Steps for Writing a Research Paper

My apologies if this is the wrong sub. I wrote up this guide for my cousins many years ago while I
was in grad school and thought others might find it helpful.
Motown-Chilly's Steps for Writing a Research Paper
1. Topic & Research
a. Pick any topic. Keep it vague. You can pick a specific thesis based on the research
you find. It’s way easier than trying to find research to support an idea you already
have.
b. Find two articles/books on your topic. You can use https://scholar.google.com/
c. You don’t need to find a ton of other articles/books for research – just try to find as
many articles as the two you already found reference in their bibliography/works cited.
They’ve already done the work for you—no need to repeat it!
d. Highlight every sentence in your two articles that relate to your topic—no matter how
loosely.
e. If any of the sentences you highlighted in your article are quotes from another article
that you were able to find, read the intro to that article, a few paragraphs around the
quote, and the conclusion of that article. If it’s short, might as well read the whole thing.
Don’t bother with super long articles. Highlight any new relevant sentences you find.
2. Organization & Planning
a. Type up all the quotes you found. Make sure to add your citations as you’re typing up
the quotes. It’s easier to do it now than to go back later and try to remember where
they’re all from/what pages they were on.
b. Patterns will start to emerge in your quotes – vague/specific/contradictory,
music/literature/movies, character/plot/theme – anything. Group the quotes by
whatever patterns you see. For a really short paper you might only need one or two
groups. For a longer paper you’ll probably need three or four.
3. Outline & Ugly Writing
a. Type up bullet points for the different groups you found. Don’t worry about making it
sound smart. Just ugly write it (i.e. ―Color blue mentioned in pop culture.‖ )
b. Add the quotes that apply to each topic as sub-bullets under each.
c. If you have more than three quotes for a second, separate them into even more
specific groups. (i.e. ―Blue is mentioned in songs.‖ ―Blue is mentioned in litreature.‖)
d. Under each quote, add two sub-bullets about why the quote is important. Again, don’t
worry about it sounding good.
e. Add a final bullet to each section with a simple conclusion about what you found.
4. Nice Writing.
a. Go through all your bullets and rewrite them as nice sentences. (―Blue has long been the
most referenced color in songs, literature, movies, and television.‖)
 b. Each of your main bullets is the start of a new paragraph. Delete all the bullets and
combine everything into paragraphs.
c. Write up a flowery intro—something with a hook or a quote that leads into your paper.
Start with the floweriest/most vague sentence and end with the most specific one.
d. Write up your conclusion. Do the exact opposite of your intro – start with the most
specific sentence and end with the vaguest.
e. Yer done.
Example
Topic: Blue is the best color ever.
 INTRO - Gosh, the color blue is just so wonderful. It invokes a sense of calm and beauty.
Beyond just being an all-time favorite color, it inundates the worlds of pop culture, business,
and even law.
 PARAGRAPH 1: Blue has long been the most referenced color in pop culture.
o Mr. XYZ says in his article Stuff about colors that ―Between the years 1950 and 1990,
more songs were produced with the color blue in the song name than any other color.‖
 The color is so important to the song name that it earns a place not only in the
lyrics, but also the title.
 The color isn’t tied to a style of music or a decade, spanning more than 40
years in popularity.
o The color blue is often mentioned in literature too; Dude Writerman wrote in 1808 that
―blue is the most expressive color in all of literature.‖
 Writerman is known as the father of expression, so this is a weighty statement
coming from him.
 Even more than a century ago, it was widely known that the color blue was the
best way to express feelings in writing.
o The use of the color blue in song and literature shows that color isn’t just used as a
visual tool; reading or hearing the color invokes feelings that words cannot invoke
alone.
 PARAGRAPH 2: Beyond pop culture, it is widely known in the business world that blue
products sell better than products of other colors.
o Last year, the Bed Bath and Beyond annual report claimed that they ―sold more blue
bath towels than any other color combined.‖
 Blue was not just the best selling color – it was far and away the best selling
color.
 Something else here about buying blue towels.
o In her book on selling cars, Mrs Carsaleswoman claims that ―every car showroom
uses the same tricks by putting the blue cars out front, as they are the ones most likely
to attract customers.
 Car sales are all about making the sale –they wouldn’t waste time on using cars
of a certain color if it didn’t work.
  The article doesn’t specify if customers are most likely to by blue cars, but notes
that interestingly, it’s blue that draws people to the showroom in the first place.
o Regardless of what people claim their favorite color is, it is clear that blue is the
favorite color for decorating a home.
 PARAGRAPH 3: Stuff here about law
 CONCLUSION – Music, literature, homegoods, cars – blue clearly dominates the field across
all all fields. The things we buy, the things we surround ourselves with, the words we read,
and the songs we listen to are all meant to inspire feelings and arouse a sense of happiness.
Blue is handsdown the best color for the job.
Becomes
Gosh, the color blue is just so wonderful. It invokes a sense of calm and beauty. Beyond just being
an all-time favorite color, it inundates the worlds of pop culture, business, and even law.
Blue has long been the most referenced color in pop culture. Mr. XYZ says in his article Stuff about
colors that ―Between the years 1950 and 1990, more songs were produced with the color blue in the
song name than any other color.‖ The color is so important to the song name that it earns a place
not only in the lyrics, but also the title. The color isn’t tied to a style of music or a decade, spanning
more than 40 years in popularity. The color blue is often mentioned in literature too; Dude Writerman
wrote in 1808 that ―blue is the most expressive color in all of literature.‖ Writerman is known as the
father of expression, so this is a weighty statement coming from him. Even more than a century ago,
it was widely known that the color blue was the best way to express feelings in writing. The use of
the color blue in song and literature shows that color isn’t just used as a visual tool; reading or
hearing the color invokes feelings that words cannot invoke alone.
Beyond pop culture, it is widely known in the business world that blue products sell better than
products of other colors. Last year, the Bed Bath and Beyond annual report claimed that they ―sold
more blue bath towels than any other color combined.‖ Blue was not just the best selling color – it
was far and away the best selling color. Something else here about buying blue towels. In her book
on selling cars, Mrs Carsaleswoman claims that ―every car showroom uses the same tricks by
putting the blue cars out front, as they are the ones most likely to attract customers. Car sales are all
about making the sale –they wouldn’t waste time on using cars of a certain color if it didn’t work. The
article doesn’t specify if customers are most likely to by blue cars, but notes that interestingly, it’s
blue that draws people to the showroom in the first place. Regardless of what people claim their
favorite color is, it is clear that blue is the favorite color for decorating a home.
Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here
about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law.
Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here
about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law. Stuff here about law.
Music, literature, home-goods, cars – blue clearly dominates the field across all all fields. The things
we buy, the things we surround ourselves with, the words we read, and the songs we listen to are all
meant to inspire feelings and arouse a sense of happiness. Blue is hands-down the best color for the
job.
There is this pretty elementary way I learned to organize my essays but it's seriously the most useful
thing I have ever learned. It's called Jane Shaffer (I think?) You organize each body paragraph as
so:
Topic Sentence
Detail
Commentary
Detail
Commentary
Closing Sentence
and that's just the basic gust of it, you can edit it to fit the type of paper you are writing, but it makes
things pretty simple, specially for the outline. Also, always write your thesis last because that way
you just need it to match what you wrote in the body paragraphs, which is much easier than
matching your body paragraphs to your thesis.

I work with reluctant writers from junior high through high school age. I don't call it this, but it's
exactly what I teach. I can take most kids from flunking to B- in a few months (with a little effort on
their part).
 make a point worth making
 give some evidence for how you know it
 explain how the evidence makes the point
Lather, rinse, repeat. The cool thing is that it's like a fractal, because this is the formula for each
paragraph AND for the whole paper.

The SEER method also works.

 State the main point.
 Example that backs it up.
 Explain how it backs it up/why it matters.
 Restate the main point, considering all the EE points you covered.

I honestly don't know how people write papers without outlines. Without them, I'd just be staring at
eighteen empty pages with no idea how to start.
I usually do some preliminary research with some broad sources, jot down ideas and major points to
cover, then start brainstorming paragraph topic sentences. Once I have these more or less set, I
start doing more specific research and fill in the bare bones of the paragraphs. I don't write the
introduction or the conclusion until I've done at least one major edit in chase stuff gets cut or added,
and while I edit I actually write down things I "learn" from reading it as if it's the first time then use
these for intro and conclusion.
It's a lot of small jobs, which I like. When faced with a huge project, a lot of people freeze up and dick
around just trying to get started, but if you break it into tiny things it's easy to start seeing progress.
And then if you fuck up a part, you haven't lost too much time or effort.
This is a pretty good tip.
A small one I have for getting started on an actual essay:
Writing on a blank page is hard. So don't. Before I start an essay, after all the planning stages, I write
half a page on MS Word. Half a page of anything. If it relates to the essay, then great! But if not, it
doesn't matter. Half a page of how I'm not looking forward to do this essay, of how those meatballs
are starting to repeat on me, or how pissed off I am with a flatmate right now. Once I've got half a
page or so, I'll stop and start on the essay.
Suddenly, you're not writing on a blank page, there are no huge expectations that everything has to
look perfect and final, and you're in the mood for just spewing out ideas (which is really what a first
draft should be anyway).
Then again, I also like to make copious notes to myself as I go through, usually in different colours at
the end of the document. If the whole document is just your essay, you feel like you're trying to write
a final draft from the start. If this is a first draft, make it LOOK like it.

In my undergrad psych program, we had to write 25 page, 35, 50, and 80 page papers each year;
thankfully, our professor taught us some tips that made it easy to fulfill these requirements (and often
go over the minimum requirements).
1. Learn to write in 15 to 40 word sentences; a good way to do this is to try and not repeat the
same words in a sentence. Not only does this give variety and strength to your writing, but it
also forces you to be more creative and thus, write more. The logic is that if you can write in
succinct detail (don't EVER fluff unless it's a creative writing class!), there is no need for more
than 4 or 5 sentences per paragraph.
2. Use topic sentences to introduce what each paragraph will discuss; if necessary, include a list
of things you will be talking about. Remember to follow the order of your listing sentence!
3. After your topic sentence, you should have each of the following sentences: Definition,
conceptualization, a "for instance" (sounds more intelligent than 'for example'), and then a
conceptualization for your FI. 40 words x 4 sentences = a very simple way to cover a subject
in depth. Don't think it did it justice? Repeat the process by adding a few more FI's to the
paragraph (our teacher made us introduce them in an order: for instance, also, in addition,
moreover, furthermore, as a result, therefore, consequently, subsequently, naturally, etc.). We
don't use more than 3/para
4. Don't forget your transition statements! They're an excellent tool for getting from one topic to
the next. I tend to think of them as a bridge from one land to the next and how they are
similar/dissimilar/related/unrelated and sometimes use opinions, popular thought,
reinforcement of an assertion had previously made, etc. They can be easier to write once
you've written the raw material for each paragraph.
5. For big papers, outline. If you use the method I just explained, you'll end up basically writing a
"skeleton" of the paper that could easily be used to create topic sentences. I wouldn't
recommend doing a very thorough outline for smaller projects because you basically end up
writing the paper while you try to hash it out.
Hope this helps! We've been groomed for graduate school and know not to fear large page
requirements anymore. This formula is nearly universal and all you need to do is adapt it to fit the
likes/dislikes of each professor. They don't like transitions? "Not a problem, sir, I can change that."
They don't like the leading FI words? "Yes, ma'am, I can change that." Easy! :)
Example
Thesis: Federal regulations need to foster laws that will help protect wetlands, restore those that have been
destroyed, and take measures to improve the damange from overdevelopment.
I. Nature's ecosystem
A. Loss of wetlands nationally

B. Loss of wetlands in Illinois

1. More flooding and poorer water quality
2. Lost ability to prevent floods, clean water and store water
II. Dramatic floods

A, Cost in dollars and lives

1. 13 deaths between 1988 and 1998
2. Cost of $39 million per year
B. Great Midwestern Flood of 1993

1. Lost wetlands in IL
2. Devastation in some states
C. Flood Prevention
1. Plants and Soils

2. Floodplain overflow
III. Wetland laws
A. Inadequately informed legislators
1. Watersheds

2. Interconnections in natural water systems

B. Water purification
IV. Need to save wetlands
A. New federal definition

B. Re-education about interconnectedness

1. Ecology at every grade level
2. Education for politicians and developers
3. Choices in schools and people's lives

To create an outline:

1. Place your thesis statement at the beginning.

2. List the major points that support your thesis. Label them in Roman Numerals (I, II, III, etc.).
3. List supporting ideas or arguments for each major point. Label them in capital letters (A, B, C, etc.).
4. If applicable, continue to sub-divide each supporting idea until your outline is fully developed. Label them 1,
2, 3, etc., and then a, b, c, etc.