Introduction
The main problem facing most people when it comes to writing is procrastination. Doing the assignments at the last-minute causes people to rush things, and therefore making many mistakes. As a result, one believes that he is not a good writer.
Like most people, I believe that there are people who were born good at something, and in this case, there were born writers. This mentality may keep other people from learning to be good writers, but I believe that the struggle to achieve good results is not much of a burden.
In writing my research paper, i had to come up with strategies to make sure that I completed it in time, and that it was satisfactory, according to the instructions provided. I believe that my success was attributed to great planning and organization skills.
In addition to this, I took my time to research and obtain the most appropriate resources, before writing my paper. After completion, I proof read the paper, making the necessary grammatical and spelling mistakes (Hyland, 2000).
Writing and editing strategies
Planning
Every assignment issued requires a certain amount of time, which is determined by the lecturer. The most important thing after viewing an assignment and looking at the time frame to complete it is planning. One aspect of planning involves the development of an outline that helps to organize the research paper.
The outline was very important as it helped me to stay focused on the objectives of the paper, without deviating from the main topic. The outline was also helpful in obtaining meaningful resources that reflected on the various sections of the paper (Lester & Lester, 2009).
Research
This is another vital part of writing a research paper. The research conducted on a particular topic requires one to have great understanding of the topic at hand. Understanding of the topic narrows down the research options, to only those that provide relevant information.
In my research, most of the information I used was from online books and journals. With a library card it is possible to access some libraries like Ebscohost and Proquest. Some information was from web sources, but paraphrasing helped to avoid plagiarism (Lester & Lester, 2009).
Challenges in preparing the paper
Arranging the research paper based on my sources was a challenge, in order to avoid plagiarism. I had to include quotation marks and parenthetical citation for the sources in instances where I copied material. For paraphrased sentences, I included the citations at the end of the sentences, as well as at the end of the paragraphs, since most of the information in the research paper was borrowed (Hyland, 2000).
Revising the paper
The research paper had three drafts before submitting it. The first one was beneficial in rectifying the structure and organization of the research paper.
In reviewing it, I observed the relevance of the material to the thesis statement as well as the ease of understanding the information, when viewed by other parties. I corrected the grammatical errors in the second draft, and used the final one to observe any errors that may have been missed (Turabian, Wayne, Colomb, & Williams, 2007).
Conclusion
In tackling the research paper I gained some knowledge regarding writing. I learnt to manage the time assigned for the paper based on the outline that I prepared. To ensure that the research occupied the requested pages, I learned to ensure that the material used was accurate and easy to understand. Through the research paper, I was also able to polish up on my parenthetical citation (Turabian, Wayne, Colomb, & Williams, 2007).
References
Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lester, J., & Lester, J. (2009). Writing Research Papers (Perfect) (13th Edition). Harlow: Longman; 13 edition.
Turabian, K., Wayne, B., Colomb, G., & Williams, J. (2007). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing). Chicago: University Of Chicago Press; 7th edition.