Avoid focusing on writing about every moment of the event or process. Reflective writing should focus on specific snapshots of your experience, so avoid spending too much time narrating. Instead, reflect on how a specific choice impacted the experience. Ultimately, your essay’s goal is not to create a narrative but to speculate about the significance of your experience.

As you write your draft, be mindful of how you are using primary and secondary source material to support your points. Recall that primary sources present firsthand information. Secondary sources are one step removed from primary sources.

Each of the sources you cite in the body text will appear in a references list at the end of your paper. While in-text citations provide the most basic information about the source, your references section will include additional publication details. In general, you will include the following information: The author’s last name followed by his or her first (and sometimes middle) initial The year the source was published The source title For articles in periodicals, the full name of the periodical, along with the volume and issue number and the pages where the article appeared. Additional information may be included for different types of sources, such as online sources.

In-text citations document your sources within the body of your paper. These include vital pieces of information: with APA, the author’s name and the year the source material was published; with MLA, the author’s name and the page number where the reader can locate the quote.

Some events and trends are too recent to appear in Tier One sources, which tend to be highly specific, and sometimes you need a more general perspective on a topic.

Now that you have spent time considering different aspects of your topic in your exploratory essay, you will continue your research through our CNM library resources to help inform a larger audience about your topic.

Because each discipline has specific rules and expectations, you should consult your professor or a guidebook for that specific discipline if you are asked to write a review of the literature and aren’t sure how to do it.

Each entry (i.e, each source) follows a specific format. Formatting Works Cited entries can sometimes be confusing and possibly irritating. It can also seem like a lot of work for something so small and seemingly unimportant. However, following the form for each entry is important.

In your paper, when you quote directly from a source in their words, or when you paraphrase someone else’s idea, you need to tell the reader what that source is so the author gets credit for their words and ideas.

Journal articles often begin with an abstract or summary of the contents. Read it to determine the article’s relevance to your research.

These notes will help trigger your memory about each article’s key ideas and your initial response to the information when you return to your sources during the writing process.

Writing a research paper is an ideal way to organize thoughts, craft narratives, or make arguments based on research, and share your newfound knowledge with the world.

For whatever topic your professor gives you, you must ask yourself, “What do I want to write about it?”

After doing all this by yourself, seek help from others. First, find an individual who knows about the assignment, your intended audience, and the purpose of the essay. This person is likely one of your peers who has participated in class.

The writer might decide that rearranging paragraphs will provide clarity and support for their argument, strengthening the paper as a whole.

Using transitions will make your writing easier to understand by providing connections between paragraphs or between sentences within a paragraph

Since your peers have participated in the same lectures, discussions, and group work, they can offer the most constructive and focused feedback based on the assignment and the instructor’s expectations.

However, you should plan to read through the entire final draft at least one additional time

If you are writing a research paper, then you will need to follow more steps, which are covered in detail later in this book.

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

It would be unfortunate to hand in an incomplete or misguided assignment because you did not properly read and understand the guidelines.

You can — and should — develop an authorial voice no matter what subject you choose to write about.

Yes, academic writing has rules about format, style, and objectivity that you must follow, but this does not mean you can write boring

No matter what type of assignment you are writing, it will be important for you to follow a writing process: a series of steps a writer takes to complete a writing task.

Have you ever stayed up all night cramming just before an exam? Or found yourself skimming a detailed email from your boss five minutes before a crucial meeting?

The tutoring centers offer one-on-one meetings, online, and group sessions for multiple disciplines.

Writing in drafts makes academic work more manageable. Drafting gets your ideas onto paper, which gives you more to work with than the perfectionist’s daunting blank screen.