It's just like football. There are many characteristics that make a football team great. The team must be bigger, faster, and stronger then its opponents, and that's just the physical side. The mental aspects of dedication, discipline, and inspiration are also needed to truly make a team great. Just like football, there are many features that go into writing a first-class paper. I, however, have found that writing with conviction, possessing a thorough knowledge of a subject, and having ample amounts of time are the primary factors need to write a first-class paper.

Just telling you that you need to have conviction, need to possess a thorough knowledge of the subject, and need to give yourself plenty of time is not enough. You've been told that already in school. I think it would be much more effective if you saw why having conviction, knowledge, and allowing for ample time is critical in writing a first-class paper. As a means to this end, I submit to you examples from my best writing experience as evidence that these factors are critical to making a first-rate paper.

When you write you have to write with conviction. When an author writes with conviction he projects to the reader that he stand behind what he writes because he (hold your breath here) actual believes it. If you believe in what you're writing it will become less about the grade and more about the paper. An example of this is a letter I wrote to Bill O'Reilly of the FOX News TV program "The O'Reilly Factor".

I wrote Bill for two reasons. One: I am a big fan of the show, and Bill encourages viewers to send fan mail. Two: I had been keeping track of a story that had broken two months earlier. This story was about how the Secretary of Commerce had OK'd two American satellite companies to launch their satellites on Chinese rockets, and had further authorized them (allegedly) to help the Chinese rocket builders with the navigation system on the rocket so their payload could deliver at the correct orbits.

This was a major story for approximately two days. It quickly fell onto the back pages and subsequently completely off the page entirely. I did not forget about the story however, because it had me piping hot. Technology that improves the accuracy of rockets, including nuclear tipped rockets, cannot be allowed to be exported to a potential adversary of the United States.

Approximately five weeks after the story first broke the secretary resigned from her position and took on a job as a V.P. of one of the American companies that had been OK to launch satellites on Chinese rockets. This was not front-page news. In fact it did not even see the light of day in my local Associated Press (A.P.) paper "The Rockford Register Star". Where I did hear this story was on CNBC show "Market Watch".

I was genuine miffed at this. Personally, I for one do not like the idea of nuclear missiles raining down on my head, let alone more accurate ones. Added to this was the fact that she took a job at one of the companies that she had OK'd to export the advanced guidance technology. With this, I went from a state of being piping hot to one personified by frothy, vigorous, boiling.

When I wrote to Bill I wrote to him with conviction. With all the information about the scandal, I could not help but write with conviction because I believed in what I was going to write. I believed that exporting American missile guidance technology was wrong. I also believed that the Secretary of Commerce had done wrong again by taking a job at a company that had benefited directly from decisions she had made recently at her job.

To be able to write with conviction you have to have a reasonable amount of information on the subject. After all, you have to have something to have something to believe in. Having a thorough knowledge of what your writing about is another key to writing a first-rate paper. If you're going to write about snake poison, you need to know snake poison. If your going to write about an allegedly corrupt government official you better have command of the issues that surround the alleged corruption.

Having comprehensive knowledge of the subject you are writing on also expands your options in a paper. If you have never seen a snake and only know that snake poison is toxic and can kill, you are not going to be able to write a paper about snake venom with any kind of conviction. This is a direct result of not being too sure of the subject. Conversely, if you grew up in an area with where snakes are common and had a biology class or two that dealt with snakes, you could then write many interesting things about snake poison, such as how snakes use venom for defense and the medicinal properties of some snakes' venom.

When I wrote Bill I had to be sure I had all my facts in order before I sent my letter to him. I did this by putting all my thoughts and ideas in Microsoft Word. I typed these ideas in for roughly two hours before I felt that I had everything down "on paper". The ideas that I had written were a jumbled mess, not organized well or very fleshed out. They all were valid points or at least reasonable inferences.

I used this paper as a pseudo-outline. I highlighted the points that I wanted to make on the "outline", put them in a logical order, and then began to flesh them out. It would be nice to say that "every thing just fell into place" but that was not the case. In my writing I had to change, shorten, lengthen, adapt, and even discard some of the points I wanted to make. The key is that I had a sufficient base of knowledge on the subject that enabled me to do this. If I had only brevity knowledge of the topic I would have few, if any, points to make. With few points I would have been hindered in scope of the writing.

All this brainstorming and research takes time, lots of it. If you wait until the night before the paper is due you are not going to have time to look into many new ideas. You are also not going to be able to prepare or organize any type of effective outline. The secret is to give yourself plenty of time to complete the paper to your satisfaction.

Having ample time to finish is vital to writing a first-rate paper. Ample time allows you to be able to brainstorm, write an outline (of some form), do research, take "breaks", and even change topics entirely. It can be argued, and inferred from what I have written, that time is a prerequisite of writing a first-rate paper. Time allows you to acquire a thorough knowledge on a subject, which you don't necessarily currently have, that you need to write with conviction and hence a convincing paper. Giving yourself ample time enables this and does even more.

Ample time allows you to take breaks from your work. The importance of this cannot be overstated (indeed it is often understated). Sitting down for eight hours and typing out a paper is not effective. Breaking the paper up allows your ideas to stay fresh and helps keeps the paper more manageable. Often, I find it effective to take a break after I put all my ideas down and before I do the "final" edit of the paper.

When I was writing to Bill I decided to go eat dinner after I put all my ideas down because I was not sure "where" to start. I also took a break and went to school (if you can call school a break and keep a straight face) before I did my final bit of editing. I took my breaks whenever I felt that I was stuck. If you give yourself ample time to complete the paper you will be able to take breaks when you need them.

Lots of components go into writing a good paper. Just as there are many components to a Super Bowl Championship team. "He (Kurt Warner) was putting the ball in the right places even though we were getting a tremendous amount of pressure on him. He was just doing the right things."-Barron Wortham, Titans LB. I believe if you do all the "right things" (writing with conviction, thorough knowledge, and with ample time) you will be able to "put the ball in the right places" even under the tremendous pressure of getting a good grade.