WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RESEARCH PAPER BEING PRECISE, ACCURATE, AND INTERESTING

IN THE BEGINNING… Hopefully you chose a topic that is interesting to you and one that has been researched and studied enough that there is sufficient sources available that will relate to your thesis. You have decided the thesis of your paper – in other words, you have decided what the purpose of your writing is. You are not writing a paper just to write, your paper should have intention and purpose. You have fulfilled an appropriate brainstorm. Remember that a brainstorm is a collection of complex and integrated thoughts. An effective brainstorm is one that requires very little work and additional information to transform in to a draft. The only step here should be organizing your thoughts and turning them in to paragraphs. There are three main types of essays and your essay should be one, and only one form: factual or informative, persuasive, comparison or contrast.

INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH Every essay should have an introduction paragraph or paragraphs. The purpose of these paragraphs are to introduce your topic, purpose, and process to the reader. When a reader has read your introduction they should have no issue interpreting what your topic is, what type of essay you are writing, and what the purpose of your essay is. An introduction paragraph should also be creative and interesting. This is the first paragraph that your audience reads, therefore you should capture their attention and intrigue them enough that they want to continue to read. You can do this by using creative language, asking interesting questions, providing interesting facts or points of view, etc. You introduction paragraph should lead in to the body of your essay. The easiest way to do this is to list your points of support that are related to your thesis.

BODY PARAGRAPHS For this particular essay you need three supporting points – therefore you should have at least three supporting paragraphs. Keep in mind always that one idea equals one paragraph. If you switch ideas you are to switch paragraphs. It is okay to have more than one paragraph related to a particular point of support. Your body paragraphs should never begin or end with someone else’s words or thoughts. These paragraphs, for the most part, will be where your research comes in to play. Remember that you need five separate sources of research that will support your thesis. The biggest difficulty when writing body paragraphs is being precise and accurate. What that means, is that your paragraphs should only relate to your thesis, there should be no wandering and rambling away from the point of support and as a whole the thesis of your essay. Precision writing requires careful word choice, sentence organization, and thought process.

C0NCLUDING PARAGRAPH You can not end an effective essay on a paragraph of supporting point. Like you need to introduce your topic and thesis to the reader and audience, so to do you have to conclude and ensure that the reader and audience knows that your essay has come to a close. Your concluding paragraph should once again contain your thesis. The language of your concluding paragraph should guide the reader in to knowing that your essay has in fact come to a close. The final sentence, or group of sentences, should be intriguing and captivating. This will be the last thing that your audience will read, the last thoughts that you will leave with your reader. You may want to leave them with a point of view to think about, a question, or an opinion.

EDITING, FORMATTING, AND CLOSURE Conventional errors will indefinitely result in confusion and fragmented writing. You should not be using words that you do not know their meaning, or you do not know how to properly spell. Formatting is important to avoid PLAGIARISM. If you are using a direct quotation you must indicate that it is a quotation by enclosing it with quotation marks and providing a footnote at the end of the quotation. ANY INFORMATION, THOUGHT, OR IDEA THAT IS NOT COMPLETELY YOURS MUST BE CITED – EVEN IF YOU DID NOT USE A DIRECT QUOTATION YOU PARAPHRASED THE INFORMATION. What is considered to be common knowledge does not need to be cited – in other words, if you think that any average person would know the information, then it is more than likely common knowledge (Canada is a country located in North America). If it is information that would require study, experimentation, specific expertise, experience, or the like then it must be cited.

FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OR WORKS CITED PAGE Each individual citation requires its own footnote. There is no limit to the amount of footnotes used, however you should not have too many consecutive footnotes in a row. Your essay should be organized in a way that you provide your own thoughts in between research. Remember: THE RESEARCH IS SUPPORTING YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUPPORTING THE RESEARCH NOR ARE YOU REGURGITATING OTHER PEOPLES IDEAS AND INFORMATION AND SIGNING YOUR NAME TO IT. If your citations are websites then your footnote should include the exact link to direct the audience to the information. Your essay also requires a bibliography or a works cited page at the end. This page should include in alphabetical order the organizations or persons that provided the information, the date it was published or updated, and the direct link to the information that you used. - This website will guide you and provide you with several examples of how to properly cite sources. You may also use my MLA essay on Slow Lories as an exemplar as well.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER… 1.Be confident in yourself as a writer. You are an experienced writer, you have thoughts and perspectives on concepts, you use the English language on a daily basis. 2.It is perfectly okay to slow your writing down. Effective essays and publications require multiple stages of editing. You do not have to complete the essay in one sitting. 3.It is okay to be challenged. If research, avoiding plagiarism, citing sources, organizing thoughts into paragraphs, etc. is difficult for you it is okay to work toward improving your skills to be able to effectively write essays. 4.Ask for help. Seek help. Use tools like dictionaries, thesauri, etc. to strengthen your writing. Ask peers for help. Ask me for help. 5.When in doubt, cite. It is MUCH better to cite something if you are unsure, then to not cite something and PLAGIARIZE. It is a habit that you must get used to.