by Thomas West

Created on: October 24, 2009   Last Updated: October 28, 2009

Learning to write a coherent, organized term paper is one of the most crucial skills you will ever learn in college. In order to master that skill, however, you should be aware of some common pitfalls that can damage your paper, your grade, and your standing with the professor.

Don't try to fool your professor by writing in large font or using large margins. If the instructor asks you to write a paper that is four pages long, do not use a size 14 font with 1.25 inch margins; your teacher has been around long enough to spot these feeble attempts to stretch your paper. As a general recommendation, use a size 12 font (generally Times New Roman,) and 1 inch margins. If you're doing the kind of writing that you should, you may actually find that you have more to say than you can fit into your page limit, so those smaller margins might come in handy.

Avoid generalizations. When writing a term paper for a college class, make sure that you are specific as possible in your discussion, regardless of what topic you happen to be writing about. Provide specific examples and discuss them in some detail. Don't move on to a new paragraph until you're sure the one you are currently discussing has been fully developed.

Don't write a thesis statement that's too general. A thesis should be specific enough that it gives your paper structure without being too restrictive. However, an overly broad thesis will cause your paper to lose all focus and wander off in too many directions. The ideal thesis will also develop throughout the essay, with each of the paragraphs contributing in some way to your overall claim.

Don't use the five paragraph model of an essay. Although you might have learned this particular essay form in high school, it is almost entirely useless in college writing. There are very few topics (if any) that you will be able to adequately explore with only three paragraphs. Furthermore, trying to keep your essay within the model will often stifle development, and points that might have done a great deal to better your paper will get lost.

Don't just drop quotes from your sources without explanation. If you are quoting scholarly sources to either back up or develop your claims, make sure that you contextualize them and explain why this particular quote is relevant to what you're writing about. Quotations should not stand in for what you have to say but should instead interact with your own thoughts. Even more importantly, make sure that you ascribe your ideas adequately. Don't try to pretend that something is your own when it's not. Even though you might think you're clever, you can be reasonably sure that your teacher is cleverer. After all, they've been around the block for quite a while.

If you avoid these mistakes, your paper will come out much richer, more developed, and you will most likely get a better grade. What's more, you'll start establishing a good relationship with your professor, something that will definitely come in handy down the road. It's never too early to start being successful.

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