How to Write a Research Paper

A research paper is a scientific assignment of a high volume of work that aims to define some particular issue, research it, and offer new solutions to the problem to make a base for further investigation. What is the purpose of making students spend time on writing such tasks? Having learned how to write a simple research paper, you will acquire skills to locate relevant information, analyze your findings, and share the results. That is to say, and you will get prepared to answer any question, no matter how complex it is, which is a valuable skill for an adult. Follow our instructions to make it simple to complete your college papers or know more about how to write a thesis statement at TypeMyEssays!

Step 1. Force Yourself to Act

The early bird catches the worm. Be that early bird gets an “A” for your research paper – late preparation can hardly save you from a disaster. Well, such a procedure is familiar to you: you postpone it several times, and then the last day comes. As a rule, at this moment, something goes wrong. Now that you have experience in this concern, don’t allow to play out this scenario again, especially when you have an essential task. It is one of those research essay typer tips that can be applied to any challenging assignment.

Step 2: Topic Choice

Whether you are free to choose a topic or your teacher assigned it, you are to consider some aspects that will help you select that one that will simplify writing.

If you were assigned a topic, accept it for what it is even if you didn’t like it, and think about how to write a research paper on that theme. Such a situation presupposes different levels of independence. You can be offered detailed guidelines or options to choose from. In both cases, you are to think if you have any idea about it and if your answer is “no,” you are to consult several sources to get informed.

If you are to pick out a topic yourself, you have to be more attentive when evaluating the worthiness of variants. Ask yourself:

Will I find enough information when writing my research paper on this theme?
Is the chosen topic so original that it will bring some new opinions and details to the surface?
Is the subject in discussion related to my sphere?
Can I pay for the research paper and be free from all of this?

Having concluded that you know what your topic offers to you, proceed.

Here are some critical moments one should consider when choosing a topic:

Your interest in it. The author’s engagement with a theme is contagious – you are more likely to engage your audience if you are interested in it.
Uniqueness. Writing a research paper on some general topic is a thankless job: even if you do your best, your text will look like the other ten samples handed to your teacher. It will not help you to stand out from the crowd.
Readiness to ask for assistance from essay writing helper. When you spent plenty of time on a topic choice, but the worthy idea didn’t come, it’s high time to ask for a valuable piece of advice. Your friends and your professor can help you find a good topic or hint where to look for it. Don’t be shy or frightened to ask for assistance!
Readiness to change your theme. When preparing to write an assignment, admit a simple truth: for now, you are not an expert in how to do a research paper. It means you can make mistakes. The very first mistake might be the wrong topic. Be ready to correct it as soon as you find out (in most cases, it happens on the research stage) – there is no need to make multiple attempts to take hold of it!

Step 3: Research

At times, research leads to confusion. Some students fail to find more than two sources when they complete their research papers devoted to complicated topics. Others can’t stop researching being inspired by more and more credible information. No extremes are good, but an obligatory minimum comprises five qualitative sources. To choose the best sources to rely on throughout the process of writing, you should:

Select among professional publications
Search for empirical research (articles and books) conducted by experts in your area of studying in specialized journals and on the Web.
Make a “trip” to the library – an old-fashioned approach that allows you to find valuable materials be it a book, a journal, or a newspaper, that is not available to the broad public otherwise than this way. Don’t be shy to ask a librarian for assistance.
Search online – to choose online sources that will help you in writing a research paper, prefer the sites ending in “gov” “edu” or “org” to make use of qualitative information (if you fail to find any source of this kind, change your search query – your request must have something in common with the titles of articles).
Use university’s membership to get access to paid academic databases free of charge (if you do not know which databases are available or don’t know passwords – ask a librarian) and find plenty of scientific publications on any topic (focus on specialized databases related to your domain to get better results).
“Dig” everywhere – to find more valuable sources belonging to your sphere, don’t be lazy to look through the bibliography list of worthy books penetrating your realm that you have already seen.

Step 4: How to Write a Simple Research Paper Outline

Now it’s time to make a detailed plan of your writing. The algorithm of proper research paper outline looks like this:

Make notes and organize them.

Print out all the information taken from different sources;
Highlight the phrases that are of particular importance (directly on those copies, and using a tucked paper and a pencil when working with books), differentiate between the core facts and nuances that can be useful;
Note where you can use this or that information;
Organize notes into categories and paint them in different colours (when analyzing fiction, classify your notes into those which support the central idea and colour it in red, those about symbols used in work – in blue, about the plot – in yellow, etc.);
Make a list of notes for every resource – it simplifies the consolidation of ideas.

Write an approximate variant of the reference page. Research paper outline helps to prevent plagiarism. All you need to do is look through your highlighted notes and write titles of works, their authors, page number, year of publication, publishing house and arrange them in correspondence with the assigned format.

Identify the type of research paper. To correctly determine the focus of your assignment, you should know its kind. There exist two main variants of a task: argumentative (expressing an opinion as for some debatable issue and arguing for one position) and analytic (representing a new way of looking at some vital question, be it controversial or not, which presentation must persuade the reader that your unique view was proved due to research).

Take your target audience into account. Writing a research paper outline, you must keep in mind your reader’s level of awareness of the theme. It is about the tone and focus of your writing. Professors will not need explanations of the basics, but a less informed reader will be grateful for additional examples from Type My Essays online.

Work on your structure.

Create a thesis: in one or two sentences, express the main goal or the central idea of your paper without any extra information. Later on, it will land at the end of your introduction. It is an essential part of the research paper outline as it gives a benchmark for your introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion. The wording can be changed later. To develop it quickly, determine the question to which your whole assignment should provide an answer.
Construct a skeleton for the central part: Having looked through your notes, write down the ideas with the best evidence base and place the strongest ones at the beginning. Provide further research under each point.

Mind your research paper format.

There are many formats: APA, MLA, AMA, CSE, Chicago, Turabian, APSA, etc. Every such arrangement has its peculiarities resulting in changes in presentation, even in structure. In APA research paper format, you will need to include several determined chapters (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).

Fine-tune your outline. Read it once again to fix any inaccuracy and include in-text citations – it saves much time in writing.

Step 5: Writing a Research Paper

Start with meat. If you are eager to write a research paper quickly, here, it is: one of the valuable tricks is not to start writing with an introduction. Instead, arrange your main ideas. Ascertain that every statement is followed by supporting evidence and explanations. Opinions should be backed by facts, facts – by answers, such as the pattern applied to this type of assignment. Use transitions to help your reader follow your train of thought.
Form conclusion. How to write a simple decision for a research paper? When writing a research paper conclusion, gradually pull away from the topic: start with restating your thesis in different words than the statement prepared to be inserted in your introduction and enumerate the central ideas. Devote your final sentences to the picture in a broad sense, bringing some practical implications of attained results to the surface.
Write your introduction. How to write a research paper introduction? It is a conclusion in revers: represent your topic in general and narrow it to the thesis using a hook to grab the audience.
Arrange your text up to the format. Make sure you’ve considered every detail, including margins, spacing, font, capitalization, chapter titles, peculiarities of structure, in-text citations, reference list, etc.

Step 6: Editing and Proofreading

First reading. Read it yourself several times, apply effective programs for grammar, editing, and spelling check to detect misprints, ask someone else to have a look at it to eliminate inaccuracies in voice, tone, logic, to ensure correspondence to research paper format, and to make sure the text sounds rather persuasive.
Put the last stroke. Please wait for a couple of days, reread it, repeat the previous point, save your research paper in several places for safety, and print it out. You’ve coped! And you can always ask for assistance from the best essay writing service for research paper help online that will help you proofread it and make it look perfect.