Essential Components of the Research Paper.
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Even though it’s one of the longest-and-involving assignments, writing an excellent paper is possible once you understand all the essential components of the paper.
In this article, you’re going to learn all the important parts of a good research paper.
As a rule, your research paper needs to be interesting and well laid out. It needs to present all your findings in an organized manner- which involves including all the essential parts you’re going to discover right here, in this article.
Typically, all assignments have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction is meant to draw the reader’s attention then prepare them for what they should expect to read, and finally lead them through the entire paper to the conclusion where you leave them wanting to read more of your assignments.
Given that a research paper is a lengthy assignment, it’s structure is also long.
That’s why I asked Edubirdie to write my research paper some years back as I had too much on my plate that I couldn't be able to finish the paper within the specified time.
So, here are the essential components of the research paper.
Introduction
Different students approach the introduction of the research paper differently.
Ideally, the research paper aims at achieving something.
Some students write this section after completing the whole paper while others do it at the beginning of the writing process.
Ideally, the introduction of the research paper aims at achieving several things.
First, it’s the part where you state your main research problem and the thesis argument.
Also, it’s where you draw in the readers and then show them what to expect in the research paper.
Precisely, the introduction helps to establish what you’re studying and why it’s important to you. It also helps to show the reader how original the research paper is.
No matter what approach you decide to choose between the two (writing it before or after) as long as you structure the research paper well, nothing is complicated.
But here are the main parts of an excellent research paper introduction:
It should present the general research problem,
Followed by what you want to achieve with your research project,
Then your own stand.
Make sure to write the three parts in different paragraphs and briefly.
Method/Methodology
The second component of the search paper is Methodology.
The methodology aims at demonstrating the exact design and methods used to do research.
In the methodology section of the research paper is where you’re required to show the exact techniques you used to collect data and information. Did you use the quantitative or qualitative method? Did you ask people to fill questionnaires or you interviewed them in-person? Did you do any field research?
Did you use any tools when gathering data? What are the tools?
Generally, the person reading the research paper knows most of the research methods you may likely have used so don’t waste your time explaining everything to the core.
Results
The results will vary depending on the research methods used. Results gather through the quantitative method are usually numerical and data whereas for qualitative research, you’re required to present the results in the form of a discussion- you don’t need to dwell too much on the results though.
If you have too many results to present, you can do it in graphs or tables.
Discussion
This section of the research paper aims to interpret the outcome of your research.
You also need to provide your own interpretation of the results you found.
Your discussion should be tied with the introduction but make sure each element is addressed in a separate sentence.
If there is anything new you discovered during your research, you also need to make the reader know.
Conclusion
The last component is the summary of the main ideas of the research paper.
Here, you also need to restate the thesis statement and demonstrate that you’ve achieved what the research paper was meant to accomplish.
Once done, write your reference list according to the specified format so that interested people can do further research on their own, based on your references.