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10 April 2022A Comprehensive Guide To Research Paper Writing
Congratulations for getting this far! You’ve spent the previous year and a half doing tiresome research, going on school tours, tracking down people who like you enough to write reference letters, filling out applications, suffering mental breakdowns, and—most importantly—writing a college essay. You’re probably thinking, “Well, if that essay got you into college, you must be really excellent at writing essays,” right? Get dissertation help online at Dissertation Sky.
Let’s fast forward a little. You’ve signed up for a couple of humanities classes, and now you’ve got a research paper due in two weeks. But you’re unconcerned since you memorized this in high school: A five-paragraph three-part thesis, sauté with a bit garlic for added flavor, and voilà! You’ve gotten an A+! Or so you believe, until you get a B– and rush into your professor’s office, terrified and perplexed, to inquire as to why your wonderfully crafted essay received anything less than an A.
And that’s when they tell you the truth: your essay was too formulaic. It’s far too mechanical. It resembled a high-school essay *stock horror violins*!
You’re heartbroken. Your academic career from K–12 was a farce. You lament that your high-school education has stunted your essay-writing talents and bloated your ego, and you wonder whether there’s anything you can do to modify your grade in yet another moment of arrogance.
However, there isn’t one. There is never any.
Your professor gently attempts to explain what went wrong, but you’re too terrified to remember anything other than “don’t write like this” from the chat. However, you have no idea how to compose academic essays in any other way. “How else am I expected to write?” you frantically ponder as you leave their office, devastated.
Because this specific scenario may or may not be based on personal experience, I’m willing to assume that’s how you came up here, reading this useful essay. Maybe not in that precise circumstance (for the sake of your dignity and sanity, I hope not), but you’re at least asking yourself, “How can I write a college essay that isn’t in the three-part thesis, five-paragraph format?” As someone who has written college essays for numerous years and had to toss away everything I thought I knew along the way, I’d like to offer some high-quality, gamer-approved pro suggestions on the full essay writing process with you. I really mean the entire procedure when I say that.
Tips on time management to assist you along the process
It probably goes without saying, but try to remember deadlines. You know the drill: put them in your calendar, set a reminder.
But submitting anything on time because you worked an all-nighter isn’t what I’m talking about. That is the polar opposite of effective time management. Rather, attempt to acquire a feel of how long it takes you to complete tasks. Do you go into a galaxy of your own when you open Microsoft Word and stir out five pages in an hour and a half?
Great! take advantage of the extra time to edit When you finish your MLA heading, does your mind go to TV static? That’s OK. Just make sure you have a head start and schedule breaks to avoid becoming frustrated. Again, timely does not imply immediate. You can better fit writing on your essay into your schedule and won’t have to cram everything in at the last minute if you know how long it takes you to complete different activities. Spreading out the job into smaller portions over a longer period of time will make it seem less daunting. Are you looking someone to pay to write my dissertation we are here to help you at Dissertation Sky.
It probably goes without saying, but try to remember deadlines. You know the drill: put them in your calendar, set a reminder.
But submitting anything on time because you worked an all-nighter isn’t what I’m talking about. That is the polar opposite of effective time management. Rather, attempt to acquire a feel of how long it takes you to complete tasks. Do you go into a galaxy of your own when you open Microsoft Word and stir out five pages in an hour and a half?
Great! take advantage of the extra time to edit When you finish your MLA heading, does your mind go to TV static? That’s OK. Just make sure you have a head start and schedule breaks to avoid becoming frustrated. Again, timely does not imply immediate. You can better fit writing on your essay into your schedule and won’t have to cram everything in at the last minute if you know how long it takes you to complete different activities. Spreading out the job into smaller portions over a longer period of time will make it seem less daunting. Are you looking someone to pay to write my dissertation we are here to help you at Dissertation Sky.
Choose a topic.
Although some instructors will tell you exactly what they want you to write about, it’s more likely that you’ll be given a list of open-ended subjects to pick from or that you’ll be allowed to come up with your own topic if they approve it. This can be beneficial for certain students who are really enthused about the lesson and have a lot of ideas floating around in their heads. Others may almost hear the crickets chirping as they look blankly at their writing instructions. Here are some suggestions for achieving a good balance between an entertaining and a useful paper:
- Make sure your topic is something you’re interested in at least a little bit. It’ll make the writing process more pleasurable and result in a more engaging read. Readers, including your professor, can typically detect how much time and effort went into a piece of writing, and this will influence how well it is received.
- The sorts of sources required for your topic are typically self-evident. If you’re writing a critical response to a text, for example, you’ll almost certainly need to quote other critical replies to back you up. Alternatively, if you’re writing about what it was like to live in a certain location at a specific period, some primary sources may be necessary.
- Keep in mind the possibility that there are sources available. Something that is quite recent may not have a lot of existing research, and what does exist may not be peer reviewed.
- Keeping your question narrow can help you limit the amount of research you need to conduct, but there is such a thing as a topic that is too niche (see above).
- Always have a back-up plan. When you start researching into your issue, you may discover that it isn’t as researchable as you had hoped or that it isn’t as engaging as you had hoped.
- Make sure your professor approves of everything. They may provide you valuable insight into the fascination and researchability of your issue, allowing you to determine whether you’re on the correct track before investing too much time and effort.
The research
You’ve used the material above to assist you come up with a topic that your professor approves, as well as a backup plan. Now is the time to go to Google and start doing some research. And, whereas in high school, you could get away with using almost anything other than Wikipedia, you’ll almost certainly come across the word “peer-reviewed” while looking at the source requirements for your work. This implies you should seek out scholarly literature written by professionals and peer-reviewed by other experts in the topic. But how did you figure it out?
The good news is that there are amazing things called academic databases, which contain nothing but scholarly materials. If you’ve ever used Google Scholar and discovered what you thought was the perfect source, only to click on the link and be told that you had to pay money to read anything other than the abstract, you’re probably acquainted with them. Thankfully, your college will generally grant complete access to academic databases. So, now that you know where to look, here’s how to get started:
- Make a list of keywords and key phrases that are relevant to your subject. This will come in helpful because typing your inquiry word for word into a database’s search field seldom yields many results.
- Your best buddy is JSTOR. Simply put your keywords or key phrases into the search field, and you’ll be flooded with results. Academic journal articles (which are generally the most plentiful and useful), book chapters, research reports, and pamphlets can all help you narrow down your search. You may also look for content that has been tagged with a certain topic. A list of subjects will appear beside each search result, providing you with an extra set of keywords to employ in your study. You may also limit it to a specific year range of publication. Aside from being well-organized, all of the sources are scholarly and peer-reviewed.
- A database named ARTSTOR, which is similar to JSTOR, offers an enormous archive of visual material, ranging from museum artifacts to drawings. Images may also be sources, and if you need to mention one, here is a good place to start.
- Although databases like JSTOR are extremely useful, there may come a time when you need to locate something that isn’t in the database. The remainder of the Internet isn’t completely empty of good resources, but you’ll need to be more selective.
- You’ve heard it before from your instructors, and you’ll hear it from me again: don’t utilize Wikipedia. It isn’t completely worthless, though. Check out the sources at the bottom of the page; there’s always a hidden treasure or two there.
- Google Scholar isn’t simply about creeping you out by displaying paywall-protected sources. Google Books truly has a lot of book sources on it. You may need to include books in your citations, and if you can’t find one on JSTOR, Google Scholar may be able to assist you out.
- Websites with the extensions.gov or.edu are considered more trustworthy since they are managed by government organizations or educational institutions, respectively. However, like with most things, care and common sense are necessary.
- If you’ve located a useful source, there’s a strong chance it’ll point you in the direction of more useful sources, which may save you a lot of time!
Planning and outlining your paper (please don't skip this stage; just listen to me)
I’m a huge supporter of outlining. I know some of you reading this have developed the habit of simply opening a Word document and plodding through your work, and while I won’t stop you (although I completely understand), I do want to promote the advantages of outlining. Buy dissertation from Dissertation Sky.
First and foremost, it will enhance the organization of your essay. Your thoughts will be in a logical order, making it easy to move paragraphs and ideas around before you write a great statement that you fall in love with but no longer fits. Outlining also helps to avoid or at least lessen writer’s block. If you have an outline, you’ll always have a rough concept of what’s coming next, and if you lose your train of thought while writing, it’s no big deal—you’ll have the outline to refer to!
How can you get started now that you've decided to outline, because why wouldn't you?
First and foremost, it will enhance the organization of your essay. Your thoughts will be in a logical order, making it easy to move paragraphs and ideas around before you write a great statement that you fall in love with but no longer fits. Outlining also helps to avoid or at least lessen writer’s block. If you have an outline, you’ll always have a rough concept of what’s coming next, and if you lose your train of thought while writing, it’s no big deal—you’ll have the outline to refer to!
- A basic bulleted list may often enough. Simply arranging your thoughts in the order you wish to discuss them can improve the logical flow of your paper before you even start writing it. If you’re more of a visual person, write down all of your ideas on sticky notes and post them on a bulletin board or a wall. It’s a lot easier to rearrange things this way.
- Make a thesis statement. This will form the foundation of your paper, and everything you say must connect to it in some way. If your thesis is solid, the rest of the paper should be rather simple to write. Make a decision on the type of evidence you’ll use to support your argument. This can be accomplished by either referring or summarizing the sources you’ll be mentioning. Briefly describe the processes you took to arrive at your claim. Those stages will be expanded upon in the body paragraphs.
- Examine everything, especially your thesis statement, with your lecturer. Simply informing them of your plans will go a long way toward assisting you in planning a superior paper before you begin writing. After all, it’d be a big letdown if you come up with a thesis, composed your entire essay around it, and then requested your professor to read over your draft only to be told it’s not good enough.
Putting pen to paper
It’s now time to start writing. But before you do, I’ll give you the most critical piece of advice I can give you, especially when it comes to overcoming the five-paragraph essay: Write in a natural way! Your authorial voice will be more present if you write in the style that comes easily to you. More of you will appear in the article, making for a more fascinating read and persuasive argument. Allow yourself some creative leeway.
To be honest, I’d be delighted if that was the only thing you got out of this book. I wish I had known I was capable of doing this from the start, but we often feel as if we need permission to change our habits, especially when it comes to education. So, for those of you who require it, I am not only granting permission but also encouraging you to write as you like.
