Writing a Research Paper

Components Title page Abstract Introduction – General opening – Literature review Use subheadings – Current research (state hypotheses/research questions)

Components continued Method – Participants – Materials – Procedure Results – Overview – Hypotheses/Research questions – Subsidiary/exploratory

Components continued Discussion – Recap motivation – Recap findings – Implications theoretical Practical – Problems – Future research

Writing Write simply and directly Omit needless words Avoid metacomments (e.g., Now I’m going to… Use parallel construction and repetition (e.g., She likes cooking, jogging, and to read. Use active voice (I/We…..) Write at the level of a BSU undergraduate – Avoid jargon

Writing – Use past or present perfect when reporting previous research of others (e.g., Bandural et al. reported – For method section, use future tense for proposal and past tense for final – For Results, use present tense for results in front of reader (e.g., As Table 2 shows, xxxx)