Students required to write papers in academia places to demonstrate and articulate their education progress. The typical flavors of papers include: course works that cover various questions about your course or subject; essays – you have to interpret or analyze a literary or visual work from your own viewpoint ; term papers which usually reflect your knowledge on a certain subject and thus must have thorough and concise structure; and research papers, where you have to find different sources to illustrate your understanding of a specific topic. In writing any of these papers, there are following general rules to consider.

A thorough research on a given topic or subject that you selected is essential. Before you begin the paper, you should brainstorm ideas that you can use in the work – perhaps, by putting your thoughts in a bullet point form or outline. This will help you organize your points properly, making it easier to write a paper. This is because all you have to do is following your bullet points or outline and elaborating on it. Also, make sure that you know the objective of your paper. Most of the time, this will guide and help you to narrow down the broad and diverse information that you have at hand.

Remember to stick to these general rules when writing a paper. Your paper should be composed of an introduction, main body and conclusion. The introduction should contain a thesis statement, which gives a general idea of what you will talk about for the rest of the paper. It also informs the reader about your stance on the issue.

The main body is usually divided into three paragraphs, which further expounds on the topic. Each paragraph in the main body should start with a topic sentence, which is usually the first sentence in the paragraph. This is used to indicate the flow of the paper – in short, it conveys the main idea of your paper. Finally, the conclusion gives an overall summary of the topic. Also, this is where you can state your opinion and provide your solution for the points you have raised; the latter should be done only if it is applicable.

Limit each paragraph in your paper to four or five sentences. If it is more than that, start a new paragraph. Make sure that you are explaining terms and concepts clearly; you should write a paper assuming that the reader is unfamiliar with the topic. Also, keep in mind that you should properly cite sources in either your course work, essay, term paper or research paper. If you fail to do this, your paper will be considered as plagiarized. Inclusion of your own opinion and analysis cannot be underestimated. Finally, you should ask someone to proofread your paper before you submit it – this would help battling the grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes you might have skipped.

Once you incorporate these general rules whenever you write a paper, using them will become a habit, with paper writing getting increasingly fast and easy. It will also ensure your successful pass because paper-writing usually makes significant percentage of your final grade.