Starting Your Research Paper
Creating a research plan
Creating a research plan will help you stay on schedule to finish your assignment on time. Many instructors take points off for late papers and will make your grade drop quickly if you continually hand in assignments late. Below is an example of a simple research plan:
- Week 1: Receive assignment from teacher
- Week 2: Have topic selected and two potential sources (books or articles). Begin creating rough outline
- Week 3: Read potential sources, take notes, and continue to develop outline. Determine if more sources are needed.
- Week 4: Have rough draft completed based on outline - continue to edit and refine your draft to have completed in week 5.
- Week 5: Have research paper completed!
Choosing your topic
Before choosing your topic make sure you understand the parameters of the assignment. This includes requirements your instructor sets regarding the scope of your topic, the length of your paper, and the number and type of resources you utilize.
Choose a topic that interests you. This could be something that is of personal interest or that is related to your academic program. The topic should also be one that utilizes outside resources. Do not rely on your own personal experiences as facts to back up your arguments. As valuable as your experiences are, you are not yet considered an expert in your field.
Make sure there are enough resources available to you for your research topic. You can do this by becoming familiar with the subject coverage of the library databases and the available print materials in the library.
Be careful about choosing topics that are too narrow or too broad. If a topic is too narrow, you may not be able to find enough resources. If a topic is too broad, you may become overwhelmed with available resource and begin to become confused.
- Examples:
- Terrorism (too broad)
- Domestic policy in response to terrorism
- Terrorism and it’s impact on public transportation
- History of video games (too broad)
- Choose a specific time period or type of game
- Choose the development of a particular game or game company
- Choose a person who had an impact on the development of the industry
- Death Penalty (too broad)
- Look at a specific capital case
- Outline the arguments that both for and against the death penalty
- Animation (too broad)
- Early technological development in animation
- Techniques in computer animation
Choosing your sources
Choosing your sources and the types of documents you need will depend on your topic. Also, your instructor may require you to use particular types and/or a particular number of resources. Make sure you understand what is expected of you.
- Types of sources
- Primary sources: First hand testimony of a particular event
- Letters
- Journals
- Case law
- Legal codes and regulations
- Games (the actual games that were produced and sold on the market)
- Autobiographies
- Photographs
- Secondary sources: Analysis of primary sources
- Newspaper articles
- Journal and magazine articles
- Law reviews
- Analysis or review of a game
- Biographies
- Types of documents
- Print
- Scholarly, Peer Reviewed Articles
- Magazine Articles
- Books
- Newsletters
- Electronic
- Websites (freely available)
- Electronic materials available through subscription databases
- Many subscription databases have specific subject coverage. Understand a database’s subject coverage before you begin searching.
- The types of documents available in a database will vary.
Organizing your research
Taking notes – As you are reading your documents, make sure you are taking notes on the important facts and ideas that relate to your topics and support your argument. Many researchers keep note cards which include the information taken from the resource AND citation information about the resource (author, title, etc.). After all of the necessary information has been collection the researcher can then organize the note cards according to the order they will covered in the paper and then begin writing a rough draft. If you are not comfortable using note cards, then use regular notebook paper. If you use this method it is recommended that you keep your notes organized by subject, not by resource.
Creating an outline – An outline is a “skeleton” of your paper. It is where you can organize your thoughts and the information you have retrieved from your sources. An outline will also allow you to ensure there is a logical flow of ideas for your paper. There are several methods for you to create an outline, but there are no rules! You can create whatever type of outline works for you and helps you get organized. Below is an example of one type of outline:
- Introduction: Provide thesis statement. The introduction is also where you provide basic “map” of your paper; what main topics will you be discussing and in what order?
- Topic sentence or topic that will be cover in paragraph (created a section in your outline for each of your paragraphs):
- Supporting fact(s)
- Supporting fact(s)
- Supporting fact(s)
- Conclusion: Provide a brief discussion about the information you provided in your paper. Wrap up your research findings; draw conclusions about what your topic. Did anything surprise you? This is also where you can provide some of your own opinions. You may also want to provide some unanswered questions regarding your topic that you were not able address.
**You can view another sample outline here at OWL at Purdue.**
Writing your research paper
After you have gone through all of these steps, you are ready to begin writing a draft of your paper. The first time you sit down to write you paper it should be considered a rough draft. After you have a rough draft you will then begin editing and polishing your paper until you have your final paper.
Selected resources available in the library
Elliott, Rebecca and James Elliot. Painless Research Projects. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 1998. LB1047.3.E55 1998
Coyle, William. Research Papers. New York: Pearson, 2005. LB2369.C65 2005
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for writers of research papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003. LB2369.G53 2003
Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide. New York: Pearson, 2004. LB2369.L4 2004
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