Writing an Academic Research Paper
What You Need to Know
There are two types of research papers:
o Expository research papers (where you provide information to your audience)
o Argumentative research papers (where you make an argument and use sources discovered via research to support that argument).
You will be writing an argumentative research paper.
Technically, you have already written 3 (short) research papers, since each of the 3-4 page essays written this term used research to support an argument.
The longer research paper you will be writing now is nothing new. You will still have an introduction, an argumentative thesis, reasons and support, one or more counterarguments, and a conclusion.
o There are only 2 differences between the essays you have already written and this longer research paper:
The research paper is longer than your previous essays (8-10 pages).
The research paper uses more sources than your previous essays (minimum of 8 sources).
WHERE TO GET STARTED TO FIND A TOPIC
I always recommend that students go to a few of the databases and browse the topics. Here are my top recommendations for generating ideas and coming up with possible topics:
o Go to CQ Researcher > Browse Reports > By Date > (pick the current year)
This will allow you to see topics that are currently relevant (you could also pick last year).
o Go to Opposing Viewpoints in Context > Browse Issues
This provides a very lengthy list of possible topics to look at. Remember, not all of the topics will be viable, depending on the type of research paper you will be writing (in other words, a topic that would be good for an essay arguing a position may not be good if you are going to write a proposal or a causal analysis, and vice versa).
o Go to SIRS Knowledge Source > Database Features > Leading Issues
This provides an A-Z list of topics to select. You can also click the “Group” button to group the list into categories.
If you spend time on these databases there is an extremely good chance that you will be able to find a topic that interests you, and writing about something you are interested in always makes the essays less painful to write (for you) and more pleasurable to read (for me).
FAQ
Can I write about one of the topics that the prompt says I cannot write about, like abortion or gun control? I really feel passionate about this/these issue/s!
o NO! The prompt says you cannot write about them. That means you cannot write about them!!! These topics are banned for many reasons: (1) complete essays written about some of these topics are readily available on the internet, so they are banned to discourage plagiarism; (2) some of these topics have been written about for 30+ years, so they are “played out,” so to speak, and there is nothing new or innovative to say about them; (3) some issues, like abortion, gay marriage, gun control, and assisted suicide, are engrained in a person’s belief structure and are intertwined with his or her sense of morality, religion, political beliefs etc., so it is highly unlikely that a person will suddenly be swayed to completely change his or her core beliefs and worldview as a result of reading your 8 page paper; (4) some of these topics have been attempted by students in the past with repeatedly poor results, so to stop future students from falling into the same traps as every other past student, I have taken these topics out of play.
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