Important Points to Remember While Writing a Research Paper

To write a research paper you have to follow certain steps- select a topic, find sources, take notes on index cards, arrange your collected notes by topic, write an outline, write a first draft, revise and re-write, and finally proof reading.

The first step in research paper is finding the topic. Try to find a topic that you were always fascinated to know more about. Find a topic that interests you the most. Common mistakes that are done by students are that they choose a final topic that is too general.

Find out sources through which you can learn more about the topic. Try using card catalog or computer database in the library to locate books. Also look into periodicals like magazines, journals, and newspapers. You can also find articles from search engine. Sit at your work table and scan through your sources.

When you start taking down notes, several sub-topics will also begin to emerge. Start taking notes from your sources, using color coding for the sub-topics. Take necessary steps to photocopy articles or encyclopedia entries so that you can take them home. While doing this, use the highlighters to mark the useful passages in the relevant colors. When you take notes, be sure to write down all bibliographical information.

It may be easy to arrange your notes according to color-coded notes. These will become your paragraphs. You may have several paragraphs for each sub-topic.

Now is the time to outline your paper on the basis of sorted cards. You may find that some of the cards may fit better with different colors or sub-topics, so now re-arrange your cards. Now your paper is taking shape.

Now is the time to write the first draft. Develop your introductory paragraph. Then follow with your sub-topics. Once you start writing, you may find that you don’t have enough material, so you may need to supplement your paper with additional research. You may see that the flow on your paper may not work out properly on the first try. When you read it over and re-arrange paragraphs, add paragraphs and omit information that doesn’t seem to belong. Keep editing and re-writing. Do remember to create a bibliography from your note cards.

When you think that the final draft is ready, just check the spelling, grammatical or typographical errors. Also check that you include every source in your bibliography.