A Last Glimpse on Your Research Paper

Just like finishing an art project, writing a research paper needs final touches before having it delivered at your professor’s office. Perfecting an art project takes a great deal of patience, making sure the colors match, no sticky tape becomes visible, or that there is enough material for the project.

Similar to this type of coursework, bear in mind that the presentation of a research paper is important. The composition does not end after writing the main content but by improving the written task through proofreading and editing.

As a student, below is a short checklist of what to improve and/or revise in your present or future research paper writing tasks.

1. Verb Tenses
Use correct verb tenses depending on the topic, subject, and discussion. For Literature subjects, teachers require using present tenses in research papers while Science classes accept past tenses when describing an experimental procedure. Although most teachers require the use of active voice, it does not mean you need to avoid using passive voice. Just try to use as many active sentences as possible.

2. Subject-Verb Agreement
Be careful when uniting subjects with their verbs. Do not solely depend on a program’s grammar checking tool because the results of the test are not always accurate. Sometimes, you cannot avoid writing complex sentences in your research papers which the program fails to understand.

3. Misspelled Words and Nonexistent Vocabulary
Getting a term, a quotation, or a person’s name wrong is an unforgivable crime when writing a research paper. Some professors would let one mistake go, but having repeated errors is unforgivable. There are some terminologies unavailable in the English language which the spell check tool finds erroneous. Be cautious with this limitation. Double check if the words used are existing. Remember, there is no such thing as votation and analization.

Bio:

Currently a chairperson of the Education Department of a state university in Massachusetts, Anastasia Simbao actively participates in a non-profit organization of professors and academicians who work on a research paper about the quality of middle school education in America’s public schools.