Research paper
How to write a research paper
An overview of things to come this semester
Step 1: Choose your topic
Brainstorm—no idea is a bad idea. Get as many ideas on paper as you can. Evaluate quality later.
Narrow the topic—The Civil War may be a good topic, but it is far too broad for you to cover. Choose a battle, a general, a specific issue. Make your work manageable.
Step 2: Write your thesis statement.
A good thesis statement will save you time and guide your paper to make it better.
Focus your main idea down into one or two sentences that make your topic crystal clear to the reader.
Do not announce your thesis: My research paper is about…
The thesis statement should come early in your paper, but exactly where to put it is up to you.
Tip: avoid burying a thesis statement in the middle of a paragraph. As a general rule of thumb, people tend to remember the first and the last thing they read/hear.
Tip: a once sentence thesis is generally better than a two sentence thesis, but the thesis statement should be clear, so if that means two sentences, write two sentences.
Tip: do not be afraid to frequently edit, revise, rewrite, change your thesis statement as your paper moves along.
The thesis statement should do more than merely announce the topic; it must reveal what position you will take in relation to that topic, how you plan to analyze/evaluate the subject or the issue. In short, instead of merely stating a general fact or resorting to a simplistic pro/con statement, you must decide what it is you have to say.
Step 3: Create an outline
1. Identify the topic. The topic of your paper is important. Try to sum up the point of your paper in one sentence or phrase. This will help your paper stay focused on the main point.
2. Identify the main categories. What main points will you cover? The introduction usually introduces all of your main points, then the rest of paper can be spent developing those points.
3. Create the first category. What is the first point you want to cover? If the paper centers around a complicated term, a definition is often a good place to start. For a paper about a particular theory, giving the general background on the theory can be a good place to begin. 4. Create subcategories. After you have the main point, create points under it that provide support for the main point. The number of categories that you use depends on the amount of information that you are going to cover; there is no right or wrong number to use.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 as necessary.
Step 4: Research
Step 5: Write your rough draft.
**Steps four and five are usually done simultaneously. Research guides your writing and writing often shows you what you still need to spend more time researching.
Step 6: Revise
Step 7: Edit
**Editing and revising are two separate things. The students who get the best grades in this class tend to recognize this fact and treat them as the two separate things that they are.
Contrary to any belief you may have, science proves your mind cannot do two things well at the same time.