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Six Rules To A Winning Research Paper

By: Steve Morton

If you haven't participated in a research paper class before entering college, you may end up burdened with the difficult job of turning in good assignments. If this is your situation, here are some useful tips to assist you...

1) Get A Good Grip On The Assignment

Make sure that you have read through it exhaustively to understand task at hand. It helps to make an outline of any main ideas, topic words and action words.

2) Choose The Easiest Assignment

If your teacher gives you a choice, pick the research paper that most appeals to you; one that interests you and maybe you know a little about. This will greatly accelerate the process and make it more entertaining. If you have no interest in the topic, it's likely to show when you turn in your essay.

If you don't like the assignment or any of the choices, try to change it up to one to make it more palletable. For instance, maybe the research paper is to be about classical music, but you hate that style because you're a rocker. No problem! You could write your essay on the historic rock band "Yes". They put a lot of classical music into their music and became leaders in fusion rock.

3) Ask A Lot of Questions

Have a 'mind searching' session and write down every question you can think of. This will lead to even more ideas. Then, start questioning everyone you can from friends and family to teachers. Ask them what they know about the subject matter and get their thoughts. Do keyword searches on the internet to find subtopics, information and answers. Visit wiki and authority sites, as well as government sites and physical libraries. Make notes of your research. If you take statistics from books, websites, etc., be sure to write your resources down on paper for reference and a bibliography.

4) Choose An Interesting Delivery Mode

Students are often told by a college professor as to what mode they want the research paper to be. But if left more open for your choosing, some good choices are contrasts and comparisons, statistical analysis, argumentative, problem and solution, narrative and interpretation. You could also combine modes for narrower angles. You could divide it up into nicely formatted sections to point out selective aspects of your research, such as the impact your topic made on civilization, a certain era or different cultures, or discuss different financial, personal or social aspects of the topic.

5) Keep Your Subject Matter Tight

You will likely have limited time and a limited amount of pages or words with which to work. Be smart and don't get to broad about your topic. The entire Korean War is not going to be covered well in a few pages, but the affects of post war syndrome might.

6) Have A Very Pointed Thesis

As you present your research, start narrowing everything down, leading you into the point you are trying to make. A paper with just a lot of statistics will not be good if you don't 'get to the point', whether it is your opinion or a main fact that you've been leading up to; some kind of a 'drive it home' point is in order.

You could leave the reader or listener thinking by presenting varying scenarios for them to ponder. Or, maybe answer the questions yourself by revealing your hypotheses, thus creating your thesis. Any type of rebuttal, agreement or resolution about your research could make a fine thesis statement if constuctively done.

Summary

Remember, when you are doing your research, you are not trying to read all of the books nor reference materials. You are doing a research paper, not a book report, so just scan looking for details and data you want or can get on with. Don't lock yourself down, but also, don't just gather stats. Wrap it up in an informational package that's simple to read and take in. Your essay should make the professor come out feeling more educated for having read it.

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Michael Harrison also has written a lot of articles about Online Master's Degree in Sociology and Online Bachelor's Degrees

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