Okay, nobody ever knows if they'll get an A on their term paper or not, but you can do your best and cross your fingers. It's the old online-college charm. Hit the keyboard running after you're too danged tired to care, and you'll have a term paper by morning? Or not.

Back in college after a few years out (even the online variety), you have lost the groove (or you never had it) and your composition teacher is bound to extrapolate on the fine form that you don't have for writing anything suggested in class. The phenomenon is guaranteed! But, you don't have to settle for less than your best. You can give it all you've got in 7 killer steps and hope for an "A".

#1 - Know your stuff

Select a topic you're at the very least interested in, and write what you know. Just get some words on paper, so you can get started building your idea. Your thesis statement will come from these words of wisdom , write well.

#2 - Pick a format

Whatever format your college professor recommends is the best choice. Don't be too creative here. Word 2007 doesn't rule on the grading curve, so stick with APA, MLA, or whatever instant format your professor recommended.

#3 - Get comfy, to write

Put on your most comfortable pair of jeans or sweats and settle in your favorite chair with your laptop on your knee and a favorite drink nearby. (Tea or coffee works well, avoid anything stronger than cola.)

#4 - Research your topic

If you haven't already got a notepad full of carefully prepared notes, now's the time to Google up your topic and find out about the links and references you'll need to insert in your term paper.

#5 - Organize your thoughts

Some folks use outlines to write from, others just set out to get the words on paper. Whatever format you choose, put it together and find a pattern that makes sense to you.

#6 - Write your rough draft

By the end of a few hours, you should have 6 or 7 pages of content that looks somewhat similar to what your finished product might look like, eventually. With a few scribbles of red, notes in the sidebars, and footnotes of some kind in your document with links or references to your source materials.

#7 - Perfect your paper

This is where you cut the end off your red pen and bleed all over the paper, reorganize your thoughts, add some serious vocabulary, and determine the actual content of your final paper with proper grammar, corrected spelling and a stream of thought that flows from beginning to end of the paper. Getting your education online is easy, but you have to write the term paper. Yes, dear, it's required.

Do a little dance, sing around the room, order in Pizza Hut and celebrate. You're done! And it only took five weeks of procrastinating, thirty minutes of shivering, teeth chattering worry and concern, and twenty-four hours of hard labor to write your term paper.