Selecting a topic is he most difficult step. The following paragraphs are designed to assist you in writing a research paper.
Steps to a Successful Research Paper
STEP ONE: SELECTING A SCIENCE PROBLEM FOR RESEARCH
This is the most important step. This step asks you to do two things.
1. Narrow your topic
2. Make research questions or develop a pre-hypothesis
You will either be writing a paper relating to astronomy or geology. If you decide, for example, you want to research pollution, you have a more specific topic. But pollution in itself is a very broad topic. You could investigate air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution. You could investigate health hazards of pollution. You could investigate chemicals which cause pollution. Do you see the problem with a broad topic?
A good research paper will investigate a very clearly defined area. You must narrow your topic. In the space below write what your narrowed topic is to be. Give it a lot of thought, and be sure to read through the entire list of steps before you decide. Other steps may influence your decision.
Forming research questions or pre-hypothesis: Now that you have a narrowed topic, you will want to write questions on what you want to investigate. You could make hypotheses about your topic which your research will find true or false. If your topic was environmental pollution you might ask what effects does salt and other chemicals used on the city streets have on the environment? Does this process have a greater impact in one type of environment than another, etc.? An example of a hypothesis might be, snow dumped on a tiaga environment creates less of a problem than snow dumped on the tundra. Your research would find this true or false. In the space below write eight good research questions about your topic.
STEP TWO: FINDING SOURCES FOR THE RESEARCH
Now that you have your questions, you must search for the answers. There are three things to do:
1. Think about people, places, and things that can help you.
2. Check out the source to see if it will indeed help.
3. Write down information about the source so you can use it when you write your paper.
Sources:
Textbooks, biographies, magazines, Reader's Guide To Periodicals, Card Catalogs, relatives, bibliographies, state agencies, libraries, science references, parents, friends, businesses, and , of course, the internet.
Write down information about your source for your bibliography. This is an official list of the sources you are going to use. You will need such items as: author, title of book or article, and book, copyright date, number of pages, volume, edition, name of person interviewed and her title, internet address, etc...
STEP THREE: MAKING A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Now that you have investigated the sources, you know which ones are the best. Other folks reading your paper are going to want to know where you obtained your information. At the end of your report, you will be listing a bibliography. One method for this bibliography is to divide your references into five sections:
Reference material (such as an atlas): The name of the reference material, volume number, date it was printed, the pages used.
Magazine: Author, title of article, name of magazine, place of publication, publishing company, volume, date, pages:
Book: Author (last name first), title of book, place of publication, publishing company, date of publication:
Name of newspaper or other miscellaneous source: where published, date:
Internet: List the web address.
Each section should be listed in alphabetical order with the second, and following lines in one listing indented after author's name.
STEP FOUR: OUTLINING THE RESEARCH PAPER:
Well, you have done a bunch of work and still have not written your paper. All the steps so far are pre-writing steps and research. The most important steps are the ones you do before writing the paper because they make the writing easier.
So far, you have:
1) Selected a problem to research.
2) Formulated a questions or hypothesis.
3) Checked out sources and located the best information.
4) Prepared an official bibliography.
You have done a good job! But before your paper can be written you should plan a system of organization for your report. An outline will help you write your report. Here is one suggestion for putting your material together into a readable paper.
II. PURPOSE AND PROCEDURES
III. RESEARCH FINDINGS
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
I. BACKGROUND This section should give the reader information about your topic. It is not information which answers your research question, but things that will help the reader understand your topic.
II. PURPOSE AND PROCEDURES This part is easy! All you do is tell the reader what your research questions or hypotheses are. Also, you tell the reader where you got your information such as current research, expert in the field and Po-Dunk University.
III. RESEARCH FINDINGS Another easy section. All you do in present in your own words the research you found as it answers the questions in the purpose in the order you gave them or you present information that proves or disproves your hypotheses.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Here, you sum up the major findings of your research. If you wrote hypotheses you tell whether or not they are true. This is the place where you add your opinions!
STEP FIVE: WRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER
Here you go! Good Luck! Actually, this should be fairly easy as you know exactly where you are going! You are going to build a rough draft of your paper. To accomplish this you need: Your outline and bibliography. Using your outline starting from the top with your bibliography as a guide, seriously read the background type information. Take notes in sentences or short paragraph form. Proceed down your outline in a similar manner. You will have to further organize the material in each of your major sections and decide which material is relevant to your topic. You will want about 1 to 1 1/2 finished pages of background, 1 page for purpose and procedures, approximately 1 page per question in your research and 1 to 2 pages of summary and conclusions.
Hints on note taking:
Some of you may be used to copying material right from the book, this is for elementary school reports. You are a brilliant researcher. Some quoting is good, too much is plagiarism! There are two good ways to take notes: summarizing when you write down main ideas and details in your own words and paraphrasing when you rewrite everything in your own words. It is all right to use some of the same words. IN fact, it is often necessary, but don't copy. Re-read your rough draft to make sure you haven't lifted entire sections from a source.
STEP SIX: FINISHING TOUCHES
Your paper must be typed. Yes, I know some of you can't type. Neither can I. What you see here has taken me hours using the hunt and peck system. The advanced typing class is filled with excellent typists. They will often type a paper for a dollar or a batch of brownies. Double space, please. Prepare a title page. Number your pages. Don't number the title page, and leave a blank page after your title page. Leave one inch margins on both sides, and an inch and one-half on the top and bottom. Check you spelling. If you have any doubt, look up the word or use the spell checker on the computer. Be sure to include the bibliography. Any charts or tables should be listed on separate pages. Make the paper neat! Congratulation! You have followed a plan most college students use and others wish they knew. You have succeeded. Now you have only to worry about your experimental write up, and that has such a structured format you can't go wrong.
The list of references at the end of the paper is arranged alphabetically by the author's surnames. Two or more works by the same author are listed chronologically, by date of publication. Two or more works by the same author published in the same year are identified as, for example, 1964a, 1964b. Suggested styles of entries are the following:
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE:
"Black Holes", Comptons Encyclopedia, 1976 ed., 7, 372-79.
ARTICLE:
Mohr, H. 1962. Primary effect of light on growth. Ann Rev Plant physiology. 13:465-88 [ Note that capitalization of the title of the article should be that used in a sentence.]
Crane, S.E. "Reading Chinese Tea Leaves", Commonwealth, Vol. 104, June 1977, p. 393-97.
BOOK:
Kramer, P.J., and Kozlowski, T.T. 1960 Physiology of trees, p. 11. New York: McGraw-hill.
[Note that capitalization of the book title should be that used in a sentence.]
INTERNET:
http://www.alaska.net/~bholm
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