How to Write a Research Paper- The Steps

How to Write a Research Paper- The Steps

1. Understand the Assignment

If you are concerned about how to write a research paper successfully, you need to first have a thorough understanding of your assignment. Consider the following things first:

• Read your assignment carefully. In case of any confusion, clarify with your professor.
• Determine the objectives, timeframe, word limit, submission method, and formatting.
• Make a checklist of key points. Tick off the points as you are completing each point.
• Take sufficient time for research as research is the pivotal part of this process.
• Carefully consider the word limit and timeframe.

2. Narrowing your Topic

Choosing good research paper or dissertation topics for your paper is a thought-provoking task. You have to keep several aspects in mind. You have to choose a topic where you can find sufficient information to conduct your research. The idea is to find an appropriate, researchable, manageable, relevant, interesting, and feasible research topic. So, after you have gone through your brainstorming session on your desired topic, now you have to narrow down your research. You need to make sure that you can explain why you need to research that topic and the significance of your research.

3. Gather Information

It’s best to get started researching as soon as possible—after all, it’s a research paper assignment.

Figure out what research is possible for your issue as soon as possible to narrow your topic and create your thesis statement. Early research will help you clarify any misunderstandings you may have about the subject and identify the best methods and approaches for gathering additional information.

It is one of the most essential stages in the research process as a research paper cannot be done without sufficient research. You have to study through various sources to collect sufficient and relevant information to help construct a thorough research paper. Below are mentioned some sources where you can collect relevant materials:

• Suggestions and information from your professor
• Library, articles, catalogue, periodical indexes, and bibliographies
• Work of previous researchers
• Journals, books, other academic sources
• Primary vs. Secondary sources of information
• Online resources, Web-based information (Wikipedia)
• Materials in audio format
• Encyclopedias
• Google Scholar

When conducting research, it is preferable to skim sources rather than reading each one thoroughly. Set a source aside if it appears to be valuable, and read it thoroughly later. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting time reading over sources you won’t use, time that may be better spent discovering a useful source.

In your research paper, you have to provide a literature review. It is a section where you explain the sources and provide them to an expert for validation. Even if a literature review isn’t necessary, it’s still a good idea to develop a list of potential sources ahead of time.

4. Organize the Information

Once you have collected all the significant and relevant information, it’s time to arrange and organize them systematically. Critically analyze all the data and information. Make sure that you ensured and verified the credibility and reliability of the information and sources. Check for accuracy. And finally, organize the related and important information in different sections and sequence them logically under each head. As per PenMyPaper, always keep a track or note of each source you collect to study and use for your paper separately.

5. Carry out the literature review

The research study involves a cumulative process. It implies that you are supposed to contribute something valuable towards education. PenMyPaper recommends learning a literature review for a research paper as this step helps you narrow down and gather background on the topic.

Conducting a literature review helps in determining the questions on the topic that have already been explored and addressed. It also helps in determining the scope and limitation of your research and most importantly what research questions you should explore.

Following are the ways you can implement a literature review:

Online Keyword: Through online search engines, you may conduct a preliminary search by use of specific keywords related to your research topic.

Academic Sources: You can use textbooks published by well-known academics and researchers.

Examine Previous Research: Go through the previous studies undertaken by credible and reputable institutions about the subject matter.

6. Compose Research Questions

The aim and objective of every research paper are to find solutions to the research problems. Start with finding a question, a problem, or a gap, that has not been answered or addressed. Formulating good research questions helps you develop a strong thesis as well.

In an essay or a research paper, usually, you develop a single research question to guide your thinking and reading. The solution or answer you find is your thesis statement and is the central claim or position that your paper argues for.

While bigger research project, such as a thesis or dissertation, may involve more than one research question. And all the questions must connect and center around a particular theme research question.

7. Prepare a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement gives a brief but broad overview of your research paper. It covers the central idea of your research topic. It demonstrates the objective and position of your paper. Now that you have chosen a topic that is suitable for the assignment, and have researched your topic well and organized it, you’re ready to develop your argument or claim. This claim or assertion is what you write in your thesis and try to prove in the research paper throughout. Last but not the least, make sure that it is unique and authentic and should be relevant and appropriate for your topic.

8. Draft a Research Paper Outline

Follow the above research paper outline format to create an outline for your paper. As research papers are lengthier and complicated, it is better to break the outline into paragraphs and create headings for each topic to be discussed. For beginners, this process is helpful for keeping things organized as you have so much information to cover. Besides that, you can have greater control over the direction and flow of your research paper. Make sure you incorporate the supporting evidence in the outline. It is better to solve structural problems while you outlining than later after you have written down everything.

9. Prepare the first Draft

After you have organized all the information according to the outline shown above, now it’s time for you to write the first draft. You can use whatever technique is suitable for you, like writing summaries, using quotations, paraphrases etc. You may start from the very first section or with the one that feels easier for you. Try to work from your ideas and that will help avoid plagiarism. If you are using someone’s quotes, you need to cite your reference. You also need to separately put more information about the sources on the “Reference or Works Cited” page.

9.1. Write the introduction

In the research paper introduction, three broad questions are answered: what, why, and how. The readers should be able to have a clear insight into your research paper after reading the introduction. Reading the introduction, they will be able to understand what your paper is about, how you will develop your arguments and why your paper is worth reading.

What? Explicitly describe the topic, provide background context, and define significant terminology or concepts.

How? The introduction must include a “map” of what will be covered, succinctly outlining the important aspects of the work in chronological sequence, to let the readers understand what they can expect from the body of the article.

Why? This is one of the most crucial as well as challenging parts of the introduction. You must answer the following questions as explicitly as possible: What new perspectives or information can you offer through this study? What crucial concerns does your paper contribute to help resolve?

9.2. Create an engaging body paragraph

Most authors struggle with how to organize the information offered in their papers, which is why an outline is so helpful. Using your thesis statement as a guide can help you stay on track. However, be mindful, that the outline is merely a guide, and you can be creative with the sequence in which you put forward the arguments and the material when writing.

Keep an eye out for paragraphs that appear to cover the same research paper topics and if so, they should take various approaches to it. Make transitions between the paragraphs, sentences and sections as seamless as possible.

9.3. Write the final paragraph

The purpose of a research paper conclusion is to give the readers a sense of closure. Briefly discuss the broader implications of your argument. Also emphasize what the paper has to offer for future researchers. You may propose any questions that the paper’s argument generates though it does not or cannot attempt to answer. The key idea here is to compose an impactful conclusion to imprint a strong impression on the readers.

9.4. Cite your sources properly and correctly

Citing your sources assures that everything you have included in the paper is valid and forges a connection between your research article and the larger scientific community. Citations must adhere to strict formatting guidelines due to their importance but the problem is, there are multiple sets of guidelines.

To determine whether formatting style is necessary, consult the assignment. In most cases, academic research papers use one of the following methods for citing sources:

• APA
• MLA
• Chicago
• Harvard

10. Review your Draft

Before writing the final paper, you have to revise your draft very carefully a couple of times so as to correct any mistakes and edit your content as per the instructions and requirements. Make necessary changes as per requirement, and arrange and rearrange content to adhere to the research format. Always keep in mind the aims and objectives of your study and the readers.

Given below is a checklist of a few questions that you must ask yourself in order to finalize your draft.

• Is the thesis statement clear and compact?
• Did I follow the format of research?
• Did I cite all the sources properly?
• Did I present my claims or arguments in a logical order?
• Did I omit something?
• Have I supported my thesis with strong arguments?

 A Few Words to Encourage You

Research paper assignments, the term itself brings fear and chaos to the minds of students. What’s more, is that it is time-taking and tedious. But there’s a procedure one can conform to achieve success in this academic endeavor. Being interested and motivated in the topic aids in delivering better performance and creating a high-quality research paper.