Tips for Research Papers

In order to be successful in writing an effective research paper there are many steps or procedures that one should follow. The following offers an overview of the procedures that students should follow along with tips to assist students along the way.

Procedures:
1. Choose a research topic
2. Begin preliminary research
3. Refine research topic
4. Begin researching sources
5. Evaluate sources
6. Compile source information (catalog sources on note cards)
7. Read through sources
8. Take notes from sources (quote or paraphrase from the source on note cards)
9. Create outline
10. Write the first draft of your research paper
11. Write "Works Cited" draft
12. Revise your research paper
13. Revise "Works Cited" page
14. Edit your research paper
15. Edit your "Works Cited" page
16. Submit final draft of research

CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC
Choose an acceptable topic that interests you. This will make the assignment bearable. If your topic is chosen poorly it creates more work for you and is an unnecessary burden to you throughout the assignment. If you need help coming up with a topic, speak with your teacher.

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
After choosing a topic you will want to begin your perliminary research. The purpose of this research is simply to discover if there is enough information that exists for your topic. If there is either too much or too little information, you will want to refine your research topic. As a rule of thumb, it is better to have too much information to choose from than to have too little.

REFINE RESEARCH TOPIC
After conducting your preliminary research, you should revisit your research topic and revise it according to your findings. You may need to either make your topic more general or more specific depending upon your findings.

BEGIN RESEARCHING SOURCES
Once you have refined your research topic you will want to begin researching in earnest. Research is a lengthy process. Not only must you find several sources, you need to find an actual hard-copy of the source, evaluate the source, read the source, and take notes from it. You may discover, after reading, that the information is useless to your purposes, which requires more research in return. This process will take several weeks worth of work, so do not delay.

EVALUATING SOURCES
As you begin collecting sources to advance your research, evaluate tem according to the following criteria:
1. A source should be relevant
2. A source should be authoritative
3. A source must be current
4. A source should be comprehensive
5. A source should be stable
6. A source should provide links
* If you would like more details for any of these steps, please speak with Mr. Hall.

COMPILE SOURCE INFORMATION
This is the step that we had reviewed and taken notes on in class dealing with the note cards. For each source create a note card with all of the citation information written in MLA style. For the first source, put #1 on the card. For the second source, put #2 on the card, and so on. . .
* Note: In the modern age of computers, you may wish to create specific computer files for each source along with the information from the source. If you are good at organizing things on your computer and are thoughtful enough to back-up all of your files, you may wish to create such files instead of using note cards. The choice is yours--just be sure that you are organized and responsible. If you would like further explanation on either note cards or computer files for organizational purposes, please see Mr. Hall.

READ THROUGH SOURCES
I believe that this is self-explanatory. It isn't really research if you do not read your sources. This is where you actually learn about the topic for which you are writing, gaining knowledge and insights as you explore the works that other researchers have already completed.

TAKE NOTES FROM SOURCES
Be sure to write down important information from your sources onto note cards (or on a computer file). This is information that you may use to support your position (or to refute if you happen to be arguing against a position). If you are writing notes from source card #1, be sure to write #1 on the note card on which you take the note. If it is from source #2, write #2 on your card, and etc. In this manner you do not have to keep repeating all of the citation information from the source on each card. If you are using computer files, keep all of the quotes in the same file that you have for the first source. Create additional files for each source and be sure to record your notes in the appropriate files.

CREATE AN OUTLINE
There are many ways of creating an outline (your Language Arts teachers have been going over the different approaches with you for years). There is not much difference in outlining for an essay and a research paper. The only real difference is the length of the outline (research will be much longer and more detailed). Be sure that your outline is detailed enough to actually organize your thoughts and assist you with the actual writing, but not so detailed that it becomes a draft of the paper.
*Please see Mr. Hall for ouline samples.

WRITING A FIRST DRAFT
Follow your outline to create the first draft of your paper. You will want to type your drafts as it will save you time in the long run. If your paper is saved to a computer, you may pin-point the exact locations in which revision and editing is necessary. If it is a hand-written draft it automatically forces you to re-write the entire paper. Just get your ideas down on paper to start with. Don't worry about how good or bad those ideas are. It is always easier to work with something that is either incomplete, inaccurate, or poorly written, than to work with nothing at all. We expect the first draft to contain errors both in ideas and grammar.

WRITE A "WORKS CITED" DRAFT
Create your works cited according to what you have used in your first draft. Remember, you only include sources on your works cited page that you have actually used in your paper. If you do not quote or paraphrase from a source, that source should not appear on the works cited.

REVISE YOUR RESEARCH PAPER
With your first revision, do not focus on grammatical errors. You should only look for organizational problems, structural problems, and the presentation of your ideas. If any modifications are necessary to increase clarity, understanding, or support, then make those modifications. Worry about grammar later.

REVISE YOUR "WORKS CITED"
If you have added or deleted sources from your paper during the revision stage of your paper, you will need to update your works cited page accordingly.

EDIT YOUR RESEARCH PAPER
Editing and revision are two separate things. While revision focuses on content, editing focuses on grammar, spelling, proper citation, and etc. You want to save this for last in order to save yourself some time. Imagine if you work on editing in the middle of your revision--you spend time correcting grammar on a particular sentence or paragraph only to discover later that you need to revise the sentence or paragraph (maybe even having to take it out of the paper entirely). If such is the case, you have spent precious time fixing grammatical structures that you are not even using in the end. Revise first, then when you are satisfied with the content of your paper, edit it.

EDIT YOUR "WORKS CITED" PAGE
After revising your works cited so that it contains all of the sources (and nothing more) that you have used in your paper, edit your works cited so that it reflects the requirements established by MLA standards.

SUBMIT THE FINAL DRAFT OF YOUR RESEARCH PAPER
Congratulations! You have successfully completed the most difficult assignment for your Language Arts course. It has been a long process, but you should feel satisfied in your accomplishment. If you have done it correctly, you should be prepared for anything that a college or university throws at you.