A Quick Guide on How To Write an English Paper
Hello! Once upon a time, I completed a degree in English Writing Arts and Literature. I finished my degree with a 3.7 GPA, so it’s safe to say that I know how to write an English paper. So here are my tips and tricks to outline, write, and edit an English paper.
This is essentially the most important part of any paper. I used to make really detailed outlines that included quotes I wanted to use from both the book and the research materials as well as breaking down those quotes. Here’s what my outlines used to look like:
I would share this with friends in my class to gauge what I should tweak. Google Drive should be everyone’s study essential. If I was a beauty blogger, I would say that Google Drive was my holy grail product.
An important thing to remember here is that when you’re writing quotes in those boxes, you should be writing where you got them from so you’re not searching an entire novel for that specific quote. For me, the outline was the side dish of my paper. It’s not the main event, but it really adds to the ease of paper writing.
A rule of thumb I always used that added inches to my papers was that whenever I used a quote, I would introduce it in 2-3 sentences and explain it in 4-5 sentences. For an English paper, it’s important to highlight how the sentence is written. Is there a metaphor? What does that add to the overall tone of the novel and your understanding? Then you can tie it back to your thesis. I also used to highlight my research and then use a quote to prove it.
An important thing to note is that you should ALWAYS have a concluding sentence after presenting an idea. So say one idea carries you five paragraphs when you’re completely done with that idea, write “Overall,” or “In essence” and then summarize the last five paragraphs. That should only take you a maximum of two sentences.
A good paper should not be done overnight. You want time to thoroughly edit your paper. There’s a syllabus for a reason. I would start research a week and a half in advance, but I was always thinking about what topics to expand on during class discussions. Research usually took me about a good two hours after that then I would read what I printed out, highlighted, and find more resources if I had to. All in all, research took me about a day.
I would write the paper in one sitting and then step away from it for one whole day. With fresh eyes, I would get my first round of editing done by printing out the paper and highlighting problem areas. Then I’d go back and fix them before sharing the paper with one of my friends in class. After they’re done, I would look at their comments and fix whatever issues they saw. At the beginning of my English career, I would meet up with a tutor for a private session, but that seemed to waste both of our times when I got the hang of it.
An excellent resource is your professor. Most professors will read your paper in advance and give you feedback. It’s also a good idea to meet up with your professor in the research phase because they’ll give you research materials or at least help you zero in on your topic. There were only two professors I personally wasn’t comfortable going to for this type of thing for a few reasons, but most of the English professors were extremely accommodating. They have office hours for a reason!
Say you don’t have time to do all that editing, download Grammarly. It’s free and you can just upload your paper to it. It will just fix grammatical errors, but most professors will take out a large chunk of points for grammar alone so it’s a pretty solid option if you’re in a time crunch.
Using this method in the paper writing process always got me a high grade. I find it to be proactive and eliminates confusion and rushing. However, I just want to note that just because it worked well for me does not mean it will work that way for you. This kind of paper writing was tailored for me after doing the paper writing thing for a while. Most methods take time to curate so if this does not work for you, know that you’ll find your method in time.
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