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Six Tips To A Winning Research Paper

By: Steve Morton

If you haven't had the luxury of taking a research paper class before joining, you may find yourself with the overwhelming task of turning in good assignments. If this is your situation, here are some good guidelines to help you...

1) Have A Good Grasp Of The Assignment

Make sure that you have read through it from end to end to understand task at hand. It helps to make an outline of any main thoughts, trigger words and action words.

2) Choose The Simplest Assignment

If your teacher gives you a choice, opt for the research paper that best appeals to you; one that interests you and maybe you know something 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 alternatives, try to put a spin on one to make it 'more you'. For example, maybe the research paper is to be about classical music, but you hate that style because you're a rock music fan. Jackpot! You could write your paper on the old rock band "Yes". They applied a lot of classical music into their style and became leaders in creative rock.

3) Start Asking Questions

Start brainstorming and write down every question you can think of. This will pull up even more subjects. Then, start questioning everyone you can from friends and family to teachers. Ask them what they know about the topic and get their opinions. Do keyword searches on the web 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 information from books, websites, etc., be sure to write your resources down on paper for reference and a bibliography.

4) Go For An Interesting Delivery Format

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 prepared sections to point out different 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) Fine Tune Your Topic

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 agent orange might.

6) Have A Narrowed Down 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 useless words 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 critical.

You could leave the class or teacher thinking by delivering various scenarios for them to consider. Or, maybe answer the questions yourself by presenting your hypotheses, thus creating your thesis. Any type of rebuttal, alignment or resolution about your research could make a great thesis statement if creatively done.

Summary

Remember, when you are doing your research, you are not trying to read entire books nor resources. You are doing a research paper, not a book report, so just scan looking for information and ideas you like or can exand on. Don't bog yourself down, but also, don't just collect statistics. Wrap it up in an informative package that's not hard to get through and digest. Your paper should make the teacher leave it feeling uplifted or pensive for having read it.

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Dale Brown also writes many articles about Online Associate Nursing Degrees and Accelerated Masters Degree Programs

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