Jacob Malcovitch

What is a research paper thesis

Research paper writing guide

Whether your paper involves outside research or not, you need to have a thesis statement. Once you have an idea of what you want to say, and have some grasp of what others have said, you need to make your ideas more concrete by coming up with a thesis sentence(s). A thesis indicates the main argument of your academic paper. The point of any class paper is to persuade your reader that you have something to say that he or she should care about. A good thesis should be debatable, specific, and concise.
Think of yourself as a lawyer and think of defending a thesis as being like trying to convict a defendant, and think of the professor as the judge, not the jury.

Jacob Malcovitch

Research paper outline

Research paper outline

An outline helps you to organize your ideas and put them in the order that you will write about them in your essay. Skipping this step usually makes the actual writing of the essay harder. You might find yourself scrambling to find the specific lines or facts from your research that you want to use. You might find yourself writing a disorganized jumble of facts and ideas that jumps around instead of flowing clearly. You might just find yourself unable to start the paper, caught sitting in front of a blank document while you try to figure out where to start.
The purpose of an outline is to help organize a paper by checking to see if and how ideas connect to each other, or whether some points need more support. No matter the length of the paper, outlines can help a writer see the overall picture. Besides the basic structure, there is no right or wrong way to make an outline. Writers should do what works best for the topic and themselves.

Jacob Malcovitch

How to write a research paper

Research paper writing guide

First of all, make sure you understand your assignment. This seems pretty simple, right? But it’s important to take the time to carefully read over what you have been asked to do. Look for words such as discuss, analyze, evaluate and compare. Have you been asked to use specific types of information? How long should your paper be? What writing style are you expected to use?
It’s helpful to do a little background reading. Try your course textbook. Look for something that interests you. Consider different aspects of the topic. Then select a specific question or statement and use this as the focus for your paper.
Keep in mind that if your topic is too specific, you might have trouble finding enough information. On the other hand, if your topic is too broad, you might become overwhelmed by too much information! Try to find a good balance.

Jacob Malcovitch

APA research paper format

Research paper format

The American Psychological Association (APA) offers a set of guidelines about how to cite sources in text and how to organize papers. This uniform style helps us scan articles quickly for key points and findings. APA research paper format helps us to express the key elements of quantitative results, to choose the graphic form that will best suit our analyses, to report critical details of our research protocol, and to describe individuals with accuracy and respect. This article summarizes the recommendations about the APA research paper format.

Jacob Malcovitch

How to start a research paper

Research paper writing guide

Starting a research paper is not an easy task! It will you some time as you will need to first choose a topic that interests you and your reader. Once the topic is chosen, you need to do a profound research on it, plan your research paper, make a rough draft, outline your introduction, thesis statement, the body of the argument, and your conclusion. It is often helpful to set up two poles, representing extreme positions, even if you want to ultimately undercut them, by mediating between them, or introducing a compromise. Situate your position within the general debate, and identify the main points you are going to use in order to argue for your position.

Jacob Malcovitch

Research paper outline template

Research paper outline

You’re sitting there surrounded by books and copies of articles that seem to be multiplying on their own and you don’t know how to get started with the paper or even how to make sense out of all of this information. And the kids are knocking at your door and the paper is due in a week. So how do you get out of this mess? The answer is – you need to start with an outline. We have done a step-by-step research paper outline template for you to follow. It is simple and universal for all fields of study, for high school, college or university. It works like a plan that breaks down your research into simple sequential sections, making the main features of your study stand out and appeal to others. It also maps out the broader issues you are addressing in your research through graphs, quotes, and graphics. Most importantly it is there to assist you with your work and to help enhance your research.

Jacob Malcovitch

How to write a conclusion for a research paper

Research paper writing guide

There can be many different conclusions to the same research paper (just as there can be many introductions), depending on who your readers are and where you want to direct them (follow-up you expect of them after they finish your paper). Therefore, restating your thesis and summarizing the main points of your body should not be all that your conclusion does. In fact, most weak conclusions are merely restatements of the thesis and summaries of the body without guiding the reader toward thinking about the implications of the thesis. Just as a conclusion should not be just a restatement of your thesis and summary of your body, it also should not be an entirely new topic, a door opened that you barely lead your reader through and leave them there lost. Just as in finding your topic and in forming your thesis, the safe and sane rule in writing a conclusion is: neither too little nor too much.

Jacob Malcovitch

What is a research paper

Research paper writing guide

“Research paper.” What image comes into mind as you hear those words: working with stacks of articles and books, hunting the “treasure” of others’ thoughts? Whatever image you create, it’s a sure bet that you’re envisioning sources of information–articles, books, people, artworks. Yet a research paper is more than the sum of your sources, more than a collection of different pieces of information about a topic, and more than a review of the literature in a field. A research paper analyzes a perspective or argues a point. Regardless of the type of research paper you are writing, your finished research paper should present your own thinking backed up by others’ ideas and information. A research paper involves surveying a field of knowledge in order to find the best possible information in that field. And that survey can be orderly and focused, if you know how to approach it. Don’t worry, we are here to help you with your research paper!

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