How to write a research paper?
Intro
Writing research papers isn’t just something that you have to do only for a high grade in your English class or your seminar class but it is the use of gathering knowledge to enhance one’s mind into a topic that they can personally take away and to improve themselves after gathering that knowledge. I have written over 10+ short, 600-word articles and over 5+ long, 1000+ word articles. Some were of course from school but some was for my own knowledge and intellect. When I started my first research paper , I just had an outline template of an topic and didn’t knew how to write a proper but effective research paper. We will soon cover the steps I have personally learned for you in order to write a research paper.
Steps into how to write a research paper?
Let’s start off with the topic , maybe you will get the topic from your teacher or you may have a curious question you are wondering about. If yes, then start writing them down in a notebook or even your notes tab on your iPhone. Then ask yourselves which question would you rather want to know about the most. After deciding on which topic/question you want to write and then start using Google , we have an extraordinary benefit in the 20th century of phones , google and computers to search up anything we want to know within seconds upon our hands. Start looking through each of the websites that show interest in the topic. Yet don’t look for the first 3 articles that are short or that first appear as that is not how you could find the appropriate data that you are trying to comprehend. If you want to research your topic from a book then go ahead and start from there. Take notes (of the lesson)and save the link of the web page you are reading from (will use this in the future) and start to make an outline of your essay. After making your outline , start writing your first draft and don’t worry about spelling , grammar , etc during this time. Once you have finished your first draft , you can go ahead and use the spell check or paste it into Grammarly for quicker editing. After that , go ahead and check to see if you quote a link to help prove your points and reasoning and include the proper citations. Then check for words such as : very, good, bad, got, get, getting, gotten, pretty, really, like, till,are, am, were, were, been and being, and get rid of it and change it to something else. These words tend to make your paper seem passionate and may lose the voice that you wanted to show. After this, check for transitions, and word counts if necessary, then you could ask someone else to read it to check if they could hear your voice about this topic and if they could learn from it. Then start a second draft and work with these corrections to make your final draft. Keep on this cycle for a while until you personally feel that you could learn something from this when you have read through it like it was your first time. You may feel exhausted but it’s fine , take a break and come back to this later, knowledge takes time to understand and to learn so don’t lose your fun and sleep in one day. Once you finish your final draft , be sure to put it in MLA format ( times new Roman , font size 12, proper heading). The last thing on your list is the works cited page. This page must have a proper MLA or APA formatted citation that the reader can reference dorm the quote you have cited. You can look up how you want to cite the pages and that’s it. Congratulations on finishing up a research paper, turning it in, or posting it online for the world to see and sit back and reflect on yourself and what you have gained from this experience. Trust me, it’s a great feeling to know about the topics you spent so long on and to remember them after a long time.
Sameet T is a current student majoring in architecture. He created Schooller Education alongside with Aniq S bringing his years of experience in high school to help students achieve success in high school when he didn't get a chance to know a lot about it.