7 Amazing Tricks For Writing Strong Research Paper
Once upon a time, a teacher decided that researching a random topic would make for an interesting assignment. Over the decades, research paper writing has become a rite of passage for nearly every high school and college student. During the high school years, teachers walk their students step-by-step through the process. In college, instructors simply assign the paper, but leave students on their own to complete them. If you are one of the students who has had very little experience writing your own paper, then here are seven tricks to help you strengthen your research paper writing skills.
- Find a sample. As soon as your instructor assigns a paper, you should look for a sample to use as a template. Make sure that the sample is written in the same formatting style that your instructor assigns. It will probably be in the APA or MLA style. Having a well-written sample will show you how your paper should look when it comes to documenting sources, writing an abstract, and crafting a conclusion.
- Get a manual. Since the sample will not show you how to cite every source, you will need a manual to show you what to do. Having a manual will also give you instructions on the subtle requirements for your style of paper, too. SInce you will probably write more than one research paper in your academic career, a manual is a worthwhile investment.
- Conduct your research. As soon as you have a topic in mind, you should begin your researching. To keep your researching to a minimum, you should look for titles that have similar arguments. Hopefully, you will not have to read much and you will be able to find articles that are closely related. As soon as you find the required number of sources, you should build your argument with what you have found.
- Write the body based on what you find. With your research finished, you should begin to write the body paragraphs. In most cases, your instructors will want to see that you can craft an argument and back it up with legitimate sources. So, be sure that each paragraphs has the required number of citations. You should explain each citation in your own words, so your instructor can see your unique thoughts.
- Write the thesis. After you have written your body paragraphs, you should use the topics you have argued to develop your thesis. Since you have already decided on an argument when you started researching, you should not have any difficulty creating a thesis. It is better to build the thesis after writing, because it is easier to adjust one sentence rather than adjust several paragraphs.
- Write the introduction and conclusion. It is also a good idea to write the beginning and the end of the research paper at the same time. Since you do not know what you are introducing until you have actually written it, you might have difficulty writing the introduction at the beginning of process. Many writers will craft their introductions after writing the body of the paper because they do not have enough information to write the hook and bridge.
- Use an app for the bibliography. Keeping track of sources can be difficulty, so it is best to use an app. There are many free apps available to help you write your sources. Some of the apps will save your sources. You can always create the cited sources in the app and then copy them and paste them into a document. Start using the app from the moment you begin researching, then you can include the citations in your body paragraphs.