Author: Cameron M Heim

Hi everyone!

Now that you have gathered your sources, written your outline, and formatted your in text citations, it’s time to finally draft your paper! This may feel like one of the most daunting steps in the writing process, but with all of the prep work that we’ve done beforehand, it should go smoothly! Before we get right into drafting the paper, let’s discuss what some of the elements we have gathered thus far will become:

Gathering Research:

Your research should have been one of the biggest factors in creating your outline. This research will be used to prove that there is evidence to support whatever claim you are making in your topic sentence.

Choosing a topic:

Your topic is the entire backbone of your paper. This topic will be the main organizing principle in  your paper which will be used to guide the focus of your paper. This topic will also be the backbone of your thesis statement.

Creating a Thesis Statement:

Your thesis statement should house the point that you are trying to prove in your paper. This will be housed in your introduction paragraph, and referenced throughout your paper with every point that you make. Your outline will then contain all of the pieces of evidence you will use to prove the point made in your thesis.

Creating an outline:

Your outline will contain all of the points of evidence you are going to use to to prove your thesis statement. This will contain the bulk of the content of your paper.

So how does all of this come together to create a research paper draft?

First, you will want to write your introduction paragraph. This should start off with a hook. Your hook should be a bit more broad than your topic and be used to grab your reader’s attention. Think about your audience when drafting out an appropriate hook. Then, you will want to introduce your topic. This is where you want to work towards introducing your topic to your reader. Don’t get super specific to your argument here, as this going into the third step. The third step is writing your thesis statement. This is where you get very specific to your paper and state the argument that you are going to spend the rest of the paper proving. See this image if you need this explained a little bit more of a visual manner:

 

Body:

The body of your research paper is where the bulk of your work will go, however, you’ve already done most of the work! This is where your outline will come into play. All you will need to do is:

• Expand each bullet point into full paragraphs. This should be as simple as turning any thoughts your wrote into complete sentences and paragraph form. Remember, any time you reference one of your sources, you must use the appropriate in text citation!
• Add transition statements into your paragraphs. Every time you are about to begin a new thought, include a transition phrase or sentence. This will greatly improve the flow of your paper, and make it easier to both read and understand for your readers.
• Fill in information gaps when needed. Sometimes,  one you take your outline into full paragraph form, you may find that there may be some information missing. If this is the case, simply either find more information to fill in with, or, if you need to reorganize to fix this that may work as well.

once you have finished the body of your research paper, the hard part is over! All that’s left is to write a conclusion, and create your references or works cited page.

Writing a Conclusion:

Your conclusion paragraph should wrap all any unfinished points in your paper, and draw your paper into a finished point. Think of it like the gift wrap around a wrapped present, neatly tying everything together in a neat little bow. Make sure that you restate your thesis in the conclusion as well. One thing to be wary of is that conclusion paragraphs should NEVER introduce new information!

Creating a Works Cited, References, or Bibliography page.

Once you have finished the rest of your paper, the final step is to create a references, or works cited page. If your paper uses MLA formatting, this will be a Works Cited page. If your paper uses APA formatting, this will be a References page. If your paper uses Chicago formattting, this will be a Bibliography Page. For more information on each, follow these links:

MLA

APA

Chicago

Always remember that whichever formatting you are using, your Works Cited, References, or Bibliography page should always be on it’s own page!

Once you tackle that, you have officially completed the draft of your research paper! At this stage, you would want to revise, edit, and peer review your paper. This is one of the many stages that the Writing Center would be a great help to you! As always, feel free to walk in, or make an appointment in person at the Writing Center, asynchronously online through our email, or online through Zoom!

 

Happy Writing!

~Cameron

 

Hi Everyone!

Once you have chosen a topic, gathered information, and written a thesis statement, the next step towards completing a research paper is typically drafting an outline! Outlines are very beneficial to writing and they make the process of drafting your final paper a lot easier. Some additional benefits to creating an outline include:

• Helping you keep your ideas organized
• Presenting your idea in a logical order
• Showing the relationships between concepts in your writing

So, how do you go about creating an outline? First, you want to determine the purpose of your paper. Next, consider who is the audience you are writing for? And finally, developing your thesis, which you should hopefully have already done! Then,

• List out all of the ideas that you want to include in your paper
• Take those ideas and organize any related ideas together
• Put those groups of ideas into an order. Ususally, you want to work from more general larger ideas, to more specific points.
• If needed for formatting, create headings and subheadings.

Keep in mind, creating an outline before writing your paper will make organization a lot easier. Weather you follow the guidelines listed above exactly, or modify it however may work for you, it will be beneficial to your writing process. Also, it will make drafting your paper in general much, much easier!

Happy outline writing!

~Cameron

Choosing a topic is typically one of the first things you need to do when writing a research paper. It can also be one of the most difficult decisions to make regarding a research paper. Here are a few helpful tips to help with choosing a topic!

Typically, a professor will have you working within a specific guideline for a paper that may limit your realm of freedom when choosing a topic, but there are still a few things you can keep in mind:

• Choose a subject that aligns with the Reasearch Paper Requirements
  • As mentioned above, Professor’s generally give guidelines that limit your realm of freedom when it comes to choosing a topic
  • Make sure that the topic you choose falls within the requirements of your Research Paper
• Choose a subject that sparks personal interest
  • Choosing a subject that aligns with your personal interests will make the process far more enjoyable!
  • This may be difficult depend on what class it is for, but try to choose a topic that at least somewhat interesting to you.
• Choose a topic that is focused enough that it is manageable
  • You don’t want to be so vauge in your topic that it is hard to find information that is specific to what you want to research

Good luck selecting a topic for your research paper that is intersting to you, fits the requirements of your assignment, and is specific enough to research. As always, feel free to stop by the Writing Center if you need help at any point in the writing process! Also, stay tuned for more blog posts helping to guide you through the steps of writing a research paper! 🙂

 

~Cameron