Ask your professor which style manual they follow. A style manual is a guide to academic writing, for research papers as well as longer projects (books, dissertations). Common style guides include the American Psychological Association (APA) guide, the Modern Language Association (MLA) guide, and the Chicago style guide. Make sure that you have the latest versions.
Create an outline of the points you plan on making in your paper. An outline is a bullet-point summary of the arguments to be introduced. A good outline consists of a thesis statement and a series of supporting points. Each supporting point may be followed by a series of sub-points where necessary, as might be the case with a point that requires the support of several pieces of evidence.
Begin typing the introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs of your research paper. Set your word processor to double line spacing, and indent each paragraph using the tab key. Make sure the spell checker is on (this is the default setting in newer versions of Microsoft Word and Open Office). Read each paragraph over for errors, and correct any errors you notice. Insert an in-text citation or footnote whenever you cite a book, website, journal article, government document, map, film, recording, or broadcast.
Review your finished text, and type up a list of the sources you cited in your paper. This will form the basis of your bibliography or reference section. When citing written documents, include the name of the name of the book or periodical the article appears in, the name of the article, author(s) or editor(s)names, page numbers, and date of publication. When citing film and audio sources, include the names of the writer, director, and speaker/narrator, as well as the title of the production, distributor/broadcaster of the production, and date of production. When citing maps, include publisher, title, image scale, and date of publication. See the appropriate style guide for proper formatting.
Type up a cover page with the text aligned to the center. Text alignment can be selected in Word or Open Office under the "paragraph" tab. The title page should include your name, your student number, the course name, the course number, the professor's name, and the date of submission.
Read over your paper carefully, and correct any typos you notice. If possible, have a friend or tutor proofread your paper, giving you a second opinion. Make sure you check your spelling with a dictionary, as word processor spell-check functions can make mistakes.