Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic search engines

academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

  • Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
  • Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
  • Related articles: ✔
  • References: ✔
  • Cited by: ✔
  • Links to full text: ✔
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Google Scholar

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

  • Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
  • Abstracts: ✔
  • Related articles: ✘
  • References: ✘
  • Cited by: ✘
  • Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine aka BASE

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

  • Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
  • Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
  • Export formats: BibTeX

Search interface of the CORE academic search engine

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

  • Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
  • Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Search interface of Science.gov

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

  • Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Search interface of Semantic Scholar

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

  • Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
  • Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Baidu Scholar

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

  • Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
  • Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
  • Export formats: not available

Search interface of RefSeek

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

research paper writing search

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How to Write a Research Paper: Searching Tips

  • Anatomy of a Research Paper
  • Developing a Research Focus
  • Background Research Tips
  • Searching Tips
  • Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Journals
  • Thesis Statement
  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Citing Sources
  • Evaluating Sources
  • Literature Review
  • Academic Integrity
  • Scholarship as Conversation
  • Understanding Fake News
  • Data, Information, Knowledge

research paper writing search

Still confused on how Boolean Operators work? Try out the Boolean Machine .

Advanced Searching Tips

Facets : Most databases will allow you to filter your results using "facets" (sometimes called limiters or refiners). These are the options (normally located on the right side) that allow you to only display results that meet certain criteria such as peer review, full text, year of publication, etc. Using facets can really help to cut down the number of results you get from a search.

Bibliography Scanning:  When you find an article you like, look at the bibliography. There is a good chance that you wi ll find other articles that would be helpful to your research.

Find Alternate Keywords:  Often databases will list the keywords that are associated with the article you find. You can sometimes find this information in the abstract of the article as well. 

Boolean Operators :Use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) can sometimes be useful to help tie together or separate search terms. Use AND to only find articles that contain both of the keywords you're looking for, use OR to search for articles that use either one, and use NOT to eliminate a search term from your search. 

Truncation and Wildcards:  Root words can have multiple endings Example: sun = suns, sunshine, sunny, sunlight. Likewise there are some words that are spelled differently, but mean the same thing.  Example:  color, colour

Keywords vs. Subject

Keywords  are how  you  think about a subject. What words do you use to describe the topic?

Subjects  are how a  database  thinks about a subject. You might think this word does not describe your topic, but the database does! 

Databases often have a thesaurus to help you learn their language. If not, look at a useful article in that database and use the subjects listed.

If you are looking for phrases, use quotations marks.  Then the database will search for it as a phrase and not just as words anywhere in the record     Examples:             

  • "North Dakota"
  • "University of Mary"
  • "right to life"

Good Search Terms

What's wrong with Googling your topic? Google can give you over 25,000,000 hits when you look for your topic.

Is a database better? Yes! It's easier to focus your search to your particular topic and limit your results to academic research.

First of all, start with a strategy:

  • Write the topic down   in the form of a sentence or question
  • Identify the  key concepts   of the question
  • Try to think of at least  one or two synonyms   for each of these concepts
  • If the database you are going to use has a  thesaurus (index of subject headings) , go there and search for the concepts and synonyms you have thought of.  If related terms are suggested, review these. Then, possibly select and search a few
  • Search each of your concepts separately   You can have 2 or more related terms in a concept
  • Use the Boolean operators   (and, or, not) to combine the results that you get in the previous step.

Bad Search Terms

Not getting good search results? Check your search terms.

Terms not worth typing -- Words like:

  • Pros and cons

In general, articles discuss strategies, effects and benefits. It's more effective to think about specific benefits, strategies and outcomes you want to research.

  • Example : if your question is: 'What are some strategies for using manipulatives with third grade math students?'  Your keywords could be: manipulatives, third grade or elementary school, and mathematics or arithmetic.  Notice that 'strategies' is not included .  You will still find articles that discuss strategies without that term in your search.
  • << Previous: Background Research Tips
  • Next: Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Journals >>
  • Last Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:33 PM
  • URL: https://libguide.umary.edu/researchpaper

Writing a Research Paper

This page lists some of the stages involved in writing a library-based research paper.

Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.

Discovering, Narrowing, and Focusing a Researchable Topic

  • Try to find a topic that truly interests you
  • Try writing your way to a topic
  • Talk with your course instructor and classmates about your topic
  • Pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem to be solved

Finding, Selecting, and Reading Sources

You will need to look at the following types of sources:

  • library catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies, suggestions from your instructor
  • primary vs. secondary sources
  • journals, books, other documents

Grouping, Sequencing, and Documenting Information

The following systems will help keep you organized:

  • a system for noting sources on bibliography cards
  • a system for organizing material according to its relative importance
  • a system for taking notes

Writing an Outline and a Prospectus for Yourself

Consider the following questions:

  • What is the topic?
  • Why is it significant?
  • What background material is relevant?
  • What is my thesis or purpose statement?
  • What organizational plan will best support my purpose?

Writing the Introduction

In the introduction you will need to do the following things:

  • present relevant background or contextual material
  • define terms or concepts when necessary
  • explain the focus of the paper and your specific purpose
  • reveal your plan of organization

Writing the Body

  • Use your outline and prospectus as flexible guides
  • Build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., don’t let your sources organize your paper)
  • Integrate your sources into your discussion
  • Summarize, analyze, explain, and evaluate published work rather than merely reporting it
  • Move up and down the “ladder of abstraction” from generalization to varying levels of detail back to generalization

Writing the Conclusion

  • If the argument or point of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
  • If prior to your conclusion you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to add your points up, to explain their significance.
  • Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction.
  • Perhaps suggest what about this topic needs further research.

Revising the Final Draft

  • Check overall organization : logical flow of introduction, coherence and depth of discussion in body, effectiveness of conclusion.
  • Paragraph level concerns : topic sentences, sequence of ideas within paragraphs, use of details to support generalizations, summary sentences where necessary, use of transitions within and between paragraphs.
  • Sentence level concerns: sentence structure, word choices, punctuation, spelling.
  • Documentation: consistent use of one system, citation of all material not considered common knowledge, appropriate use of endnotes or footnotes, accuracy of list of works cited.

research paper writing search

Academic and Professional Writing

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Analysis Papers

Reading Poetry

A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis

Using Literary Quotations

Play Reviews

Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

Incorporating Interview Data

Grant Proposals

Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics

Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

Job Materials and Application Essays

Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. Programs

  • Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
  • Guided brainstorming exercises
  • Get more help with your essay
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Resume Writing Tips

CV Writing Tips

Cover Letters

Business Letters

Proposals and Dissertations

Resources for Proposal Writers

Resources for Dissertators

Research Papers

Planning and Writing Research Papers

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Writing Annotated Bibliographies

Creating Poster Presentations

Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Thank-You Notes

Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors

Reading for a Review

Critical Reviews

Writing a Review of Literature

Scientific Reports

Scientific Report Format

Sample Lab Assignment

Writing for the Web

Writing an Effective Blog Post

Writing for Social Media: A Guide for Academics

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing a Research Paper

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Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The pages in this section provide detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources.

The Research Paper

There will come a time in most students' careers when they are assigned a research paper. Such an assignment often creates a great deal of unneeded anxiety in the student, which may result in procrastination and a feeling of confusion and inadequacy. This anxiety frequently stems from the fact that many students are unfamiliar and inexperienced with this genre of writing. Never fear—inexperience and unfamiliarity are situations you can change through practice! Writing a research paper is an essential aspect of academics and should not be avoided on account of one's anxiety. In fact, the process of writing a research paper can be one of the more rewarding experiences one may encounter in academics. What is more, many students will continue to do research throughout their careers, which is one of the reasons this topic is so important.

Becoming an experienced researcher and writer in any field or discipline takes a great deal of practice. There are few individuals for whom this process comes naturally. Remember, even the most seasoned academic veterans have had to learn how to write a research paper at some point in their career. Therefore, with diligence, organization, practice, a willingness to learn (and to make mistakes!), and, perhaps most important of all, patience, students will find that they can achieve great things through their research and writing.

The pages in this section cover the following topic areas related to the process of writing a research paper:

  • Genre - This section will provide an overview for understanding the difference between an analytical and argumentative research paper.
  • Choosing a Topic - This section will guide the student through the process of choosing topics, whether the topic be one that is assigned or one that the student chooses themselves.
  • Identifying an Audience - This section will help the student understand the often times confusing topic of audience by offering some basic guidelines for the process.
  • Where Do I Begin - This section concludes the handout by offering several links to resources at Purdue, and also provides an overview of the final stages of writing a research paper.

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How to Write a Research Paper

  • Formulate Questions/Thesis
  • Identify Keywords
  • Find Background Info

Search Strategies

  • Dissertations
  • Proceedings
  • Statistics This link opens in a new window
  • Primary | Secondary
  • Scholarly | General This link opens in a new window
  • Creative Commons
  • Cite This link opens in a new window
  • Quote, Paraphrase, Summarize

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) are used to connect keywords and concepts when searching.

  • Boil your topic down to the most important words .  Ignore superfluous words like in, the, of, with, against, affect, impact.  Begin with a keyword search. 
  • Put each "different piece" of your topic in a separate search box, if available.  Using the topic of criticism of Van Gogh's Starry Night as an example below, each different piece of the topic is entered on a separate line.  Synonyms for the pieces are connected by OR--and kept on the same line--as seen below with criticize...

research paper writing search

  •  Too many results?  Focus your search by searching for your keywords in the ABSTRACT field or the TITLE field.  Click on the All - Smart Search to select  the abstract or title field.  Or focus your search by using "an exact phrase" search.
  • Too few results?  Think of synonyms.  Add synonyms to your search--using OR-- and keep your synonyms all on the same line . 
  • Increase your results by removing the least important "piece" of your search while still retaining the "essence" of your search (in the case above, it might be Van Gogh). 
  • Still no results?  Broaden your search slightly.  Can't find specific criticism on the Starry Night?  Look for criticism of Van Gogh--within these articles/books, you'll find criticism of Starry Night.  Still no luck?  Try a different journal article database.
  • When reviewing your results, look for relevant "subject" or "descriptor" words.  Find subject terms either on the results page, or at the end of individual records.  Write down relevant subject terms that you find.  
  • Go back to the search screen and using the subject terms you discovered, search your subject terms in the subject or descriptor field.  Subject terms are gold threads--they will almost always lead you to the most relevant results.
  • Be sure to take advantage of:
  • Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT)
  • Exact phrase searching -- "starry night" 
  • Field searches (search within the title, abstract, or subject fields)

research paper writing search

  • No full-text?  Use the L ooking for Full-Text (a Get It link will appear if the full-text links fails) OR Request from LVC Tipasa link to receive a copy of the article or book from another library.

If your initial search query does not produce the desired results, try:

  • << Previous: Refine
  • Next: Find Information >>
  • Last Updated: Feb 7, 2024 12:23 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.lvc.edu/researchpaper

How to Write a Research Paper (+ Free AI Research Paper Writer)

How to Write a Research Paper (+ Free AI Research Paper Writer)

Table of contents

research paper writing search

Meredith Sell

Over the years, I've managed to vastly improve how I write research papers.

The three major game-changers for me, in terms of quality of the finished piece, have been:

  • Following the research paper checklist (see below)
  • Developing the thesis before starting to write
  • And, more recently, using AI to improve my research paper draft

Let's break down each of these elements and produce the kind of research papers that get cited in magazines.

FREE AI research paper writer > FREE AI research paper writer >

Write your research paper with the help of AI

What is a research paper, and how is it written differently?

Research papers are longer and more in-depth than essays. They require extensive research and evidence-based arguments. Research papers also typically have a more formal structure and require citations and references.When academics want to find a balanced and comprehensive view on a given topic, they usually seek a research paper.

Like most writing assignments, a research paper can be broken down into simple steps. Research papers follow the same basic writing process as explanatory or persuasive essays — but instead of making an argument or drawing greater meaning from the topic, the research paper is primarily concerned with concrete facts that may be analyzed, examined, or interpreted to better understand the paper’s central topic.

This is good news if you enjoy research: you’ll be doing a lot of it. The ultimate quality of your paper depends on you conducting thorough, complete research — and relying on reputable sources.

How to Properly Write a Research Paper Using AI

1. make a checklist based on the assignment description, and fill it out with ai.

Your professor has likely specified some criteria for your research paper:

  • Length (in pages or words)
  • Type of topic (the War of 1812, ancient Greece, agriculture, etc.)
  • Elements that must be included, such as analysis, discussion, and comparison.
  • Types of sources you must draw from (academic papers, encyclopedias, etc.)
  • Source attribution style
  • Formatting style

Go through the assignment description and create a checklist of those criteria. You can use this checklist throughout the research and writing process as well:

research paper checklist

AI can really help you get some traction with your research paper in the preperation stage. This includes two main steps:

  • Brainstorming paper topic idea
  • Outlining based on your topic, basing the prompt on the assignment

2. Choose a topic you’re curious about, or use AI to help you with that

A sure way to write a boring research paper is to pick a topic you have no interest in, like summer temperatures in the desert or the life cycle of a flea. (Though someone’s probably interested in those things.)

Instead, follow your curiosity.

If your paper is for a writing class, you may have a lot of freedom to choose what you write about, so tap into your interests. Are you intrigued by the history of roller skating or the invention of the soccer cleat? Or how teen social dynamics have changed with evolving technology (think: home phones → online instant messaging → flip phones → smartphones)?

If you’re writing for a class in a subject like history, art, or science, you’ll probably have more restrictions on what you can write about — like a time period or type of art or science — but you can still use your curiosity to pick an interesting topic.

If you’re having a tough time, try brainstorming a list of things you’ve wondered about. Ask “ what’s up with… ” and see what comes to mind.

For example:

What’s up with traffic circles and why are they supposedly better for traffic patterns than a light or four-way stop?

What’s up with country music sounding more and more like hip-hop?

What’s up with people who have gluten allergies being able to eat bread in Europe but not the US?

Once you have a list, choose the topic you find most interesting (and appropriate for the assignment).

If your mind draws a blank, you can utilize AI to help you choose a topic. Let's say your course is about mid century art. You can go to a tool like Wotdtune and ask it to give you ideas for creative mid century art essays. See example below.

research paper writing search

3. Develop your thesis (and guide your research) by asking a research question

Even though a research paper may not necessarily take a side on a topic, it still needs a thesis, aka a central idea or focus that drives the piece from beginning to end. 

We wrote a whole guide on writing thesis statements , so here we’ll just give you this tip:

Use a research question to develop your thesis

A research question is a variation on the “What’s up with…” questions from the last tip — but it will zoom in more specifically on the aspect of your topic that you’re investigating.

Why were the Irish so dependent on potatoes?

Did any women in ancient Greece enjoy relative freedom and autonomy?

You may already know the answer to these questions, or you may not. Either way, they give you a place to start in your research. Once you have your question, set out to:

  • Find the initial answer.
  • Gather more context (the who, what, when, where, why, how) around that answer.
  • Revise your research question and turn it into your thesis.

This process helps tighten your focus from a broad topic that could fill books to a specific angle that can be meaningfully explored in the few pages of your paper.

Instead of the potato famine , write about why England was to blame for the potato famine’s devastating effects on the Irish.

Instead of ancient Greece or women in ancient Greece , write about how Spartan women’s lives differed from the lives of women in Athens.

4. Skim sources and use AI to perform research for your paper

Your research question can help you quickly determine whether information is relevant to your paper. As you gather initial sources, skim them — and then use your research question to decide whether to keep or discard the source. 

Does the source cover information relevant to my research question?

Yes: Keep to read later.

No: Discard and move on to the next source.

This approach will save you precious research time. You won’t waste limited hours reading sources that don’t have a single helpful fact.

If skimming is hard for you (as a deep reader, I get it), Wordtune can help. Paste the link to your online source, upload a scanned PDF, or copy the text, and the tool will scan and summarize for you. You can always come back later and closely read the most useful sources.

Wordtune Read reading an argument about dangerous fungus

5. Make note of the most interesting facts you find

Along with taking detailed notes of your research (complete with all the source info you need to make proper citations), highlight the most interesting facts you come across. You could stick these in a section together or mark them in a way that makes them stand out.

Why should you do this?

Because later on, one of these fascinating factoids could have a direct connection to your thesis — and make a great hook for the start of your paper. Instead of digging through all of your notes to try to remember what that interesting tidbit was, you’ll be able to find it easily.

6. Organize your research

There are plenty of ways to organize your notes, but I suggest breaking them up into subtopics and categories.

  • Subtopic: A topic related to your main topic or thesis that needs to be explained and understood by readers in order to understand your main topic or thesis. For example: Land ownership in Ireland under British rule.
  • Category: An overarching concept that several subtopics fall under. For example: British restrictions on the Irish.

To start, I would focus on the subtopics and then group them into categories.

As you organize, use the formatting tools in your word processor to tag headings and subheadings. For example, all categories would be an H2 (Heading 2), while all subtopics would be an H3 (Heading 3). 

Screenshot of Google Docs style tagging.

Tagging your categories and subtopics this way will help you develop your outline. Just organize your categories and subtopics in a logical order, and you’ll have a skeleton of an outline ready to go.

7. Write with your research document open

No one can remember everything they found while researching — you’ll need to reference your research document throughout the writing process. No question there.

But you can make this easier (and keep your writing process efficient) by:

Keeping your research document open and in clear view.

I like to put my draft document and my research document side by side on my screen, so I can see them both at the same time. 

Another approach would be to paste the information you need directly into your draft document — in the order you’ll need it. (Your outline will help you know what you need.)

8. Steal the TK trick from journalists

In the middle of drafting your paper, you find that you’re missing a fact. 

You neglected to write down how many Irish people starved due to the potato famine.

You don’t know what age Spartan women were able to own property.

Instead of derailing your writing and searching for that information, write the sentence you want to write and stick a “TK” where the missing fact should go.

“TK” stands for “to come” (don't ask us why) and is a placeholder used by journalists to mark missing information they’ll fill in later. Using TK allows you to keep writing without getting off track every time you discover your research didn’t cover everything.

A whopping TK Irish people starved, thanks to the combination of famine and British oppression.

At age TK , Spartan girls became women who were able to own property, a right that their sisters in Athens did not enjoy.

9. Revise, explain, paraphrase with AI as your research/writing assistant

Using the right researching tools can get you a lot way.

If you’re ever at a loss for words — writing clunky, clumsy sentences, struggling to explain a concept, or having a hard time paraphrasing a source — Wordtune can serve as your AI sidekick.  

Simply highlight the sentence in question and browse Wordtune’s suggestion for a better wording.

Using Wordtune for research papers

You can also use Wordtune Spices to come up with examples and counter arguments for whatever you're writing about or even find stats and facts, complete with source citations

A great feature for academics

Wordtune doesn’t do all of the writing for you, but it can help you sharpen your ideas on the sentence level, so you can hand in a research paper with good writing that’s still very much your own.

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Home » Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Research Paper

Research Paper

Definition:

Research Paper is a written document that presents the author’s original research, analysis, and interpretation of a specific topic or issue.

It is typically based on Empirical Evidence, and may involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or a combination of both. The purpose of a research paper is to contribute new knowledge or insights to a particular field of study, and to demonstrate the author’s understanding of the existing literature and theories related to the topic.

Structure of Research Paper

The structure of a research paper typically follows a standard format, consisting of several sections that convey specific information about the research study. The following is a detailed explanation of the structure of a research paper:

The title page contains the title of the paper, the name(s) of the author(s), and the affiliation(s) of the author(s). It also includes the date of submission and possibly, the name of the journal or conference where the paper is to be published.

The abstract is a brief summary of the research paper, typically ranging from 100 to 250 words. It should include the research question, the methods used, the key findings, and the implications of the results. The abstract should be written in a concise and clear manner to allow readers to quickly grasp the essence of the research.

Introduction

The introduction section of a research paper provides background information about the research problem, the research question, and the research objectives. It also outlines the significance of the research, the research gap that it aims to fill, and the approach taken to address the research question. Finally, the introduction section ends with a clear statement of the research hypothesis or research question.

Literature Review

The literature review section of a research paper provides an overview of the existing literature on the topic of study. It includes a critical analysis and synthesis of the literature, highlighting the key concepts, themes, and debates. The literature review should also demonstrate the research gap and how the current study seeks to address it.

The methods section of a research paper describes the research design, the sample selection, the data collection and analysis procedures, and the statistical methods used to analyze the data. This section should provide sufficient detail for other researchers to replicate the study.

The results section presents the findings of the research, using tables, graphs, and figures to illustrate the data. The findings should be presented in a clear and concise manner, with reference to the research question and hypothesis.

The discussion section of a research paper interprets the findings and discusses their implications for the research question, the literature review, and the field of study. It should also address the limitations of the study and suggest future research directions.

The conclusion section summarizes the main findings of the study, restates the research question and hypothesis, and provides a final reflection on the significance of the research.

The references section provides a list of all the sources cited in the paper, following a specific citation style such as APA, MLA or Chicago.

How to Write Research Paper

You can write Research Paper by the following guide:

  • Choose a Topic: The first step is to select a topic that interests you and is relevant to your field of study. Brainstorm ideas and narrow down to a research question that is specific and researchable.
  • Conduct a Literature Review: The literature review helps you identify the gap in the existing research and provides a basis for your research question. It also helps you to develop a theoretical framework and research hypothesis.
  • Develop a Thesis Statement : The thesis statement is the main argument of your research paper. It should be clear, concise and specific to your research question.
  • Plan your Research: Develop a research plan that outlines the methods, data sources, and data analysis procedures. This will help you to collect and analyze data effectively.
  • Collect and Analyze Data: Collect data using various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments. Analyze data using statistical tools or other qualitative methods.
  • Organize your Paper : Organize your paper into sections such as Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Ensure that each section is coherent and follows a logical flow.
  • Write your Paper : Start by writing the introduction, followed by the literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and follows the required formatting and citation styles.
  • Edit and Proofread your Paper: Review your paper for grammar and spelling errors, and ensure that it is well-structured and easy to read. Ask someone else to review your paper to get feedback and suggestions for improvement.
  • Cite your Sources: Ensure that you properly cite all sources used in your research paper. This is essential for giving credit to the original authors and avoiding plagiarism.

Research Paper Example

Note : The below example research paper is for illustrative purposes only and is not an actual research paper. Actual research papers may have different structures, contents, and formats depending on the field of study, research question, data collection and analysis methods, and other factors. Students should always consult with their professors or supervisors for specific guidelines and expectations for their research papers.

Research Paper Example sample for Students:

Title: The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health among Young Adults

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults. A literature review was conducted to examine the existing research on the topic. A survey was then administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Introduction: Social media has become an integral part of modern life, particularly among young adults. While social media has many benefits, including increased communication and social connectivity, it has also been associated with negative outcomes, such as addiction, cyberbullying, and mental health problems. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults.

Literature Review: The literature review highlights the existing research on the impact of social media use on mental health. The review shows that social media use is associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health problems. The review also identifies the factors that contribute to the negative impact of social media, including social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Methods : A survey was administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The survey included questions on social media use, mental health status (measured using the DASS-21), and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis.

Results : The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Discussion : The study’s findings suggest that social media use has a negative impact on the mental health of young adults. The study highlights the need for interventions that address the factors contributing to the negative impact of social media, such as social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Conclusion : In conclusion, social media use has a significant impact on the mental health of young adults. The study’s findings underscore the need for interventions that promote healthy social media use and address the negative outcomes associated with social media use. Future research can explore the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health. Additionally, longitudinal studies can investigate the long-term effects of social media use on mental health.

Limitations : The study has some limitations, including the use of self-report measures and a cross-sectional design. The use of self-report measures may result in biased responses, and a cross-sectional design limits the ability to establish causality.

Implications: The study’s findings have implications for mental health professionals, educators, and policymakers. Mental health professionals can use the findings to develop interventions that address the negative impact of social media use on mental health. Educators can incorporate social media literacy into their curriculum to promote healthy social media use among young adults. Policymakers can use the findings to develop policies that protect young adults from the negative outcomes associated with social media use.

References :

  • Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2019). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive medicine reports, 15, 100918.
  • Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., … & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among US young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.
  • Van der Meer, T. G., & Verhoeven, J. W. (2017). Social media and its impact on academic performance of students. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 16, 383-398.

Appendix : The survey used in this study is provided below.

Social Media and Mental Health Survey

  • How often do you use social media per day?
  • Less than 30 minutes
  • 30 minutes to 1 hour
  • 1 to 2 hours
  • 2 to 4 hours
  • More than 4 hours
  • Which social media platforms do you use?
  • Others (Please specify)
  • How often do you experience the following on social media?
  • Social comparison (comparing yourself to others)
  • Cyberbullying
  • Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
  • Have you ever experienced any of the following mental health problems in the past month?
  • Do you think social media use has a positive or negative impact on your mental health?
  • Very positive
  • Somewhat positive
  • Somewhat negative
  • Very negative
  • In your opinion, which factors contribute to the negative impact of social media on mental health?
  • Social comparison
  • In your opinion, what interventions could be effective in reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health?
  • Education on healthy social media use
  • Counseling for mental health problems caused by social media
  • Social media detox programs
  • Regulation of social media use

Thank you for your participation!

Applications of Research Paper

Research papers have several applications in various fields, including:

  • Advancing knowledge: Research papers contribute to the advancement of knowledge by generating new insights, theories, and findings that can inform future research and practice. They help to answer important questions, clarify existing knowledge, and identify areas that require further investigation.
  • Informing policy: Research papers can inform policy decisions by providing evidence-based recommendations for policymakers. They can help to identify gaps in current policies, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and inform the development of new policies and regulations.
  • Improving practice: Research papers can improve practice by providing evidence-based guidance for professionals in various fields, including medicine, education, business, and psychology. They can inform the development of best practices, guidelines, and standards of care that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
  • Educating students : Research papers are often used as teaching tools in universities and colleges to educate students about research methods, data analysis, and academic writing. They help students to develop critical thinking skills, research skills, and communication skills that are essential for success in many careers.
  • Fostering collaboration: Research papers can foster collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers by providing a platform for sharing knowledge and ideas. They can facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships that can lead to innovative solutions to complex problems.

When to Write Research Paper

Research papers are typically written when a person has completed a research project or when they have conducted a study and have obtained data or findings that they want to share with the academic or professional community. Research papers are usually written in academic settings, such as universities, but they can also be written in professional settings, such as research organizations, government agencies, or private companies.

Here are some common situations where a person might need to write a research paper:

  • For academic purposes: Students in universities and colleges are often required to write research papers as part of their coursework, particularly in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. Writing research papers helps students to develop research skills, critical thinking skills, and academic writing skills.
  • For publication: Researchers often write research papers to publish their findings in academic journals or to present their work at academic conferences. Publishing research papers is an important way to disseminate research findings to the academic community and to establish oneself as an expert in a particular field.
  • To inform policy or practice : Researchers may write research papers to inform policy decisions or to improve practice in various fields. Research findings can be used to inform the development of policies, guidelines, and best practices that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
  • To share new insights or ideas: Researchers may write research papers to share new insights or ideas with the academic or professional community. They may present new theories, propose new research methods, or challenge existing paradigms in their field.

Purpose of Research Paper

The purpose of a research paper is to present the results of a study or investigation in a clear, concise, and structured manner. Research papers are written to communicate new knowledge, ideas, or findings to a specific audience, such as researchers, scholars, practitioners, or policymakers. The primary purposes of a research paper are:

  • To contribute to the body of knowledge : Research papers aim to add new knowledge or insights to a particular field or discipline. They do this by reporting the results of empirical studies, reviewing and synthesizing existing literature, proposing new theories, or providing new perspectives on a topic.
  • To inform or persuade: Research papers are written to inform or persuade the reader about a particular issue, topic, or phenomenon. They present evidence and arguments to support their claims and seek to persuade the reader of the validity of their findings or recommendations.
  • To advance the field: Research papers seek to advance the field or discipline by identifying gaps in knowledge, proposing new research questions or approaches, or challenging existing assumptions or paradigms. They aim to contribute to ongoing debates and discussions within a field and to stimulate further research and inquiry.
  • To demonstrate research skills: Research papers demonstrate the author’s research skills, including their ability to design and conduct a study, collect and analyze data, and interpret and communicate findings. They also demonstrate the author’s ability to critically evaluate existing literature, synthesize information from multiple sources, and write in a clear and structured manner.

Characteristics of Research Paper

Research papers have several characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of academic or professional writing. Here are some common characteristics of research papers:

  • Evidence-based: Research papers are based on empirical evidence, which is collected through rigorous research methods such as experiments, surveys, observations, or interviews. They rely on objective data and facts to support their claims and conclusions.
  • Structured and organized: Research papers have a clear and logical structure, with sections such as introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. They are organized in a way that helps the reader to follow the argument and understand the findings.
  • Formal and objective: Research papers are written in a formal and objective tone, with an emphasis on clarity, precision, and accuracy. They avoid subjective language or personal opinions and instead rely on objective data and analysis to support their arguments.
  • Citations and references: Research papers include citations and references to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas used in the paper. They use a specific citation style, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago, to ensure consistency and accuracy.
  • Peer-reviewed: Research papers are often peer-reviewed, which means they are evaluated by other experts in the field before they are published. Peer-review ensures that the research is of high quality, meets ethical standards, and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field.
  • Objective and unbiased: Research papers strive to be objective and unbiased in their presentation of the findings. They avoid personal biases or preconceptions and instead rely on the data and analysis to draw conclusions.

Advantages of Research Paper

Research papers have many advantages, both for the individual researcher and for the broader academic and professional community. Here are some advantages of research papers:

  • Contribution to knowledge: Research papers contribute to the body of knowledge in a particular field or discipline. They add new information, insights, and perspectives to existing literature and help advance the understanding of a particular phenomenon or issue.
  • Opportunity for intellectual growth: Research papers provide an opportunity for intellectual growth for the researcher. They require critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which can help develop the researcher’s skills and knowledge.
  • Career advancement: Research papers can help advance the researcher’s career by demonstrating their expertise and contributions to the field. They can also lead to new research opportunities, collaborations, and funding.
  • Academic recognition: Research papers can lead to academic recognition in the form of awards, grants, or invitations to speak at conferences or events. They can also contribute to the researcher’s reputation and standing in the field.
  • Impact on policy and practice: Research papers can have a significant impact on policy and practice. They can inform policy decisions, guide practice, and lead to changes in laws, regulations, or procedures.
  • Advancement of society: Research papers can contribute to the advancement of society by addressing important issues, identifying solutions to problems, and promoting social justice and equality.

Limitations of Research Paper

Research papers also have some limitations that should be considered when interpreting their findings or implications. Here are some common limitations of research papers:

  • Limited generalizability: Research findings may not be generalizable to other populations, settings, or contexts. Studies often use specific samples or conditions that may not reflect the broader population or real-world situations.
  • Potential for bias : Research papers may be biased due to factors such as sample selection, measurement errors, or researcher biases. It is important to evaluate the quality of the research design and methods used to ensure that the findings are valid and reliable.
  • Ethical concerns: Research papers may raise ethical concerns, such as the use of vulnerable populations or invasive procedures. Researchers must adhere to ethical guidelines and obtain informed consent from participants to ensure that the research is conducted in a responsible and respectful manner.
  • Limitations of methodology: Research papers may be limited by the methodology used to collect and analyze data. For example, certain research methods may not capture the complexity or nuance of a particular phenomenon, or may not be appropriate for certain research questions.
  • Publication bias: Research papers may be subject to publication bias, where positive or significant findings are more likely to be published than negative or non-significant findings. This can skew the overall findings of a particular area of research.
  • Time and resource constraints: Research papers may be limited by time and resource constraints, which can affect the quality and scope of the research. Researchers may not have access to certain data or resources, or may be unable to conduct long-term studies due to practical limitations.

About the author

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Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Writing Guide

Research Papers

  • Writing & Reading Basics
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  • APA This link opens in a new window
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  • Research Papers...
  • Student Voice & Integrating Resources
  • 1: Choose Template
  • 2: Choosing a Topic
  • 3: Writing a Thesis/ Introduction
  • 4: Creating an Outline
  • 5: Researching
  • 6: Build the Paper: Rough Draft
  • 7: Creating a Reference Page
  • 8: Review the Paper
  • 9: Write the Final Draft
  • 10: Submit your Paper
  • Writing research papers give you the opportunity to take a deeper dive into a topic while relying on credible sources for information.  A research paper should be original work from you, the writer. This means that the vast majority of the research paper content should be your own ideas, analysis, and words, and should avoid an overreliance on direct quotations from outside sources. Consider this approach when writing your papers:

research paper writing search

  • This process also hones the skills that so many employers find valuable like researching for information, applying the information and  prioritizing and organizing information, and more.
  • Breaking the process down into steps will make it more manageable.
  • Research Paper Boot Camp video series.
  • How to find resources for your research paper.
  • NoodleTools can help you create APA in-text citations and the reference page.
  • The APA Sample Paper shows you what a research paper should look like.

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations should be used sparingly, and only when absolutely necessary. Remember that you are the one writing the paper, and the vast majority of the ideas and words in the paper should be your own. Your instructors and readers want to hear from you , and the quotations or paraphrases you use should support what you have written. Keep in mind:

research paper writing search

When to use a Quotation:

Although paraphrasing information is preferable, there are specific situations when a quotation can be an effective choice.  For example:

  • Including a famous or familiar quotation can be effective when introducing a topic or in setting the tone of a paper.
  • Providing the words of an expert can bolster your position or argument.
  • In rare instances, it may be difficult to paraphrase a short passage without changing the meaning; including a precise quotation may be preferable.
  • Sources of facts and statistics--including those presented in tables or charts -- must be documented in your paper using in-text citations and references.
  • Including a quotation that opposes your position can be an effective method to prove why your position on the issue is preferable.

Step 1: Choose the template for your research paper

  • For a research paper, you'll use the APA Word Template .
  • APA 7th Edition Paper Template in Word
  • The format will remain the same (caps, indents, spacing), you'll just insert your own information and click on  Save As .
  • Quarter > Course Name > Module > JStudent_exampleproblem_101519
  • Example: Spring 2020 > Eng Comp > Module 3 > JDoe_Discovery and Planning_041520

Setting up a research plan

  • Here's how to create a research plan .

Step 2: Choosing a topic

  • Sometimes choosing a topic is a quick process, other times it can be a challenging process. 
  • ​Picking and Limiting your Topic .
  • What are some Popular Topics for Papers?
  • Choosing and Narrowing a Topic for a Research Paper.
  • Once you've chosen your topic, you're ready to move along to the next step.

Step 3: Writing a thesis/introduction

  • A thesis statement clearly identifies the topic being discussed, it should only cover what is being discussed in the paper, and is written for a specific audience.
  • Use it to generate interest in your topic and encourage your audience to continue reading.
  • Writing an Introduction    
  • Thesis Builder    
  • Thesis Generator

Step 4: Creating an outline

  • What does a good outline look like?
  • Generally there is one main idea per paragraph.
  • These will also be the bulleted elements from the beginning when you set the assignment up.
  • Mind Maps  and  Graphic Organizers  may help you with this process.   

Watch the short  video below  for information on creating an outline in Microsoft Word 2013.

Step 5: Researching

Think of a time when you wanted to know more about a topic (e.g. The best oil to use in your car).  You probably went on the internet and looked things up in a search engine like Google.  You used search terms (oil for car, synthetic oil better?, 30w oil for car?, etc.) and then sorted through the sites that came up to find the ones that were most applicable and 'legit'.  This is actually the same process you will do for researching for your paper , you'll just do it with a few differences.  We've made it easier for you because we have provided databases   where you can find credible sources with the information you'll need.

Researching is simply finding the information that will make your paper credible.  When you research, you are finding information .

Here are some things to help you navigate through the research process.

  • What is a good way to find resources for research ?
  • How do I know if a website is credible ?
  • What are all the library resources that are available to help me conduct my research ?

Need help with the process?

  • Connect with a Tutor  
  • Utilize Ask a Librarian
  • Set-up a Research Appointment with a Librarian

Step 6: Build the paper: your rough draft

Now that you have the information you need to write your paper, you'll start your rough draft .  You can take the information from your outline and place it into your APA formatted paper that you've already downloaded and saved. Your  outline will show you what your paragraphs will contain.  Your paper will consist of: a

  • Generally the last sentence of your introduction will be your thesis statement .
  • Each paragraph contains a main idea from your outline .
  • A conclusion paragraph
  • A reference page

Watch the short  video below  for an introduction to APA style.

Step 7: Creating a reference page 

The  reference page will be at the end of your paper and it will list all of the sources you used.  Each in-text citation in your paper should connect to a source on the reference page.  Think of it this way, anyone who reads your paper should be able to look up the information you have in your paper.

The APA Guide  has a page on creating references complete with examples for each type of resource you may encounter while researching.

To find an example of what a reference page looks like, view the APA Sample Paper . 

Step 8: Review the paper

  • Double check that the assignment's required elements (bulleted from earlier) are all in your paper.
  • This is the same rubric the Writing Lab staff will use as a guideline for your written work.  Use the rubric to 'score' your own paper.  You'll see helpful resources right there for you to make any changes before you submit it to the Writing Lab.   See the bottom box for complete information about the Rubric and how to use it. 
  • Submit it to Grammarly for review. Grammarly is an automated software that checks for grammar, mechanics, spelling, word usage, and even plagiarism.  Click here to learn more. 
  • Submit it to the Writing Lab for review . Follow the these user-friendly instructions . Feedback will be provided to you within 24-48 hours.  The feedback will be based on this rubric and will also provide specific next steps based on what is needed to improve the paper.

Watch the short video below for information on revising your paper.

Step 9: Write the final draft

Now that you've received feedback about your paper, it's time to take that feedback and write your final draft.  Double check that the assignment's required elements (bulleted from earlier) are all in your paper. ​

If you would like feedback on your final draft, you can utilize the  Writing Lab:

  • Start by looking at the rubric in the Rubric & Paper Review box below. This is the same rubric the Writing Lab staff will use as a guideline for your written work.  Use the rubric to 'score' your own paper.  You'll see helpful resources right there for you to make any changes before you submit it to the Writing Lab.  See the bottom box for complete information about the Rubric and how to use it. 
  • Submit it to the Writing Lab for review . Follow these user-friendly instructions . Feedback will be provided to you within 24-48 hours.  The feedback will be based on this rubric and will also provide specific next steps based on what is needed to improve the paper.

Step 10: Submit your paper

  • Click on the Attachments button. A new "Attachments" window will open.
  • Click on the Browse button. A new window will open, directing you to locate the assignment on your computer.
  • When you have located the assignment file on your computer, select it and click the Open button in the window. The filename will then appear in the File to Upload field.
  • Type the title of your assignment in the Title box. The title should be your first initial and last name (i.e. JDoe.doc).
  • Leave the File Type drop-down box set to Auto-detect .
  • Click the Upload File button.
  • A message will appear stating that your file upload was successful. Click the OK button.
  • A new screen will appear showing your attached assignment and the date and time submitted.
  • Review the instructor's feedback after grading.  You will see your writing improve over time.

Resources for Research Papers

  • Answers for Research Papers
  • Writing an Introduction
  • Parts of a Paragraph
  • Thesis Statements
  • Topic Sentences and Organization
  • Understanding Purpose and Audience
  • Creating an Outline in MS Word 2010
  • Creating Mind Maps
  • Summary Paragraph Diagram
  • APA Formatting in Microsoft Word How do you properly format an APA paper in Microsoft Word? This video will answer these questions and more about what to expect when creating an APA paper.
  • Creating an Outline in Microsoft Word 2010 How do you create an outline? This video will answer this question and more about what to expect when creating an outline for your papers in Microsoft Word 2010.
  • Introductions How to start off on the right foot.
  • Thesis Statements How to make your thesis work for you, not against you.
  • Conclusions The end of a paper, not the end of the world.
  • Argument Making your point without making enemies.
  • Revision Getting it right before handing it in.
  • Research Paper Bootcamp
  • Resources Tab-Using the Digital Library
  • Grammar & Usage
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Guide to Grammar & Writing
  • Thesis Builder
  • Writing a Conclusion
  • Writing Commons
  • Structure of a Body Paragraph
  • Choosing and Narrowing a Topic to Write About
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  • Last Updated: Feb 13, 2024 1:57 PM

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

  • Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
  • Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

  • AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
  • APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
  • Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
  • MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
  • Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

  • Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
  • Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
  • Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

  • Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
  • In-text citations of research sources
  • References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

  • Title of the paper
  • Author’s name
  • Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
  • Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

Beyond the Hype: Evaluating Low-Carb Diets cover page

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Beyond the Hype: Abstract

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

  • Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
  • Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
  • Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
  • Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
  • Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Cover Page

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

  • Your title page
  • The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
  • Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

  • Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
  • Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
  • The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
  • The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
  • The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

  • MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
  • Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
  • Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

  • The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
  • The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
  • The full title of the source
  • For books, the city of publication
  • For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
  • For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
  • For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

References Section

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

  • Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
  • Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
  • APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
  • APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
  • In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
  • In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

  • Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
  • Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
  • How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
  • How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
  • How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
  • How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

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Current Events

  • What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
  • How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
  • How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
  • Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
  • What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
  • What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
  • How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
  • How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
  • How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
  • What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
  • What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
  • What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
  • Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies  (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
  • Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
  • Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
  • Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
  • Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
  • Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
  • How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
  • Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
  • What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
  • How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
  • What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
  • Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
  • Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
  • Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
  • How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
  • Should graduate students be able to form unions?

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  • What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
  • How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
  • Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
  • Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
  • How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
  • How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
  • Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
  • Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
  • Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
  • Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
  • Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
  • Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
  • Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
  • Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
  • Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
  • How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
  • How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
  • What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
  • What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
  • Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
  • What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
  • What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
  • Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
  • Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
  • How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
  • Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
  • What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
  • How does stress affect the body?
  • Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
  • What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
  • Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
  • How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
  • What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
  • What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
  • Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
  • What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
  • What were the causes of the Civil War?
  • How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
  • Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
  • What caused Hitler's rise to power?
  • Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
  • What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
  • How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
  • What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

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  • Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
  • Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
  • How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
  • How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
  • What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
  • What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
  • How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

  • How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
  • How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
  • Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
  • Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
  • How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
  • How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
  • What are the pros and cons of fracking?
  • What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
  • What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
  • How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
  • Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
  • Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
  • What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
  • What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
  • How are black holes created?
  • Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
  • How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
  • Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
  • How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
  • Has social media made people more or less connected?
  • What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
  • Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
  • What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
  • How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
  • When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
  • Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

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How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

Are you also learning about dynamic equilibrium in your science class? We break this sometimes tricky concept down so it's easy to understand in our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium .

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Want to know the fastest and easiest ways to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius? We've got you covered! Check out our guide to the best ways to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit (or vice versa).

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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A Beginner's Guide to Starting the Research Process

Research process steps

When you have to write a thesis or dissertation , it can be hard to know where to begin, but there are some clear steps you can follow.

The research process often begins with a very broad idea for a topic you’d like to know more about. You do some preliminary research to identify a  problem . After refining your research questions , you can lay out the foundations of your research design , leading to a proposal that outlines your ideas and plans.

This article takes you through the first steps of the research process, helping you narrow down your ideas and build up a strong foundation for your research project.

Table of contents

Step 1: choose your topic, step 2: identify a problem, step 3: formulate research questions, step 4: create a research design, step 5: write a research proposal, other interesting articles.

First you have to come up with some ideas. Your thesis or dissertation topic can start out very broad. Think about the general area or field you’re interested in—maybe you already have specific research interests based on classes you’ve taken, or maybe you had to consider your topic when applying to graduate school and writing a statement of purpose .

Even if you already have a good sense of your topic, you’ll need to read widely to build background knowledge and begin narrowing down your ideas. Conduct an initial literature review to begin gathering relevant sources. As you read, take notes and try to identify problems, questions, debates, contradictions and gaps. Your aim is to narrow down from a broad area of interest to a specific niche.

Make sure to consider the practicalities: the requirements of your programme, the amount of time you have to complete the research, and how difficult it will be to access sources and data on the topic. Before moving onto the next stage, it’s a good idea to discuss the topic with your thesis supervisor.

>>Read more about narrowing down a research topic

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So you’ve settled on a topic and found a niche—but what exactly will your research investigate, and why does it matter? To give your project focus and purpose, you have to define a research problem .

The problem might be a practical issue—for example, a process or practice that isn’t working well, an area of concern in an organization’s performance, or a difficulty faced by a specific group of people in society.

Alternatively, you might choose to investigate a theoretical problem—for example, an underexplored phenomenon or relationship, a contradiction between different models or theories, or an unresolved debate among scholars.

To put the problem in context and set your objectives, you can write a problem statement . This describes who the problem affects, why research is needed, and how your research project will contribute to solving it.

>>Read more about defining a research problem

Next, based on the problem statement, you need to write one or more research questions . These target exactly what you want to find out. They might focus on describing, comparing, evaluating, or explaining the research problem.

A strong research question should be specific enough that you can answer it thoroughly using appropriate qualitative or quantitative research methods. It should also be complex enough to require in-depth investigation, analysis, and argument. Questions that can be answered with “yes/no” or with easily available facts are not complex enough for a thesis or dissertation.

In some types of research, at this stage you might also have to develop a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses .

>>See research question examples

The research design is a practical framework for answering your research questions. It involves making decisions about the type of data you need, the methods you’ll use to collect and analyze it, and the location and timescale of your research.

There are often many possible paths you can take to answering your questions. The decisions you make will partly be based on your priorities. For example, do you want to determine causes and effects, draw generalizable conclusions, or understand the details of a specific context?

You need to decide whether you will use primary or secondary data and qualitative or quantitative methods . You also need to determine the specific tools, procedures, and materials you’ll use to collect and analyze your data, as well as your criteria for selecting participants or sources.

>>Read more about creating a research design

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Finally, after completing these steps, you are ready to complete a research proposal . The proposal outlines the context, relevance, purpose, and plan of your research.

As well as outlining the background, problem statement, and research questions, the proposal should also include a literature review that shows how your project will fit into existing work on the topic. The research design section describes your approach and explains exactly what you will do.

You might have to get the proposal approved by your supervisor before you get started, and it will guide the process of writing your thesis or dissertation.

>>Read more about writing a research proposal

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

  • Sampling methods
  • Simple random sampling
  • Stratified sampling
  • Cluster sampling
  • Likert scales
  • Reproducibility

 Statistics

  • Null hypothesis
  • Statistical power
  • Probability distribution
  • Effect size
  • Poisson distribution

Research bias

  • Optimism bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Implicit bias
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Anchoring bias
  • Explicit bias

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What’s Included: Research Paper Template

If you’re preparing to write an academic research paper, our free research paper template is the perfect starting point. In the template, we cover every section step by step, with clear, straightforward explanations and examples .

The template’s structure is based on the tried and trusted best-practice format for formal academic research papers. The template structure reflects the overall research process, ensuring your paper will have a smooth, logical flow from chapter to chapter.

The research paper template covers the following core sections:

  • The title page/cover page
  • Abstract (sometimes also called the executive summary)
  • Section 1: Introduction 
  • Section 2: Literature review 
  • Section 3: Methodology
  • Section 4: Findings /results
  • Section 5: Discussion
  • Section 6: Conclusion
  • Reference list

Each section is explained in plain, straightforward language , followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover within each section. We’ve also included links to free resources to help you understand how to write each section.

The cleanly formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

FAQs: Research Paper Template

What format is the template (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.).

The research paper template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

What types of research papers can this template be used for?

The template follows the standard best-practice structure for formal academic research papers, so it is suitable for the vast majority of degrees, particularly those within the sciences.

Some universities may have some additional requirements, but these are typically minor, with the core structure remaining the same. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalise your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Masters or PhD-level research paper?

This template can be used for a research paper at any level of study. It may be slight overkill for an undergraduate-level study, but it certainly won’t be missing anything.

How long should my research paper be?

This depends entirely on your university’s specific requirements, so it’s best to check with them. We include generic word count ranges for each section within the template, but these are purely indicative. 

What about the research proposal?

If you’re still working on your research proposal, we’ve got a template for that here .

We’ve also got loads of proposal-related guides and videos over on the Grad Coach blog .

How do I write a literature review?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack how to write a literature review from scratch. You can check out the literature review section of the blog here.

How do I create a research methodology?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative. You can check out the methodology section of the blog here.

Can I share this research paper template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template. If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, all we ask is that you reference this page as your source.

Can Grad Coach help me with my research paper?

Within the template, you’ll find plain-language explanations of each section, which should give you a fair amount of guidance. However, you’re also welcome to consider our private coaching services .

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Critical Writing Program: Decision Making - Spring 2024: Researching the White Paper

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Research the White Paper

Researching the White Paper:

The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What’s important for writers of white papers to grasp, however, is how much this genre differs from a research paper.  First, the author of a white paper already recognizes that there is a problem to be solved, a decision to be made, and the job of the author is to provide readers with substantive information to help them make some kind of decision--which may include a decision to do more research because major gaps remain. 

Thus, a white paper author would not “brainstorm” a topic. Instead, the white paper author would get busy figuring out how the problem is defined by those who are experiencing it as a problem. Typically that research begins in popular culture--social media, surveys, interviews, newspapers. Once the author has a handle on how the problem is being defined and experienced, its history and its impact, what people in the trenches believe might be the best or worst ways of addressing it, the author then will turn to academic scholarship as well as “grey” literature (more about that later).  Unlike a school research paper, the author does not set out to argue for or against a particular position, and then devote the majority of effort to finding sources to support the selected position.  Instead, the author sets out in good faith to do as much fact-finding as possible, and thus research is likely to present multiple, conflicting, and overlapping perspectives. When people research out of a genuine desire to understand and solve a problem, they listen to every source that may offer helpful information. They will thus have to do much more analysis, synthesis, and sorting of that information, which will often not fall neatly into a “pro” or “con” camp:  Solution A may, for example, solve one part of the problem but exacerbate another part of the problem. Solution C may sound like what everyone wants, but what if it’s built on a set of data that have been criticized by another reliable source?  And so it goes. 

For example, if you are trying to write a white paper on the opioid crisis, you may focus on the value of  providing free, sterilized needles--which do indeed reduce disease, and also provide an opportunity for the health care provider distributing them to offer addiction treatment to the user. However, the free needles are sometimes discarded on the ground, posing a danger to others; or they may be shared; or they may encourage more drug usage. All of those things can be true at once; a reader will want to know about all of these considerations in order to make an informed decision. That is the challenging job of the white paper author.     
 The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it.  You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise answer these same questions. In this way, you will create creating a layered, complex portrait that provides readers with a substantive exploration useful for deliberating and decision-making. You will also likely need to find or create images, including tables, figures, illustrations or photographs, and you will document all of your sources. 

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Best Research Paper Writing Services: TOP 5 Cheap Custom Writing Help Websites Reviews

T he workload in colleges and universities is so enormous that students only have time for some of their responsibilities or extracurricular activities. Aside from the day-long lectures and seminars, each course comes with assignments, especially in the form of research work or paper writing. 

To cut down on this vast workload, students employ professional research assistants and writers to complete these tasks for them. However, advancements in technology have even made this service more easily accessible. With research paper writing websites, students can generate their assignments in a few days. Hence, five of the best research paper writing services online have been highlighted and discussed in detail below. Here is a list with the TOP 5 research paper writing websites:

  • PaperHelp - the best research paper writing service overall.
  • SpeedyPaper - #1 research paper writing website in the U.S.
  • GradeMiners - custom paper writers to hire online for help with homework.
  • PaperWriter - the cheapest research paper writing company in the world.
  • PaperCoach - the fastest research paper & proposal writing provider.

Research assignments are highly valuable to students. It is an avenue for them to learn something new that may not be discussed during the lecture. It could even be a good opportunity for students to improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, depending on the technicality of the research topic. Students can likewise deep dive into career experts or work closely with a mentor within or outside the educational system. However, students still do not take an interest in paper writing assignments. This attitude persists among them, even knowing that research and paper writing contribute anywhere between 20% and 80% of a course's grade.

A lot of reasons can be associated with students' poor interest in this aspect of their schooling. As mentioned in the introduction, the workload of colleges and universities forces students to give low consideration to such projects. In close relation to envy workloads, many students do not have the time, mental resources, or skillset for carrying out research or paper writing. According to Marco Learning, 40% of students could not write at a college level. Nevertheless, no student will settle for a low grade, even with terrible research and writing skills. Hence, the quest for a high grade will propel them to either contract the task to a physical professional or employ an online service. Some of the top-notch online services have been thoroughly dissected below.

5 Best Research Paper Writing Services Reviews

Each of the research paper writing services has its strengths. However, PaperHelp is the overall best research paper writing service. And that is why it is number one on this special list. A reviewer by the name of Betty showed her excitement about using this service by saying, "Very great support; they followed me through the whole process for a great essay! Thank you! Very excellent writer! The essay is very clear, and he finished before the deadline! For sure, I will release more orders."  PaperHelp is a writing platform for students with intuitive, customizable features. This platform was created to help students ease the burden of being overworked.

It is an easy-to-use service with only four phases of order placement. Firstly, clients have to choose the type of paper they want in the order form. The options available are academic writing, editing and proofreading, and calculations. Users will find essay writing services like rewriting, custom writing, programming homework help, etc. Students can also request term paper help, paper rating or grading, and several other services. Secondly, users are expected to provide details of their project, like the number of pages, line spacing, other text format, and deadline.

Extra files can also be uploaded where available. Then, they can proceed to input a valid email to generate secure login information. Finally, the process is completed by paying with a credit card or alternative payment system. Once the order has been set, users can follow their order in multiple ways. They can get updates through email, login to their control panel on a web or mobile app, or contact the support team. The support team can be reached via email, Facebook Messenger, phone, or in-app chat. If customers would like to get updates via SMS constantly, they can add the VIP Customer Service extra when they want to order.

The platform owners pride themselves on offering professional service, keeping interactions friendly, and ensuring customers are happy. The platform has a privacy policy for end users. They adhere strictly to Personal Data Protection law and only employ users’ data for legal reasons. Hence, they have a safe and secure service. Clients on PaperHelp can freely withdraw or give their consent to the use of their personal data. When users have complaints about how personal data is collected and processed, they can file a complaint under the PDP law. The platform updates and tests its platform security consistently to make personal data theftproof.

Such an important research paper writing service would not be appealing to students if they did not find the price pocket-friendly. Their pricing is based on school levels. For instance, a high school paper costs $9 per page, an undergraduate essay costs $12 per page, a bachelor's writing costs $17 per page, and a professional essay costs $20 per page. In addition to this, users can select helpful extra services like VIP customer support, plagiarism reports, sources used, etc., all at prices below $15. Not only does PaperHelp have affordable prices, but it also gives users incentives that make it very appealing, especially for multiple orders. There are bonuses, referral discount codes, a 7% feedback discount, and increased discounts on increased orders.

SpeedyPaper

Making it to number two on this list is the leading research paper writing website in the U.S. SpeedyPaper has second-to-none ratings on rating sites like Sitejabber, Reviews.io, and ScamFighter with 5/5, 4.9/5, and 4.9/5 on each site, respectively. This online writing assistant helps students scale through projects ranging from college admission essays to postgraduate or doctoral theses. Even if they have written the research paper and need it edited or proofread, SpeedyPaper is their reliable solution. Other solutions available for them include getting correct answers to multi-choice questions and receiving explanations on school or business projects.

This platform is everyone's go-to service provider for transforming old papers into new ones with paraphrasing or rewriting. In addition, SpeedyPaper can be used as a source of inspiration for writing a research paper. They have over 20,000 free paper samples that you can go through. These free samples cut across all topics, including catalogs on education, law, finance, books, history, etc. Aside from connecting students with writing professionals, it has features that cater to student growth. For instance, this paper writing service comes with an impressive blog that gives students insight into being better writers and overall students.

Using SpeedyPaper is quite easy. End-users begin by filling out the order form with paper details and uploading additional files when available. Some of the details end users can set include paper types like research papers, reports, essays, dissertations, application letters, theses, and much more. Other key details about the paper types you can set are subject, title, reference type, and requirements. Then, they proceed to set the price they want to pay by adjusting the number of pages, academic level, and deadline of the research paper. Additionally, this ordering stage will allow users to set page formats, like line spacing.

To complete the ordering process, the customer chooses the kind of writer they want and additional features, like summary, abstract, plagiarism, Grammarly report, etc. This stage is when users enter their discount code if they have one. For new users, they have to proceed to create an account by entering their email, phone contact, and preferred password. They can opt to create an account directly with their Facebook, Google, or Apple account. However, return users only need to log in to their account with their email and password. Afterward, they submit their payment details to complete the ordering phase.

When the assigned writer is done, the customer will get an email to preview their submission. At this junction, the customer can either approve the submission or request a revision. These revisions are free, but you can make your research paper writing payment using credit card options such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or Discover. You can also pay using Bitcoin. The cost of ordering ranges from a 20-day deadline to a 6-hour deadline. For instance, high school prices range from $9 to $26. Similarly, undergraduate would cost between $11 and $32, while Masters varies from $14 to $39. PhD articles are available for prices between $19 and $52. Lastly, you can get admission orders for $34 and $99. These prices are limited to requests for just a page and writing the research paper from scratch.

GradeMiners

"Another great product! I received extra points on this assignment along with all the others. Thanks for helping me pass my class with an A+." These were the words of a satisfied HRM client of GradeMiners. The reviews speak for themselves: this platform offers professional custom paper writers to hire online for help with homework. Our number-three research paper writing service is quite unique for its broad paper-type options, such as lab reports, movie reviews, PowerPoint presentations, etc. But this platform is even more special because of its team of writers, proofreaders, editors, and managers.

A breakdown of this team shows that there is a surplus of 3,600 writers and 250 editors. Each of these experts has an MA or PhD qualification and over three years of experience. This statistic means this platform allows users to pick from a large pool of proven and excellent professionals. Furthermore, it has some impressive features, such as over 50 writing and editing services and more than 40 disciplines covered. Over the years, an excess of 45,000 papers have been completed by the professionals on this platform. Yet, GradeMiners have retained their 100% plagiarism-free status. Likewise, every customer request gets a swift response because of the 24/7 service available on the platform.

The process of ordering a research paper is similar to the previous platforms already considered. Customers are to pick the type of work they want to order. As mentioned already, GradeMiners has a very impressive list that is not common to many other platforms. After picking a type of paper, users can set the subject they want the paper to be written on. Setting the academic level to undergraduate, master's, or PhD is the next step. After which, page number, line spacing, deadline, and type of writer are customized to the client's taste. To complete this stage, the user has to include their email and phone number, enable or disable status updates via SMS, and agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

As part of its commitment to the agreed-upon T&C and Privacy Policy, GradeMiners process clients' payments using a secure system. They do not have access to users' credit card data. This data, along with other clients' data, remains confidential. By extension, using their service will not be known to anyone, especially third-party individuals or institutions. However, they would issue a refund to clients if something dissatisfying happened. For instance, if the customer has convincing evidence against the delivery, especially when a writer has not followed the given requirement, the client's money will be refunded. To avoid unnecessary cancellations, users can request unlimited revisions for up to two weeks after receiving their order.

The price on this platform starts at $11.64. This price is considered steep compared to those of previously considered platforms. Also, it comes with a longer deadline of 30 days. However, if customers want their research paper in 3 hours, they need to pay about $32.62. To soothe customer's experiences on the platform, every first-time user gets a generous 15% discount. On subsequent orders, return buyers will keep getting discounts of 5%. Aside from the research paper writing service on GradeMiners, it has a grammar online checker. With this feature, students can put together error-free writeups and upgrade their assignment language.

PaperWriter

Do you have a write my research paper request, but you do not want to pay too much? Then, this is an exceptional option for you. PaperWriter is the cheapest research paper-writing company in the world. The service owners crafted the platform to help students with affordable, qualitative, and trustworthy solutions. This concise research writing service is highly rated by its users and reviewers. It has high ratings on Sitejabber (4.8), Reviews (4.8), and ResellerRatings (4.9). Importantly, its services cut across writing from scratch, editing finished paper to ensure it is flawless and rewriting paper to fit a unique style or voice tone.

PaperWriter places high value on their customers’ time, experience, and data. Writers are very punctual on this platform, given the sensitivity of deadlines to their customers’ grades. Even in the shortest amount of time, writers on this platform are always on hand to help customers with their writing requests. The app interface is seamless, and users will have a good time navigating it. It is easy on the eyes and visually excellent. To show how valuable customer's personal data is, they do not share it with ad agencies or any other third parties. In addition, all payments are made through tested and trusted online commercial service stores.

To order on PaperWriter is very intuitive. Customers can start by filling out the requirements of the research paper in the order form. They will then be required to input assignment type, education level, deadline, page number, word count, and line spacing, among other details. Their paper requirement will be used to suggest the available writers. These writers have ratings and reviews clients can check before hiring them. To ensure that there is no miscommunication in the order requirement, customers are welcome to chat with writers before hiring them. Complete the process by depositing money first in the balance and only release it after receiving the order.

Students can get a college-level paper for as low as $10. Alongside the ridiculously low price on this platform, customers will get several premium services for free. Some of these services are originality reports, generated title pages, formatting, outline, and reference pages. As if these incentives are not enough, they have a mouthwatering discount structure. Their discount allows end-users to get bigger discounts as they place more orders. At the end of each order, customers are notified via email and SMS. Overall, students can trust writers on PaperWriter to submit a faultless order.

If you are trying to salvage a last-minute research assignment, use PaperCoach. It is the fastest research paper & proposal writing service provider. This research paper writing service is committed to providing high quality. They are aware of customer's demand for plagiarism-free papers, and they are determined to achieve that. Ensuring that the quality remains 100% in the nick of time is hard to achieve. However, that is what PaperCoach excels at. They apply a multi-level approach that includes monitoring the progress of writers to avoid any kind of lateness.

The experienced teams in PaperCoach have helped it maintain an unbroken result of quality and timeliness. Some of these teams are the quality assurance department, dispute department, writer department, customer service department, etc. With division of labor, the company can scale effectively and meet their customers’ needs. That is why Customers can select a good range of research papers, essay and dissertation writing services. They also keep non-disclosure of all users' personal data. After receiving an order, clients are entitled to three free revisions. If they are still not satisfied, they can change the writer by contacting the support department.

Follow these steps to order on PaperCoach. Fill out the order form and click on the "Order Now" icon. This form-filling stage also allows you to add comments to your paper requirement. You can include other information, including a description file, if one is available for the assignment. Proceed to place your order. Now, set the number of pages, academic level, and when you want the deadline to adjust the order price to fit your financial means. After that, you can patiently wait for your order to be delivered.

To use PaperCoach, you can set your school level to high school, undergraduate, master's, PhD, and admissions. High school prices range from $7.99 to $23, and undergraduates cost $10 to $29. For master's students, they can pay between $14 and $36, while PhDs will pay in the range of $19 and $49. Lastly, users can pay from $20 to $66. Each of these above-listed prices is for one page of research paper that will be written from scratch. PaperCoach offers some extra services such as plagiarism reports, progressive delivery, summary, etc.

What Is a Research Paper?

A research paper is an academic writing that allows students to offer their interpretation of an argument. It is also called an academic paper, defined as an informative piece of essay for sharing personal discovery about a subject. To arrive at a conclusion, the student subjects their argument to in-depth analysis and evaluation. Through this thorough evaluation and analysis, there may be new results or inventions. After which, the evaluator, in most cases a lecturer or examiner, questions the research paper to judge the student’s understanding of the subject. After being examined, this paper is published in academic journals.

Is Writing a Research Paper Easy?

There is no straight answer to this question. While some students are comfortable with researching a theory and documenting it, it is not so for many other students. However, a research paper is not so complicated that any student cannot learn to write it. Given that it is a task that takes critical thinking, time, and dedication, several students avoid it. Hence, in the eyes of an average student, this is a hard task or project. To get past the difficulty encountered in writing a research paper, the students need to pay attention to the instructions given by the lecturer and apply them one after the other.

Can I Write a Research Paper in a Day?

Yes, you can write a research paper in a day. While it might not be a mean feat, you can get it done by simply following instructions. Since libraries, encyclopaedias, and even labs are all available on your mobile phone, you have all the research material you need. Hence, collect data online regarding the topic you want to write a research paper on. Use the resources you have gathered to write an introduction, abstract, and conclusion. You have to also be careful of the popular formats of research paper writing you are working with. That way, you can insert the appropriate citation without having to waste more time on it.

How Much Does Research Paper Writing Cost?

Research paper writing costs about $9 to $15 per page for basic writing. The more experience the writer has, the higher the price they will charge for it. Research paper writing is highly priced compared to other writing because of the meticulousness and skill needed to get the project done. For instance, writing research papers requires sourcing materials, interpretation of data, citations, etc. If other requirements are included in the request to write a research paper, the price may go up significantly.  Hence, you could pay as much as $99 for a page of research paper.

What Are Some Popular Formats of Research Paper Writing?

Writing formats are very important for research papers. Below are pinpoint explanations of the most popular format types, especially for you to distinguish them.

  • # APA (American Psychological Association): APA is mostly used for science papers in fields such as physics, psychology, chemistry, etc. It requires a title page at the start and a citation page titled "References." Its in-text citation should include the author's name, publication date, and page number introduced by “p.”
  • # MLA (Modern Language Association): This is the most popular format among the humanities. This format does not need a footnote. It uses only in-text citations. Thereafter, references are listed in alphabetic order at the closing of the paper under the title "Works Cited."
  • # CMS/CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style): This format is common among publishers and academic paper writers in arts, history, philosophy, and religion. Chicago style uses a superscript number and footnote to indicate cited resources.
  • # Harvard: It is a simple research paper format and has a close similarity to the APA format. However, the Harvard format does not use commas to separate the author's name and year of publication. In addition, its citation page is tagged "Reference List."

Can I Really Hire Someone to Write My Research Paper Online?

Yes, you can pay someone to write your research paper for you online. The best way to do it is to pick the most reliable research writing service. In this article, five of those top-notch services have been discussed. They vary slightly in feature, interface, and application. However, they will get the job done for you without having to task yourself with the responsibility of writing the research paper yourself. Our top pick is PaperHelp. However, you can consider other alternatives, such as SpeedyPaper, GradeMiners, PaperWriter, and PaperCoach.

What Research Paper Writing Service Today is the Best?

The overall best research paper writing service today is PaperHelp. Not only is it highly ranked on popular rating sites, but it is also well appreciated by first-hand users. Talking about its features, PaperHelp is the trailblazer platform for students to customize their research paper writing service intuitively. This user-friendly interface of the app makes it easy for users to order. Furthermore, the platform offers customers the chance to get research paper writing services at affordable prices. To further sweeten the offers, there are discounts and bonuses up for grabs.

What Is the Cheapest Research Paper Writing Service Overall?

The most pocket-friendly research paper writing service available is PaperWriter. PaperWriter is a very concise solution for students who want to spend less and still maintain good grades. The platform has a cozy effect on the user and makes it worth more than it costs. In addition, $10 is a ridiculous price for all the extra benefits that its users have access to on the platform. Counterpart service providers offer the same extra bonuses or services for heftier prices than the base price customers will pay on PaperWriter. In addition, there are discounts for new and loyal customers.

Do Paper Writing Services Really Work?

Yes, paper writing services really work. They have helped me write research and essays on short notice. When a student does not possess the inquisitive, critical thinking, or writing skills to write their paper, paper writing services have been helpful. They have helped proofread and edit near-perfect projects. And for research paper writing projects that are far from required, these solutions have helped rewrite them. Additionally, more students can ease the burden of the education system and free up some time with paper writing services.

Can I Be Caught Using Essay Writing Services?

Yes, you can get caught using essay writing services. While it is not illegal to use essay writing services, you do not want to get caught by your examiner, supervisor, or lecturer. One of the ways to ensure you make your essay writing service detection proof is by studying the submitted document. Since your examiner will be quizzing you to know how well you understand the subject, you can also get familiar with what is written inside. Another possible way to get caught is by using a service without a privacy policy or security terms. Such a service is likely to share your personal data with ad agencies and third parties.

Can You Trust Essay Writing Services?

Yes, you can trust essay writing services. The tons of reviews and feedback from customers show they can be trusted. That is why you have to examine the ratings and reviews well before you start using an essay writing service. Likewise, it is essential to be cautious before choosing a writing service. For instance, you want to choose one of the options discussed above before considering other options. Even if you do not pick any of these options, ensure the essay writing service you choose has a privacy and security policy agreement.

Ordering your research paper from any of the services discussed above is highly advantageous. Firstly, these platforms offer the best paper writing services. Hence, their premium service is a guarantee that you will be able to impress your lecturer or supervisor and get the best grade in the course. Even though good grades are the most important reason students would want to contact a professional writer, one cannot rule out exceptional students who would like to free up some time. Free time can be spent in several ways, which include but are not limited to extracurricular activities, recreation, makeup class or reading, religious activity, or an extra job/internship.

When a student is not freeing up some time, they may be trying to improve their writing. Hence, these services offer rewriting, editing, and proofreading. That way, they can still get a good grade without good enough writing skills. Furthermore, many of the best research paper writing services discussed help students become better all-round. In other words, students can be more studious, better writers, and improve their research and critical thinking skills with the aid of these tools. Lastly, the low rate of these services also means that students can get the most results for the least amount of money.

The workload in colleges and universities is so enormous that students only have time for some of their responsibilitie

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How to use Copilot Pro to write, edit, and analyze your Word documents

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Microsoft's Copilot Pro AI offers a few benefits for $20 per month. But the most helpful one is the AI-powered integration with the different Microsoft 365 apps. For those of you who use Microsoft Word, for instance, Copilot Pro can help you write and revise your text, provide summaries of your documents, and answer questions about any document.

First, you'll need a subscription to either Microsoft 365 Personal or Family . Priced at $70 per year, the Personal edition is geared for one individual signed into as many as five devices. At $100 per year, the Family edition is aimed at up to six people on as many as five devices. The core apps in the suite include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

Also: Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

Second, you'll need the subscription to Copilot Pro if you don't already have one. To sign up, head to the Copilot Pro website . Click the Get Copilot Pro button. Confirm the subscription and the payment. The next time you use Copilot on the website, in Windows, or with the mobile apps, the Pro version will be in effect.

How to use Copilot Pro in Word

1. open word.

Launch Microsoft Word and open a blank document. Let's say you need help writing a particular type of document and want Copilot to create a draft. 

Also: Microsoft Copilot Pro vs. OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus: Which is worth your $20 a month?

A small "Draft with Copilot" window appears on the screen. If you don't see it, click the tiny "Draft with Copilot icon in the left margin."

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2. Submit your request

At the text field in the window, type a description of the text you need and click the "Generate" button.

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Submit your request.

3. Review the response and your options

Copilot generates and displays its response. After reading the response, you're presented with a few different options.

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Review the response and your options.

4. Keep, regenerate, or remove the draft

If you like the draft, click "Keep it." The draft is then inserted into your document where you can work with it. If you don't like the draft, click the "Regenerate" button, and a new draft is created. 

Also: What is Copilot (formerly Bing Chat)? Here's everything you need to know

If you'd prefer to throw out the entire draft and start from scratch, click the trash can icon.

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Keep, regenerate, or remove the draft.

5. Alter the draft

Alternatively, you can try to modify the draft by typing a specific request in the text field, such as "Make it more formal," "Make it shorter," or "Make it more casual."

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Alter the draft.

6. Review the different versions

If you opt to regenerate the draft, you can switch between the different versions by clicking the left or right arrow next to the number. You can then choose to keep the draft you prefer.

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7. Revise existing text

Copilot will also help you fine-tune existing text. Select the text you want to revise. Click the Copilot icon in the left margin and select "Rewrite with Copilot."

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Revise existing text.

8. Review the different versions

Copilot creates a few different versions of the text. Click the arrow keys to view each version.

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Review the different versions.

9. Replace or Insert

If you find one you like, click "Replace" to replace the text you selected. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

Click "Insert below" to insert the new draft below the existing words so you can compare the two.

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Replace or Insert.

10. Adjust the tone

Click "Regenerate" to ask Copilot to try again. Click the "Adjust Tone" button and select a different tone to generate another draft.

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Adjust the tone.

11. Turn text into a table

Sometimes you have text that would look and work better as a table. Copilot can help. Select the text you wish to turn into a table. Click the Copilot icon and select "Visualize as a Table."

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Turn text into a table.

12. Respond to the table

In response, click "Keep it" to retain the table. Click "Regenerate" to try again. Click the trash can icon to delete it. Otherwise, type a request in the text field, such as "remove the second row" or "make the last column wider."

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Respond to the table.

13. Summarize a document

Copilot Pro can provide a summary of a document with its key points. To try this, open the document you want to summarize and then click the Copilot icon on the Ribbon. 

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The right sidebar displays several prompts you can use to start your question. Click the one for "Summarize this doc."

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Summarize a document.

14. Review the summary

View the generated summary in the sidebar. If you like it as is, click the "Copy" button to copy the summary and paste it elsewhere.

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Review the summary.

15. Revise the summary

Otherwise, choose one of the suggested questions or ask your own question to revise the summary. For example, you could tell Copilot to make the summary longer, shorter, more formal, or less formal. 

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You could also ask it to expand on one of the points in the summary or provide more details on a certain point. A specific response is then generated based on your request.

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Revise the summary.

16. Ask questions about a document

Next, you can ask specific questions about any of the content in a document. Again, click the Copilot icon to display the sidebar. In the prompt area, type and submit your question. Copilot displays the response in the sidebar. You can then ask follow-up questions as needed.

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Ask questions about a document.

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Jenni AI Review: Top Features, Pricing, and Alternatives

Jenni.ai Review: Top Features, Pricing, and Alternative

Navigating the academic writing landscape involves wrestling with large amounts of data, meticulously drafting research manuscripts, and sweating over journal submission requirements. Every step demands precision and focus, leaving little time to enjoy the joy of academic exploration. AI writing assistants like Paperpal , Grammarly, and Jenni AI emerge as game-changers, streamlining the tedious, time-consuming writing process and empowering academics to focus on what matters most: their groundbreaking ideas. In this article, we’ll delve into the capabilities of one such tool and do a Jenni AI review, which explores its potential to transform your research writing workflow. We’ll also showcase a Jenni AI alternative that empowers you with the perfect toolkit for academic writing success. 

What is Jenni.ai ?

Jenni AI is an AI-powered writing tool that helps busy students generate ideas, optimize their writing, and improve SEO. It uses machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to provide content suggestions and insights. While there are several Jenni AI alternatives available, this functional AI writing tool is great for busy students or non-native English speakers who need help with writing and improving their overall quality and tone. It can also be used by bloggers, content creators, and public speakers to streamline writing workflows and create compelling content. 

Now that you know what Jenni AI is and who can benefit from it, let’s look at how the Jenni AI writing tool can be used for various content formats:  

  • Essay writing: Offers writing prompts, language suggestions, and real-time guidance to increase the quality of your essays of personal statements. 
  • Research writing: Provides AI-driven recommendations, feedback, and citation support to ensure well-structured research papers, literature reviews. 
  • Blog posts and speeches: Simplifies the process of writing compelling blogs or winning speeches for your next presentation with AI autocomplete and paraphrasing support. 

Jenni AI: Review of Top Features

This AI-powered writing assistant analyzes your writing and suggests instant improvements for clarity, conciseness, and adherence to academic style expectations. Let’s understand how Jenni AI helps students, academics, and content creators alike to overcome writing hurdles.  

  • AI Autocomplete: Uses your base inputs to complete your sentences. It can suggest the next line of text and more, helping you overcome writer’s block.  
  • In-text Citations: Consults the latest research and the user’s PDF uploads to create citations for content generated in APA, MLA, IEEE, or Harvard style guides. 
  • Paraphrase: Allows users to rewrite their text by paraphrasing, expanding on, or modifying their content in their desired tone. 
  • In-built Plagiarism Check: Gives authors a chance to check if the content it helps generate is plagiarized from online sources. 
  • Outline Generator: Provides a well-structured outline, including headings and subheadings, which serves as a foundation for writing essays, theses, or academic content. 
  • Custom Styles & Tones: Allows users to choose the preferred tone to suit their writing needs, from academic to persuasive. 
  • Library: Enables users to save and manage uploaded PDFs in one place, allowing for inclusion of citations for any document. 

Like Jenni AI but want more? Try Paperpal’s comprehensive toolkit for academics!

Jenni ai: pros & cons for academics.

It’s clear that Jenni AI has several features designed to simplify your writing process. But before you start leveraging this AI writing assistant, consider its pros and cons below as part of our Jenni AI review as a value-add for academic writing. 

How to get started with Jenni AI?

To get started with Jenni AI writing tool, follow these steps: 

  • Visit the website and sign up : Visit the Jenni AI website and create a new account by entering your name, email, and password or simply sign in with your Google account. 
  • Customize your experience : Define your role and pick the content formats you primarily work with to personalize your writing experience.    
  • Define your research scope : After signing up, define your research topic briefly to allow Jenni AI to offer you more customized support. 
  • Start writing with Jenni AI : Open a blank document and start writing to prompt the Jenni AI writing tool to help you craft your essay. Create an outline for your work or generate content line-by-line with the option to accept or customize it the way you want. Use the AI suggestion feature (simply press Ctrl +J) to keep getting content suggestions and write faster with Jenni AI.  
  • Explore features : Check out Jenni AI writing tool features, including AI Autocomplete, in-text citations, paraphrasing, and a research library to save and manage your research. 

Looking for a better Jenni AI alternative? Try Paperpal’s all-in-one academic writing solution!

Jenni ai pricing plans.

With a free version that has limited features and a paid subscription plan, the Jenni AI pricing model caters to users with varying needs. The Free Plan includes:  

  • 200 AI words per day  
  • Unlimited PDF uploads 
  • AI Autocomplete  
  • Support for journal and web citations  
  • AI Editing commands 

The Jenni AI writing tool’s Unlimited Pack starts at $20 per month, and offers three additional benefits over and above what’s available for free: 

  • Unlimited AI words  
  • Priority support 
  • Access to latest features 

Jenni AI also includes larger team packs suitable for universities and research labs. Overall, the Jenni AI pricing model is simple and flexible, allowing users to cancel their subscription any time while retaining access to documents created with the AI writing tool. 

Are there any good Jenni AI alternatives?

With rapid developments in AI, there are a number of alternatives for Jenni AI for authors looking to streamline and optimize their writing. When going through this Jenni AI review and choosing the best AI writing tool for academic writing make sure they meet the following requirements: 

  • Specificity: Trained on and tailored to enhance academic writing 
  • Accuracy: Finds and fixes errors correctly, generates quality text 
  • Compliance: Adheres to & follows strict academic integrity standards    
  • Features: Offers multiple features like grammar, paraphrasing, etc.  
  • Reliability: Produces consistent results; does not crash or freeze 
  • Integration: Works with word processors, data analysis & other tools 
  • Security: Keeps data secure, blocks unauthorized third-party access 
  • Cost: Must be an accessible, affordable writing tool for academics 

Here, Paperpal emerges as the best Jenni AI alternative for academics. Trusted by students, researchers, journals, and universities across the world, this AI writing assistant meets all the considerations listed above to give users a faster, more streamlined academic writing experience.  

Why Paperpal is a better alternative than Jenni AI for academic writing ?

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI academic writing assistant that offers secure generative AI support and real-time language suggestions to help you write better, faster and move closer to publication success. With AI trained on millions of language corrections by professional academic editors and 20+ years of STM experience, Paperpal delivers human precision at machine speed.  

From the first draft to pre-submission manuscript checks, Paperpal has you covered at every step. Access generative AI features, translation for 25+ languages, in-depth grammar checks, and writing aids with Paperpal on Word or Web. You can select your preferred editing mode , tailor feedback to American or British English, and polish your writing in half the time and with none of the stress. Then, use Paperpal for Manuscript’s pre-submission checks to maximize your chance of publication success.  

Ready to explore the most trusted alternative to Jenni AI? Try Paperpal now for free!

Head-to-head: paperpal vs jenni ai writing tool.

Both AI writing assistants include advanced features that elevate your academic writing. Like Jenni AI pricing plans, Paperpal is also available free or as a monthly or annual subscription. Here, we compare the unlimited versions of both tools to help you make the right choice for your own academic writing. 

Jenni AI review final thoughts: Is this AI tool worth it?

Our Jenni AI review shows that it can be a valuable tool to help authors efficiently create quality academic content. The AI tool has a limited number of features, but the in-text citation and plagiarism checks are useful in academic writing. Jenni AI can simplify and speed up the writing process but to avoid academic dishonesty, we do not recommend you use it to generate your entire research paper, essay, or thesis.  

There are several Jenni AI alternatives available today like Grammarly, Jasper, and Copy.ai but if you’re looking for the most comprehensive academic writing toolkit, Paperpal has an upper hand over all others. Try Paperpal now for free and see the difference for yourself ! 

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing assistant that help academics write better, faster with real-time suggestions for in-depth language and grammar correction. Trained on millions of research manuscripts enhanced by professional academic editors, Paperpal delivers human precision at machine speed.   

Try it for free or upgrade to  Paperpal Prime , which unlocks unlimited access to premium features like plagiarism checks, academic translation, paraphrasing, contextual synonyms, consistency checks and more. It’s like always having a professional academic editor by your side! Go beyond limitations and experience the future of academic writing.  Get Paperpal Prime now at just US$19 a month!  

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  • Boston University Libraries

WR 151 - Gael Garcia Bernal Filmography and Latin America

About this guide, featured resources.

  • Background Information
  • Find Articles & Journals
  • Citing Your Sources

Related Guides

  • Latin American and Spanish Videos Freely Available on the Internet: A Guide to Web Sources
  • FT250 / CI202 Understanding Film
  • Literature Guide

This guide provides research resources and information related to

WR151: Gael Garcia Bernal Filmography & Latin America

research paper writing search

Image sources: Creative Common Search - Openverse and Wikimedia.

It includes:

  • Sources of background information, including encyclopedias.
  • Links to books and e-books.
  • Databases for finding articles.
  • Help in citing your sources.

Screen Studies Collection

A comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed and expansive filmographies. This collection includes the specialist index FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; AFI Catalog and Film Index International.

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Digital Hispanica - Cinema Studies

Digitalia Hispánica is a multidisciplinary database of e-resources in Spanish. Digitalia Hispánica contains 21 thematic collections of e-books; e-journals as well as international collection of streaming feature films and documentaries, and ostly films are from Spain or Latin America. The films are n the original language,and some  are dubbed into English or with English subtitles. 

research paper writing search

Student's Guide to Writing College Papers

Turabian 's popular guide, the team behind Chicago's widely respected The Craft of Research has reconceived and renewed this classic for today's generation. Designed for less advanced writers than  Turabian 's Manual of Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams here introduce students to the art of defining a topic, doing high-quality research with limited resources, and writing an engaging and solid college paper. The Student's Guide is organized into three sections that lead students through the process of developing and revising a paper. Part 1, "Writing Your Paper," guides students through the research process with discussions of choosing and developing a topic, validating sources, planning arguments, writing drafts, avoiding plagiarism, and presenting evidence in tables and figures. Part 2, "Citing Sources," begins with a succinct introduction to why citation is important and includes sections on the three major styles students might encounter in their work - Chicago, MLA, and APA - all with full coverage of electronic source citation. Part 3, "Style," covers all matters of style important to writers of college papers, from punctuation to spelling to presenting titles, names, and numbers." -- Publisher description.

Third cinema in the third world : the aesthetics of liberation

Although Third Cinema began as a movement of, by, and for the colonized, Gabriel argued passionately for its transnationalist possibilities. In his seminal work  Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation , for example, he  writes that “the principal characteristic of Third Cinema is really not so much where it is made, or even who makes it, but, rather, the ideology it espouses and the consciousness it displays.” 

research paper writing search

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  • Last Updated: Feb 19, 2024 4:32 PM
  • URL: https://library.bu.edu/GaelGarciaBernalFilmography

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  1. How to Write a Research Paper in English

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  6. How to write about methodology in a research paper

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  1. Seminar on Research Paper Writing

  2. Research Paper Writing with ChatGPT: Bypass AI Detection & Plagiarism

  3. Online Workshop on Research Paper Writing & Publishing Day 2

  4. Authors Search History Skit #author #authors #searchhistory #search #writer #writers #writing #book

  5. Secret To Writing A Research Paper

  6. Manuscript writing||Research paper writing|| scientificliterature||Riper||pharmd||research project||

COMMENTS

  1. The best academic search engines [Update 2024]

    1. Google Scholar. Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files. Coverage: approx. 200 million articles.

  2. How to Write a Research Paper

    A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research. Research papers are similar to academic essays, but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research.

  3. Scribbr

    Plagiarism Checker Detect and resolve unintentional plagiarism with the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker, so you can submit your paper with confidence. Plagiarism Checker Citation Generator Generate accurate citations with Scribbr's free citation generator and save hours of repetitive work. Citation Generator Our dream team Happy to help you

  4. Writing a Research Paper Introduction

    Step 1: Introduce your topic The first job of the introduction is to tell the reader what your topic is and why it's interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening hook. The hook is a striking opening sentence that clearly conveys the relevance of your topic.

  5. The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Research Paper

    1 Understand the assignment For some of you this goes without saying, but you might be surprised at how many students start a research paper without even reading the assignment guidelines. So your first step should be to review the assignment and carefully read the writing prompt.

  6. How to Write a Research Paper: A Step by Step Writing Guide

    How to Write a Research Paper: A Step by Step Guide| QuillBot Blog Hannah Skaggs Along with Meredith Harris, Mitchell Allen Hannah, a writer and editor since 2017, specializes in clear and concise academic and business writing. She has mentored countless scholars and companies in writing authoritative and engaging content. Recommended for you

  7. Research Guides: How to Write a Research Paper: Searching Tips

    Yes! It's easier to focus your search to your particular topic and limit your results to academic research. First of all, start with a strategy: Write the topic down in the form of a sentence or question. Identify the key concepts of the question. Try to think of at least one or two synonyms for each of these concepts.

  8. Writing a Research Paper

    This page lists some of the stages involved in writing a library-based research paper. Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.

  9. Writing a Research Paper

    Writing a research paper is an essential aspect of academics and should not be avoided on account of one's anxiety. In fact, the process of writing a research paper can be one of the more rewarding experiences one may encounter in academics.

  10. Research Paper Writing Tips

    Grammarly. '. s Research Paper Writing Guide. Ensure your research papers clearly communicate your ideas. Our research paper resources offer tips on how to approach outlines, abstracts, citations—everything you need to write a polished paper. From keeping your work free of mistakes to flagging when you haven ' t properly cited your ...

  11. LibGuides: How to Write a Research Paper: Search Strategies

    Boil your topic down to the most important words . Ignore superfluous words like in, the, of, with, against, affect, impact. Begin with a keyword search. Put each "different piece" of your topic in a separate search box, if available. Using the topic of criticism of Van Gogh's Starry Night as an example below, each different piece of the topic ...

  12. Research Papers

    Style. The prose style of a term paper should be formal, clear, concise, and direct. Don't try to sound "academic" or "scientific.". Just present solid research in a straightforward manner. Use the documentation style prescribed in your assignment or the one preferred by the discipline you're writing for.

  13. PDF Research Paper Writing Process

    Research Paper Writing Process Writing a research paper can feel overwhelming. Planning your process can feel even more so. This handout will walk through each step of the research process, identify key obstacles and tips for accomplishing each step, and help you set up your own system for writing a research paper. Starting Out

  14. How to Write a Research Paper (+ Free AI Research Paper Writer)

    3. Develop your thesis (and guide your research) by asking a research question. Even though a research paper may not necessarily take a side on a topic, it still needs a thesis, aka a central idea or focus that drives the piece from beginning to end.. We wrote a whole guide on writing thesis statements, so here we'll just give you this tip:. Use a research question to develop your thesis

  15. Research Paper

    Research Paper is a written document that presents the author's original research, analysis, and interpretation of a specific topic or issue. It is typically based on Empirical Evidence, and may involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or a combination of both.

  16. Research Papers

    Research Papers. Writing research papers give you the opportunity to take a deeper dive into a topic while relying on credible sources for information. A research paper should be original work from you, the writer. This means that the vast majority of the research paper content should be your own ideas, analysis, and words, and should avoid an overreliance on direct quotations from outside ...

  17. 13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

    Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch. Use double-spaced text throughout your paper. Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point). Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section.

  18. Tips on Writing a Good Research Paper

    The more research papers you write, the more comfortable you'll get with the writing process and the style of writing a scholarly academic research paper. Editing, Reviewing, and Rewriting Your Research Paper. After you've completed a first draft, it's time to edit. Keep in mind that your first draft may need many revisions.

  19. Writing a Research Paper

    Below are the general guidelines for what is expected from a research paper: 1. Only Credible Research Should be Used. 2. Take Notes From Sources. 3. The Research Should be Integrated Into the Paper. 4. Paraphrase the Research (direct quotes can be used sparingly)

  20. 113 Great Research Paper Topics

    113 Great Research Paper Topics. One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily ...

  21. Conduct a reference search and format your reference section

    Style Guides. Academic style guides include rules and guidelines for the format of the paper, the in-text citations, and reference lists. As the Purdue Online Writing Lab, or OWL, explains: style guides are used as a way of making common elements consistent across documents written by many writers, in many places, and in many circumstances; as a result, readers from any university (or other ...

  22. A Beginner's Guide to Starting the Research Process

    Step 1: Choose your topic Step 2: Identify a problem Step 3: Formulate research questions Step 4: Create a research design Step 5: Write a research proposal Other interesting articles Step 1: Choose your topic First you have to come up with some ideas. Your thesis or dissertation topic can start out very broad.

  23. Free Research Paper Template (Word Doc & PDF)

    If you're preparing to write an academic research paper, our free research paper template is the perfect starting point. In the template, we cover every section step by step, with clear, straightforward explanations and examples.. The template's structure is based on the tried and trusted best-practice format for formal academic research papers. The template structure reflects the overall ...

  24. PDF Strategies for Essay Writing

    In a short paper—even a research paper—you don't need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that

  25. Researching the White Paper

    Search this Guide Search. Critical Writing Program: Decision Making - Spring 2024: Researching the White Paper ... The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What's important for writers of white papers to grasp ...

  26. Best Research Paper Writing Services: TOP 5 Cheap Custom Writing ...

    SpeedyPaper. Making it to number two on this list is the leading research paper writing website in the U.S. SpeedyPaper has second-to-none ratings on rating sites like Sitejabber, Reviews.io, and ...

  27. How to use Copilot Pro to write, edit, and analyze your Word ...

    ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. ... For those of you who use Microsoft Word, for instance, Copilot Pro can help you write and revise ...

  28. Jenni AI Review: Features, Pricing and Alternatives

    Essay writing: Offers writing prompts, language suggestions, and real-time guidance to increase the quality of your essays of personal statements. Research writing: Provides AI-driven recommendations, feedback, and citation support to ensure well-structured research papers, literature reviews.

  29. Research: WR 151

    Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. Turabian 's popular guide, the team behind Chicago's widely respected The Craft of Research has reconceived and renewed this classic for today's generation. Designed for less advanced writers than Turabian 's Manual of Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams here introduce ...