The paper, a classic part of college life. Writing a good paper isn’t just a case of writing out your notes again in paragraphs. A good paper requires some thought to go into it. Here is some guidance to make sure you get the grade you deserve.

Firstly, you need to brainstorm your paper. What exactly does it have to have in it? Is it a wide ranging paper on the life cycle of bugs in general, or is it specifically about the life cycle of the Lesser Known Brazilian Hopping Fly? Create a mind map of what your paper needs to cover. Stick this bit of paper where you can see it and tick off the topics as you cover them.

Next, you need to work out the structure of the topics. What order should you cover them in? It would be more sensible to go through the life cycle from birth to death, than covering it in a random order; it would also bring more structure to your paper and allow you to work through it more clearly in your head.

Once you know your topics, you need to research them. If you took all your notes in class then read through them again and write out the main points then elaborate on them. This is going to be the main bulk of your content. For a few extra marks, you could read around the topic, and link in similarities and differences with other bugs, theories or books.

You may want to write out the paper before typing it, and leave spaces between words, lines and paragraphs. Once you have written your paper, go back and check your sources and your grammar.

The most important thing to do when writing a paper is to giving yourself plenty of time! For example, if you have 10 days to do a paper, you could cover one stage of the life cycle each day, then you have plenty of time to go back, check your work and research some more.