Like a gourmet meal or an old master painting, the perfect college paper is carefully constructed – not thrown together the night before it’s due. Each part is just right, and the pieces are assembled to form the clear and convincing whole. We should know. We’ve read thousands of papers and we can tell you it’s easy for the prof to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly. Wanna avoid the bad and the ugly? Read on.
正如一道美味佳肴、或是一副大师名画，一篇完美的大学论文是精心构思的——不要临时抱佛脚。每个部分都应恰到好处，精妙的组合在一起行程清晰而令人信服的整体。我们理应知晓。教授在读过数以千计的论文后很容易区分哪些是好的，哪些是不好的，哪些是恶劣的。想避免充当不好的或是恶劣的？继续读下去吧。
1. Get started right away. When the professors gives you, say, a week to write the paper, he or she is assuming you’ll be spending the whole time thinking out what you’re going to say, doing whatever research is necessary, and then actually writing your finished product. You can’t go through the required intellectual steps if you don’t give your mind enough time to do them. Always use all the available time.
1. 开门见山。当教授给你，假设说，一周的时间去写一篇文章，他（她）认为你会用全部的时间思考你将写什么、进行任何有必要的研究调查、然后落笔完成你的作品。如果你不能保证给自己足够的时间，你无法完成所需的脑力步骤。记得总是使用全部的可利用时间。
5-Start Tip. Expect to write drafts. Nobody gets it perfect the first time around.
五星提示：做好准备写草稿。没人能第一次就达到完美。
2. Decide what the expectations are. Turns out that at college there are many different kinds of papers: analytic papers, research papers, papers that draw on your own experience, summaries of some body of literature, and many other types. Be sure you know exactly what kind of paper you’re being asked to write. Good sources of information: the syllabus, the paper assignment (be sure to focus on any verbs telling you what to do, e.g. compare and contrast, defend, evaluate, summarize), and anything the professor or TA says as they hand out the assignment. If in doubt, ask before class or in an office hour.
2. 设定期望值。事实证明大学中有各种论文：分析论文、研究论文、依据个人经历经验所作的论文、文学选段汇总、还有一些其他的类型。明确你所被要求撰写的是什么类型的论文。良好的信息资源可能来源包括：教学大纲、论文作业（注意留心那些告诉你做什么的动词，例如，比较和对比、辩论、评估、总结），教授或助教布置作业时所说的内容。如果有任何疑问，课前或课后仔细询问。
3. Always answer exactly the question asked. Professors spend large amounts of time forging the question(s) for their papers. Rather than having some preconceived notion of what they should be asking, answer what they are asking.
3. 答为所问。教授通常会花费大量时间提出（这些）论文中心问题。与其写你所揣测的可能被问及一些预想的内容，不如直接回答他们的问题。
4-Start Tip. It’s generally not a good idea to construct your own question, even if that’s an option. Usually, the professor has picked out time-tested questions that are designed to work, whereas you might pick something you’re interested in, but might be undoable given the literature or the difficulty and/or generality of your question.
四星提示：大体上来说，自己构建问题并不是个好主意，即使这可能是个选项。通常，教授会挑选经久讨论的问题作为作业，然而你很可能选择你感兴趣的话题，但是考虑到文献或是难度，还有你的问题的普遍性，结果很可能是不可行的。
4. Be sure to fill the space. Most professors, when they give a range for page length (for instance, five to eight pages), are expecting that the good papers will fall toward the top of the range. If your paper comes out too short, consider probing an issue in more detail, giving an additional example or illustration, or raising an associated point. Often, the additional length and depth can vault your paper from a B to an A.
4. 填满空行。大多数教授会给一个大致的论文长度（比如，五到八页），并希望好的论文达到这个长度范围的最大值。如果你的论文太短，考虑下细节问题，都给出一个举例或是图解，或者提出一个辅助观点。通常，额外的长度和深度可以帮你的论文增值，从B到A。
5. Make sure your paper has a point – one. One of the hallmarks of an excellent paper is that it has a single point that structures the paper and gives it unity. Usually, that point is explicitly – and simply – stated in the first paragraph of the paper, sometimes even in the first sentence. Less good papers read like a “laundry list”: many points, all of them perhaps true or even important, but with no real single point to the paper.
5. 确保论文中心观点——有且只有一个。一篇出色文章的显著特征之一就是它有且只有一个观点贯穿上下、一统全文。通常，这个观点是明确的——简洁的——在全文首段中陈述，有时甚至是在全篇的首句。稍微逊色一点的文章对来像是“细目清单”：许多观点，这些观点八成还是正确的或是重要的，但是全文就是没有一个真正的单一的观点。
