Guide For Writing Research Papers

All you wanted to know about writing research papers but were afraid to ask

High School vs. College Essay

April 7, 2008 Posted by Cheryl Bollinger

High School Essay

High school essay is usually considered a five paragraph theme, or a three reasons why essay. Although while comparing high school vs. college essay it is difficult to get to the concise point, still you should understand that high school essay helps you to learn how to present the argument, how to support your argument with the evidence, and how to nicely organize your sentences into paragraphs in your high school essay.

One of the most complicated issues with the high school essay is that you often argue extremes, as writing your high school essay, you often need to be either for, or against something. For example, when you write high school essay on your paper topic “Should immigrants be allowed to enter the U.S.?”, the three reasons why form will give you an opportunity to come to two opinions:

Introduction/ Thesis: Immigrants should be allowed to enter the U.S.

First evidence: America is the land of opportunity

Second evidence: In the U.S. everyone is welcome to work

Third evidence: The U.S. is a democracy.

Conclusion: Immigrants should be allowed to enter the U.S.

The second option is:

Introduction/ Thesis: Immigrants should not be allowed to enter the U.S.

First evidence: Immigrants are often illegal

Second evidence: Immigrants are taking our jobs

Third evidence: Increased crime rates

Conclusion: Immigrants should not be allowed to enter the U.S.

However, both variants of your high school essay are too simple and they are not very convincing. This occurs because you avoid speaking to the opposite point of view, when you are writing your high school essay.

The College Essay

Now, as we are discussing high school vs. college essay, a college essay is usually more complicated, as when writing your college essay, you take the reader through your thinking, anticipating to the readers’ objections, and providing with a convincing conclusion. In such a way, college essay is more convincing, because it makes the reader to see that you, as a writer, have a perfect and in-depth understanding of the things discussed in the college essay.

In your college essay you show how the evidence supports your claims. The college essay involves consideration of the contrary evidence. The writer also needs to consider many points of view and examine possible weaknesses or limitation in a college essay argument. Finally, the college essay, in contrast to the high school essay, takes into account both the general and the specific case. So, these are the major things to take into consideration, while comparing high school vs. college essay.

High School Research Paper Topics

March 31, 2008 Posted by Cheryl Bollinger

High school research paper topics are not so black as they are painted. Your topics usually require about 5-7 page research paper on something memorable, or some important issue of the century. Your main challenge is to follow the guidelines your teacher outlined for your high school research paper, to select the topic that is popular enough in order to provide you with sufficient information for your research paper, and to be narrow enough for you to write a comprehensive and in-depth paper.
Some high school research paper topics may include Arts (Body Art), Business and Economics (Future Job Market), Criminal Justice and Law (Cyber-Predators or Cyber-Crime) research papers, Education (Libraries and the Internet).
Choose one of these high school research paper topics or use the list to generate other interesting topic ideas. As you research your high school topic, you need to look for sources that are in-depth, comprehensive, and reliable. The best sources for your high school research paper topics are encyclopedias, scholar articles, and books written by the authors, who are authorities on your particular high school subject. Just read what the authors say, compare their arguments, try to understand what they wanted to say, and then draw your own conclusion in your high school research paper.