Writing Across the Social Sciences
Writing Research Papers
The first thing to understand is "What is a research paper?"
A research paper is a document that explores the knowledge that is available within a particular field of study and presents that knowledge in the effort to answer a particular research question.
So, let's take this apart a bit...a research paper is:
- a document
- This means that it is written out as a single item. It might be printed or stored electronically
- explores
- By exploring we mean that it documents and writes about something...it is somewhat "investigative"
- knowledge that is available within a particular field
of study
- While some research questionsmight involve more than one specific field, the point is that the paper focuses on knowledge that is ALREADY present within a field. If that field was Psychology, you would explore the knowledge of what has been discovered about that topic already...we call this "a review of the literature". This provides you with the background knowledge that you need to write about our current understanding about something.
- This is different than conducting a study (experiment, survey, interviews) where you are actually gathering raw data on your topic. To conduct these sorts of studies you need to have specialized training in research methods and ethics (not because you can't do it, but to ensure that you do it in such a way that it produces accurate knowledge).
- answer a particular research question
- When you set out to write a research paper you need to first decide which quesiton you want ot answer. This is often the toughest part because you have to phrase the question in a way that will "justify" your work.
- You can't really ask "yes or no" type questions
- You have to ask questions using the terms that are common in the field you are studying (so often times you need to do some preliminary work to get to the question)
- The question has to be important...there are a lot of questions out there that are not important or "nobody cares". This is particularly true in this day and age when there is so much information already put together out there on the web. If I can answer your question with a simple Google search, it is not worth writing a paper about it.
- There is a whole section on coming up with good research questions in this tutorial
Formatting the Whole Paper
Similar to writing an essay, the format of a paper needs to lead the reader through your thinking process as you attempt to show what is known in a particular field in order to answer a particular question.
My favorite model for essay/paper writing is as follows:
- You start out introducing the topic in general terms and then gradually work your way toward the thesis...this first part should show the reader why your question is important
- The "thesis" is your actual research question.
- You should then present your arguments/research/data that support/refute/answer your question
- You should then bring the reader back to the question (the recapitulation of the thesis)
- Then work your way out again towards general information and/or the practical application of your answers
Resources
Starting the Writing Process
This site from the Purdue Online Writing Lab will help you get started on your paper.
How to Structure and Organize your Paper
Making sense out of your observations about a text is a difficult task. Even once you've figured out what it is that you want to say, you are left with the problem of how to say it. With which idea should you begin? Should you address the opinions of other thinkers? As to that stubborn contradiction you've uncovered in your own thinking: what do you do with that?
Writing papers in college requires that you come up with sophisticated, complex, and even creative ways of structuring your ideas. Accordingly, there are no simple formulae that we can offer you that will work for every paper, every time. We can, however, give you some things to think about that will help you as you consider how to structure your paper.