When you’re staring at a blank screen in front of you and your professor tells you to turn that into a 15 page research article, what do you do? One word starting with F: freak out. But what if there were more F’s that saved you from getting an F in the writing course? I came across a paper written by my ‘Writing For Your Profession’ professor called “Principles of Effective Academic Writing” that basically turned the letter ‘F’ into my favorite. These principles are guaranteed to make your next assignment interesting for your readers, and easy for you to write!

Step 1) Fleshing out your ideas.

This is the step where you clearly think through what you want to say, develop an outline, and generally understand how to organize, as well as connect your ideas. This step requires research on the topic and lots of note taking jotting down anything that goes on in your head, but since this is the foundation, it is important to make it strong. In this step, you allow yourself to be disorganized and get everything from your brain out – the more, the merrier!

Step 2) Framing your paper.

Imagine you’re reading a book or a watching a movie where the ending is given away at first, and then the story comes after. Doesn’t quite make sense, does it? That is exactly why you must frame any paper as you would like any book or movie to be framed. You can do so by providing topic sentences when stating big ideas, making sure that the introduction, body and conclusion are clear, and even leaving a little room for mystery until the end – to keep the readers interested. Always focus on this: What is it that you are trying to get out of this paper? Some papers intend to inform, while others to persuade. This is the step where you clarify what your purpose is and organize your ideas together based on that.

Step 3) Focusing on the main idea and perspective.

Most standard academic papers expect you to stick to your main idea throughout. Because the readers have already grasped your thesis as the whole point of the paper, it will be expected for you to prove your thesis throughout and not lose focus in doing so. So what does focusing really mean? It’s not just restating the topic each time you start the paragraph, it’s bringing out new and relevant points to add to the substance of your paper while tieing it to the bigger picture. Therefore, always make sure you re-read what you have written and tie up any loose ends when you see one!

Step 4) Foregrounding the framing point.

Now that we have talked about framing and focusing, let’s move on to foregrounding. Framing and foregrounding are similar, but not the same. Framing is simply having a structure to your paper whereas foregrounding is making sure that the structure of your paper is making sense. Essentially, it is proofreading the framework. To foreground your paper, check if every sentence you write has a purpose. If it is not furthering your ideas, it probably doesn’t belong in the paper.

Step 5) Flowing – Connecting the Parts and Details.

This step is crucial to keep your readers interested. Making sure your paper ‘flows’ means to provide clear connections that go from one point to another. One paragraph must connect the other, and each paragraph must connect to the central argument – you can use “transition words” to do so. On top of that, if your paper helps your reader recognize the logical moves that you’re making from one sentence or point to another “within” the paragraph, then your paper is flowing!

Step 6) Finishing – Or Improving Grammar and Syntax.

Finishing your academic writing to make it effective is equal to editing and proofreading. Check if you need to polish your language, clarify your thoughts by rewriting sentences, replace words with more accurate alternatives, correct grammar, and fix punctuation. In professional and academic writing, not spending enough time to edit the paper can cause a great deal of damage no matter how great your ideas are. It’s also very important that you realize this step does not mean changing your ideas, simply ‘finishing’ it.

Step 7) Formatting to fit the genre and medium

The second to last step is to format the paper or to make sure the layout fits the criteria of the paper. In many college assignments, font Times New Roman and size 12 are highly recommended. In particular, in regards to spacing, it is guaranteed to have a more effective paper when the spacing is adjusted after all the ideas are out. Thus, formatting is left to the end because it creates the incentive for students to stop writing after they have reached the requirements of the rubric.

Step 8) Fun – with the Idea and the Writing

Lastly, the final step is to have fun while writing any paper. This is simply because if you are not enjoying what you are writing then the readers will not enjoy reading it. The easiest way to do this is to take an interest in the conventions and find research that interests you. If your topic is something you completely do not connect with, think of the audience and write in a way that you think would engage them. This can become sort of a game and honestly, this strategy has helped me out a ton!

There you have it, folks! These eight steps sum up a basic outline of how to create any paper from scratch. It is important to follow these guidelines even post college when applying to different careers that require cover letters or writing samples. This article has helped me become a more effective writer and taught me how to get my point across in minimum writing that is easy to read. Academic writing can definitely be challenging, but it can be effective using these strategies. Thus, try on these methods and see how these ‘Fs’ save you from getting a ‘F’ in the paper!