A term paper is another word for a research paper. They are called “term” papers because they are typically written at the end of the term or, the end of the quarter or semester in which you are taking the class.
A research paper is an essay requiring that you consult the skills and knowledge of scholars, researchers, philosophers, scientists, and other published professionals to back up all of your arguments or claims with solid evidence from respected publications.
A good way to understand how to write an essay is to first know your audience. With scholarly research papers, even those written in college or graduate school, it is best to conceive your audience as a body of scholars. However, you do not want to make your audience so advanced above you that you feel you lack the ability to write to them. Instead, write your essay as if your audience were your professor only. That way you will not have any tendency to over explain. Since your professor knows many things well, including about your topic, you will feel no need to over-explain to him or her.
To Write a great essay, you must have great evidence for your arguments. For example, if you are writing a persuasive essay on how we must save the coral reefs from an early extinction from man-made abuses to the earth, then you would first, want to provide over-whelming evidence that first, this is truly a problem, by backing up this claim with solid, respect-worthy marine biology, marine science, and biology/microbiology articles from journals, and then, if your persuasive argument turns to how we must save the coral reefs, you might want to provide solid evidence of how we can do so.
The first thing your reader will see and read is the introductory paragraph. This is the first content that will hit both the eyes and ears (and preferably the heart and intellect as well) of your reader. You want your first two sentences to be so well written and captivating, that they whisk your reader right in, luring your reader to take the reading even further to see what more fascinating things you will say.