When you reach the college or university phase of your education, you will find how important research papers are in most of your courses. A research paper is how you present certain findings, after having investigated the topic thoroughly and completely by using primary and secondary sources.
The purpose of the research paper is to cover a topic that hasn’t been talked about before, or not as much as it should. You will also be responsible to provide your own perspective about the research you have conducted by providing certain suggestions and solutions, all the while adding to the existing amount of research. Writing a research paper sounds like complex and time-consuming work.
While it may be time-consuming, it doesn’t have to be complex. Your workload for the research paper will entirely depend on how you approach the work, but there are several things that you can do in order to make your job easier. If you have a research paper due to the end of the smelter, read this long and detailed guide.
Finding a topic that intrigues you
When it comes to research papers, teachers usually give students the freedom to choose their own topics after having given them a broad topic. Since you have complete autonomy to pick a topic, we advise you to choose something that genuinely interests you, because you will be working on the research paper over the span of a couple of months. If you are truly interested in the topic, finding the motivation to work on it will not be difficult.
Before finalizing a topic, we also advise you to do some research on your own and see what kind of information is available on the internet, and other sources. Don’t be too narrow with your topic because that will make collecting information difficult, and don’t be too general because that defeats the purpose of a research paper. You can also consult with the professor, and they will give you a whole bunch of ideas that you can find useful.
Remember, the topic should also be something that you can provide a solution to or highlight an underlying problem with. If you are struggling with coming up with a topic, you can use certain writing services such as https://myadmissionsessay.com/ that will make your job easier for you.
Collecting sources
The next step, also one of the most important ones, is to collect some valuable sources that you will be using in your research paper. Secondary sources are a huge comment of the research, which is basically supporting your own arguments through other people’s work after having to give them credit through citations.
Your sources should reflect quality and credibility, which is why you should head over to the library and read books related to your topic. You can also go through the databases of your university that are full of academic articles and periodicals that will be of great use to you. While the internet is also a place where you can find some good sources, you might want to pay attention to the quality of the article because most of the time, they like credibility. URLs with edu or gov, tend to be more reliable.
Writing an outline
After you have collected ample material and sources, you will want to go on to the next phase of your writing which is drafting an outline. The outline will be a rough draft of your work, and the purpose of it is to essentially give you insight as to how you will be organizing the information you found. You can’t simply use all of the research because you will be restricted with the number of pages, and so the outline will serve as a guide where you can jot down the information that you will actually be using in your research paper.
With the outline, you will also want to think of all the subheadings for your research paper which will allow you to further organize your writing. Presenting your research in an organized manner is a huge part of the research paper, and using a bunch of heading is one way of doing that.
Writing the research paper
Following the outline, you will begin writing the research paper. Before writing the introduction, we suggest that you write the body first, and then come back to the introduction after you are done. This is mainly because the introduction is a summary of what you will be writing about, and it also consists of the thesis statement which will summarize each of your reasoning in a concise manner.
The body of the research paper will contain the bulk of your writing; you want to be as detailed as possible here. Use all or most of the sources that you have found, and delve into them in detail. A huge part of the research paper is you analyzing everything, and also comparing it to other things. It will also have several subheadings so that it is easier to follow for the reader.
Writing according to the format
There are several academic formats, but your professor will want you to use a specific one so as to maintain consistency. Make sure all your citations are in line with these sources because it is one of the key things when it comes to writing academic papers. Your professor will also guide you with how you should cite your sources using the formats, and it is important to follow the instructions.
Proofreading
The last but also the most important step is to proofread the research paper as much as you can. It may feel like a redundant step, but you will be surprised at the amount of grammar and spelling errors you will come across that missed your attention. Going back over the whole thing again may also want to make you change some things and write it in a better way.