RESEARCH PAPER WRITING- A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

A research paper is a detailed version of the report that is an epitome of your own research or evaluation or argument. Surveying the field of your interest to search the superlative information in that field but the survey should always be focused pinpointing ordered information So, if you know the data then you are enlightening the best in the ocean of data chunks!

-There is a significant difference between Research paper and essay, i.e. In an essay, you know the subject and the context you want to showcase but to write a research paper you have to take a tough voyage through developing a research query and thesis, conceptualizing your research, and effectively documenting your intelligence.

-A research paper can be used for exploring and identifying scientific, technical and social issues. If it’s your first time writing a research paper, it may seem daunting, as you are conquering uncharted territories but with focus and positive executing skills, the proceedings can be made effectively.

-Research paper writing is to put advanced knowledge into public forums thus revealing new things that can be used by others. It’s always beneficial to advance your observation to others in an organized format that can also be used in several formats thus revisiting knowledge we have acquired so far!

Organize yourself and your notes:

Organizing your research notes is like finding a needle from a heap of sand. Gather all the information that is available to you and interest your topic of research as it is the primarily important stage before you write your research paper. Be very judicious in selecting what you want to critically analyze rather spending time on the internet and gathering information. As it is the most critical stage for your research journey but an organized form will assist you in effectively showcasing your thoughts, findings and research ideas through written, oral or Powerpoint presentations.

Internet surfing:

So, Let the search begins…

Always check all the search tools at the beginning line of your research journey, check useful websites, online encyclopedia and search engines like Google and Bing.

Offline mode data collection:

Someone rightly said, “A room without books is like a body without a soul”. Therefore, pack your bags, hold your laces tight and directly open the door of knowledge hub i.e Library!

You can also search for other modes like:

Encyclopedia

Dictionaries

Publication guides and reports available

Magazines

Newspaper

Journals

Articles

Yellow pages

Online mode data collection

We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain. –   Stephen Hawking

So, never underestimate the power of technology in your life.

Now, here comes time to critically analyze all your gathering, findings or data. As you gather information record down all useful information in any format like printed notes, desktop bookmarks or make a worksheet of all. Always remember that your article must have bibliographical information as articles without it is useless, cannot cite the source.

HOW TO MAKE THESIS STATEMENT?

A thesis statement is a focal point for your research paper or principal idea around which your arguments orbit. It is generally of one or two lines pinpointing the core idea of your research to the reader i.e what is your paper all about and what are you presenting to the reader.

Your thesis statement should do the following:

-Directly explain the reader about the context of your research and your interpretation.

-You should show-case statement early in your research paper or at most second /third paragraph to provide a supervised reading to readers.

-Avoid inundating statement in the middle of your paragraph

Paragraphs:

Once your thesis statement and outline is ready, Now the time comes to order your paragraphs that will support the controlling idea.

-Each paragraph usually consists of 20-30 words or up to 150-200 words.

–Must express each paragraph idea: Thesis statement is the broad showcase of the paper or the idea of paper whereas, paragraph pinpoint to the flow of paragraph in support to the main idea.

-All paragraph must be in structured flow with the main purpose of the paper.

Support depth

As you move ahead in your research journey through examining and monitoring each process, provide each paragraph with in-depth support of real-time facts and figures to support explaining your idea and context fully.

–Examples: You must defend the context of a research paper with adequate examples to give factual information to the readers about your opinion and thought process.

–Facts and figures: You must support your context with objective and proven facts. Additionally, facts prove to me most concrete base for your context.

For example, You can use government data, figures or your experiment findings or raw observational data you have. Also you can support it with surveys or forms to support your observations.

 How to Structure a Research Paper?

What is an outline for a research paper and how to write an outline for a research paper?

A perfect outline is a must for a good research paper. An outline showed the logical flow of your research paper and structured similarly like the table of contents. A perfect outline helps readers to understand your ideas, also it keeps track of the author’s ideas, acting as a roadmap for research content.

A RESEARCH PAPER HAS MAINLY FOLLOWING STRUCTURE :

Title Page: Includes Title for the paper and authors information like name, university, and the publication date and name.

Abstract: Includes summary, usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less explaining the context in brief

Introduction: Brief definition of the subject matter of your paper.

Methodology:  This section includes various indent methods you used to investigate the problem you identified.

Results: This section is a straightforward projection of your finding on the screen.

Discussion: It is the way you paraphrase your work, linking yours finding with other researchers of your field through a step by step approach

Conclusion: This section is the complete rundown of your paper including the brief of the paper through summing up all findings

References: This section is vital to prevent any accusation of plagiarism and to give notable credits to previous authors of your field.

INTRODUCTION:

This part is the most vital segment of your research paper, from organizing notes to setting down the direction of the paper. This segment presents the purpose of the paper and the logical flow of context.

Acting as a catalyst to your writing, you may write it first or at the very ending of the paper, just depending on that all contents of the paper are structured.

–Present your paper:

Showcase why other researchers cant reach the notable position to solve the problem you identified and solved through your experimentation and observation.

Also, throw light to past researchers, research relevant to your context to present your topic in the most significant way.

–Purpose of your paper

You must showcase what research problem you are trying and solve and how? i.e experiments, surveys, observation etc. It should directly relate to the problem but should always pinpoint to the problem you are trying to solve.

METHODOLOGY

This section includes various indent methods you used to investigate the problem you identified. You must project the overall observation , experimentation or surveys etc you formalized to critically analyse the problem with techniques thus, showcasing reader the extent of credibility and reliability of your work.

The methodology can usually be divided into a few sections.

-Describe the material and equipment you used in your observation as a reader are keen to know how the observation was made as unreliable methods lead to unsatisfactory results.

-Describe how samples were gathered for the observation and what calculations were done on the sampled data, as there are a variety of methods a researcher can choose.

-Describe the journey of the research, from sampling data to cropping of problems in it and how you solved them or prevent them from occurring.

Results:

Now, its time to blow the horn of your findings,

This section is a straightforward projection of your finding on the screen.

You should take into consideration that this section is not only for interpretation of your finding but instead, you should narrate all your observations and logical assumptions through table, figures etc.

-Articulate the results through a mature understanding of the problem you are solving, thus pinning your results data.

-Be concise and use facts, figures, and tables to project your finding rather than stepping to summarizing all your raw data in the paper.

-Always try to present the topic and then project the findings or results. This can also be a case like, you can showcase a table of results and then parallelly pen down the summary to make a clear definition of your results.

Discussion:

It is the way you paraphrase your work, linking yours finding with other researchers of your field through a step by step approach you agree or disagree with others in light of your findings and results. It shows your in-depth knowledge of the subject and critical reasoning ability projecting your profound knowledge of subject matter under examination.

-Clearly make your point on the topic and make relevant and logical rivulet of ideas and findings.

-Always categorize your discussion in small headings and further sub-heading

-Use past-tense while referring other researchers study and present tense for your context.

Conclusion:

This section is the complete rundown of your paper including the brief of the paper through summing up all findings and discussions. State in a concise manner about the gap you fulfilled that earlier exists in the literature with a logical approach.

-Highlight your key analysis and results or its implications in future research to have an ever-lasting impression on the readers.

-Notify readers about your significant work as of how you minimize the gap that earlier exists.

-Your research paper is a broad area while the conclusion is a significantly specific area summarizing briefly supplementary understanding of the subject matter.

 References:

This section is vital to prevent any accusation of plagiarism and to give notable credits to previous authors of your field.

-It comes at the end of your manuscript to give information on direct sources that you referred to in your research paper.

-References should be signified numerically and always in a sequence. Authors should where possible, provide DOIs for the articles they cite.

-The author can cite journal articles that are published in the numerical order.

Final Compiling of research paper:

Now, its time to pen-down your research paper and try to re-evaluate according to journal guidelines before you submit it.

Always proofread your final paper and make check all grammatical glitches: Subject-verb agreement, Proper usage of tenses, Dangling ,modifiers, Pronoun-antecedent match, Punctuation.

Don’t panic and take a deep breath whenever you are stressed out.

Take the help of your professors to effectively evaluation your research paper.

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