Writing a Research PaperI. Research Paper and Ordinary

Writing a Research Paper
    I think as seniors, you are often required by your instructors to do some library research on this topic or that. And, in the end, you have to write a research paper, right? Then what is writing a research paper like? How are we going to write one? What are the steps in producing a research paper and what are the points we need to take care of? In today’s lecture, I’ll try to answer these questions.
    First of all, what is writing a research paper like? We may start by comparing it to an ordinary essay, a form of writing you are very familiar with. Writing a research paper is much like writing an essay. Both kinds of writing involve many of the same basic steps. That is choosing a topic, asking questions to define and develop the topic, identifying the audience, getting raw material to work with, outlining the paper, writing it, and, finally, revising it. These are the steps shared between research paper writing and essay writing. Is there any difference, you may ask. Yes. What makes a research paper different is that much of your raw material comes not from your own head, but from printed sources: mainly books and periodicals in the library. Collecting raw material, that is reading books and taking notes, is very much like the process of brainstorming at the prewriting stage of an ordinary essay.
    Generally speaking, there are two basic types of research papers, and a paper may belong to either type. It may be a survey of facts and opinions available on a given topic or an analytical argument that uses those facts and opinions to prove a point. Your instructor may tell you which kind of paper you are expected to write. If not, you yourself should eventually choose between surveying and arguing. You will then have a definite way of managing your sources.
    Now, let’s take a look at how you are going to write a survey-type research paper or an argumentative research paper. In a survey-type research paper, you gather facts and a variety of opinions on a given topic. You make little attempt to interpret or evaluate what your sources say or to prove a particular point. Instead, through quotation, summary, and paraphrase, you try to provide a representative sampling of facts and opinions, to give an objective report on your topic. You explain the pros and cons of various attitudes or opinions, but you don’t side definitely with any one of them.
    While in an argumentative research paper, you do considerably more. You do not simply quote, paraphrase, and summarize as you do in a survey-type paper. You interpret, question, compare, and judge the statements you cite. You explain why one opinion is sound and another is not; why one fact is relevant and another is not; why one writer is correct and another is mistaken. What’s more, your purpose may vary with your topic. You may try to explain a situation, to recommend a course of action, to reveal the solution to a problem, or to present and defend a particular interpretation of a historical event or a work of art. But whether the topic is space travel or trends in contemporary American literature, an argumentative research paper deals actively—I say it again, actively—with the statements it cites. It makes these statements work together in an argument that you create, that is, an argument leading to a conclusion of your own.
    In the next part of the lecture, I’d like to talk about one of the basic steps in writing I mentioned earlier in the lecture, that is how to choose a topic. Choosing a topic for a research paper is in some ways like choosing a topic for an ordinary essay, but there are some differences. As you think about your topic, ask yourself these questions:
    Question number one: Do you really want to know more about this topic? This is the initial question you have to ask yourself, because research on any subject will keep you busy for weeks. You certainly do not wish to waste your time on something you have little interest in. You will do it well only if you expect to learn something interesting or important in the process.
    Question number two: Are you likely to find many sources of information on this topic? You cannot write a research paper without consulting a variety of sources. If only one source or none at all is readily available, you should rethink your topic or choose another.
    Question number three: Can you cut the topic down to a manageable size? Be reasonable and realistic about what you can do in a short period, say, two to four weeks. If your topic is "The American Revolution", you’ll scarcely have time to make a list of books on your subject, let alone read and analyze them. So try to find something specific, such as "The Role of Thomas Jefferson in the American Revolution" or "The Franco-American Alliance".
    Question number four: What questions can you ask about the topic itself? Questions help you get the topic down to a manageable size, discover its possibilities, and find the goal of your research, that is, the specific problem you want to investigate. Suppose you want to write about the issue of financing a college education—a topic not only current, but also directly linked to the lives of most college students and their families. You could ask at least two or three pointed questions: How much does educational opportunity depend on financial status? Is financial aid going to the students who need it most? How much should universities and colleges charge their students? You can ask yourself these questions or more as you start work on the research paper.
    Okay. To sum up, in today’s lecture, we’ve looked at some of the issues in research paper writing, like the basic steps, types of research paper, and how to choose a topic. In our next lecture, we’ll concentrate on how to identify the audience, how to work out an outline, and how to edit the draft.