Difference Between Term Paper and Essay
Essay writing is one of the most popular ways to assess students’ ability to think, argue, and write on the given topic. At the same time, expressing oneself in a written form is often hard for students so they prefer to avoid doing such assignments. For those who want to boost their writing skills and find out how to differentiate term papers from an essay, we prepared this short overview.
What is an essay?
First of all, let’s find out what an essay task is. This is a type of writing assignment containing three main parts that aim to reveal a certain topic or discuss an urgent issue. Essays can be short (1-2 pages) and long (up to 6 pages). The short ones are usually assigned throughout the school year in a wide variety of subjects. Usually, they make a small portion of the final grade for a class. The longer essays are assigned once or twice per term to check the student’s perception of a certain topic that was taught for some time during the class. Such essays are also a must for a student’s successful course completion.
What is a term paper?
When it comes to a term paper, things are different: this type of assignment makes a large portion of the final grade and demonstrates how students understood what they were learning for the whole term. Such papers are often presented in a form of projects, and that’s why they require more time, patience, and research. The term paper format implies writing of 8 pages and more (an abstract and sources pages are not included).
How to write a successful paper for college?

Now that you know how an essay and a term paper differ, a question arises: ‘How to write a good essay and a term paper?’ Luckily, the writing strategies are similar for both kinds of writing, and below we list them for you to try:
- Start with choosing the topic. Once you receive a writing task, be it a term paper or a short essay, you should understand what you are going to write about. It is also crucial if you need any paper writer help;
- Do preliminary research. When you formulated your topic, you need to research it to find out how many authors have written on it (it is especially important for term papers). At this point, you just need to get an understanding of how urgent and relevant your topic is, and what predecessors wrote on the matter;
- Brainstorm your thesis statement ideas. Once you have a clue of your topic and its key researchers, you can start collecting ideas of your central thought that you will defend throughout your paper;
- Shape your thesis. When a more abstract vision of your essay or paper is created, you can go on to detailing your thesis statement: how exactly you will put your issue in words, what will be your potential arguments, etc.;
- Collect references. Different kinds of writing have different requirements regarding reference materials so be sure to follow them. Try to use as many sources as possible to make your paper well-argumented;
- Outline your paper. Once you have references to support your thesis statement and arguments, you can start outlining your paper or essay. This step will save you a lot of time and you will not need to think twice while writing about what argument to present first, how to organize your paragraphs, etc.;
- Write body paragraphs. After completing an outline, start writing your paper immediately. We advise you to begin with body paragraphs as they are the main content of your paper;
- Create opening and finishing lines to wrap up your paper. Term paper writing,as well as essay writing, implies creating an engaging introduction and precise conclusion, so be sure to add them after you complete the body. Do not forget to make these parts correspond but not repeat each other;
- Edit your first draft. Once your essay or term paper is completed, let yourself have a rest and then, go back to your text to edit your piece of writing. Do it thoughtfully so that you could notice errors and typos and remove them;
- Remember about citation rules. Finally, you should remember about citing your paper according to guidelines given by your instructor. This stage is important as it affects your grade for the assignment a lot.
How to ease the writing process?
Every of the mentioned stages of writing can be delegated to an essay writing service: you can order writing from scratch, editing, topic formulation, sources collection, and formatting, etc. All you need to do is to request the necessary service and the writers will complete it for you fast and at a low price.