Research Paper: The Process
The goal of a research paper is to bring together different views, evidence, and facts about a topic from books, articles, and interviews, then interpret the information into your own writing. It's about a relationship between you, other writers, and your teacher/audience.
A research paper will show two things: what you know or learned about a certain topic, and what other people know about the same topic. Often you make a judgment, or just explain complex ideas to the reader. The length of the research paper depends on your teacher's guidelines. It's always a good idea to keep your teacher in mind while writing your paper because the teacher is your audience.
There are three stages for doing a research paper. These stages are:
While most people start with prewriting, the three stages of the writing process overlap. Writing is not the kind of process where you have to finish step one before moving on to step two, and so on. Your job is to make your ideas as clear as possible for the reader, and that means you might have to go back and forth between the prewriting, writing and revising stages several times before submitting the paper.
Thinking about a topic
The first thing you should do when starting your research paper is to think of a topic. Try to pick a topic that interests you and your teacher -- interesting topics are easier to write about than boring topics! Make sure that your topic is not too hard to research, and that there is enough material on the topic. Talk to as many people as possible about your topic, especially your teacher. You'll be surprised at the ideas you'll get from talking about your topic. Be sure to always discuss potential topics with your teacher.
Places you can find a topic: newspapers, magazines, ALADIN, television news, the World Wide Web, and even in the index of a textbook!
Narrowing down your topic
As you think about your topic and start reading, you should begin thinking about a possible thesis statement (a sentence or two explaining your opinion about the topic). One technique is to ask yourself one important question about your topic, and as you find your answer, the thesis can develop from that. Some other techniques you may use to narrow your topic are: jot lists; preliminary outlines; listing possible thesis statements; listing questions; and/or making a concept map. It also may be helpful to have a friend ask you questions about your topic.
For help on developing your thesis statement, see the English Center Guide to Developing a Thesis Statement.
Discovery/Reading about your topic
You need to find information that helps you support your thesis. There are different places you can find this information: books, articles, people (interviews), and the World Wide Web.
As you gather the information or ideas you need, you need to make sure that you take notes and write down where and who you got the information from. This is called "citing your sources." If you write your paper using information from other writers and do not cite the sources, it's called plagiarism. If you plagiarize, you can get an "F" on your paper, fail the course, or even get kicked out of school.
There are three major different formats for citing sources. They are: the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychology Association (APA), and the Chicago Turabian style. Always ask your teacher which format to use. For more information on these styles, see our other handouts!
After you've thought, read, and taken notes on your topic, you may want to revise your thesis because a good thesis will help you develop a plan for writing your paper. One way you can do this is to brainstorm -- think about everything you know about your topic, and put it down on paper. Once you have it all written down, you can look it over and decide if you should change your thesis statement or not.
If you already developed a preliminary map or outline, now is the time to go back and revise it. If you haven't developed a map or outline yet, now is the time to do it. The outline or concept map should help you organize how you want to present information to your readers. The clearer your outline or map, the easier it will be for you to write the paper. Be sure that each part of your outline supports your thesis. If it does not, you may want to change/revise your thesis statement again.
A research paper follows standard compositional (essay) format. It has a title, introduction, body and conclusion. Some people like to start their research papers with a title and introduction, while others wait until they've already started the body of the paper before developing a title and introduction. For more information about writing introductions and conclusions.
Some techniques that may help you with writing your paper are:
- start by writing your thesis statement
- use a free writing technique (What I really mean is...)
- follow your outline or map
- pretend you are writing a letter to a friend, and tell them what you know about your topic
- follow your topic notecards
If you're having difficulties thinking of what to write about next, you can look back at your notes that you have from when you were brainstorming for your topic.
The last (but not least) step is revising. When you are revising, look over your paper and make changes in weak areas. The different areas to look for mistakes in are: content-- too much detail, or too little detail; organization/structure which is the order in which you write information about your topic; grammar; punctuation; capitalization; word choice; and citations.
It probably is best if you focus on the "big picture" first. The "big picture" means organization (paragraph order), and content (ideas and points) of the paper. It also might help to go through your paper paragraph by paragraph and see if the main idea of each paragraph relates to the thesis. Be sure to keep an eye out for any repeated information (one of the most common mistakes made by students is having two or more paragraphs with the same information). Often good writers combine several paragraphs into one so they do not repeat information.
- The audience understands your paper.
- The sentences are clear and complete.
- All paragraphs relate to the thesis.
- Each paragraph explains its purpose clearly.
- You do not repeat large blocks of information in two or more different paragraphs.
- The information in your paper is accurate.
- A friend or classmate has read through your paper and offered suggestions.
After you are satisfied with the content and structure of the paper, you then can focus on common errors like grammar, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, typos, and word choice.
- Subjects and verbs agree.
- Verb tenses are consistent.
- Pronouns agree with the subjects they substitute.
- Word choices are clear.
- Capitalization is correct.
- Spelling is correct.
- Punctuation is correct.
- References are cited properly.
For more information on proofreading, see the English Center Punctuation and Grammar Review.
After writing the paper, it might help if you put it aside and do not look at it for a day or two. When you look at your paper again, you will see it with new eyes and notice mistakes you didn't before. It's a really good idea to ask someone else to read your paper before you submit it to your teacher. Good writers often get feedback and revise their paper several times before submitting it to the teacher.
Source: "Process of Writing a Research Paper," by Ellen Beck and Rachel Mingo with contributions from Jules Nelson Hill and Vivion Smith, is based on the previous version by Dawn Taylor, Sharon Quintero, Robert Rich, Robert McDonald, and Katherine Eckhart.
Updated June 1, 2016
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