How Long Does a College Research Paper Have to Be Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

Many times an instructor will tell you how long an essay or a research paper should be or give you a page number range, such as saying the paper should be between 5 7 pages. If you don't have a page range, the length of your essay can depend on a lot of things. During an essay test, usually one or two paragraphs will answer short essay questions. For big essay tests, where there is only 1 question for a whole hour long test, you will be expected to compose an entire essay. In that case, write 5 paragraphs including all the parts of a composition of between 1 2 written pages. Usually teachers want normal essays or research papers to be between 3 5 pages, and they expect more like 5 7 pages for final papers.

Naturally, you should go by what your teacher tells you and only use this as a guide if you don't have more information. It depends on what level the class is and the level of importance of an assignment. Early in the semester or to review reading assignments, you will only have to write maybe 1 3 pages, or 5 7 for more important tasks. For an final paper in an intro or 100 level college class, professors don't usually ask for more than 10 12 pages. For a final research paper at a 300 400 level or upper level course, you can be expected to produce papers of 15 20 pages.

Naturally, this depends on the university you're attending, the professors' preferences and your field of study. If you are wondering how long each part of an essay the introduction, the body and the conclusion should be, here are some ideas of how to balance the length. The list below will give you a rough idea, but the main point is that each part should be in proportion to the other parts. As an essay gets longer, the body should become longer than the corresponding introduction.

Most teachers will not fault you for going too long, but they will dock your grade for writing too short of an essay, so err on the side of too long if you have to go one way. Your introduction and conclusion will always be the shortest parts, and should be similar in length. Conclusion, 1 page or 1 and a 1/2 pages for a 15 page paper: 7 steps to writing a great research paper by cathy keller brown as you begin taking more upper level courses, you may be distressed to find that your grades hinge on one assignment 151 a major research paper. You may not have written anything longer than a few pages for years 151 or maybe even decades 151 so the thoughts of this daunting task creep into your mind as you drive to class every morning, get dinner on the table each evening, and try to ease your mind enough to fall asleep each night. Few people can easily churn out an a worthy paper, but if you follow these seven simple guidelines, you are certain to increase your odds of acing the assignment, impressing your professor, and alleviating stress. 1 know what your instructor wants you to do. before you do anything else, make sure you have a clear understanding of what your instructor expects from you.

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Read over the assignment several times and underline action words like define, describe, classify, compare, analyze, argue, and evaluate. Throughout the writing process, keep those terms in mind so that you are always aware of your task. If the assignment doesn 146 t include any action words other than write, as in 147 write a research paper, 148 your teacher probably wants you to present an argument about your topic and provide support for the argument. 2 begin planning the paper as soon as you receive the assignment. after you know what to do, begin defining a good topic.

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That can be a time consuming task, but if you do it well in the beginning, you will save yourself some heartache as you get further into the writing process. Keep in mind that you may need to do some preliminary research in order to develop a good topic. As you decide what to write about, think about how long the essay needs to be and whether your professor expects you to cover one narrow topic in depth or to survey a broader range of material.

It 146 s always smart to discuss your topic with your professor, if possible he/she can help you determine whether your goals are feasible. If the professor isn 146 t available, discuss the topic with a tutor or classmate. Once you have decided what to write about, you might be ready to jump in and begin researching right away 150 resist that urge! before you begin, think about your topic. Write down everything you already know about it and then make a list of questions you 146 d like to answer in your research. This early planning step may seem tedious, but it will help guide your research and make it more productive. 3 begin the research process well in advance. i can 146 t say this enough.

When you 146 re taking several courses, you will be tempted to delay getting started on a long term assignment so that you can manage more immediate challenges. Your chances of acing this assignment depend, however, on your discipline and time management. As soon as you 146 ve defined your topic if not before , go to the library or search online for relevant materials. Take advantage of resources available to you a librarian can be your savior during this stressful time because he/she is trained to know the best ways to track down information. 4 don 146 t delay the writing process. when working on research papers, many students mistakenly compile research for weeks or months and then plan to write the paper a week or even a day before it is due. It is best to interrupt the research process frequently to review and evaluate what you have gathered.

Even if you get 7 months, in truth you guys are all gonna do it in the last week or two. It depends if the paper is based on books and other literature or your own research. If it's just the standard high school term paper, i could turn a 20 page paper out in just 4 hours but i type 90+ wpm. That's another factor to consider how fast do you type? can you take information from a published source, reword it, and notate it correctly and still make your paper make sense? i would do a little each week. First week, choose a topic, find your sources, get an overiew of the topic, and develop a thesis statement. Seventh week: write your conclusion, proof your paper 5 times, make sure you have done your bibliography, endnotes, and other support pages properly. Turn your paper in early your teacher may even give you bonus points if he/she can start grading it before everyone else's.

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And now you have 21 weeks to sit back and relax while your friends stress about it. 22, 2016 inside higher ed' s 2016 survey of college and university chief academic officers queries provosts and other academic leaders on a wide range of topics. inside higher ed regularly surveys key higher ed professionals on a range of topics, in collaboration with gallup. The inside higher ed survey of provosts was made possible in part by advertising from ibm, academic partnerships, rafter and jenzabar. Homework study tips expert grace has worked with students for many years as an academic advisor and college enrollment counselor.

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She currently works as a student success coordinator at a university in georgia, where she teaches courses to help students improve academic performance, enhance research skills, and expand information literacy. Read more are you writing your first big research paper? are you a bit overwhelmed and intimidated? if so, you are not alone! but you don 39 t have to be afraid. Once you understand the process and get a clear idea of the expectations, you will gain a sense of control and confidence. When a student does a thorough job on this type of assignment, he or she collects information about a specific issue or topic, analyzes the information, and presents all the collected information in a report. A research paper is not merely a writing assignment it is an action assignment that must be completed over time. There are many steps to carry out: going to the library exploring a topic narrowing your topic collecting your research developing a thesis writing a paper editing the paper proofreading the paper writing a bibliography or reference list formatting the paper the thesis is a central message that is summed up in a sentence.

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This thesis tells the purpose of the paper whether it is answering a question or making a new point. Continue reading below a thesis in a history paper might look like this: in colonial georgia, it was not poverty that caused citizens to abandon young settlements and flee to charleston, but the insecurity that citizens felt from living so close to spanish florida. this is a bold statement that requires some proof. The student would need to provide quotes from early georgia and other evidence to argue this thesis. Your finished paper might look like one long essay or it could look different it could be divided into sections this all depends on the type of study being conducted. Papers that are written for a science class will often involve reporting on an experiment a student has conducted or a problem the student has solved. For this reason, the paper might contain sections that are divided by headings and subheadings.