, always ask yourself if you are spending your readers’ time wisely.

Your introduction should reflect this focus, rather than present your paper as a general overview of HIV.

When you read your own paper aloud, you are more apt to read the paper as you intended it to be read, as opposed to reading what is actually on the page.

After doing all this by yourself, seek help from others.

Writing well is an intellectually challenging, and draining,

successful writers rely on revising as an integral part of the writing process, and it is important for authors to spend the majority of their time revising their texts

Although editing can be a part of this process, revising generally involves changes that concern bigger issues, such as content and organization.

When you write, it is helpful when your ideas are presented in an order that makes sense. The writing you complete in all your courses exposes how analytically and critically your mind works.

The textbook English for Business Success explains that your prewriting activities and readings can help you gather information for your assignment. The more you sort through the pieces of information you found, the more you will begin to see the connections between them.

However, if you start to observe a pattern in the responses you receive from peer reviewers, you might want to take that feedback into consideration in future assignments. For example, if you read consistent comments about a need for more research

Set aside time to review the organization of your peer’s essay. Read their thesis statement and make sure their body paragraphs have topic sentences that connect to their thesis statement. If there isn’t a clear connection, consider helping your peer revise their topic sentence so the connection between the thesis and body paragraph is easy to understand.

Read your peer’s essay from the beginning to the end without adding any comments. This first read allows you to grasp your peer’s intentions and focus.

Ugly Baby Syndrome

but the former sounds less aggressive and accusatory,

When giving feedback, try to answer your instructor’s questions, but of course, you should carefully read your classmates’ writing first.

Maintaining a positive attitude when providing feedback will put you and your partner at ease.

Although you might think editing and proofreading aren’t necessary since you were fairly careful when you were writing, the truth is that even the brightest people and best writers make mistakes when they write.

In addition to revising, you will also want to go back to your paper one more time to proofread

What your reader needs is for you to make sense of that evidence so that s/he understands what all this has to do with your thesis or claim.

You do not have to make announcements like, “This paragraph is about …” There is no need to remind your reader that he or she is reading a paper. The focus should be on the argument. This kind of announcement is unnecessary, and seeing it in a paper can be somewhat startling to the reader, who’s expecting a professional presentation.

Paragraphs should be used to develop one idea at a time. If you have several ideas and claims to address, you may be tempted to combine related claims into the same paragraph. Don’t do it!

Personal observation

Testimony

Facts are the best kind of evidence to use because they  cannot be disputed and help build your credibility.

Be detailed

Be relevant to the thesis.

Without primary support, your argument may not be convincing. Primary support can be described as the major points you choose to expand on as you prove your thesis.

Be specific. The main points you make about your thesis and the examples you use to expand on those points need to be specific. Use specific examples to provide the evidence and to build upon your general ideas. These types of examples give your reader something narrow to focus on, and if used properly, they leave little doubt about your claim.

The first class I went to in college was philosophy, and it changed my life forever

Think of this as a chance to recapture something significant from your past

Not all online search engines’ results will be useful or reliable.

Narrowing the focus means breaking up the topic into subtopics or more specific points

Free-writing is an exercise in which you write freely about any topic for a set amount of time (usually three to five minutes).

Reading plays a vital role in all the stages of the writing process, but it first figures in the development of ideas and topics

If you think a blank sheet of paper or a blinking cursor on the computer screen is a scary sight, you are not alone

experienced writers remind themselves that writing, like other everyday activities, is a process

If you think a blank sheet of paper or a blinking cursor on the computer screen is a scary sight, you are not alone

Paragraphs separate ideas into logical, manageable chunks.

iguring out the academic purpose of an assignment is important.

Observe and interpret every detail of the text.

An important part of developing academic writing skills includes developing your own writing process.

replace them with more precise diction

Content is also shaped by tone. When the tone matches the content, the audience will be more engaged, and you will build a stronger relationship with your readers.

they play a vital role in the development of your writing.