The article was prepared by Isabelle Foster, a professional journalist, essayist, and senior writer at PapersOwl, an online academic writing service and education portal. The author is passionate about psychology, philosophy, and literature. Her extensive experience and expertise allow helping students create more successful papers and improve their academic performance.
If you dreaded writing essays, literary review, and other academic papers in high school, chances are you’re going to dread writing them in college, too. There always comes a time in every student’s academic career when their professors assign them a dreary research paper that requires tons of time and mental effort. As a person who is not really into academic writing, you may start putting off the unpleasant activity until some other time. But the problem is that when this “other time” starts looming on the horizon, procrastinating students tend to find themselves even more reluctant to get down to writing assignments. If you’ve cognized yourself in this situation, you need to revamp your attitude towards writing assignments as soon as possible. College is not only about hanging out with friends and partying. First of all, it’s about accumulating new knowledge and skills, which is impossible if you fail to overcome your fear of writing.
In today’s article, we’re going to share some useful tips that will help you write stronger and more effective research paper in a timely manner.
Get Focused
The majority of first-year student confess that the most difficult part of the writing process isn’t actually writing, but concentrating on the assignment at hand. So, the first thing you want to do prior to picking the topic, brainstorming ideas, and outlining them is sit at your desk (or just get into your study space), start your laptop, and scan through the notes taken during the lectures. This will help you create a conducive study atmosphere and set your mind to writing.
Pick the Research Topic
Once you get focused, you may proceed to select a research topic to further develop in your paper. Ideally, you should choose a topic you’re passionate about. But even if you’re not into the subject, you can pick something that appeals to you or seems engaging, interesting, or challenging. It’s also a good idea to discuss the chosen topic with your instructor. The odds are good your mentor will offer some sound ideas for your research paper or point you in the right direction.
Look for Sources
Writing a strong research paper is impossible without actually researching the topic. Therefore, you need to locate credible sources that may give you the overview of the issue and provide valuable insights into every aspect of the issue you’re intending to investigate. The research process is arguably the most responsible and challenging stage during which you need to show patience, dedication, and perseverance. And you also should know where to start looking for credible, peer-reviewed academic sources for your paper.
Start simple. You want to look for sources using the standard Google or Yahoo! search engines. Once you familiarize yourself with a wide range of sources pertaining to your topic, you may narrow down your search and try Google Scholar. Thus, you’ll manage to locate scientific publications that will help you explore your topic in depth. You can also benefit from using scholarly databases like EBSCO, PubMed, Index Copernicus, JSTOR, Scopus, and others.
Create an Outline
Though some experienced students can do without outlines when writing research papers, we highly recommend that you create one, especially when working on your first research papers. Don’t aim for complex and elaborate outlines. Just jot down the main idea or statement around which your entire paper will be revolving. Then write down supporting ideas, details, and evidence. You can also create a mind map if you feel this may aid you in writing.
Write Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Now that you have an outline and reputable sources to rely on, you can proceed to draft your paper.
Start off by presenting relevant background or context for what’s going to be discussed in your research paper. Define terms and concepts for your audience if need be. Also, make sure to explain the focus of your research and its purpose in the thesis statement.
In the body, you want to elaborate on the points you’ve mentioned in your outline. You need to organically integrate your sources into discussion to prove your argument. Don’t merely summarize what’s been said in your sources. Evaluate, explain, and provide your own assessment of facts and evidence.
Wrap up your research paper with an effective conclusion paragraph, where you’ll summarize and recap the main points without repeating yourself. A strong conclusion should be well-crafted, logical, and concise. Its main purpose is to give your research paper a sense of completion. Hence, it shouldn’t contain any new information.
Hopefully, you’ll manage to overcome your fear of academic writing and impress your instructor with a flawlessly written research papers.
