Are free research papers that can be found online helpful?

As with anything that’s free, you need to be careful with source and quality. Because research papers are one of the most common types of college papers that students have to write, there are many students feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. This is an especially uncomfortable position to be in when the student has never written a research paper before. These papers are often worth a considerable amount of the final grade for that course, which increases the pressure on the student to write a great paper.

How to use free papers online

Doing the research can seem quite intimidating, like using primary sources to draw conclusions and secondary sources to support those conclusions. That’s where free research papers can really prove to be helpful. As long as they are high quality, these free samples can show the student what the essay should look like, the format, how it should flow from one paragraph to another, etc.

Furthermore, obtaining a free research paper which conforms to the same style that the student has to use – for example MLA style or APA style – gives the student a good example of that style. There are header and footer rules, margin guidelines and bibliography format guidelines that all must be followed, and it’s so much easier for the student to follow all those rules when they have a high quality paper to look at.

Are sample papers for everyone?

For some students who are really struggling with writing their paper, the free papers may end up being more confusing than helpful. These are the students who may want to consider a writing service to help them write their essay. They may benefit more from the help of a live person than from trying to model someone else’s essay paper.

How not to use free research papers

It’s never a good idea to take a free research paper and try to pass it off as your own. There are a lot of advanced software programs that can detect a duplicate essay and then the student would be caught for plagiarism.

The final conclusion is that free research papers are indeed very helpful for most students who are able to take it and use it as a model or an example when writing and formatting their own essay. This type of use is both legal and ethical, and definitely benefits the student.