A Must-have Guide on Planning and Writing a Perfect Research Paper

If you are left blank staring at your screen and do not know how to go about writing your research paper, you are not the only one facing this issue. Writing a research paper is a complex and time-consuming task and the important part is they carry a lot of weight in your grades.

It is no secret that academic writing is difficult but written communication skills are as important for your success in your future career as they are during your academic life. Therefore, it is important to master the art of paper writing.

We ourselves offer top-quality paper writing services online and our team of experts has developed the following guide for students to ace their next research paper:

Step 1. Choose a Topic

Most of the time students are assigned research topics, but if you are supposed to choose one by yourself, opt for something that is interesting so that you do not get bored when you have to conduct the research. According to our paper writing services team, one must avoid topics that are too technical or general.

If the topic you select is too broad then your work will look more like an overview and not a research paper. The topic should be narrow enough to discuss a certain aspect of it within the prescribed word-limit. For instance, if your topic is “Global Warming,” you will have to narrow it down to “Causes of Global Warming” or “Impact of Global Warming on Human Health”.

Step2. Prepare a Working Thesis Statement

Start with your working thesis statement before conducting your research which will decide the path for your investigation and help you stay focused on the topic. The thesis writing services team believes that the thesis statement has to be brief and should be symbolic of the paper you are writing. Any research paper can belong to the following 3 categories:

• Argumentative or Persuasive when you are going to argue

• Expository when you are looking to explain information

• Analytical if you are going to analyze certain data

Writing a strong thesis statement will enable you to spell out a clear purpose for your task. Only if the thesis statement is debatable and narrow will you be able to support your claims with evidence. If the claim that you are making is too broad, you will need a lot more evidence in order to justify the claim.

Step 3. Research Your Topic

You should be able to find enough primary and secondary sources of information on your topic that are credible and from which you will be able to gather sufficient data as evidence to support your claims.

The thesis writing services believe this is also the stage when you should begin assessing your sources, taking down notes, and begin documenting the source according to the citation style mentioned in the guidelines (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago).

Ensure that you use the latest edition of the specified style guide. It is also important to cite all sources used for quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing if you want to avoid being charged with plagiarism.

Step 4. Prepare a Good Outline

Your research has thrown up a large number of great ideas. But you need to organize them if you want the end product to succeed in impressing the reader. When you miss this step, your work will lack focus and you will have difficulty revising your draft and making head or tail out of your tangled ideas. Thus, you have to create a thesis and a working outline that can serve as a roadmap to help you stay focused.

Think about important material that you will need to develop in support of your thesis statement. These points can serve as subheadings for the body of your paper. Go through your notes and organize the information under the respective subheadings. Make sure that the information you are including is pertinent, fits under the subheadings, and directly strengthens your thesis.

You must overcome the urge to include any information that does not fit the outline regardless of how interesting it might be. While preparing the outline keep a typical structure of the research paper in mind that includes:

• A title page

• An abstract

• An introduction

• A Methodology Section

• Results/Findings

• Discussion

• Conclusion

However, if your research paper is not long enough it can comprises of only an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. And, most importantly, follow all guidelines that have been issued by your instructor.

Step 5. Create the First Draft

You have reached the middle of the process. You are in the right direction and it is time now to prepare the first draft that includes the title, in-text citations, and references. The title is of extreme importance because that is the first thing readers see and form their opinion about what they should expect in the paper.

The sixth step. Make Your Paper perfect by Revising, Editing, and Proofreading.

You may need to make a lot of changes while checking your first draft for flow, logic, transitions, and even change the structure and order of the paragraphs. Check if all ideas have been developed fully and all your claims are backed up with sufficient evidence.

While editing, you may need to delete filler words, phrases, evaluate the choice of words and rectify any mistakes in grammar and punctuation. You may also ask your friend or somebody from your family to go through your paper and see what is their opinion.