How To Write A Research Paper Essay Example for Free

How To Write A investigate Paper Es dictateThis betoken covers explore storys, and provides advice on forming a title for your savour recents melodic theme, how to plan your opus before you suck in, and filtering temporal for your seek paper. What is a question paper?The terms look for paper and term paper ar ofttimes used interchangeably. However, the terms do not mean the same thing. Term paper was used in the past exclusively to refer to the project (indeed interrogation based) that was due at the end of a term, semester or quarter whereas seek paper had a more specific meaning, i. e. a paper written as a summary of research.Hence research papers may be written at either level (before, during and after attending university), they may be published work in a schoolmaster journal and they may re contentedness the results of practical research, which would not ordinarily be conducted for a term paper. This is the condition in which we lead discuss the term r esearch paper herein. A research paper is an pedantic written assignment that is the product of a research project. This may span days, months, weeks or even years. Typic eithery, research papers will involve the examination of a particular regaining, and discuss * The background or news report of that anesthetize* Any come to the forestanding questions relating to the issue (the research paper will commonly focus on one particular question and seek to establish evidence to answer this) * The current data and statistics relating to the issue* The problems relating to the issue as revealed by the data * The problems relating to the issue as revealed by practical elemental research (i.e. carrying out interviews, tests etcetera or second-string research (i.e. feeling at other peoples research) * Proposed solutions to the problems, and the strengths and weaknesses of these * Conclusions drawn from the data, research and evidence, as examined * Recommendations in relation to th ese conclusions.We will look at apiece of these elements in turn, in order to determine how a student or professional rouse write a great research paper. Forming a title for your research paperUn resembling close to types of assignment, the research paper title is usually fixed upon AFTER you need completed the paper. This is so that the title accurately reflects the contents of the paper. However, your research paper will indispensability a workings title. This helps you to focus and helps others to understand what you ar doing for example, your lecturer/instructor or, if working at a higher level, those funding your project. You should therefore return to this section when you deal completed your paper.You then unavoidableness to pick a concise, accurate title for your research paper that will cultivate readers want to look at your content, help others happen your paper in databases, and condone exactly what is covered by the paper with a high degree of accuracy. A research paper will commonly subscribe to a title of 15-20 words in length. Every word must be necessary for the title and so for example, Project on Paper on Research on should be removed as these types of phrases argon not necessary. Example concise research paper titles* Unemployment by Constituency* Transport in New YorkResearch Paper SubtitleUnlike a research paper or essay, it is very common to guard your research paper a subtitle. This explains your title more fully, puts it in con schoolbook and qualifies the extent, or scope, of the research. Example subtitles (relating to the to a higher place example titles)* 2007-2008 trends exploitation constituency maps* Transport governance and provision since X was elected in 1999 Researching/gathering tuition for your research paperAs your research paper contends to show a good astuteness of reading, good research skills ar paramount But before you start, a key thing to turn in in mentality is that you MUST reference al l textile that you use in your paper. So the archetypal thing to do is find out what referencing style is required (either by your university or, if you ar makeup a research paper for a journal, by that journal) and start to record the location of your kickoffs employ that referencing style. If you do this as you perform the research, youll save yourself hours of time later on. Here are some research tips to get you started seek STEP 1* Form a diagnose of keywords from your research papers working title * subprogram a thesaurus to find words that mean the same thing as your list of keywords query STEP 2Most students will begin researching using the Internet and indeed, this is a great focussing to get ideas for your research paper. So start with Google, type in your keywords and bookmark the most relevant randomness sites that appear in relation to the issue. Then identify all current matters that relate to your issue from those sites. refer Internet websites provide a fa st source of street smart info further unfortunately they are not a reliable source. Use a search of the web as a showtime point but unless the website is hosted and edited by a reliable organization (such as the Government), dont rely on its contents as a source for your research paper. Find another means of verifying the information. search STEP 3Now youve identified a list of issues and current debates for your research paper, you need to find some quality source material. The first stage is to find the most recent books written round the issue youre researching. Whilst books are not as up-to-date as journals and articles, they will contain valid points-of-view that need to be considered. So where do you find books for your research paper? * Google Books this is a good place to start as it has several thousand books that adopt been scanned in, together with details and snippet views of those which nursent been scanned in.* Amazon.com Amazon is a good source because you c an see which books are being released, and their release date, as well as using search inside to look through the contents of mevery books (this latter service only works if you have placed an order before) * Questia Questia has thousands of books scanned in although you have to pay a small subscription fee. Your university may alike provide you with access to a library and you can then search through their databases to find the most relevant and recent books for your research paper. The best way to scan whether a book is relevant to what youre writing about is to look through the index. Youll quickly see if theres anything useful in the book for your research paper. seek STEP 4Now you have the latest books for your research paper, you need to start looking for journals. These rightfully should be your main type of source material. Open University Web Resources is an excellent list of such journal databases, although youll need an ATHENS password to use some of them. Our favorite journal databases for consistently excellent and up-to-date content are * ScienceDirect 2,000 peer-reviewed journals, books, handbooks etc * EBSCO- thousands of journals, millions of articles* Emerald- thousands of journals in management and library and information services, engineering, applied science and technology * Ingenta 4,500+ journals in all fields and a further 20,000 abstracts The latter source, Ingenta, gives you FREE access to the bibliography which is useful for your research paper even if you dont have an athens login. Locate articles relating to your subject and check out the bibliography for further reading which you competency be able to locate online without passwords. You can sometimes obtain a free trial of these databases fully grown you temporary access. Also, the four websites also have a good number of journals that you do not need a subscription to view. These are often indicated by a special icon. For example (from Ingenta)RESEARCH STEP 5There is one final type of source material you need to consider, and that is the news. If youre lucky enough to have an athens password, your first stop will be Lexis Professional (formerly known as LexisNexis Executive) which contains the full text of newspapers and other news sources worldwide as well as company data, annual reports and business directory information from Disclosure, Extel, ICC, and Worldscope. If you dont have an athens password, any good news site will suffice US News, CNN etc. Of course, if you are researching an issue which affects another country, you should be looking at that countrys main news website.What you are looking for is any current developments that may affect the research for your paper. This may be statistics released by the Government, consultation papers, proposed changes in legislation, current developments or debates etc. Dont forget, newspapers are NOT a reliable source of information. You are using them to find information for your research paper but y ou should substantiate this information once you have tack together it. If it is reported that the Government has released some statistics, go and find those on the Government website. If a consultation paper has been released, go and find the paper and read it.Filtering the material for your research paperThe five step research process reveals a lot of information for your research paper and youll need to filter it down, or youll have too some(prenominal) to analyses. This does, however, beg the question how many sources should you use? The answer to this depends on the level of your research paper. If it is an assignment for your degree, you should look at using roughly 9 quality sources per 2,500 words. If it is for some post-graduate course, you can tardily double that. A professional research paper (for publication) might use 30-40 sources per 2,500 words. The emphasis in all cases, however, should be on quality and not on quantity.A good selection of research material from a variety of quality sources (i.e. not just books, not just journals, not just the net income and not just the news) is far better than a huge selection of research material from slimy quality, unreliable sources of a similar type. To help filter the information you have found for your research paper, you are going to need to evaluate its quality. This involves a consideration of whether * The source is a quality source -its reliable, secure and highly likely to be accurate. * The source is unbiased watch newspapers which may have political views. demand yourself if the writer has presented a balance assertion, or has deliberately played down one side of the argument to prove his own personal views. * The source is relevant to your research does it specifically tie in with your working title? * You havent already got enough material to prove what this source proves if you aim to back up each of your arguments in your research paper with 2-3 pieces of evidence (for a very high quality paper) or at least 2 for a student paper, then you can filter out any material that is excessive of this. Creating an outline for your research paperA basic outline will look something like this* Working title (as discussed previously)* Purpose this is a short contestation to say what the paper is for. It helps people who are looking for research papers themselves to assess the relevancy of your research paper to their studies. Example purpose statement This paper shows the number of people claiming benefits recorded as resident in each constituency in the unite States in July 2008, together with comparisons with the levels in July 2007 and July 1997. This paper also presents residence-based unemployment rates for all constituencies in the United States. * methodological analysis this is a statement of how you will carry out your research. You have already done some secondary research but you may also wish to carry out primary research for your paper. primordial resear ch (sometimes called empirical research) is research you carry out yourself and data that is produced as a result of this, which has never been published before.Primary research may be carried out through face-to-face interviews, tele recollect interviews, postal surveys, website surveys or focus/discussion groups. Be careful before carrying out research over the phone or through the post though some states allow people to restrict how they are contacted. subaltern research is the study of data that exists already such as books, journals, statistics, other research papers, websites, news reports, powder magazine articles etc. You have already carried out secondary research through the five step research process. So which research method is best for your research paper? Instinctively you may think that the primary data will provide the most interesting results.However, if your time and budget are both limited, do not be tempted to embark on a study. You will do far better analyzin g breathing studies than producing a low-quality study that is limited in its value due to the amount of time and finance you can devote to it. * Scope of research all research is going to be limited to certain factors. A paper on crime cannot investigate all types of crime, committed by all sexes, all ages, globally. So how are you going to limit your paper? What areas of the issue will you look at and which will you renounce? Your statement of scope will be about 150-300 words long and explain exactly what you are going to cover in your research, and what you are going to leave out (usually with brief reasons). If you are carrying out primary research, you may want to set out the limitations of this here too.* Introduction this is where you set the scene for your reader. You explain what you are researching and why. You identify the issues you will be looking into and you say what you are going to prove. It is therefore a good idea to write this last, along with your final tit le* Background/history this section of your research paper isnt essential but might be appropriate. You might want to explain the development of the issue and how particular matters have arisen. Dont bother unless it is necessary, to put the matter in context.* Body this section of your research paper will be broken up into sub-sections, each dealing with a particular sub-matter. Aim to present balanced evidence in each section on the points you wish to raise, and try not to accomplish any conclusions at this stage. The body is the body of your research, not the analysis.* Findings/Discussion heres where you analyze the research you have conducted and say how your findings are relevant to the issue. Its a very important section, without which you will have merely stated other peoples findings and opinions without contributing anything yourself.* Conclusion this section of your research paper returns to the introduction and stated aims, and spells out very intelligibly how you achieved them, referring to the points you have proved and the evidence you have used to prove it. It should not be repetitive but instead, it should summarize the results of your research. You should also ensure no new material is introduced at this stage if you have new material for your research paper, put it in the body and findings sections.* Recommendations this section of your research paper is very much optional and will depend on whether such a section would be appropriate for the subject you are studying. Law research papers almost always will accommodate recommendations. What sort of recommendations should you make? These might include * How policies/the law/practice should be changed, based on your findings * What further research must be carried out beforemaking any sensible recommendations.Your recommendations must actually relate to what you have established in your research paper. You cannot randomly introduce things at this stage that you think might be useful. T hey must be logical recommendations, based on your research and analysis, and they should follow on from the conclusion. Now you have written out an outline for your research paper, you will literally be able to fill in the blanks and your paper should evolve and progress naturally, following the headings you have chosen. Keep referring back to your working title as you write, as well as to your methodology and scope. This should limit you to material that is most relevant and ensure you dont include excessive, unnecessary points. Finishing your research paperNow youve written up your research paper, youll need to do a little editing and proofreading to ensure the finished product achieves the grade youre looking for. This includes * Weeding out any unnecessary material. Evaluate what you have written and whether it is needed, keeping the methodology, scope and working title in mind* Proofreading your research paper. Read it out loud, have someone else read it for you, motivate a s pell check, run a grammar check go over the paper several times and make sure you havent make any errors. There are often extra marks for students in respect of presentation. * Checking your referencing. Every source should be properly referenced. Quotations should be in quotation marks. Your work should contain a full list of references and a bibliography. References are sources you actually cite in your work whereas the bibliography includes sources which you may have read, and may have influenced your writing, but you havent specifically cited.