Most papers, especially when written for a college course, are written using either APA or MLA guidelines. When one of these styles is required by an instructor, using the style correctly will have an impact on your grade. Before you begin writing, it's important that you get familiar with the style guide you'll be using (see resources).
A well-written paper requires a thorough understanding of your topic. Research is an important, critical beginning step to writing an effective topic sentence and following it with relevant material. Keep research notes as you compile the research for your paper, which will make citing resources (an important part of the paper-writing process) easier when the tie comes. It's a good idea to highlight any of your research you use in your paper, so when the time comes to include it in the reference section of your paper, you'll have no trouble finding the information.
Organizing your paper by way of an outline is a step in the writing process that most teachers grade on. Making an outline for your paper will help keep you on target and help ensure that you make all the points in your paper you need to make in order to write effectively on your chosen topic.
With your outline in front of you, write the body of your paper. Keep your topic sentence or thesis statement in the forefront of your mind as you write, always making sure you make a point and then support it with references. Do the rough draft of your paper, then go back and read it through to ensure there are no errors.
A finished paper will have a properly formatted title page (per your guidelines), an outline, the paper itself and your cited references. Most instructors grade not only on the paper, but on the presentation of the paper and inclusion of all the elements that go along with it. Your paper should be packaged according to instructions given by your instructor.