The Steps For Writing A Research Paper

If the student is given a topic...

1. Read and understand the assignment. Most teachers will assign a research paper by suggesting general or specific topics for students to use. If the assignment is given on a handout, read the requirements carefully with your child, and together you can highlight the important items such as due dates, content standards, and non-negotiable formats. Talk with your child to see exactly what the teacher said s/he wanted. If there needs to be clarification, write questions with your child that s/he can ask the teacher at the next class meeting. Now you’re ready to get started on the assignment.

If the student must choose a topic...

1. Select the subject. Students often complain about not knowing what to write about. You can easily help your child come up with ideas for a research paper simply by guiding him or her to write about his or her interests. The easiest things for us to write about are those things we know a lot about. Help your child choose a subject that s/he is passionate about, that is interesting, that will make him or her want to learn more. This will make the entire research process more enjoyable and not such a chore.

Continuing with the research process...

2. Explore the ideas. Your child will need to come up with as many ideas as possible for the subject assigned. The student could brainstorm a list of ideas that might be used. Freewriting about the subject in a journal may prove beneficial as well. Some students might find it useful to make a diagram by clustering or webbing ideas into logical patterns. Any of these methods will help your child get a grasp about what information is out there about his/her assigned subject. Together with your child, you may want to discuss each idea and see which ones stand out as interesting and useable.
3. Narrow the subject. Now your child needs to narrow his or her subject to a topic s/he can easily handle. If the teacher has assigned a length requirement, keep that in mind as you help your child focus the ideas. Remember that having a subject with too much information can be overwhelming; likewise, having a topic with too little information can make the essay bland, basic, and uninteresting. A carefully chosen topic will make the writer’s life much easier down the road. Make sure your child has an open dialogue with the teacher about the chosen topic.
4. Identify the purpose. It’s important to know what kind of writing this research paper will be. If this is an expository essay, then the teacher wants the student to inform and explain the topic to the reader. If it’s a persuasive essay, then the teacher wants the student to make the reader agree with his or her opinions.
5. Identify the audience. The audience is the person the student is writing for. Most of the time, the audience is going to be your child’s teacher; however, sometimes teachers come up with different audiences, depending on the assignment. It’s very important for your child to know who the audience of the research paper is so s/he can choose his vocabulary carefully. For example, if your child is writing about surfing in Hawaii and his audience is a group of surfers, then s/he could loosely use terms and jargon that surfers have in common. If the audience for the same essay is the teacher, such terms will have to be explained and defined.
6. Begin finding the information. Most of the time, the teacher will take the students to the school library to find the information they will need. Once the students have researched their topics at school, they may find they need more information. You may need to assist your child in going to the public library or searching on the Internet from home. Stress to your child that s/he should find as much information as possible and organize that information according to the teacher’s guidelines. This may be using note cards, two-column notes format, etc. Also, the students will need to keep a list of reference information for the sources they use. Most teachers require the students to keep source cards. These are cards which contain source information such as author, book titles, copyright information, etc. Taking careful notes and maintaining accurate source information will help your child stay organized in the future.
7. Write the thesis statement. Once your child has found all the information s/he needs for the research paper, the next step is to write a sentence that will serve as the basis for the entire composition. This sentence is called the thesis statement. The thesis statement touches on the special elements in the child’s paper, but it doesn’t go into specifics. This statement usually makes a firm point, and the entire research paper should reflect back to it. As your child tries to formulate his or her thesis statement, it may take a few times before the perfect one emerges. Even seasoned writers have trouble putting the ideas of an entire essay into one and only one sentence. Remember also to remind your child to have the teacher approve his or her thesis sentence. It’s always good to make sure you’re on the same page with the evaluator of the final product.
8. Organize the information. Students often have trouble putting the information they found into a logical format for their research papers. The first thing to think about is to go through the information the student found and sift out the unnecessary data that no longer applies to the thesis statement. Next, decide on the best way to relate this information to the reader. One popular way to organize is order of importance; this method requires the student to include the least important information first and end with the most important information. Students may also want to outline their essays using a formal topic outline. Whatever method your child uses, it’s important that s/he begins with a plan for writing before he taking a stab at the rough draft.
9. Write the rough draft. Now your child is ready to begin his or her rough draft. It’s important that the student keeps in mind all of the teacher’s requirements. How many sources must be used? Is there a page requirement? Must specific topics be touched upon? Make sure your child keeps these and any other pertinent questions in mind as s/he writes. Students will also have to be careful not to plagiarize as they write. In other words, if they use ideas from other authors, they must give credit to those authors by using citations and documenting the sources they use. Be sure to ask your child what kind of citation or documentation style (MLA, APA, etc.) the teacher is requiring. These citations must be included in the paper, or your child will be guilty of plagiarism. For instance, copying directly out of a book or cutting and pasting from a website without including a citation is plagiarism. The student should write his or her rough draft carefully keeping all this in mind.
10. Revise the rough draft. It’s never a good idea to write something and then submit it and simply hope for the best. Students will need to revisit their writing carefully to make sure it’s acceptable. Has the proper format been followed? Is the information complete and clear? Is the writing organized and interesting? Encourage the student to ask the teacher questions about the draft. Maybe your child could work with another student in the class who is doing the same assignment; both students could read their peer’s work and make suggestions. Some schools have writing centers or SOL tutors who could assist your child with the research paper. Librarians are even great sources if your child is having trouble with citations and documentation. Having more sets of eyes to look at the composition will definitely help.
11. Proofread the rough draft. Once the revision of the first draft is complete, it’s then necessary to look for mechanical errors in the writing. These are errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, etc. that we all make in our writing. Have your child look carefully for these mistakes. If you find that your child is making a lot of errors, sit down and go over the essay with the student. Try to explain the mistakes and help them to recognize the errors. Reading the paper backwards will often help students recognize spelling mistakes they otherwise might have missed. Also, reading the research paper out loud will help the student recognize incorrect sentence structure and unclear wording.
12. Publish the final copy. This is the end of the process. After a long road of fact-finding, prewriting, researching, drafting, editing, and proofreading, your child is finally ready to assemble the end product. It’s very important to carefully follow the format the teacher has required.

Research Paper Terminology...

APA	The American Psychological Association, a citation/documentation format some teachers require students to use
Brainstorming	Listing whatever comes to mind about a particular topic
Citations	Notations within a research paper which tell the reader where the writer obtained stated information
Clustering	A diagram which organizes information into a web or bubble chart
Documentation	The act of giving credit to a source a student uses in a research paper
Freewriting	Writing whatever comes to mind about a topic
MLA	Modern Language Association, a citation/documentation format some teachers require students to use
Note cards	4 X 6 inch cards that organize and list information for a research paper
Outline	An organizational tool which divides subjects into topics using Roman numerals, Arabic numbers, capital letters, lowercase letters, etc.
Paraphrasing	Taking the quote of someone else and putting it in your own words
Plagiarism	Using another writer’s words or ideas without giving that writer credit; this is highly unacceptable in research papers, and the consequences in any given school can range from reduction of a grade to a student referral
Source cards	3 X 5 cards which list the sources a student uses for the research paper
Sources	The books, articles, websites, interviews, etc. that students use to obtain information for their research papers
Webbing	See clustering
Works cited	The last page of the research paper which lists the sources a student uses for the research paper

English Textbook Page References for Research...

Grade Level	Text and Page References
Grade 6	Language Network—Grammar, Writing, Communication, Grade 6 Research Report, page 418 Finding Information, page 437
Grade 7	Language Network—Grammar, Writing, Communication, Grade 7 Research Report, page 474 Finding Information, page 493
Grade 8	Language Network—Grammar, Writing, Communication, Grade 8 Research Report, page 486 Finding Information, page 505
Grades 9 and 10	Writers Inc. Writing the Research Paper, page 245 Writing Responsibly, page 255 MLA Documentation Style, page 259 Sample MLA Research Paper, page 275 APA Documentation Style, page 285
Grades 11 and 12	Write for College Writing the Research Paper, page 284 Writing Responsibly, page 294 MLA Documentation Style, page 300 APA Documentation Style, page 372 Searching for Information, page 444 Using Electronic Sources, page 456 Writing with a Computer, page 462 Using the Writing Center, page 468