APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Form a study group
Ten tips for high-scoring research papers
The parts of ten

In this chapter

Calling on all resources

Capitalizing on details

You’re a focused person who has a healthy obsession with earning good grades. You’re reading this chapter to discover tips for earning high grades on your research paper. Your initiative and determination represent the mind-set required to improve your research writing.

If you apply the energy, determination, and focus, I’ll supply the strategies that I have found worked in my classrooms. After applying a few strategies, review your paper and identify where you need to improve it. You can also use the tips that follow as a checklist of strategies to apply as you work on your paper.

These tips represent decades of grading college research papers and identifying characteristics of high-scoring papers. They represent proven strategies that improve research writing and include sources of feedback and organizational tips to improve your paper. Read them, evaluate them, and apply as many as you can.

Form a study group

Any three of you are smarter than any one of you. Small study groups increase your ability to write successful papers. Form a small study group that meets regularly to review parts of papers that you’re working on.

A study group can also motivate you to meet deadlines. You can develop a plan with deadlines for completing and reviewing major sections, such as the title page, introduction, citations, and so forth. In addition to getting feedback from your professor, you can also benefit from getting feedback from each other, and from sharing models of papers with each other.

One approach to organizing your group includes members alternating five-minute presentations on research topics such as formatting, references, citing, source engagement, developing an argument, APA writing, spelling, punctuation, and title page design. Another approach includes group members requesting topics they prefer to have reviewed. Allocate time for questions at the beginning or end of each session. See Chapter 9 for additional specifics on forming a successful study group.