Research paper

How to Write Your Research Paper

These additional notes explain what you need to write for each section. It’s a “step by step review.” The complete field research project should contain each of the sections in the Field Research Guidelines document. The paper should have 1.5 line spacing and be written in font 12 Times New Roman.

When you start a new section, please start on a new page (for example, go to a new page for the “Literature Review” when you are done writing your “Introduction” and so on). At the beginning of each section, the following titles should appear in bold, underlined, and size 14 font on a separate new page:

Cover Page

The information that should appear on your cover page is listed in the presentation called “Field Research Guidelines.” You can also add a photo or two if you like.

Abstract

This is a brief summary of everything from your Introduction to your Conclusion. It should be 5 to 7 lines long. Though this appears in the beginning of the paper, people usually write this last because you briefly mention some of your later findings in it.

Introduction

At the very least, this should be half a page long. In here you will introduce the topic you are studying. Also explain the population you will study: Your population can be of a specific age group, gender, or behavior (people who are fans of a certain type of music or people who act in “Off Broadway” plays for example). Your population can also be general, such as people of all ages who come from a certain geographic location. Your sample will just be a number: How many people will you interview and how many surveys will you distribute? (See the methods section for an idea of what your sample should be.)

At the end of your introduction, list your two hypotheses that are the two “educated guesses” that you are trying to prove or disprove. So the entire point of this paper is to either prove whether your hypotheses seem valid or not. To keep this clear, a hypothesis is simply an aspect of the culture or social topic that you wish to write about. Each hypothesis can be one or two sentences long.

Literature Review

Choose at least three authors and describe your topic using those three theories. This section should be at least one and a half to two pages long. In other words, the summary of each author can be at least half a page long. For example, you can use news.google.com in order to find three articles about your specific topic.

* One of your sources can be a passage from the textbook if you like. That is however optional so you do not need to use that option if you don't wish to.

Methods

Describe the methods you will use to conduct research on the culture you chose. How will you do your research? I have listed some methods you can use in the presentation called “Field Research Guidelines.”

Surveys can be kept short, at around four to six questions. Note that surveys are optional, so you are not required to distribute them.

Please note that for this project, you have a choice of what sample you will study. A sample just means whom you will interview. Conduct at least two interviews. This section should be at least half a page long.

Findings

Here you will list the information you have found in the following formats: - Excerpts of your interviews in either bullet point format or in a large table - Charts that list the results of your surveys (for example, a pie chart of how many people answered yes versus how many answered no to a question) - Any additional chart that you came across during your research (for this you obviously must cite your source on the page and list it in the end in the References section) Keep this section organized and well presented. Before adding each of the things mentioned above, add a brief description of what your reader is looking at. For example, before a chart you can write something like “The following chart shows the increase of...” The length of this section is up to you, as it will depend on how large you chose to make your graphs and charts.

Discussion

Here you will describe the results that you have listed in the previous Findings section. For example, if you listed a chart that represents an increase of people listening to a certain type of music over the past ten years in your Findings section, here you will explain the reasons behind that increase. (For example, did new forms of media such as Youtube increase the visibility or the popularity of a trend in music? Does the music represent a political message in a certain country? Was there a single recording artist who made a certain type of music popular?) In this section you will also briefly recall the three theories of your Literature Review section. At the end of the Discussion section, who will say whether or not you think your two hypotheses were proven by your research. By the way, it’s fine if you say that one of your hypotheses appears “wrong” or better yet that your research did not prove that it was valid. This section should be at least two and a half pages long.

Conclusion

Review the presentation called “Field Research Guidelines” to see what will go in this section. This section should be at least half a page long.

References

List all of the books, magazines, or websites that you have used for this research project. There is a sample format of a reference in the presentation called “Field Research Guidelines.”