Research and term paper writing guidelines

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Writing the most important components of a research paper

Research papers can be one of the most enjoyable learning experiences or the complete opposite. Your experience will depends two things: your topic and your writing skills. In most cases, your professor will want to see if you can fully investigate and prove your topic in clear and concise writing. Most professors want to see that you can fully support your topic with quality research from valid sources. This combination good writing and well-supported arguments is the most important part of any research paper.

Choose a Useful Topic

In order to get the important components done well, students need to choose arguable topics. Most students make mistakes by choosing topics that are too big to argue efficiently. Before deciding on a topic, students should do a quick investigation of available resources and whether or not those are current enough for paper requirements.

Document Sources

Along with choosing an arguable topic, students also need to document their sources. Without proper documentation, students are actually plagiarizing. Instructors will assign a documentation format, like Chicago Style, MLA, or APA. Students will need to follow the formatting style in the actual research paper and on the works cited page, too. Formatting requirements include the way the sources are presented in the paper, the page numbers and title page are formatted, and the way that the paper itself is organized.

Present a Strong Argument

In all research papers, an argument needs to be clearly presented. Students first write the introduction and then the argument itself. If the argument is not clear and evident, then the reader will be confused. The claim should be included near the end of the introduction. This is one of the most important parts of the paper because without it, students do not have a paper to write.

Support the Argument

The argument itself is one of the most important parts of the research paper, but the support for the argument is vital to crafting a successful paper. The body paragraphs need to include the examples from actual sources and those examples need to be explained. Without explanation, the examples are meaningless and arguments cannot be properly supported. This section, the body of the paper, should be several paragraphs long and it should not only include why the student’s argument is correct, but why the opposite argument is wrong.