WHAT IS A RESEARCH PAPER? A 4 step process to writing a research paper

Step #1 The first step in creating a well written research paper is to choose a TOPIC.

Step #1  You should choose a topic that interests and challenges you. Your attitude toward the topic may very well determine the amount of effort and enthusiasm you put into your paper.

Step #1  Focus on a limited aspect, e.g. narrow your topic from “Religion” to World Religion” to “Buddhism.”

Step #1  Select a subject you can manage. Avoid subjects that are too technical, learned, or specialized.

Step #1  Lastly, avoid topics that have only a very narrow range of materials available.

Step #1  Before you can move to step #2, you need to first brainstorm ideas.

Step #2  The next step is to gather information. For the paper that we will write in class, you are required to have two sources in your paper.

Step #2  This means that you must reference the online reference information that is available through the library.

Step #2  Only information gathered through approved sources will be allowed.  NO EXCEPTIONS

Step #2  As you gather your information, remember to write down all the bibliographical information ( author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, page numbers, URL’s, creation or modification dates on web pages, and your date of access on the provided handout. Name of resource Internet address Facts Learned

Step #2  Remember that an article without bibliographical information is useless because you will not be allowed to use it as a source.

Step #3  Now that you have gathered information on your topic, you need to group the information into categories.

Step #3  You may discover that you have 3 groups or 4-5 groups. In any case, you need to make sure that you have enough information in each group to write a thorough paragraph over each group.

Step #3  At this point, you will need to do some critical thinking and come up with a thesis statement.

Step #3  Your thesis statement is that sentence in the introductory paragraph that contains the focus of your essay and tells the reader what the essay is going to be about.

Step #3  Think of the thesis statement as an umbrella: everything that you include in your essay must fit under the umbrella, and if you try to take on too much, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella, or something’s going to get wet.

Step #3  However, rather than expand your thesis statement, sometimes it is better to limit the focus of your paper.

Step #3  Once you have placed your information into categories, you are ready to begin organizing that information into an outline.

Step #4  It is now time to incorporate your own ideas into writing. Start with the first topic in your outline.

Step #4  Summarize, paraphrase, and incorporate one direct quote for each category (or group).

Step #4  As you work your way through the outline, continue summarizing and paraphrasing the information that you plan to incorporate into your paper.

Step #4  Each point that you have in your outline will form a body paragraph.

Step #4  At this point it is important to remember that you must have an introduction and conclusion paragraph.

Step #4  Your introduction paragraph must start with an attention grabber and include your thesis statement.

Step #4  Your conclusion paragraph may by short, but it must include a restatement of your thesis statement.

Step #4  If at any point you get lost or confused during the writing of your paper, you can come in for tutorials, or consult academic internet sites for help.