Get a hold of helpful writing guides.

• Strunk and White's Elements of Style is a classic for writing.  A free, older version is available online: CLICK HERE.
  
• Fowler's Little, Brown Book is a classic, and offers tons of useful information on essay writing and outlining for essays and research papers. 
• Rebecca Elliott's Painless Grammar is another helpful resource, though a bit more basic.  (But then, who doesn't need a basics refresher every once in a while. 
• The Owl at Purdue: a free online writing resource.  Tons of help in all areas of writing.  

FREE resource to help you properly cite resources: "Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extensionto help you collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources."
Particularly handy for students who will transfer to George Mason University: they are partners in the Zotero system.  

ALL research papers MUST adhere to an acceptable manual for formatting papers, citing resources, developing lists of works cited/bibliographies, page numbering, etc.  Here is a list of acceptable writing guides:

• MLA Guide. 
• Turabian Guide.
• Chicago Manual of Style.  Political science (as per the American Political Science Association) adheres closely to the Chicago format.  Here's a helpful website that looks more closely at citing in political science papers.
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
• The NOVA Library has a WEALTH of resources - available online - to ensure the proper citation of resources.
• Here are some other helpful research suggestions and tips from the NOVA Library.

Other tips:

• The Democratic and Republican Parties should be capitalized.  A democrat (with a small "d") favors democracy, and a republican (with a small "r") favors republics. 
  
• Periods should come BEFORE closing quotation marks that end a sentence.  For example, "I am not the king."  NOTE that the period comes BEFORE the closing quotation marks.  In Europe the period comes last.  But then, odds are you are reading this in the US.
• When a sentence ends with a parenthetical in-text citation at the end of a quote, the order of finishing that sentence up goes like this: closing quotation marks, parenthetical citation, period.  For example, "Washington was a great president" (Smith 2009, 18).
• Outlines should be created before writing essays or research papers.  Creating outlines helps the writer to think and plan in advance about the entire writing project.  It's a great organizing tool in ordering thought AND should be referred to throughout the writing process.  Keep in mind, too, that RE-outlining is fine as the writing process may take the writer in slightly different directions as the project progresses. 
  
• Introductions are, in the opinion of many, the most important part of any research paper.  The introduction serves as an outline for the reader, letting him or her know what they are about to embark on in reading the whole paper.  Since research papers are not mysteries, there should not be any surprises, so laying out the purpose or thesis of the paper, along with the supporting evidence or information, as well as the ultimate conclusion, is a fine start to any great research paper.  Furthermore, introductions set the tone for the reader; that is, a sloppy, poorly written, grammatically incorrect introduction, with tons of spelling errors, is a horrible beginning for any project.  As first impressions matter, such a beginning tells the reader that he or she is in for a horrible experience.  Conversely, a great introduction sends just the message any reader wants to receive from an introduction: the writer cares, thought about the topic, and worked hard at the paper.  With a great introduction, a reader might even be better to turn a more occasional blind eye to later mistakes.  
• PROOFREADING is a vital and under-appreciated component of paper writing.  A writer MUST re-read his or her work MULTIPLE times.  It's also important to do so ON PAPER, as opposed to just proofreading on the computer screen.  Using a red pen and taking the time to critique one's own work will undoubtedly lead to a higher quality paper.  It's also helpful to have friends, family members, or WRITING CENTER staff look over a paper to catch mistakes that the writer misses. 
  
• NOVA's Alexandria Campus as a WRITING ASSISTANCE CENTER that serves ALL students.  Click here for more information or to find out how to schedule an appointment with a counselor. 
  
• DON'T EVER PLAGIARIZE, DON'T EVER CHEAT, AND DON'T EVER TAKE PARTS OF SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK WITHOUT GIVING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR HIS OR HER DUE CREDIT.  It's FAR better to write something poorly than to submit someone else's fantastic work.