The most difficult part to writing a paper is determining your topic of focus. If a focus point is either too broad or too narrow, it can make the process of paper writing difficult. When deciding on a topic, start broad and then home in on your subject. Choose a topic that gives you options, then do some digging to find a suitable scope. For example, writing a paper on music's role in society is broad. For a more focused paper, choose something more specific, like the role of hip-hop in society. From here, you will be able to determine a strong thesis statement, which will act as the foundation to your paper.
Learning how to structure a paper will go a long way to ensuring you are successful. Create a plan by outlining the major points you would like to discuss, making sure each point ties back to the thesis statement. Breaking down your paper into smaller segments will ensure the paper stays focused.
Without proper research to support your argument, your paper will not be a success. Utilize campus libraries, public libraries and the Internet to find appropriate resources to support your claims. Refer to your outline when looking for specific ideas that need support.
Now that you have done all the preparation, it is time to start writing. Start by writing out your major points and supporting them with the information you found. From here you can start to piece the points together, ensuring that the paper has effective transitions between paragraphs and has a nice overall flow. Be sure to avoid plagiarism, as it will often be an automatic fail with many institutions. Plagiarism is treating a source's words as your own. The easiest way to avoid this is to provide attribution for the information that you are referencing.
If possible, find a friend, family member or co-worker to edit your paper. Having a fresh set of eyes read through it, pointing out any errors she may see, will go a long way to polishing your paper. Once she has had a chance to read over it and ask any questions, make sure you do a final read-through. The most effective way to do a final edit is to take your paper line by line, checking for factual or grammatical errors.