What Is a Research Paper and What Do You Gain by Writing One?

So you have to write a research paper? If this assignment makes you feel nervous or overwhelmed, you may simply be feeling a fear of the unknown. Calm down! Take it easy! Let’s begin by discussing just what a research paper is. Once you know more about what you want to do, the chances are it won’t seem so daunting.

A research paper is a piece of writing that provides information about a particular topic that you’ve researched. It’s not as simple as writing a paper about your summer vacation, because you don’t have to do research to find out about your own personal experience. On the other hand, a paper about a topic such as dolphins, cave paintings, ancient civilizations, or the history of a particular sport does qualify as a research paper. These are topics about which you, yourself, are not an expert, but that you can learn about by reading the work of experts—in other words, by doing research. Then you can communicate in writing what you have learned. Ideally, you will do that in a way that is clear and interesting.

You’ll learn a great deal about a topic that interests you. You’ll start out knowing only a little about that topic and end up an expert in your own right. And perhaps most importantly, you’ll learn how to do research. This is a skill you’ll use all your life. It’s been said that the mark of a good education is not how much you know, but how good you are at finding out what you need to know. Clearly, knowing how to do research is an important skill to have.

Finally, you’ll gain the experience of taking on a task, seeing it through to the end, and being proud of your accomplishment. After you’ve completed your paper, you’ll know just how rewarding this can be.

A.  Which Topics Work (and Which Ones Don’t)

What Interests You

Some students think that the best way to choose a topic is to find one that sounds easy. Choosing an easy topic may backfire, however, if the topic doesn’t interest you all that much. Remember that you’ll be living with this assignment for several days, or even weeks. Think how sorry you will be after four or five days of thinking, reading, and writing about a topic that you find boring.

What can you do if the assigned topic just doesn’t grab your interest? One alternative you can try is talking with your teacher about writing your paper on a similar topic in the same subject area. First, write down an alternative “assignment” to show your teacher. Then, tell your teacher that if he or she approves, you would like to write your paper on this similar topic. (Be sure to make it clear that you are willing to do the original assignment, even if the teacher does not approve your alternative approach.) If the teacher does not approve your suggestion, he or she has a good reason for that, so try to be understanding.

Many students are surprised to find that they become more interested in a topic after they’ve learned more about it—even when they did not expect to enjoy it. If you’re stuck with a topic that makes your eyes glaze over, try discussing the topic with others who may help you find a more interesting angle. You also might try thinking about what makes this topic interesting to other people. As you find out more, you may discover something there that interests you after all.

What You Can Handle

Some topics are hard to handle because they are too large, or broad.

Instead, focus on narrowing down your topic to answer favorite questions you may have about the topic.

What You Can Find Enough Information About

Suppose you’ve identified a topic that you find interesting and that seems to be neither too broad nor too narrow. Before you say, “This is it!” ask yourself the question, “Can I find enough information on this topic?” For example, maybe you read the science section of your local newspaper last week and were fascinated by an article on new findings about the planet Mars. Even though that topic could be the basis of a great paper, the only information available might be the article you read and one highly technical report written by a group of space scientists.

Another pitfall is that you might choose a topic that’s interesting to so few individuals (besides yourself) that only a few experts have written about it. For example, if you chose to write about your neighbor’s newest invention, you would find very little written about it other than, perhaps, your neighbor’s own personal writing. Either way, choosing a topic you can’t find out enough about can cause you more work than you bargained for.

How can you know whether you’ll be able to find enough information about a topic? This is the time to do some preliminary research. Start with a good encyclopedia, which you can find in the library or online. If your family owns its own encyclopedia, start there. Look up your topic to see if there is a good-sized article about it. If so, this is one sign that you can find sufficient information. Another important sign to look for is a list at the end of the article, one that includes related subjects in the encyclopedia. If you find such a list, look up some of the related subjects to see if they yield other useful information. Next, check out your school or local library catalog. Finding at least three books about your topic is another encouraging sign. Take a little time to look through some of the books you find listed. (If you need help locating books in the library, you can ask a librarian.) This is not the time to read a whole book or start taking notes, but you can decide now whether the available information on your topic is on the right level for you. A good way to judge the writing level of a book is by looking at the first page and then opening the book at random to pages in the middle and toward the end. By skimming several pages, you should be able to see if the book is on your level—not too easy or too hard. Finally, log on to the Internet. Use a search engine to do a keyword search, with your topic as the keyword. See what comes up. Are there many Web sites? Read the descriptions of some of the available sites.

Do they sound promising? Visit a few of the sites that you think might be helpful. Are they well organized and easy to follow? Do they give information you can use?

If the books and Web sites you find are too difficult or too technical, or if you don’t find enough information on your topic, then the topic is probably not right for you. It’s time to go back to square one and look for a new topic.

B. The Right Topic for You

Choosing the topic that is right for you is crucial. By following these steps for finding a topic, you will be able to find one on which you can gather plenty of information, that you find interesting, and that is neither too broad nor too narrow.

An Idea Web

You may have made an idea web before and referred to it as a “cluster” or an “idea map.” Because a web is a way of organizing your ideas visually, it’s one kind of graphic organizer. Begin by drawing a circle in the middle of your paper. Then, in the circle, write the first topic you can think of, even if it’s not a topic you’re actually considering. As other related topics come to your mind, write them in smaller circles surrounding the original circle. Draw lines leading from the original circle to the smaller circles. But don’t stop there!

The ideas in the small circles can lead to yet more ideas, which you can write in even smaller circles. Eventually, you’ll write an idea in a little circle out near one of the corners of your paper. That idea will click for you.

Brainstorming

Have you ever sat down with a group and talked until you’ve come up with an idea for a project you are working on, whether it was to plan a trip or organize a party? Then you were brainstorming. As all of you kept talking, group members may have up come up with new ideas that seemed silly or impractical, but one idea led to another, and you eventually hit on an idea that worked.

Brainstorming a topic for a research paper works the same way, except that you do it by yourself, and you use a pencil and paper. Start by writing down the first topic that comes into your head, then the second, the one after that, and so on. Try to free your mind and let the ideas come. Without worrying whether anyone will see what you write, add everything that comes to mind to your list. It doesn’t matter if some of your ideas are completely ridiculous. There’s an excellent chance that all the ideas that don’t work will eventually lead to (at least!) one idea that does.

Freewriting

If you’ve tried brainstorming, but your brain just isn’t “storming” along, try a similar method called freewriting. Simply start writing down the thoughts that come to your mind, and then don’t stop! Keep writing, no matter what! As one thought flows freely into another, you’ll begin to make connections to ideas that interest you. Eventually, you may find yourself writing down several ideas that you find appealing. Review your freewriting and underline the ideas that interest you most. Write more about these ideas until you find your topic.

C.Narrow Your Topic

Earlier, this chapter talked about avoiding topics that are too broad, such as “The American Revolution.” Whether your teacher has given you a large general topic or you’ve decided on one yourself, you’ll need a few strategies for narrowing a general topic down to a size that you can manage.

Make a Target Diagram

You may prefer another type of graphic organizer—the target diagram. A target diagram is especially useful if you want to write down more than just two ideas for each preceding idea. It allows your thoughts to flow a little more freely, and gradually you can see the direction that interests you most.

Draw a circle in the center of a sheet of paper. Around that circle, draw several larger circles so that your blank diagram looks like a target. In the central circle, write your general topic. Then, in the outer circles, start writing narrower and narrower topics until you reach one that seems just narrow enough.

You may have to add outer circles as you work. When you finish, you probably will notice that your ideas moved more in one direction than another—a helpful clue about the areas where your interests lie. You also may go beyond the topic itself (trees of the desert) to some narrower topics and then have to pull back a level to avoid a topic that is too narrow.

Source:

Chin, Beverly Ann. (2004). How To Write A Great Research Paper. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.