Research Paper Writer | Writing A Research Paper

Writing A Research Paper

Writing A Research Paper

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. --- Gene Fowler

Written communication skills is probably the most universal qualities sought by graduate and professional schools as well as by employers. You alone are responsible for developing such skills to a high level.

Writing A Research Paper | Resources for learning technical writing

Before you begin your first writing assignment, please consult all of the following resources, in order to gain the most benefit from the experience.

Writing A Research Paper | General form of a research paper

An objective of organizing a research paper is to allow people to read your work selectively. When I research a topic, I may be interested in just the methods, a specific result, the interpretation, or perhaps I just want to see a summary of the paper to determine if it is relevant to my study. To this end, many journals require the following sections, submitted in the order listed, each section to start on a new page. There are variations of course. Some journals call for a combined results and discussion, for example, or include materials and methods after the body of the paper. The well known journal Science does away with separate sections altogether, except for the abstract.

Writing A Research Paper | General style

Specific editorial requirements for submission of a manuscript will always supercede instructions in these general guidelines.

Writing A Research Paper | To make a paper readable

• Print or type using a 12 point standard font, such as Times, Geneva , Bookman, Helvetica, etc.
• Text should be double spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper with 1 inch margins, single sided
• Number pages consecutively
• Start each new section on a new page
• Adhere to recommended page limits
• Mistakes to avoid
• Placing a heading at the bottom of a page with the following text on the next page (insert a page break!)
• Dividing a table or figure - confine each figure/table to a single page
• Submitting a paper with pages out of order

Writing A Research Paper | In all sections of your paper

• Stay focused on the research topic of the paper
• Use paragraphs to separate each important point (except for the abstract)
• Present your points in logical order
• Use present tense to report well accepted facts - for example, 'the grass is green'
• Use past tense to describe specific results - for example, 'When weed killer was applied, the grass was brown'
• Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader directly, and don't use jargon, slang terms, or superlatives
• Avoid use of superfluous pictures - include only those figures necessary to presenting results

An objective of organizing a research paper is to allow people to read your work selectively.

"A research paper is a piece of academic writing that requires a more abstract, critical, and thoughtful level of inquiry than you might be used to."

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