Sooner or later it happens. The professor announces, "There will be no final exam." You smile. He adds, "'Instead, prepare a 16-page paper on a topic of your choosing." Your smile dissolves. You sit, denied the modest rigors of an exam, asked instead to confront two of man's most intimidating achievements: language and libraries. On a topic of your choosing.

Choosing. Ever watch people in Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors? First pacing in front of the cases, next urging their friends to choose ahead of them, finally in almost a panic blurting out a choice: "Jamoca Almond Fudge with-uh-Blueberry Cheesecake-no-Pistachio in a cone-dish cone." Most people choose term paper topics the same way, in a panic with much changing of mind. The best way to choose flavors in Baskin-Robbins is to walk in confidently, rule out firmly the flavors you don't want, and then demand taste samples of the ones you think you do want. Taste before you choose. The same principle applies to term papers: rule out the areas you definitely don't want to write about and then read around in the areas you are interested in before choosing. Take time to find a topic you will like.

Reference librarians don't mean to make you feel stupid, but they can. So swallow your ego and throw yourself at their mercy. Or look it up yourself. basic books like Shores Basic Reference Sources; Bates' Guide to Use of Books and Libraries; Murphy's How and Where to Look It Up; and Winchell's Guide to Reference Books are all helpful reference book references.

Organizing. Another custom of how-to-write-papers articles is to stress the importance of the outline in preparing a paper. This is true. Outlines are important, but they're useless unless you understand why you're doing one. The why of outlines has to do with William Randolph Hearst's formula for writing. His formula (roughly) was as follows: "First you tells folks what you're gonna tell'em; then you tells'em; then you tells 'em what you told 'em." In writing, the easiest approach is to announce your topic, present details which flesh out your point of view (or thesis), then wrap it all up by reminding people what the topic has been. An outline helps you remember to do this. A paper must have a beginning, middle and end to be understood by readers.

Most students tend to write on topics too broad for the length assigned. Writing your paper will be easier if, before you begin, you zero in on one tiny aspect of a subject and stick to exploring that. Write about the history of one slang expression, not the history of slang. Explore the

Language. The trouble with following the Hearst formula too literally is that the paper will begin with the phrase "This paper is about," and end

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Approximate Word count = 1135
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)