This post is about easy steps you can use for writing research papers in college.
Find out how to write top research papers in college.
The effort in writing research papers
When you’re in college, you will experience writing research papers about two times or more, depending on your degree.
Needless to say, you will not graduate from college without ever experiencing writing research papers.
So why is writing research papers in college so crucial?
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It is because of the effort one should give when writing research papers.
In fact, the effort in proposing, planning, researching, writing, investigating, and synthesizing research of a subject into one comprehensive and informative paper is quite massive.
More so, a research paper is another way for the faculty to gauge the depth of a college student’s understanding of his/her chosen or assigned research topic.
Hence, a well-written research paper will most likely get a higher grade when compared to a research paper that isn’t well researched or well-written.
Thus, to help you produce well-written research papers, here are 10 easy steps for writing research papers in college!
Easy Steps for Writing College Research Papers
- Choose a topic that interests you
- If the topic is assigned to you, study about it
- Look for and read about related literature
- Consult your adviser or mentor
- Tap other sources of data
- Go about your research
- Follow your methodology
- Gather the findings
- Synthesize and write the full paper
- Conduct a peer review
1. Choose a topic that interests you writing research papers
If you are into arts, science, sports, philosophy, business, or other fields of study, it would be best if you choose the research topic that interests you the most.
Why? Because this will be more beneficial for you and your research paper.
Writing research papers can be very challenging, and you don’t want to burden yourself more with a topic that you dislike.
Remember that it is always easier and more fulfilling to do something that you like because it inspires you to do your best, even if that something is hard to do.
2. If the topic is assigned to you, study about it
When your professor is the one who gave you the research topic, the best thing to do is spike your interest in it.
Study about your assigned topic and if you have no clue about it, you could familiarize yourself by learning more about it.
Sometimes, you will not have the freedom to choose your own topic for research, and that’s totally fine.
The key to writing research papers is to have an open mind and to be curious to learn new things as you go about the process.
3. Look for and read about related literature
Related literature is very important to any kind of research. Related literature is going to be your source of golden nuggets of information that will give more value and depth to your research paper.
Unless your research topic is groundbreaking and a pioneer, you don’t have to worry about looking for related literature or a research paper example because most research topics already have past research or published articles about them.
A great way to find related literature is to go visit your college library or other libraries if you can.
There are a lot of useful data and information that you can get from books, research magazines, published research, journals, and other reliable sources.
4. Consult your adviser or mentor
Writing research papers can sometimes be stressful and along the way, you could encounter some problems like research blocks or loss of focus.
A great way to resolve this issue is to consult someone you trust, like your college adviser or your mentor.
Talking to someone who is willing to guide you through your chosen path will definitely be advantageous for you, especially when you are writing research papers.
These people could enlighten you and motivate you, give you useful feedback, or point you to a research paper example that could significantly improve your research paper.
5. Tap other sources of data writing research papers
The library is not just your source of information. You can also tap other data sources like trusted websites, television shows, newspaper articles, radio segments, bulletin, and other forms of media.
Moreover, you can conduct interviews with experts who will share their wisdom to add more meat to your research paper.
Ask the person first for permission before barging into their office, and always ask if it is okay to record the interview for research purposes only.
The world is rich in data and information and what you have to do is to be able to identify, maximize, and process them in order to produce a well-written research paper.
6. Go about your research
Once you are ready with your related literature and your data sources, you can now go about your research.
You are already prepared to study your topic with a more in-depth lens because you have already gained useful information to do so.
7. Follow your methodology
There are a lot of ways or methodologies you can do in order to produce an excellent research paper.
If your research topic is about testing or measuring a hypothesis, you can employ quantitative methods such as experimentation, sampling, survey, and other techniques.
Meanwhile, if your research topic is about exploring, discovering, and understanding meanings, thoughts, and ideas, you can employ qualitative methods like interviews, observations, focus group discussions, content analysis, and more.
8. Gather the findings when writing research papers
All throughout the execution of your chosen methodology, you should always take note of all the findings, outcomes, and results.
You can take notes in your notebook or on your computer.
The most important thing is to gather every bit of it and make sure to have a backup file for your results because you don’t ever want the risk of losing them.
9. Synthesize and write the full paper
After you have already written the introductory parts of your research paper which includes your related literature, information sources, and methodology, you can now synthesize all your research findings and proofread the paper using Grammarly.
Writing research papers can be quite challenging, but when you reach this stage, you would already feel the fulfillment of doing your own research.
The key to synthesizing your research paper is to do a comprehensive summary and conclusion for your research.
10. Conduct a peer review when writing research papers
Peer review means letting someone other than yourself look at your research paper. You can ask your classmate, or a friend to read through your research paper and give their opinion and feedback about it.
Getting feedback greatly helps the process of writing research papers because feedback provides another perspective or view of it.
This could improve your research paper in many ways, especially if the feedback is constructive.
After the peer review, you can revise or add more useful information to your research paper before finally submitting it to your professor.
Overall, writing research papers is a crucial academic activity, especially in college. With these ten steps, you can produce a research paper that has great depth, impact, and contribution to progress.