Research papers are a staple of any college education. Research papers allow you to practice the process of gathering information and synthesizing new ideas. Learning how to write a winning research paper will bring you academic success in college and teach you how to find the information you need in your profession.
Find a Great Topic
A winning research paper starts with a fantastic topic. The topic of your research paper will drive your research process and the writing of your actual paper. An interesting topic will make the entire process more enjoyable and rewarding and will help you write a captivating paper.
A great research topic will pique your reader’s interest from the beginning. The topic you choose should be something that you and your readers will want to learn more about. If you are assigned a specific topic in class, find an angle you can take that will provide a unique insight into your topic. An interesting and thought-provoking topic will captivate your reader and motivate you to find as much information as you can on your chosen topic.
Use the Right Sources
The strength of your research comes with the quality of your sources. Trustworthy sources will help back your claims and fill your paper with reliable information. Use trusted websites and peer-reviewed journals to gather the information that is trustworthy and accurate. Avoid sensationalized sources that are not backed by factual evidence or reviewed by experts in the field. The worst thing you can do in your research paper is provide inaccurate information. Skewing factual information to fit your agenda is immoral and academically dishonest. Be sure that the information you provide comes from an accurate source and is presented honestly and accurately.
Keep Your Research Organized
The worst thing you can do is spend hours gathering research and finding perfect quotes from perfect sources and then when it comes time to write your essay, you can’t find the source you are looking for. When gathering sources for your essay you should organize everything you find in a separate research document. Start with the title of the source and the citation for that source. Under that information, you can bullet point ideas you have pulled from the source as well as quotations you may want to use in your essay.
Organizing all of this information as soon as you find it will allow you to use each source more efficiently. Instead of juggling between a handful of sources, you have all the information you need on a single document. Even if you lose your copy of the source or cannot find it online, you will have enough information in your research document to use information from the source and cite it properly. Organizing your information in this way makes writing your bibliography or works cited page a breeze because you will already have all of your citations in one place.
Use an Outline as a Flexible Guidance Tool
Outlines are important for organizing your research paper. A good outline will help you organize your thoughts and find where your research fits. It can give your paper direction and provide a structure that is easy to follow for the audience. An outline can help you write an organized paper that flows well and doesn’t leave out any important information.
Although an outline can greatly improve your essay’s structure, it is not a binding contract. The writing process is ever-changing, and you may think of a better way to do things as you start writing your essay. Treat your outline as a guide and you will give yourself the freedom to improve your essay until the very end. Don’t get stuck in your first idea. Allow your essay to evolve as you write it, but make sure the structure that was formed in the outline can still shine through.
Don’t let Your Research Run the Show
While great information from quality sources can make or break a paper, your unique ideas are what the reader wants to see. Your claims need to take center stage and guide your paper from start to finish. Research from great sources is just a tool to help you back up your claims and prove to the audience that the ideas you have are correct. Your essay should not just be a report on the information you have collected from sources. You need to analyze, explain, and evaluate your sources as a means to present and support your ideas.
When you organize your paper, you need to do so based on your ideas and how you choose to present them to your audience. You do not want to organize your research essay around your sources, you want to organize it in the best way to present your points. Consider the claims you are going to make and use the information gathered from your sources as the evidence that can help prove your claim is correct. Don’t let your research paper turn into a book report. Make clear claims and use your resources as tools, not as the guiding force of your essay.
Revision is Key
Revising your essay multiple times will help you truly target the portions of your paper that need more support. Writing a single draft of a research paper will leave you with a half-finished, unorganized, and unoptimized piece of writing. Revision allows you to go back and look at each portion of your essay and evaluate how it works with the rest of your essay. You need to revise to catch discrepancies and to see how your essay works as a whole. Something you wrote in the first half of your essay may not make sense now that you have finished the entire thing. Revision allows you to unify your essay and present a singular tone and voice throughout the entire work. You may even see a better way to present your information when you revise your work and make the changes you need to make your average research paper into a winning essay.