How to Compose an Academic Research Paper Properly
The more information and knowledge you have towards anything that you do, the better off you will be in finding success in it. With positive attitude and confidence that you have the right tools for excellence, you will be able to compose a proper academic research paper without any trouble. Here are eight steps to achieving just that:
- Choosing your topic
- Researching information
- Writing your thesis
- Organizing your notes
- Creating an outline
- Writing your first draft
- Revising your content
- Editing and Proofreading
The first step is to select a topic that is new and interesting to you. It should be something that is challenging but doesn’t overwhelm you in a way that you can’t find enough content.
You can start by collecting some background information online. This stuff is good to get familiar with terms and definitions. But the most important stuff should come from academic sources such as books or journals.
Brainstorm your opinions about a question you pose to yourself from your research. Get your statement down into a single clear and concise sentence. Think of it as a sort of declaration of your argument.
Take all of your research content and organize similar ideas into chunks. These will provide you with the major topic points of your essay. Keep only the discussion issues that have the strongest bits of supporting evidence.
Take your major topic points and arrange them in an outline. Put each corresponding piece of evidence in its appropriate spot beneath a topic. The outline will be a sort of guide that you can continuously refer to help you stay on track when you begin your rough draft.
Some people like to leave the introduction and conclusion till the end. This is okay. You can start with the first topic in your outline and work from there. Write freely without stopping to make corrections in grammar, punctuation, or spelling. You will have time for this later. Just get all of your ideas down as efficiently as possible.
When you revise your paper you should look for ways to improve it by reorganizing the material, rearranging the material, or putting new material in. Be sure to get rid of anything that seems repetitive. Now is the time to get your first level of corrections.
This is the last stage before you arrive to your final draft. You should edit for better word choice and simpler sentence constructions. Be sure to check for the smallest mistakes you may have missed during the revision stage.