H ow to guide to w riting a research

paper

7 steps to an eff
ective paper

Step one
Identify your topic as a question to

better clarify it. If you are trying to

find out if Watching educational
television helps kids better
understand school subjects, better
clarifies what you are trying to find.

Step tw o
Look up keywords to your topic to

quickly find what you are looking for

and document any relevant
information that find while doing so,
but if you are looking for any extra
background information I would
suggest going back to your lecture
notes and/or your textbook index

Step three and step four

Use the keywords to find materials

based on what topic you are looking

for.
Use the indexes and abstracts to
find citations for your information.
These items may be found in
multiple forms. If you need help
finding the appropriate reference ask
your school librarian.

Step 5 and Step 6

It is always useful to find some

internet sources . Go to the library

to find a bibliography.
After that you need to evaluate your
information on whether it is credible,
accurate, reasonable, and if there is
something that supports your
findings

Step 7
Finally be sure to give credit where

credit is due. This is where writing

down all the places you pulled
information from will help because
you need to cite where you got the
information from. You have to give
credit to the authors that gathered
that information prior to you using it.

4 tips that w ould benefi

ta
researcher

Conduct background research

Conducting background research is a

great way to show support for the

information that you have collected
and by doing so gives you a better
understanding of the topic that you
are researching.

D ocum ent your research

By documenting the websites and

the books that you pulled

information from will help you when
you are putting together your
bibliography.

Cite your research

After you have finished gathering

your information make sure that the

pieces that you are going to use pass
the CARS test. If they dont then I
would advise you not to use that
piece of information.

4 tips that w ould notbenefi

ta
researcher

Plan your research strategy

If you know what you are looking for

and which key words to look to

search then you can go straight into
finding the information needed to
complete the research paper.

Select your tools carefully

Right now in this day and age there

are only two ways to gather

information and that is to look it up
on the internet or go read a
magazine, book, newspaper, or
encyclopedia.

D eterm ine the inform ation

that you need
If you are doing a paper on current

events then the information you use

needs to as up to date as possible . If
you are doing a paper where you are
researching a particular topic then it
doesnt matter whether the
information is the most recent piece.

Identify the research topic or

problem
If you dont know what you are going

to research then you probably should

not be starting a research paper
because if you dont know what you
are researching then you cant find
the information that you need.