Basic Literature Research Writing Guidelines For Undergraduate Students
Gathering information is much like taking a new bike ride. The first bike ride you took required a lot of practice and preparation—learning the skills required for balancing atop your bike and traveling along. The first time you gathered information for a paper, you also needed this kind of careful guidance and instruction. To take the comparison a step further, now that you know how to ride a bike, the only effort needed for a new trip will be to plan the route and execute your trip. The same can be said for a research and an essay, once you know how to gather support and then compose a paper—the following papers will only require research and execution. Follow these guidelines below to find basic literature documentation with the ease of riding a bike.
- Review Instructions
- Do Research in Advance
- Consider Topic
- Create Plan
- Execute Writing & Editing
Make sure to thoroughly read the instructions and rubric provided by your instructor. These instructions may include specific information about what type of work of literature you should be analyzing or other important requirements of the assignment.
Do some work before you commit to a specific topic. By working ahead in advance you can check to see whether or not the work of literature or topic you have selected has enough available information. Although a topic may sound interesting or promising, it will not make for a successful research paper if there is not enough available information.
Now that you have created a shortlist of topics from the preliminary research you have completed, you are ready to finalize your topic. In order to narrow it down further considers what you find most interesting and what will best suit your audience. This can help you remain interested in the writing process and keep readers engaged.
Having a plan is important—this means setting an agenda for yourself, and also making an outline. The agenda will organize the milestones of your term paper, and the outline will help you organize data and execute.
Finally, you are ready to start writing! Always edit throughout writing and before finalizing.
By following these five simple steps you have the best possible guidelines for writing a basic literature research paper for your undergraduate courses. Remember to review the instructions, do some advance work, consider the topic, make a plan, and then finally execute. If you commit yourself to sticking to this process you will be writing your papers as easily as riding a bike.