Sidebar
Main Content
Writing a Research Paper
Document last updated on
Friday November 5, 2004
|
||||
|
“Research paper” is a broad category. Faculty definitions and expectations are remarkably varied. Thus your first and most important task is to understand the assignment: what the professor expects in terms of the number of pages, the type and number of sources desired, the topic, the approach, the documentation and citation style, the tone. Is s/he expecting you to write a persuasive paper in which you argue for or against a position? Does s/he want you to write an analytical paper, in which you summarize and evaluate positions? Ask for a copy of a student paper and a reference to an academic article that s/he considers exemplary. The type of paper we’re describing in this site is sometimes called the “library-based research paper.” It is probably the type of paper most frequently assigned by faculty. Faculty who assign library-based research papers typically want you to:
The library-based research paper demonstrates to the professor that you are:
You might also bring your assignment to one of the Critical Writing Program’s tutoring staff (http://www.writing.upenn.edu/critical/help_wc.html ) available by appointment, online, and during drop-in hours.
Before you begin your research, you need to have a “research journal” of some sort. This can be a spiral-bound notebook, a package of index cards, your lap-top or PDA, a few packets of post-its, or a tape recorder: whatever you are most likely to use to record your research ideas, key words, questions, random thoughts and most importantly, quotations and summaries—including documentation of your sources. Keeping track of your work as you go along will save you valuable time and belated regret, as well. Scheduling and Time Management Schedule the research and writing of your paper from the due date backwards to help you plan the steps of your paper. For example, if your paper is due November 1st, use the last week of October to work on the final draft, use the 3rd week of October for working on and sharing drafts, write the first rough draft a week before that, and so on. You will find that you need to start working in small increments right away. This will give you plenty of time to collect research materials and the effort will be less taxing both emotionally and physically in those last few days before the due date. Links to Calendars The following calendars may be useful for you in creating a schedule for your research and writing: Weekly calendar Monthly calendar Undergrad Spring Semester Calendar Time and Project Management Managing your time and managing your projects are a combination of general habits and approaches but also need to be individualized in relation to the assignment and to your other time and project commitments. For help with managing your time, visit http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lrc/lr/Word/time%20management%20(W).doc For help with managing and scheduling your project, visit You may also want to meet with a Learning Resources instructor for ideas about how to launch or conclude your project. Call 573-9235 for an appointment. Pre-Writing Most of us use pre-writing strategies without even knowing it. Any thinking, brainstorming, note-taking, review of lecture notes and other related material or other related material, or discussing of a paper we are planning to write is a form pre-writing. Many students think about and plan a paper weeks before they begin writing. Writing down or recording your thoughts, mapping your research or your plan for the paper, or even recording your conversations about a paper will make your first draft easier to write. If you were looking for tips on organizing your paper, see Organization
If you already have a topic, begin your research immediately. Why?
If you don’t have a clue about what topic to pursue:
Narrowing the Topic For more advice on how to identify and narrow your research topic, visit http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/PORT/topics/ If you prefer to brainstorm your topic with a writing tutor, contact www.writing.upenn.edu/critical for drop-in hours or an appointment.
At this early stage, your research paper is actually well underway: you know what is expected of you, you have set up your research journal, you are pre-writing, and your topic has been narrowed to a manageable level. It is time to begin your research in earnest. You might wish to:
This power point demonstration describes general reading and note-taking strategies. http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lrc/lr/PowerPoint/3 For more help with your reading and note-taking, make an appointment with a Learning Resources instructor at 573-9235.
You have finished reading your research materials and have taken good notes and documented these in your research journal. You are ready to write the first draft of your paper. As with the research journal, the form your first draft takes is a matter of personal style. Some people like to begin by roughing out a thesis statement (see thesis below). Others like to “free-write,” simply putting on paper any and all ideas that come to mind. Still others like to work from notes and outlines, or use mapping. A rare few are able to conceive and write their papers “in their heads.” Like Athena bursting fully mature from her father Zeus’s skull, their first drafts resemble other writers’ second or third drafts.
Revision doesn’t necessarily mean rewriting. Literally it means to “look again” or to see it anew. A good first draft will raise more questions than it answers, and will likely send you back to your research and perhaps back to the library for more information. Your second draft should be an effort to develop and support your thesis, as well as to integrate and cohere the information and ideas you have been generating in working with your research. Sometimes the second draft is a new beginning; most of the time it’s a significant reworking and filling out of the first draft. The Writing Center encourages you to bring your drafts to the tutoring staff for their feedback: www.writing.upenn.edu/critical.
Upon completion of your first draft, you should be able to write a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a clear, precise sentence that is the focus of your paper. By your second draft, you should be able to address and illustrate this thesis with summaries, direct quotations, and other ideas that you’ve gathered from your research and from your own thinking about this project. Be sure to document http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/PORT/documentation/ all sources in this draft.
With every revision, your paper will more closely represent what Thrall and Hibbard define as your style--“the arrangement of words in a manner which at once best expresses the individuality of the author and the idea and intent in his mind.” As with styles of clothing, so too with writing. Some styles are simply inappropriate. What is regarded as an acceptable style can vary by discipline and even by professor. One might insist that you write in the first person (“I”) to acknowledge that your research is fundamentally subjective, while another professor in the same department might be aghast at the appearance of an “I” in a research paper. Within these constraints, you can create a style that captures your individuality as a writer and represents your ideas creatively to your reader. Your style is the effect of the words you choose, and the way you arrange those words and shape them into sentences and paragraphs. When examining your style, consider the following:
There is no better test of your voice—of its music, its tone, its uniqueness, its interest—than to read your essay aloud to yourself and others. “Write as a listener,” advises Eudora Welty, and you will quickly learn how to develop and refine your own writerly voice, with the authority and authenticity that is the hallmark of good writing.
Always test your work-in-progress on an audience. Ask your professor if s/he will look it over; take it to your TA, WATU Fellow, Writing Tutor at http://www.writing.upenn.edu/critical/help_wc.html. Read your paper aloud to your friends and roommates. Make everyone your audience; it’s what writers do. Pay close attention to sections that elicit praise or criticism from your audience: they may know very little about your topic, but they will always be able to remark murky and glorious writing.
For a rare few perfectionists who choose each word and shape each sentence with awe-inspiring care and sensitivity—for those who, as Margaret Fuller said of Ralph Waldo Emerson, write like a sculptor “chipping the marble”--your problem is not when to stop but how to finish on time! The rest of us are wise to revise as the deadline permits. With each revision, your thinking clarifies and your paper becomes better focused, more interesting, more substantial: more writerly.
The first rule of order is this: there should be no structural surprises. Research papers are highly schematic, though the best writers find ways to keep things interesting. The research paper needs to tell us where it is going and then take us there, step by step. You can be subtle about the itinerary, but wise not to deviate from it. Your paper should have a clearly identifiable thesis, and this thesis must be illustrated, argued, proven, exemplified and otherwise advanced in each paragraph. The last paragraph should confirm that you have delivered on the promise you made in the first paragraph, and each paragraph should relate to the one that precedes and proceeds it: and all of these paragraphs should relate self-evidently to the thesis. To identify problems with organization, try the following:
These two sites are useful for questions of grammar: The Writing Center will also teach you how to proofread your work and identify your pattern of errors. Everyone has such a pattern. Once you learn what it is, you can recognize and correct it when it occurs in your writing.
Submit it to writing contests and journals for possible publication. For a list of Penn and other publications and contests that welcome research papers from undergraduates, visit the Critical Writing Program’s site at http://www.writing.upenn.edu/critical/ugrad_pub.html Apply for an undergraduate research grant. Take your research and your professional development to the next level by applying for an undergraduate research grant through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF). For more information visit http://www.upenn.edu/curf/research/research2.html Present it at a Penn Public Forum The CWiC Emerging Scholar Talks (CWiC-EST) honors students with strong research projects and speaking abilities, and gives them a public forum in which to talk about their work. For more information write cwic@sas.upenn.edu or visit http://www.sas.upenn.edu/cwic/involvement.html#EST
|
