How to Write a Paper About Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968), was one of leaders of the American civil rights movement. A Baptist minister by training, King became a civil rights activist early in his career, leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helping to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, raising public consciousness of the civil rights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest orators in American history. His life and career are often the subject of school papers.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. 

   Decide upon a topic for the paper. There are many aspects to King's life that are worth writing about. It's best to keep the subject narrow so that the paper doesn't become too long-winded.

2. 

   Research helpful information. You need to go on the web or try going to the public library and checking out some books about Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. Have a good thesis. A thesis statement is a declaration of your views and beliefs. The main portion of your essay will consist of arguments to support and defend this belief.

4. Make an outline. All points must relate to the same major topic that you first mentioned in your capital Roman numeral.
   
   An example:
   
   INTRODUCTION - State your thesis and the purpose of your research paper clearly. What is reason you are writing the paper? Is this a fact report, a book review, a comparison, or an analysis of a problem?
   
   BODY - You present your arguments to support your thesis statement.
   
   CONCLUSION - Restate your thesis in a different way; summatively. Explain why you have come to this particular conclusion.

5. Organization. You want to gather up all your ideas and suggestions in the paper. Make sure that there is no plagiarism and be able to cite all of your resources.

6. Make a draft.

7. Make corrections to your draft. Always go back over the draft and see if there is any grammatical errors that you have.

8. Write the final paper or type it out. This is the last thing that should be done. You already made all the corrections to your rough draft and this will be the paper that you turn in so you want to be the best paper that you have written.

Tips & Warnings

• Be creative and organize. If you think that your wording is not good then seek advice from an English teacher.
• Do not do plagiarize. Make sure that you cite all information and resources that you use for the paper.

Resources

• http://www.libraryspot.com/features/paperfeature.htm
• http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWtoc.html