What is a Research Paper?
The essence of any learning institution is to instill thinking power among its students. In order to prove that students have the necessary thinking power, they write a research paper, arguing or opposing theories.
Although research paper assignments are simple at times, they are usually problematic to many especially if one has not grasped the basics of
. At the very foundation of term paper writing is the ability to
if one has not been provided. One then needs to create a well-structured and comprehensive research paper outline. But before we choose a topic and create an outline, it would be crucial to ask yourself ‘what exactly is a research paper?’
Defining a Research Paper
It will not be surprising that most students think that a research paper is a summary, analysis, or review of previous literature work in a given area of focus or discipline. When working on a research paper, most students write ideas or thoughts of other scholars; for instance, by describing their work. Others present their facts and fail to support them using evidence from other credible sources on their topic.
Contrarily, it is a presentation of one’s thoughts or thinking on a certain topic. The arguments or thoughts you pass need credible and valid supporting sources such as journal articles and textbooks. Importantly, ideas from previous studies need only be used to support your arguments as opposed to being the main points in your paper.
Objective or Research Paper Writing
The objective varies on the basis of the discipline or purpose of the writing. Nonetheless, most research papers aim at:
- Testing a hypothesis
- Establishing laws existing in society or nature
- Scientific confirmation or generalizations
- Acquiring or improving existing knowledge.
Understanding the aim of your research is essential for such as knowing how to structure your term paper and how to approach it.
In any case, in order to write an excellent research paper with perfect use of supporting facts, you need to have commendable analytical, organizational, and critical thinking skills.
Being an excellent researcher also goes a long way in ensuring that you get quality information to use as supporting evidence. You also need to know the type of research paper you are working on – this is at the core of knowing how to structure your paper. There are various types of research papers.
Common Types of Research Papers
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Argumentative/Persuasive Papers
These explore topics that are controversial. They present logical and evidence-based facts on either possible side of the issue under consideration. Apart from evaluating facts supporting either side of the argument, the author favors one side to show their point of view on the topic. The objective of argumentative papers is to persuade the reader to agree with one’s point of view.
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Analytical Papers
These essays are similar to argumentative papers as they involve the presentation of various viewpoints on a specific issue/topic. Credible supporting evidence accompanies each viewpoint. They require strong arguments and critical thinking while reviewing the viewpoints as presented by various scholars under evaluation. They can also explore various aspects such as the findings of a study, its methodology, conclusion, or in its entirety.
Importantly, the author needs to maintain neutrality. This means that you do not need to give your opinion on the matter under evaluation but rather present factual information to help the reader make their own opinion or reach conclusion.
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Cause and Effect Papers
These papers explore the chain of events that cause a certain scenario or the implications of the same scenario. The objective is to answer the questions ‘Why?’ and ‘What?’ associated with a particular scenario such as policy implementation. The reasons attributed to a scenario and its implications ought to be evidence-based and not based on opinion.
When writing a cause-and-effect paper, one should organize it and write perfectly to avoid confusing the reader due to a haphazard presentation of points. These essays are common in education and business in exploring the possible effects a certain event and how they can be altered.
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Interpretative Papers
In the practice in some fields such as psychology, nursing, and art, professionals are required to expected to analyze a certain situation as per set-theoretical frameworks. In order to affirm the knowledge one has of the frameworks that form the foundation of their practice, the author writes an interpretative paper.
These papers require that you explore a certain case using a given theoretical framework. These papers are often utilized in such as social sciences and literature.
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Definition Papers
These research papers provide facts on a concept in a descriptive manner. They require objective arguments backed by evidence from credible sources. Importantly, one needs to ensure that their essay does not involve personal opinions.
Usually, descriptive papers aim to define concepts that are more abstract, dissecting the involved contentious issues. Examples of concepts that can be explored using a definition paper include family, honesty, and love.
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Compare and Contrast Papers
These research papers are very common. They explore two issues by examining their similarities and differences. They are often used in Literature such as to compare authors or their work or two genres. Their rare application is in social sciences, business and philosophy to compare different theoretical frameworks.
They often involve an exploratory description of the issues involved and their comparison. Much of the paper needs to compare and contrast the issues being evaluated. As one writes the essay, they need to ensure that they are not persuasive. Instead, you need to explore the issues in a manner that enlightens the reader on how the issues relate.
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Report Papers
These essays are often used to explore a case study or research. They outline the analysis of a situation to identify the major issues. They also often involve giving recommendations on such as the possible solutions or what needs to be done in the future. The objective of report papers is to inform the reader by providing evidence while using tools like graphs, interviews, or experiments.
Research Paper Structure
How should I structure my research paper?
All research papers have the basic format of introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction provides the background information. It also contains the key argument or the thesis statement. It is usually about 10% of the total word count of an essay.
The body involves the various premises and facts in support of the thesis. The facts need to be supported using credible sources. As a rule of thumb, each fact needs to be covered in one paragraph of about 150 words. One should also ensure that there is an excellent transition from one paragraph to the other.
The conclusion is the last part and it comprises a summary of the essay. While writing the conclusion, one should restate the thesis statement and show how it is supported by the facts given in the body.
However, based on assignment instructions and the purpose of writing, the presentation of a research paper can include other sections within the body section. The most common sections are:
a.) Title Page
This presents information about the author and the title of the research paper.
b.) Abstract
The abstract presents the summary of the essay. It is a synopsis of the introduction objective, methodology, results, and conclusion. However, this format may vary based on the essay type. For instance, case reports and reviews do not follow a specific format. This section should be about 250 words. In most cases, it is indented to the right.
c.) Introduction
As stated earlier, the introduction provides the background of the study. One needs to be sure that you clearly state the research problem and the thesis of the essay. Its structure should exhibit the originality of the essay and fill a knowledge gap in the area of study.
One also needs to state the research question or the objectives of the essay. As a rule of thumb, the introduction needs to be about 10% of the total word count of the research paper. It can also include the objectives of the study.
d.) Literature Review
This section presents a review of the current knowledge on the topic. It presents current knowledge in the area of study. However, one does not need to cover only what exactly relates to the area of study. However, in case you cover information not directly related to the topic, one needs to provide a logical connection or reasons for its essence, noting how it helps in the current research paper.
When writing the literature review section, one needs to organize it in a manner that brings out the gap in knowledge in the current studies that one intends to fill. This is prudent in giving your research paper scholarly validity and originality.
e.) Methodology
This section provides the setting and context of your study. It details information on what was done and the process of data collection. Also, you need to state what was used for data collection.
As a minimum, you need to state your population, the sampling strategy, and any intervention that may have been involved. One also needs to state the variables (these need to be related to the area of study or help in answering the research question). It also comprises the method of data collection.
f.) Results
This section covers the data collected from your research. It answers the question ‘what raw data did the research paper find?’ When writing this section, one needs to give the key findings relative to the research question. The presentation of the results should suggest whether an argument or theory is true or not. Nonetheless, one should avoid making definitive statements.
g.) Discussion
This section involves the analysis of the study’s results to explain their meaning and implications. It comprises the main findings and discusses them relative to the previous research. Importantly, the discussion should be related to the introduction to comprehensively answer the research question. It can also include the study’s limitations.
h.) Conclusion
This section provides an overview of the research paper. When writing this section, it is prudent to restate the thesis statement and summarize the major points used to prove it and the study’s main findings. One can also state prospective areas for future studies.
i.) References
This is a list of all the sources (such as articles, textbooks and websites) used in your research paper’s text. The organization and presentation of the citations, as is the case with intext citations, depends on the style of citation used for your paper. For further information on the various styles of citations, you can visit Purdue Owl.
j.) Appendices
This section contains information or materials that facilitate the understanding of the study by the reader. However, including them in the research paper’s text as they compromise on its coherency and flow.
It also contains information or materials that expand the reader’s understanding or knowledge of the study’s topic. Some of the materials and information include charts, interview questions, summaries, survey instruments, maps, and photographs.
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This article will prove indispensable to students seeking to understand the basics of research paper writing. You can also review the article ‘How to write a research paper’ to get the basics on how to approach and write a term paper.
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