Tips for Good Research Papers

Six Steps to Simplify the Writing Process

That looming research paper that is due can grow into a big stress headache as you anticipate how much work it will be. Where do you start? And how will you get all those myriad details wrangled into some kind of coherent order? As an online college student you were eager to enter an endeavor that fit into your busy life, but you still find yourself stressed out about getting it all done. Online classes can be academically rigorous, and often require you to write research essays.

Well, the rid yourself of the attitude that a research paper is just a hoop for you to jump through on your way to getting an acceptable grade. At its best, a research paper should be teaching you something as you develop it. You should be learning while in the process of putting your thoughts together, and that will be reflected in your grade. Communicative writing (research essays, final papers, lab reports) is different than expressive writing (journal, personal thoughts and feelings). Expressive writing is important, but communicative writing is the business end of the stick in most career fields. Developing the skills of writing good research essays can help you in the future. Reports, plans, professional letters and documents are all examples of communicative writing that you will likely have to generate during a career in any field.

Here are some quick tips that can help you get focused and avoid some of the more common errors that online college students make while writing research papers:
• Be specific. As you make your point, avoid vague references and use action-oriented language. Verbs that indicate movement and motion. Assess your level of clarity when you re-read what you have written. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. If this random "new" person read your work, would they be able to tell what or who you were referring to? Avoid implying things (or people). We fall into that trap easily, so monitor yourself for this error. When you are working so closely with a subject, its subtleties and implications seem so obvious. that we become a bit road blind.
• Make your argument strong. Most of your writing will be positing a particular view and then offering evidence that supports that view. Without being combative, you are delivering your point of view. And that point of view should be based on sound research and credible authorities. Boost your credibility by using quotes or refer to researcher, authors or experts by name.
• Know your purpose. Throughout the process of writing your research paper, keep in mind what you are being asked to do. You may be given the task of choosing a topic, and then expounding on it. But more often, instructors want you to accomplish something specific in the course of your essay, to posit an opinion, or compare and contrast two side of an issue. In an opinion paper offer an evaluation, but state reasons as to why you have that opinion, using facts to support your view. In a compare and contrast piece, discuss the ways the two subjects are the same and how they differ, offering examples and analogies.
• Follow the citation style rules that your instructor wants you to use. Whether you look up the information in the Publication Manual of the APA (American Psychological Association), or search the internet for MLA or Chicago style rules, you can find the specific requirements for the style you must use. There are even some very good citation engines available through the web that allow you to enter the details and your bibliography is automatically generated. It may seem like a foreign language to you, but there are reliable rules and sources to find them, you just need to follow it through.
• Make it flow. Your writing style should be simple and clear. Your goal here is to make your paper "readable", to allow the reader to move through the information you are presenting without getting hung up on stylistic issues that muddy the picture. In general have a mix of long and short sentences. As you are editing your paper, keep an eye out for anywhere that you have to pause and think through what a sentence may mean. If a sentence has a number of ideas in it and is confusing, make shorter sentences out of it. It is better to cut a confusing sentence into two sentences, even if it adds up to more words. Your criteria here is to make your meaning clear, and it may be necessary to chop lengthy clunkers into manageable pieces.
• Analysis and synthesis. As you put your research notes into the format of a paper you have to have an organizational plan that will include analyzing and synthesizing that information. Analyze your main points by taking them apart. Through definition and description you can put those ideas into categories, putting the pieces in order where they fit to make sense of them for the reader. Then you have to put it all back together again. Indicate, or synthesize, how those pieces interact. Show how the categories that you delineated affect one another so that your reader can understand the bigger picture.

With these tips in mind you should be able to concentrate on creating a cogent argument in your research paper. Using guiding principles of organization and a structure that allows your opinions to be supported thoroughly are the underpinnings of a cohesive research essay that you can turn in with confidence.