What if I told you that writing long research papers can be one of the most fun and fulfilling parts of your academic career? Now, maybe this sounds absurd to you. Maybe it sounds like saying that being stuck in traffic can be the most exciting part of the day or that bulk canned spinach can make a delicious dessert. However, with the right approach you can turn what can often be the most stressful experience of the semester into one of the most enjoyable parts of the semester.
Here’s how:
1. Write about something you’re actually interested in.
When I would help students with term papers in the Writing Studio, I was always shocked to find that students consistently chose topics that they weren’t all that interested in. Now, sometimes you don’t get much of a choice in what you write about, but in many classes professors offer a lot of freedom when it comes to topic choice. Take advantage of this. Even if the class doesn’t interest you, try to find a topic that does. If you’re not sure your topic idea fits with the class or the intent of the assignment prompt, talk to your professor; many professors will give students the freedom to follow their interests within reason.
When you’re naturally interested in your topic, you’re more likely to be intrinsically motivated. The writing will still be work, but it will be satisfying, fulfilling work.
2. Be specific.
Writers are often worried about running out of things to say, so they try to pick a topic and thesis that is as broad and general as possible in the hopes that this will give them more to write about. However, in my experience I’ve found that the opposite is true. When you have a really narrow and specific thesis, it’s easier to write more. When you have an overly broad thesis, you run out of things to say faster.
Think about it like this: if you’re flying in a plane over some fields and you try to describe the landscape below you, you can only speak in general terms. You can point out different colored squares of field. You can point out a road or two. Maybe a couple buildings are visible too, but not much else. But, if you are actually standing on the ground, you can easily go into much more detail. You can talk about the texture of grass by your feet. The sounds of the birds in the trees behind you. All the different kinds of wildflowers growing, the bees buzzing around, the colors and styles of cars driving by on the road.
For a research paper, overly broad topics might be something like “illegal immigration” or “the Civil War.” Narrow, more specific topics will focus in on a facet of this broader topic, like “central American child immigrants in the 2010s” or “the aftermath of Sherman’s march to the sea.”
Narrowly focused topics open you up to more detail than a broad topic and will make your paper much easier to write.
3. Make an argument.
Thesis-driven papers are all about making arguments. You should have an assertion to prove (your thesis) and you should try to convince your reader why you are right and why anyone who’d disagree with you is wrong. Writing with a clear argument in mind gives you something to work toward. There are points to make, counterarguments to respond to, evidence to bring up. Having a clear, arguable thesis statement gives your paper a clear direction and destination.
Sometimes, writers confuse having a thesis with having a topic. When writers mix these concepts up, they lose direction. They often just list instances of their topic without actually trying to do anything with it. For example, someone’s topic might be “violence in the Iliad.” Instead of making an argument about how violence is used in the Iliad, they just list different examples of violence in the Iliad. After a while, they run out of things to say, and no wonder! There’s no direction or purpose for writing.
If your topic is “violence in the Iliad,” an arguable thesis could be something like, “In Homer’s Iliad violence is used to demonstrate the frailty of human lives,” or “Violence in Homer’s Iliad is the primary method of character development.” Your thesis should be a complete sentence. It should assert that something is the case.
4. Read, read, and read.
We’ve all been there. You’ve procrastinated too long and you have to get your research paper done right now. You don’t have time to do any real research, so you just do a quick search on the internet and find some sentences you can quote to meet the minimum number of required sources and fill out your word count at the same time.
But there’s a reason why your professors require you to do research for your paper: it actually makes writing easier. When you’ve done the research, you know what other scholars have said about your topic. You know where scholars agree and disagree. When you read as much as possible on your topic before you even start writing, you actually have things to say. You’ve read other writers’ thoughts on your topic, which gives you plenty of ammo and support for articulating your own ideas. If you do enough reading, the most stressful part of writing becomes deciding what not to include in your paper instead of how to meet the bare minimum length requirement.
Now, all this does require that you actually get started before 10pm the night that your paper is due, but I can absolutely guarantee you that you will also enjoy writing more if you’re not under such a time crunch.
Happy writing!
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Kendall Davis graduated from Concordia University Irvine in 2016 with a BA in Biblical Languages and Theatre. He is currently working on his MDiv at Concordia Seminary-St. Louis, where he provides writing tutoring and editing services to both Masters and Doctoral students at the Seminary. Recently, he helped to start Concordia Seminary’s student journal, Grapho, which published its first issue this past May. He has a deep love for helping people utilize writing as a medium to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively and persuasively.