A research paper is an elaborative essay that analyses a particular perspective and interprets the information you have gathered in the best possible way. Writing a research paper involves surveying a field of study and developing your points of argument of the topic. A research paper is written after an individual has investigated to find information on a topic. A research paper involves researching, evaluating, organizing and composing information about a research topic. A research paper could be argumentative or analytical depending on the purpose of the research.
Instructors often assign students in higher education levels research papers as part of their academic evaluation. A research paper enables an individual to learn about a topic area through researching and collecting relevant information on the research topic. The major part of writing a research paper is conducting thorough research on the research topic analyzing the information you collected in your research and presenting to the audience in a systematic manner. The information you gather should be described and interpreted by the audience in a way they will be able to understand. At the end of the research, you should be able to draw conclusions and come to a decision of supporting or opposing the hypothesis.
You can look at examples of research papers done to learn how these research papers are written. You can compare different ways of organizing, formation and also familiarise with the different writing styles that can be used to write a research paper. Research papers are mostly used to conduct scientific research and come up with relevant findings of a particular topic in a study area. Research paper writing does not have a specific procedure. However, there is a step by step guide that could help you develop an excellent research paper. By going through the following steps, you will end up with a well-written research paper:
Planning
Make early preparation when writing your research paper. Research paper writing is an integration time and effort. Some research papers are lengthy and may take months to complete therefore you should prepare a schedule for you to start working on the paper early Writing research paper takes time. Therefore, you should start in advance to avoid last minute rush. Once you have enough time, you will be able to cover the topic adequately without leaving out anything relevant to the research topic.
Develop a research question.
You can choose to explore any research question on a research topic. To choose the suitable research question, you can do some background research on the topic. If you have not been assigned a research topic, you can develop a suitable research question. Chose a research question that you are passionate about and you will be invested to see the research through without losing focus. Ensure the topic of your choice is researchable and you will be able to uncover enough content to write our research. The research question should neither be too narrow nor too broad. You should be able to research on it and also be able to direct or research to a specific content that can be fully explored in your research.
Identify your Audience
Determine the audience the message in your research paper intends to reach. As a writer, you should develop your research based o the interests of your audience. Your audience should be able to articulate with your research. The research paper should be written in a way that intrigues the readers and also has some primary benefit for them. Find a way to keep your audience interested in reading your research paper.
Create an outline
A detailed outline will help you develop a structure for your research paper. Come up with a plan of how you will present your date on the research topic in the busy. An outline will help you organize your research into headings and subheadings and come up with a way to articulate information in these sections. A detailed outline will portray the main points you plan to discuss in the research paper. Organize your notes according to the structure of your outline. As you organize your research content, analyze your work to ensure the content is factual and relevant. Determine the accuracy of your notes and synthesize the information.
A good research paper outline contains the title page, the abstract, the introduction, body, and references. You could also include the appendices although it is optional.
Identify sources for our research
Find sources that you will use to support your arguments. You can find sources that you will use to gather information on the research topic using published articles and also online sources. You can use the internet to uncover essential concepts regarding your research topics. Once you have gathered the sources determine the credibility of the sources, you have chosen to use. Ensure you are using valid sources whose information has been validated by an expert in the field of study. Ensure you gather a variety of sources for your research to have adequate information when writing the research paper.
Develop a research summary
As you conduct your research, keep notes of the key ideas you discover from your research. Once you read through the sources and understood the information, you can develop a summary of the content in your words. You can find a way to condense the comprehensive information you uncover into a few sentences that highlight the main concept of the information.
List your sources
As a writer, your objective is to maintain your reputation as a credible writer. Any sources you used for your research should be listed at the end of your paper. Acknowledge authors whom you used their content during your research to avoid plagiarism cases which are taken seriously. Having plagiarized content could risk your reputation and people will question your academic integrity. You can use quotations but do so sparingly. At the end of the research list, the sources used and their authors using chronological order.
Make a rough draft
It is good to start off writing with a rough draft of your work. You will have the allowance to make mistakes as you try to figure out how you will structure your paper. The rough copy is a representation of how your final work should look like. When writing the final draft, you can use the rough draft while editing out any errors that appear in the rough copy.
Introduction
Start off your research paper by giving the objective for your research. By stating the purpose of your research, you should also outline what you plan to do to attain the objective of your paper. Your introduction should be catchy to make the readers interested in reading your paper. In the research state the main idea for your research and convince the readers why your research is important.
Develop a thesis statement for your research paper
The thesis statement of our research is similar to other essays; it should focus on the purpose of your writing. It comes in the introductory part of your research paper where it pitches the objective of your research to the reader. The thesis statement should specify the reason behind writing the research paper. The thesis statement should provide an answer to your research question. A thesis statement should be persuasive to your reader, but at the same time, it should be kept brief. The thesis statement can be presented in the form of at least two sentences which should cover the topic of your discussion.
Body
You can make use of with your outline when writing your body. Your outline is a guideline to help you develop your paragraph. Present our points in the paragraphs and follow each point with supporting evidence for the claim you make. Present the points you have beginning with your strongest one. Al the arguments you present in your body should be in support of your thesis statement. Ensure the transition from one paragraph to another is smooth to maintain consistency in the paper.
Conclusion
Conclude your paper to give closure to your readers by wrapping up the paper. You could choose to restate the thesis statement. You can also summarize the main arguments in your research and give a recommendation. Ensure your conclusion does not contain any new information but content that has been mentioned in the research paper.
Revise your work.
This is the last part of your research process, and it is the most fundamental. It requires you to go back to your paper and look through it paying attention to the word choice you used in the entire paper. Look at the flow of your paragraphs and ensure consistency is maintained throughout the paper. Adjust the paper if there are any corrections to be made. Check for the sentence structure and appropriate use of punctuations. Finally, proofread your word look for any mistakes you might have missed while editing.