How to write a research paper?

If you are a college or university student, there will be a time when your professors will assign you with a research paper. The research paper will be quite an anxiety for most of the students. It is not because of the fact that the students will have to use their creativity. But, the important reason is that the students will have to do some interesting research for gaining good grades. Students will often feel confusion and lack of knowledge. Often, students are not able to complete their research paper. Mostly, they feel burdened and leave it in the way. This can result in the loss of their grades and can also force them to repeat their one year of education. The problem starts with the known fact that most of the students feel confusion because they are not too much related to this genre of writing. They are unfamiliar and inexperienced in this field of knowledge.

But, you don’t have to fear because this kind of condition can be cured by the use of some practice. If you train yourself carefully in writing a research paper, it is way much possible that you can get over your this weakness and make yourself recognized in this field. If you are full of anxiety and confusion, the problem can’t be solved. You must keep yourself calm in the first place. You can never avoid writing a research paper if you are university student. You are assured to face this kind of circumstance in your university life. Writing a research paper is a very important aspect of the academics and plays quite a role in the completion of your goal to gain good grades. If you are quite good in this field, you can easily make your place in the topper students. Well, it is quite a fact that writing a good research paper can be very much rewarding experience in your whole academic period.
In the whole career of students, they are always encountering research works.

What is a research paper?

A research paper is a type of an essay. It is a way of writing and explaining about your learning and knowledge which you gained after exploring a particular topic in depth. It is an academic writing which gives examination, explanations and arguments. All these are based on the deep-learning. They are similar to the academic essays. The only fact is that the research papers are a bit long than the essays. This is a type of independent research. You can give your opinions and thoughts about a specific point of view. Mainly in a research paper, you collect the information from different sources and then provide the conclusion in your own words. But, it is essential to note that the 80% of your research paper should be in your own words.

According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, “A careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new facts or information about it is called a research paper.”

Advantages of writing a research paper

If you are exhausted with the presence of research paper in your academics, you must come to know about the fact that ‘everything in this world has an advantage’. So, there must be quite a number of advantages of writing a research paper.
The research papers are quite famous form of writings in your academic period. Some different but similar genres of it are also used in other professional works.
Research papers can provide you a chance of think about a fact in a serious way. While you are writing a research paper, you think about many things and you are quite investigating things that you have in your mind. So it can help you to formulate some research questions which can allow you to think about some other research questions which can open the doors to investigate for the future researchers. If you are able to write a research paper in quite a sequence, you can learn to manage your time. You can learn to classify information into logical ideas. This will be beneficial for you to mark yourself as a time manager and an organizer. You can start an argument with the other fellow workers to learn about their knowledge and increase the size of your knowledge data. You can learn to present your independent ideas in your own words to your readers in a way that you can become confident in spread your words to the whole world.

Types of research paper

Research paper can be of different types. It depends to the topic you want to write. But in main research papers, you are provided to write in two different types: Argumentative Research Paper and Analytical Research Paper.

Argumentative Research Paper

Argumentative Research Paper is a type of writing that asks its writer to completely examine a topic, collect, produce and estimate evidence.
Argumentative papers are mostly based on the knowledge collected and then mix different facts to come to a point which can conclude the whole argument. It is often the point to think that one fact is superior to all other facts. In an argumentative paper, writers tend to ask different questions and then answer the questions which can serve as confusion to their readers. It is a paper which contains different myths but the result is the concluding point. If you are to write an argumentative paper, you must know all the possible facts related to a single fact. It will help you to consider different points of view.

Analytical Research Paper

Analytical Research Paper is a type of paper that mainly focuses on making an in-depth examination and searching on a particular topic. To completely work on one topic, you are not only asked to have quite a large number of knowledge on that topic but also that you must be expert in making an examination.
Analytical paper will require you to have the knowledge of creating a thesis statement, finding different sources of information, concluding them and having a use of them to create your own ideas.

Recognize and understand the topic of the assignment

Before getting started, you must make sure that you completely understand the assignment tasks sheet:

 You must read the assignment tasks sheet carefully. If you find anything confusing, you can consult with your professor at the right time.
 Recognize the objective of the assignment, time limit, requirement of the length, arranging and the technique of giving in
 Create a bulleted list of the key points, then go to your work place and check if you have some topics.
Make sure that you are careful while looking for your time frame and the limitation of the words. You must be practical and planned about the time to research, write and revise.

Choose a research paper topic

Even though sometimes, you are given some hints about the topic, but still, you must be careful in choosing a topic. There are many ways to generate the ideas of a topic for a research paper. These ideas can range from hardly thinking from one’s mind with the help of pen and paper to deciding it completely with some fellow students or professors. You can also try writing it freely. You can write any ideas that are coming to your mind in a trance on a paper. From those ideas, you can try to create a topic through them. You must make it interesting to look and read. You can also create a topic by being inspired from the other research papers. Once you have created a broad subject area, you can shorten all the things up and chose a topic that can inspire you completely. The topic must be related to the borders of your assignment and it must be easy and possible to research on it. You must aim for the topic that is original and specific.

Conduct a short and primary research

You must be careful in every aspect of the life and note down any discussions that can be important and relatable to the topic. Try to find any point that can be focusing on your paper and try to learn it. You can use a number of other foundations as well. These sources can include academic journals, books and reliable Internet websites. You must make sure that you do not leave any single point that can be useful. You can not only verify your own ideas but also that you must look for some other facts. You must keep yourself updated about the facts people want to know about that topic, any debates that you can talk with, any unique fact of yours that can make you delve into the topic and some recent development or changes that have occurred to that topic.

Create a thesis statement

A thesis statement can be recognized as the statement that goes around with all your research. It is the statement of your innermost argument. Basically, it creates the reason and the status of your research work. If you carried out your work and started it with a question, you must not forget to answer that question in one thesis statement.
The thesis statement should be to the point, arguable and logical. In other words, it should summarize all the possible facts you used in your paper work.
It must be true that you will have to change or revise your thesis statement while continuing on with your research. But, you must save your thesis statement till the end as it will work as a guide for your research work. Every paragraph or page you write must go on with your central idea.

Develop a research paper sketch

You can call it as a research paper workout. It essentially includes a list of different keys, argument or case, and the evidence and the proofs you collected throughout your work. You can also include things that you want to research about. You can also divide the whole sketch into sections and steps with titles so that you can recognize the look of the paper.
A structure and sketch can be helpful for you as it make your writings efficient and easy. So, it can actually take your time as it is worth.

Look for the best structure of the paragraph

Paragraphs are the basic and the most essential building blocks of your whole text. They can make your work easy to be understood and nice to look at. In fact, they can calculate about the time and efforts you spend on making a research work.
Each of the paragraphs must aim at one point or fact. It can be helpful for you to understand and create the whole argument in a considerable point.
The paragraphs that you create must not be too long to cover a whole page nor they should by too short to define one or two lines.
The length of the paragraph depends upon the lines and facts that you want to write in your research work.
For a perfect paragraph, you can divide it in three factors:

 The topic sentence
 Supporting Details
 The Closing Sentence

If you add these factors in your paragraph, you must be assured of the completion of the task of creating a paragraph.
For example, you can take a look at this paragraph:

Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in. First, Canada has an excellent health care system. All Canadians have access to medical services at a reasonable price. Second, Canada has a high standard of education. Students are taught by well‐trained teachers and are encouraged to continue studying at university. Finally, Canada’s cities are clean and efficiently managed. Canadian cities have many parks and lots of space for people to live. As a result, Canada is a desirable place to live.

The paragraph includes a topic sentence:
“Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in.”
Then, there are supporting details:
“First, Canada has an excellent health care system. All Canadians have access to medical services at a reasonable price. Second, Canada has a high standard of education. Students are taught by well‐trained teachers and are encouraged to continue studying at university. Finally, Canada’s cities are clean and efficiently managed. Canadian cities have many parks and lots of space for people to live.”
At the end, there is a concluding sentence:
“As a result, Canada is a desirable place to live.”

Complete the first summary of the research paper

At this stage, you must be aware of the fact that the first summary of your paper work won’t be too perfect. So, you can change it later after completing the whole process. But, the main focus for you at this point is:

 You should twist your own and weak ideas into arguable and strong facts.
 You must not forget to give some details and mark your ideas as the strongest in the argument.
 You must get your senses on the facts that will be concluded at the end.

In research paper, there is no need or requirement for an introduction. So, you can start with any point that you like or prefer first. Many people do it in their style. Some find it easy for them to start from the difficult point and then go to the easy. While, others think of starting from the easy point to the difficult one. If you have created a sketch for your paper work, you can use that as a guide map to start.
At this point, you should be careful and you must not completely defy anything. If there is a paragraph that you have written but you don’t like it that much, you must not throw it away. Rather, you should fix it in any other paper. It is quite of chance that you can need it later on.
While writing and carrying on with the first summary, your main focus should be:

 To maintain a straight way drive. If you are writing, write it and later on, make it perfect.
 Pay concentration to obvious understanding and the logical reasons of the paragraphs you created and the facts that you added. They can possibly help you to keep on your motivations and move on to the next summary.
 Express your ideas and thoughts in a clear way so that you can know about what you were writing when you come back to the first summary from the second one.

Don’t forget to keep track of the references while writing them. It will help you to avoid unintentional breach of copyright. Make sure that you keep the name of the source in your work while gaining information.

Write the introduction of the research paper

The introduction works as a leading source for the general papers or any other work. It creates the situation of the work being completed or the research being conducted. It shortens and summarizes the present knowledge and the background information about the topic. An introduction can serve as a leader for your research paper. It can provide the readers some basics and some of the facts that are included in the work. A good introductory page should be answering to the question about:

 What I was investigating?
 Why this investigation was important?
 How can this investigation help us in the near future?

Write a convincing body of words

Many writers and the students of the research work find it difficult for them to arrange all the information collected in a suitable way. They often find it hard to organize everything clearly. It can be used as a reason to say that an outline is way much useful. But, for this, you should not make your outline as everything. It is just a guide. While writing, you must be elastic in providing your own ideas and presenting the facts that you think. You can take it in any way but in a continuous direction. You can take some help from thesis statement and topic sentences to keep a track of your work.
Keep a track of the paragraphs that contain the same facts used. You can add them or you can provide them under different topics.

Complete the conclusion of the research paper

A conclusion is mainly written for providing your reader to come out of argumentative environment into the fact that there is only one fact that can be true. You must give your conclusion in a way that the reader finds it to be true and believes in the reality of the fact. Keep a notice of the whole paper work and then conclude all the facts added in one paragraph. It is mainly the most important paragraph as it competes with every other fact and makes itself valuable. You must make sure that your conclusion is the thesis statement. Give the readers a sense of completion of the whole work. You can also discuss the consequences of the argument which came in the way.

Undergo the process of revision

The main purpose of revision is to ensure about the fact that there is no mistake in any of your work. You must make it sure that you have completed all your necessary tasks and there is nothing useless in your work. You must confirm that your paper work has everything that is necessary and was included in your assignment task sheet. You should check if there is a logical organization in your work and the paragraphs are continuously flowing. There should be no paragraph that is against your topic or thesis statement. Each sentence should help the thesis statement to keep its ground. In the end, you must check the grammar mistakes, punctuation and spelling to make your writing perfect.