Lehman Social Sciences Library. Photo credit: Columbia University Libraries
It’s the start of a new semester and you’re drowning in new syllabi. Luckily, you glance at the reading list for your niche major seminar, and feel a glimmer of hope: the readings somehow look both interesting and manageable. This is a common Columbia experience, as almost every humanities and social sciences field requires one or two seminar courses that most students take in their junior or senior year. A class that only meets once a week and doesn’t have a midterm… what’s the catch? But there, at the bottom of the syllabus, you see it. Almost all of these courses culminate in something along the lines of a 20-to-30-page paper, due during finals, that accounts for the majority of your grade in the class. It can be a daunting task, but one that feels very distant at the start of the semester when you have months to write this paper.
At least, that’s how I felt at the start of last semester when I decided to take two political science seminars that both had 25-page research papers due at the end of the semester. At that point, the 50 pages of final papers I’d need to write felt ages away. But January soon became February, February turned into March, and, before I could register that it wasn’t January anymore, both of my seminars had paper proposals due. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend taking two seminars in one semester, I think the experience made me qualified to give some advice on the process. So here are my tips for writing a seminar term paper!
- Choose a unique topic that genuinely interests you. Choosing what to write about is one of the hardest parts of the entire process. This decision has a lot riding on it. If you aren’t truly interested in the topic, then the weeks and months you spend researching and writing will drag on. If you are genuinely intrigued and want to know more about the topic, then a lot of the time you spend researching won’t feel like work. My other piece of advice when choosing a topic is to make it unique. Now, keep in mind that you will need a topic with some preexisting sources to guide your research, but it’s easier to write when you don’t have to worry about whether it’s too similar to other work on the subject. Plus, it’s exciting to feel like you’re contributing something new to your field.
2.Get lost in the stacks (take advantage of Columbia’s resources). It wasn’t until my two term papers last semester that I truly utilized Columbia’s incredible library resources. I wanted to write one of my papers on the ethics of intelligence collection and wasn’t sure where to start. I logged onto CLIO and did a broad search for sources on the topic and saw that there were a handful of related books in the Lehman Social Sciences Library so I ventured into the Lehman stacks. After a few minutes of searching for the correct aisle and finding out how to turn on the lights, I located the call number of the book I was looking for. I found the general area, but before I could even see the book I had come for, I discovered multiple other books on the topic that had evaded my initial online search. After 30 minutes of scouring the shelves, I checked out with 5 more books than planned.
It might help you to use CLIO to find one or two relevant call numbers, and then explore that area of the library because you could find some unexpected gems to kickstart your research.
3.Outline! A good outline is key for a research paper. First, you should create a notional outline before you seriously begin because it will help guide and organize your research. Second, be flexible with it. You shouldn’t know before the bulk of your research what exactly you want the paper to look like, so let the outline and the research grow together throughout the process. Third, as you dive into research, color-code your notes based on what section of the outline the information pertains to. This will help you so much later when you’re writing.
4. Start writing. I know this seems like self-explanatory advice for writing a research paper, but sometimes research can feel endless because there is so much information out there. At some point, you need to force yourself to just start writing. There doesn’t need to be a strict line between when the research ends and the writing begins. You need to start somewhere and can always do more research later. You have to start somewhere!