Research Paper Writing is like an evolving landscape that keeps substituting itself with the newly emerging trends. In earlier times, research paper writing focused more on presenting the facts. But it has now been exchanged for a clear, argumentative and an engaging paper. It now seems important that the research paper or any type of writing should resonate with the readers. It is important for the writers to let the readers engage in your research paper as something that moves them.
With the advancements of AI, the world of writers has changed. Terms like citations, plagiarism, and grammatical errors now seem like the most important. Anyone, whether student, researcher or educator, should be aware of the trends and expectations of the readers. Staying up to date is more important now than ever.
This article will help you with research paper writing, focusing on effective techniques, the newly emerging trends, academic success strategies and much more.
Table Of Content
What is Research Paper Writing?
Research Paper Writing is a type of academic writing which provides an in-depth analysis, interpretation on a specific research topic or an argument. Unlike other academic writings, research papers are longer and more detailed. It entails and aims to evaluate your writing and researching abilities.
A research paper writing usually focuses on the three steps, i.e., prewriting, writing, and revising. It is not important to finish one stage to reach another, but the idea is to keep moving back and forth within these spaces to be able to have effective research writing.
The important components of a research paper writing include a title, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, references. The length of a research paper writing is 4,000-6,000 words but it is also common to see researchers cutting it short to 2,000 words.
Research Paper Writing Format
Depending on which writing style you are following, a research paper format varies largely. In addition to that, formatting like APA, MLA and Chicago provide and inculcates format guidelines like font size, font name, spacing, page format and other minor yet crucial details.
We will talk about it below in brief so that an individual can understand the terminologies and the formatting guidelines of a research paper format.
APA
The full form of APA is American Psychological Association. It is specifically styled for formatting and citation purposes in research papers. It is commonly used in psychology, social sciences and education.
The basic guidelines that an APA format follow are stated below:
a) The font should be Times New Roman, and the font size should be 12pt.
b) There should be a 1 inch margin gap from all sides.
c) Double line spacing should be used.
d) If you are submitting it for publication, it is important to have APA running head on the page number.
e) It is also essential to insert page numbers on the top right corner of every page.
f) Every new paragraph should be indented at 1.5 inch.
MLA
The full form of MLA is the Modern Language Association. This style of writing is usually used in humanities and for citing resources.
The basic guidelines that one should follow in MLA format are given below:
a) Use a readable font in the font size 12pt. For example, Times New Roman.
b) Set a 1 inch page margin from all the sides.
c) Double line spacing should be used.
d) Indent a new paragraph at 1.5 inch.
e) Use title case capitalization for headings.
f) A header appears at the top of every page on the right side with your surname and the page number.
Chicago
It is a widely used documentation style for academic writing, developed by the University of Chicago Press. It is popular amongst business, history and fine arts.
The basic guidelines for Chicago format are given below:
a) Use a standard font like Times New Roman with a font size of 12.
b) Use one inch or larger margins.
c) Double Spacing should be always used.
d) Indent a new paragraph at 1.5 inch.
e) The page number should be placed on top right or bottom center of each page.
Writing Trends in Research Paper Writing
Academic Research Writing has moved way too far from the traditional norms. With the newer innovations coming day by day, it has gradually become quite impossible for a human to research and progress.
What once took hours and days of looking through and finding the rarest of rare research paper and other important writings has now turned into minutes and even seconds of work with the advent of AI and many other evolutionary tools.
For the people who took time and days to find correct articles to cite, feels wronged and loss at words. Below are some of the writing trends in research paper writing:
1. Smarter Tools with a Smarter Process: What was once professed naturally like researching, rechecking the grammatical errors, rewriting for better quality are not taken over by technology. Tools like Grammarly, Quillbot and ChatGPT now help in all these tasks.
2. Clarity and Accessibility: Researchers are now encouraged to produce their work with clarity, defining jargon and easily understandable language which could cater to a larger audience. This helps in making a larger group of specialists and not specialists intelligible to our research paper writing.
3. Interdisciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Writing: Many researchers who are keen to explore and write about multiple topics are now building a legacy by combining two or more fields of study together and interrelating them with each other. This can help people in knowing about how the different studies when combined interrelate.
4. Visual Data Representations: The usage of graphs, pie-charts infographics are other tools that help in enhancing data while also making it more engaging. Visual data helps in an easy understanding of the crux and core, even for a layman.
Scholarly Research Paper Writing Techniques
Scholarly Writing goes beyond good grammar. It also focuses on depth, structure, and precision. This helps a researcher to publish their own research paper writing. Mentioned below are some of the Academic Writing tips which help in effective research writing:
1. Compelling Thesis Statement: Your thesis statement should be bold and augmentable. It is the basis of your research paper. A thesis statement helps in determining what your research paper writing is about and what aim the other research papers lack which is being provided by you. For example, “this paper talks about the death of King Richard III” is lacking the purpose. Instead, “This paper focuses on the death and disappearance of Richard III with a strong reference to the novel, The King’s Grave” provides something more.
2. Combining Evidence with Original Insights: While researching, analyzing and writing about your own research topic is acceptable. But asserting the evidence and insights in the form of graphs or pictorial representation is especially helpful in proving the authenticity of your research paper writing.
3. Paraphrasing and Citations: It is extremely crucial for a researcher to excel in the art of paraphrasing. Restating the ideas that are provided in an article can pose a bigger problem. Along with that, the proper format should be used when citing from a source. This helps in giving clarity to the reviewers.
4. Use Peer-Reviewed and Credible Sources: Using credible sources and scholarly publications like journal articles, books, JSTOR, PubMed, and much more can help in citing the real sources. This also helps to align your research paper writing with the academic communities.
Conclusion
This article helps in providing some of the academic success strategies which when culminated together with the trends of research paper writing, can help. With the new advancements, Research Paper Writing is evolving with a change in technique, style of writing and even providing engagement of the readers.
Frequently Asked Questions
