research paper english composition

ENGL002: English Composition II

Course Introduction

• Time: 101 hours
• Free Certificate

The intent of this course is to teach you how to prepare research for any discipline or subject. We will carefully explore and practice general research techniques and processes that you should apply to many academic disciplines and in your job.

In Unit 1, you will select a topic that intrigues you, conduct preliminary research to focus your topic, and develop a thesis statement and a set of questions to help guide the remainder of your research.

In Unit 2, you will learn strategies for conducting your research and taking careful notes. We will look carefully at researching on the Internet, but we will also make a point of honing the skills necessary to research topics in a physical library. We will explore some of the techniques that scholars use to record and organize the information that they plan to include in their work so you can make the most of your resources when you start to write. By the end of the unit, you will have completed detailed notes for your own research project.

In Unit 3, you will learn how to evaluate and understand the sources you located in the previous units. You will learn why it is important to put significant effort into reading and evaluating Internet sources and how to identify and what you need to consider when you use primary and secondary sources. You also will get plenty of practice in determining how and when to use sources to help make your point. By the end of this unit, you will start to understand how to determine whether any source is authoritative, accurate, and current. You will also have an annotated bibliography that will guide you through the writing process.

In Unit 4, you will develop your argument and create a detailed outline for your research paper. We will take some time to reinforce and expand upon the rhetorical concepts we introduced in Composition I. Like the prerequisite course, this unit focuses on putting your research to work to strengthen your academic writing. We will study how to use the results of your research and analysis to bolster written arguments and support rhetorical strategies.

Unit 5 focuses on how to use style standards and citation methodology correctly. This unit will help you clearly understand why it is important to document and cite your sources and do so consistently and correctly. We will closely examine the issue of plagiarism, noting the situations that can cause writers to misuse source materials, either consciously or accidentally. After completing this unit, you will write a complete draft of your research paper.

Unit 6 prepares you for revising and polishing your paper. We will provide you with detailed editorial exercises focusing on specific elements of sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, and mechanics, which will help you achieve your goal of writing clear, grammatically-sound expository and persuasive prose.

We will use the Modern Language Association (MLA) standards for citation and formatting. Refer to  this cheat sheet on MLA Style Resources  for links to the most useful MLA sites on the internet.

Course Syllabus

First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them.

Unit 1: Research and the Writing Process

Researching and reporting the results of research are fundamental to academic work in almost every discipline and many professional contexts. While research in itself may seem like an enormous task when you are just starting a project, it is important to understand that effective research is a straightforward, step-by-step process. By practicing effective research techniques and becoming adept with the tools that are available to researchers, you will begin to see research as an invaluable part of an organized system of study that includes discovery, invention, critical thinking, and clear communication.

While writing is sometimes viewed as a solitary undertaking, research requires active involvement in a larger community of scholars. You will have a chance to define yourself as a member of many communities, and you will begin to see your research as an important part of the conversations that take part among members of your communities. As you begin to see yourself as an active contributor in a community, you will start to understand how others' work can both enrich your own perceptions and improve your understanding of the topic about which you are writing.

To help you get started as a contributing member of a community of scholars, we will first explore how your research can support the writing process you began developing in ENGL001. You will recall that the PWR Method is a process based on pre-writing, writing, editing, and proofreading, so it is probably no surprise to learn that effective research follows a similar process and is based on similar methods of preparation and analysis.

By mastering the essentials of effective research, you can train yourself to think more carefully about your work at every stage of the writing process. For example, you probably know how much a good quote can emphasize an important point. Still, you may not be conscious of how helpful general background research can be in the very earliest phases of your writing, when you are just beginning to refine your topic and clarify your thesis and argument.

As we continue to build your experience as a member of a research community, we will explore how effective research can help you appeal to specific audiences and more clearly define the purpose of your writing.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 16 hours.

Unit 2: Researching: How, What, When, Where, and Why

If you are already working on a writing project, you most likely are well aware that you often need to start writing to discover all of your ideas about a subject. In this unit, we will take the discovery process a bit further by exploring how identifying, analyzing, and making effective use of others' work can do even more to clarify your viewpoint and refine your thesis.

We will begin by looking at research as a concept. By now, you should feel a little more comfortable thinking of yourself as a researcher, and you may be anxious to get started. To get you off on the right foot, we will look at how analysis and planning can streamline your research efforts and help you make the best use of your findings. After that, we will dig deeper into the research process itself. Besides learning more about traditional library research methods, you will have a chance to get acquainted with methods for conducting research in person, on your computer, and on the Internet.

We will also define primary and secondary sources and will look at some of the merits of using both of these types of information. We will spend quite a bit of time reviewing the tools and techniques for researching on the Internet. You will have a chance to explore some of the most useful Internet sites for locating both printed and online information, and you will start to get a clearer idea about where to look for information in specific disciplines and to fulfill specific purposes.

Finally, we will acknowledge the importance of keeping research well-organized and clearly documented. You will get a chance to practice the best techniques for recording, organizing, and annotating the source information you want to use.

By the end of this unit, you should have a good understanding of how to carry out your research in an organized, thoughtful manner. You should also have the opportunity to complete much of the preliminary research for your final paper and to identify any information gaps that may require further investigation.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 17 hours.

Unit 3: Reviewing and Analyzing Your Sources

A successful research paper is more than a well-constructed argument supplemented by facts, figures, and quotations. Like the good writing that it supports, successful research involves planning, careful analysis, and reflection. Before you can incorporate an outside source into your work, you must take some time to think about more than just the facts and ideas you have uncovered. Is the source authoritative? Is the information substantiated fact, or is it primarily opinion? Is it up-to-date? Is it accurate and complete? These are just some of the essential questions you must ask about each piece of source information that you discover.

In this unit, you will take an in-depth look at some techniques for analyzing and evaluating the information you locate. As you review critical reading as a research strategy, you will look very closely at techniques for evaluating and comparing information that you find on the Internet and in print. You will learn some well-established techniques for determining whether a source is reputable and authoritative, and you will acquire some tools for discerning fact and opinion. You will also get to have a little fun as you complete a WebQuest in which you will find and analyze information online.

By the time you have completed this unit, you should be more confident about how and when to use the sources you have identified, and you should have a basic understanding of how to use your research to effectively and clearly support a well-developed academic paper. You will also be ready to complete your research.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 20 hours.

Unit 4: Putting Your Source Material to Work

Many college research papers are structured primarily as arguments supported, at least in part, by evidence gathered from outside sources. A major purpose of ENGL001 was to define written arguments and practice some techniques for developing them. To help clarify the close relationships between research and argumentation, we will use the first part of this unit to review some of the basics of formulating written arguments. As we do so, you will be able to explore the best techniques for putting research to work in your writing, and we will analyze how these techniques support the fundamental requirements of successful academic writing.

As we discuss the essential components, you should pay particular attention to how your research must support your basic logical structure and rhetorical strategy. This unit will give you a chance to get a little more practice in analyzing and developing written arguments.

You will spend some time investigating how various forms of research can support different writing strategies, including literary analysis, discussions, and comparison-contrast strategies. You will get some more practice in using research and analytical tools and have an opportunity to update your paper if you think it needs it.

Before we begin the more rigorous practice of citation and style in Unit 4, we will take a more general look at how to build quotations, paraphrases, and summaries into your work. You will be able to explore the best uses for all of these forms of reference so that you can confidently use your source material without changing its meaning, tone, or intent – or distorting your own.

At the end of the unit, you will use what you have learned to create a detailed outline that specifies what resources you will use to develop your arguments more fully.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 21 hours.

Unit 5: Writing the Research Paper and Acknowledging Your Sources

When you write a research paper, your work's success can depend almost as heavily on the work of others as it does on your own efforts. Your information sources not only provide essential facts and insights that can enhance and clarify your original ideas, but source material can also help you better understand your own theories and opinions and help you to arrive at more authoritative, clearly-drawn conclusions.

Because of the debt that you, as the author of a research paper, owe your sources, you must understand how to present, acknowledge, and document the sources you have built into your work. You should be aware that using accepted standards of style and citation can benefit you as a writer. When your references are clearly annotated within your work, you can see where your source material appears, making it that much easier to edit, update, and expand your work.

By following accepted standards to present your work in a manner accessible to readers, you also enhance your credibility as a writer and researcher. When your readers can easily identify and check your sources, they are more likely to accept you as a member of their discourse communities. This is especially important in an academic environment, where your readers are likely to investigate your work as a potential source for their own research projects. To put it bluntly, careful adherence to accepted style conventions in academic writing can mean the difference between great success and total failure.

In this unit, we will review the concept of plagiarism and discuss how you can use clear, consistent documentation to avoid even the unintentional misuse of source material. We will also review many of the commonly accepted methods of acknowledging and documenting sources used in writing college research papers. We will pay particular attention to the Modern Language Association (MLA) style standards because this is the most widely used convention in college undergraduate work.

This unit will culminate in an opportunity to build your selected source material into a fully developed first draft of your final research paper. By the time you have finished the final activity in this unit, you should have accomplished much of the groundwork for your final research paper.

By the time you have finished the work in this unit, you should have a command of the materials and techniques you will need to complete a well-developed academic paper. As a by-product, your final research paper for this course will probably be nearly finished.

This unit's final activity is to develop a final polished and clearly documented research paper that makes full use of the tools, techniques, and products that you have discovered, developed, and organized during the preceding four units.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 27 hours.

Unit 6: Polishing Your Research Paper

Now that you have completed the draft of your research paper, you will revise and polish it. Remember that writing is a process from the pre-writing phase to drafting to revising your essay. This unit will review techniques for revising and improving your writing in this unit. In revising your paper, you will consider the use of diction, sentence-level issues (like transitional phrases, grammar, tone, and so on), paragraph-level problems (like cohesion or relating the paragraph to your thesis), and incorporating proper format for MLA style.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 13 hours.

Study Guide

These study guides will help you get ready for the final exam. They discuss the key topics in each unit, walk through the learning outcomes, and list important vocabulary terms. They are not meant to replace the course materials!

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Certificate Final Exam

Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate .

Module 10: The Research Process—Finding and Evaluating Sources

The research process, learning objectives.

• Explain the research process

Figure 1 . Although there is a suggested and maybe even logical sequence of steps in the Research Process, don’t feel the need to completely finish one step before moving on to the next. As you gain more experience and practice, these steps will become more fluid and flexible.

The research process is not a linear process in which you must complete step one before moving on to step two or three. You don’t need to put off writing your paper until you’ve gathered all of your sources, in fact, you may want to start writing as soon as possible and adjust your search, thesis statement, and writing as you continue to work through the research process. For that reason, consider the following research process as a guideline to follow as your work through your paper. You can (and should!) revisit the steps as many times as needed to create a finished product.

• Decide on the topic , or carefully consider the topic that has been assigned.
• General topic: special needs in a classroom
• Limited topic: autistic students in a classroom setting
• Specific focus: how technology can enhance learning for autistic students
• Do background research , or pre-research. Begin by figuring out what you know about the topic, and then fill in any gaps you may have on the basics by looking at more general sources. This is a place where general Google searches, Wikipedia, or another encyclopedia-style source will be most useful. Once you know the basics of the topic, start investigating that basic information for potential sources of conflict. Does there seem to be disagreement about particular aspects of the topic? For instance, if you are reading about a war, are there any parts of the battle that historians seem to argue about in their interpretations of what happened?
• Main question: Do media depictions of women show their strengths or weaknesses as political leaders?
• Secondary questions: How can more women get involved in leadership roles? Why aren’t more women involved in politics? What role do media play in discouraging women from being involved? How many women are involved in politics at a state or national level? How long do they typically stay in politics, and for what reasons do they leave?
• Narrows the subject to the single point that readers should understand
• Names the topic and makes a significant assertion about that topic
• Conveys the purpose
• Provides a preview of how the essay will be arranged (usually).
• How many sources will you need? How long should your paper be? Will you need primary or secondary sources? Where will you find the best information?
• Create a bibliography as you gather and reference sources. Make sure you are using credible and relevant sources. It’s always a good idea to utilize reference management programs like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote so you can keep track of your research and citations while you are working and searching, instead of waiting until the end.
• Write and edit your paper!   Finally,   you’ll incorporate the research into your own writing and properly cite your sources.

Walking, Talking, Cooking, and Eating

Next we’ll examine the research writing process through the example of Marvin, a student at Any College who gets advice from an online professor on writing his research paper. You’ll read bits and pieces of their dialogue throughout the module and come to understand how the research writing process can be compared to walking , talking , cooking , and eating . In the following dialogue, consider the professor’s recommendations to Marvin about how to think more deeply about his assignment and what angle to take for his paper. Just like Martin, you should begin your research by thinking about the importance of your topic and what about it you find interesting. It also helps to talk with someone about your paper, whether that be a friend, family member, classmate, teaching assistant, librarian, or professor.

Getting Started: Walking to Sources

Marvin, a college student at Any College, sits down at his computer.  He logs in to the “Online Professor (O-Prof),” an interactive advice site for students. After setting up a chat, he begins tapping the keys.

Marvin: Hi. I’m a student in the physician assistant program. The major paper for my health and environment class is due in five weeks, and I need some advice. The professor says the paper has to be 6–8 pages, and I have to cite and document my sources.

O-Prof: Congratulations on getting started early! Tell me a bit about your assignment. What’s the purpose? Who’s it intended for?

Marvin: Well, the professor said it should talk about a health problem caused by water pollution and suggest ways to solve it. We’ve read some articles, plus my professor gave us statistics on groundwater contamination in different areas.

O-Prof: What’s been most interesting so far?

Marvin: I’m amazed at how much water pollution there is. It seems like it would be healthier to drink bottled water, but the plastic bottles hurt the environment.

O-Prof: Who else might be interested in this?

Marvin: Lots of people are worried about bad water. I might even get questions about it from my clients once I finish my program.

O-Prof: OK. So what information do you need to make a good recommendation?

Marvin thinks for a moment.

Marvin: I don’t know much about the health problems caused by contaminated drinking water. Whether the tap water is safe depends on where you live, I guess. The professors talked about arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, but what about the water in the U.S.? For my paper, maybe I should focus on a particular location? I also need to find out more about what companies do to make sure bottled water is pure.

O-Prof: Good! Now that you know what you need to learn, you can start looking for sources.

Marvin: When my professors talk about sources, they usually mean books or articles about my topic. Is that what you mean?

O-Prof: Books and articles do make good sources, but you might think about sources more generally as “forms of meaning you use to make new meaning.” It’s like your bottled water. The water exists already in some location but is processed by the company before it goes to the consumer. Similarly, a source provides information and knowledge that you process to produce new meaning, which other people can then use to make their own meaning.

A bit confused, Marvin scratches his head.

Marvin: I thought I knew what a source was, but now I’m not so sure.

O-Prof: Think about it. Sources of meaning are everywhere—for example, your own observations or experiences, the content of other people’s brains, visuals and graphics, experiment results, TV and radio broadcasts, and written texts. And, there are many ways to make new meaning from sources. You can give an oral presentation, design a web page, paint a picture, or write a paper.

Marvin: I get it. But how do I decide which sources to use for my paper?

O-Prof: It depends on the meaning you want to make, which is why it’s so important to figure out the purpose of your paper and who will read it. You might think about using sources as walking, talking, cooking, and eating. These aren’t the only possible metaphors, but they do capture some important things about using sources.

Marvin: Hey! I thought we were talking about writing!

O-Prof: We are, but these metaphors can shed some light on writing with sources. Let’s start with the first one: walking. To use sources well, you first have to go where they are. What if you were writing an article on student clubs for the school newspaper? Where would you go for information?

Marvin: I’d probably walk down to the Student Activities office and get some brochures about student clubs. Then I’d attend a few club meetings and maybe interview the club leaders and some members about their club activities.

O-Prof: OK, so you’d walk to where you could find relevant information for your article. That’s what I mean by walking . You have to get to the sources you need.

Marvin: Wait a minute. For the article on student clubs, maybe I could save some walking. Maybe the list of clubs and the club descriptions are on the Student Activities web page. That’d save me a trip.

O-Prof: Yes, the Internet has cut down on the amount of physical walking you need to do to find sources. Before the Internet, you had to either travel to a source’s physical location, or bring that source to your location. Think about your project on bottled water. To get information about the quality of a city’s tap water in the 1950s, you would have had to figure out who’d have that information, then call or write to request a copy or walk to wherever the information was stored. Today, if you type “local water quality” into Google, the Environmental Protection Agency page comes up as one of the first hits. Its home page links to water quality reports for local areas.

Marvin pauses for a second before responding, thinking he’s found a good short cut for his paper.

To be continued. . .

• Revision and Adaptation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• The Research Process graphic. Authored by : Kim Louie for Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources. Authored by : Cynthia R. Haller. Located at : http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/writing-spaces-readings-on-writing-vol-2.pdf . Project : Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. 2. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Organizing Your Research Plan, modified. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : https://www.boundless.com/writing/textbooks/boundless-writing-textbook/the-research-process-2/organizing-your-research-plan-262/organizing-your-research-plan-51-1304/ . Project : Boundless Writing. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Research steps. Provided by : Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Located at : http://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/c.php?g=293170&p=1952201 . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Thesis statement information, Pot of Gold, Information Literacy Tutorial. Authored by : Notre Dame. Located at : http://library.nd.edu/instruction/potofgold/investigating/?page=10 . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Steps 2-4 in the Research Process come from Chapter 1: Writing and Research in the Academic Sphere and Chapter 2: Research Proposals and Thesis Statements. Authored by : Denise Snee, Kristin Houlton, and Nancy Heckel. Edited by Kimberly Jacobs.. Located at : http://Research,%20Analysis,%20and%20Writing . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Research question example. Provided by : Duke University Libraries. Located at : http://guides.library.duke.edu/c.php?g=289688&p=1930772 . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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ENGL 101: Academic Writing: How to write a research paper

• Research Tools
• How to evaluate resources
• How to write a research paper
• Occupational Resources

How to write a research paer

Understand the topic, what is the instructor asking for, who is the intended audience, choosing a topic.

• General Research

Books on the subject

Journal articles, other sources, write the paper.

You've just been assigned by your instructor to write a paper on a topic. Relax, this isn't going to be as bad as it seems. You just need to get started. Here are some suggestions to make the process as painless as possible. Remember, if you have any questions ASK .

Is the assignment a formal research paper where you have to do research and cite other sources of information, or is the assignment asking you for your reaction to a particular topic where all you will need to do is collect your thoughts and organize them coherently. If you do need to research your topic, make sure you know what style manual your instructor prefers (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc).

Make sure you keep track of any restrictions that your instructor places on you. If your instructor wants a 4 page paper, they won't be happy with a 2 page paper, or a 10 page paper. Keep in mind that the instructor knows roughly how long it should take to cover the topic. If your paper is too short, you probably aren't looking at enough materials. If you paper is too long, you need to narrow your topic. Also, many times the instructor may restrict you to certain types of resources (books written after 1946, scholarly journals, no web sites). You don't want to automatically lessen your grade by not following the rules. Remember the key rule, if you have any questions ask your instructor!

You will also need to know which audience that you are writing for. Are you writing to an audience that knows nothing about your topic? If so you will need to write in such a way that you paper makes sense, and can be understood by these people. If your paper is geared to peers who have a similar background of information you won't need to include that type of information. If your paper is for experts in the field, you won't need to include background information.

If you're lucky, you were given a narrow topic by your instructor. You may not be interested in your topic, but you can be reasonably sure that the topic isn't too broad. Most of you aren't going to be that lucky. Your instructor gave you a broad topic, or no topic at all and you are going to have to choose the specific topic for your paper.

There are some general rules that you can use to help choose and narrow a topic. Does a particular topic interest you? If you are excited by a particular field, choose a topic from that field. While doing research you will learn more about the field, and learn which journals are written for your topic. Are you answering a relevant question? You and your instructor are going to be bored if you are writing a paper on the hazards of drunken driving. However, it might be more interesting to write about what causes people to drink and drive. The more interesting your topic the more you will enjoy and learn from writing your paper. You may also want to focus on a specific point of view about the topic, such as what teenagers think the causes of drunken driving are.

Do General Research

Now that you have a topic, it is time to start doing research. Don't jump to the card catalog and the indexes yet. The first research that you want to do is some general research on your topic. Find out what some of the terms used in the field are. You will also find that this research can help you further define you topic.

One source of general research is a general encyclopedia. Depending on the encyclopedia, at the end of each entry there may be a bibliography of suggested works. Good encyclopedias to consult are Encyclopedia Britannica , Encyclopedia Americana, and World Book.

You will also want to check to see if your topic is in a field that has a subject Encyclopedia, a Subject Handbook, or a Subject Dictionary. These guides contain information about a wide variety of topics inside a specific field. Generally the information in more detailed that what is contained in a general encyclopedia. Also the bibliographies are more extensive.

Find further information

Now that we have some background information on our topic; we need to find information about our specific topic. Before searching, ask yourself what type of information you are looking for. If you want to find statistical information, you will need to look in certain types of sources. If you are looking for news accounts of an event, you will need to look in other types of sources. Remember, if you have a question about what type of source to use, ask a librarian.

Have you asked your instructor for suggestions on where to look? Why not? This person is experienced in the field, and they have been doing research in it longer than you have. They can recommend authors who write on your topic, and they can recommend a short list of journals that may contain information on your topic.

Books are one type of resource that you can use for your research. To find a book on your topic, you will need to use the online catalog, the CamelCat . Taking the list of keywords that you created while doing general research, do keyword searches in the catalog. Look at the titles that are being returned, do any look promising? If none do, revise your search using other keywords. If one does, look at the full record for that book. Check the subject headings that it is cataloged by. If one of those headings looks pertinent to your research, do a subject search using that particular heading.

Once you've got the books that you want to use start evaluating whether the book will be useful. Is it written by an author who is knowledgeable about that particular topic? Is the author qualified to write about the topic? What biases does the author have about the topic? Is the book current enough to contain useful information?

Once you've answered these questions, use the books that you deem useful for your research. Remember while taking notes to get the information that you need to do a proper citation. Also, pay attention to any bibliographies that are included in the book. These can help you locate other books and articles that may be useful for your research.

The Campbell University Libraries subscribe to a wide variety of Indexes and Journals for the use of students and faculty. Increasingly these materials are provided as Electronic Databases. These databases contain citations of articles and in some cases the full text of articles on a variety of topics. If you don't know which database will be useful for you, ask a librarian and they will be happy to assist you. You can also use the Find Articles link to search multiple databases at one time for information on your topic.

Once you've selected a database to use, use the keywords that you developed from your general research to find articles that will be useful for you. Once you've found one, see which terms the database used to catalog the article and use those terms to find more articles. Don't forget to set limits on the database so that only scholarly articles are returned if your instructor has made that a requirement for your paper.

Look at the journal articles that you have selected, and examine the bibliographies. Are there any authors that are mentioned in more than one article? Are there any articles that are mentioned more than once? You should find those authors and articles and include them in your research.

There are other useful sources that you can use in your research. If your report tends to be on a business topic or if you need company information for your research there are many companies that provide company reports. The contents of these reports differ, depending on which service that you are using. Generally speaking you will find company officers, financial statements, lists of competitors, and stock price.

The Internet is another source for information on a variety of topics. The major problem with the using Internet resources is authority. Anybody who knows HTML can produce a web site that looks pretty decent. However, a website produced by a sophomore in high school on a topic is not going to be useful to you in your research. Before using a website for information, you need to evaluate the site. Here are some questions you will want to ask: Who created the site? (If you can't tell, don't use it.) Has the site been recently updated? Is the site promoting a specific agenda/ does it have a bias? (Bias isn't necessarily bad, but you need to keep it in mind when interpreting the information presented?) Are there any misspellings on the site? (If there is one misspelling careless error more than three, don't use the page) Do the links on the page work? (If a few don't work, not a big problem, if most of the links don't work, the site isn't being maintained, and should not be used.)

You have all of your research, now it is time to write the paper. Don't forget to cite all of the research that you have collected using the preferred citation style of your instructor. If possible try to give yourself a couple of days to let the paper sit before you edit it. Look at a hard copy of the paper and check for mechanical errors (spelling, punctuation). Also try to imagine that you are the intended audience for the paper. Does your paper make sense? Are the arguments logical? Does the evidence presented support the arguments made? If you answered no to any of these questions, make the necessary changes to your paper.

Purdue's Online Writing Lab https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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English Composition II - ENGL 1213

• Choosing An Issue
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Requirements

Methods of organization.

• The Annotated Bibliography
• Essay 1 - The Classical Argument
• Essay 2 - The Rogerian Argument
• Essay 3 - The Toulmin Essay Argument

Throughout English composition II, you will explore, research, and create arguments about an issue of your choosing.  The primary goal is to highlight a problem that is observable and definable.

The essay should include the following:

• 1 1/2 to 2 pages (double spaced), not including the Works Cited page
• Works Cited page
• A minimum of 1 source, other than your personal observations, cited in the paper.  This source may be one you plan to use in the rest of the essays.

For this assignment, write a research proposal on a topic found to be a problem in society.  The research proposal aims to give a good overview of the problem, propose what you expect to accomplish with your research, and explain how you plan to conduct your research.

The topic you choose for this paper will be researched and used throughout the entire semester.   To complete this assignment, you should:

• Use Invention techniques to identify possible research problems.
• Plan and organize your proposal.
• Establish a thesis and academic level paragraphs.
• Write a rough draft and complete revision exercises.
• Submit a polished academic level essay using MLA format.

Introduction of the issue or problem that your research will address and attempt to resolve. 

• What is the significance of the issue?
• Provide insight into the relevance of the issue and a thesis that states the proposal's main point(s).

Summary of what you already know about the issue. 

• Explain and describe what you already know about the issue. 
• How does the issue impact society?
• What factor (s) contribute to the issue's ongoing presence?

Summary of your research approach. 

• Explain what more you need to learn about the issue. 
• What do you plan to research regarding the issue? 
• Will you have to clarify terms and concepts? 
• What research is needed for the opposing viewpoint? 
• What kinds of sources will you use for your research? 
• What strengths will they lend to the paper? 
• How will they help clarify the points you want to make?
• How will you gather your sources?

Summary of your intended audience.  

• Describe the intended audience for your research; who needs to know about this issue? 
• Is the audience general, specialized, or both? 
• Discuss what people or groups of people might benefit from reading your paper; how will you audience benefit from your research?

Conclusion that addresses what is at stake if the problem is not solved, and why it is worthy of a solution.

This assignment helps you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in school and your professional life beyond school.  In this assignment you will:

• Develop skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research paper
• Identify logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's research goals
• Improve general research and writing skills
• Compose a well-organized, paper that includes an introduction, body, and conclusion
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ENG101 - First-Year Composition

• ASSESSMENT 1
• Selecting Topics
• Information Cycle & Search Strategies
• Primary vs Secondary Sources
• Video & Images
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Types of Research Essays

Pvcc english division writing rubric, pvcc eng101 handbook.

• Causal Analysis (Cause & Effect)
• Literary Analysis This link opens in a new window
• Literature Review This link opens in a new window
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• ASSESSMENT 2

Use ONESearch to locate  articles off our many databases on any of your topics.

Search library resources for

articles, books, movies and more

There are multiple types of essays that everyone should be able to write or be familiar with and they are: analytical, argumentative (persuasive), cause & effect, compare & contrast, critical, definition & expository, descriptive, experimental research, interpretative, literary analysis, literature review,  reports, and surveys.

Analytical , the analytical research paper often begins with the student asking a question (a.k.a. a research question) on which he has taken no stance. such a paper is often an exercise in exploration and evaluation. this type of paper hopes to offer a well-supported critical analysis without necessarily persuading the reader to any particular way of thinking. , the kinds of instructions for an analytical assignment include: 'analyze', 'compare', 'contrast', 'relate', and 'examine'., example: do later school start times increase student success, argumentative (persuasive), the argumentative research paper consists of an introduction in which the writer clearly introduces the topic and informs his audience exactly which stance he intends to take. an important goal of the argumentative research paper is persuasion, which means the topic chosen should be debatable or controversial., the kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: 'argue', 'evaluate', 'discuss', and 'take a position'. example: self-driving cars are dangerous and should be banned from the streets., the argumentative essay  - lois roma-deeley & john nelson, causal analysis - cause & effect  a cause is something that produces an event or condition; an effect is what results from an event or condition. the purpose of the cause-and-effect essay is to determine how various phenomena relate in terms of origins and results. sometimes the connection between cause and effect is clear, but often determining the exact relationship between the two is very difficult., causal analysis information  - lois roma-deeley & john nelson, compare & contrast, this essay is needed to analyze the differences between two subjects, authors, viewpoints, leadership styles, or other criteria and it is a common assignment for subjects such as literature, philosophy, social sciences, and many other disciplines. , writing the comparison essay  - lois roma-deeley & john nelson, critical , critical writing is common for research, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate writing. it has all the features of persuasive writing, with the added feature of at least one other point of view. while persuasive writing requires you to have your own point of view on an issue or topic, critical writing requires you to consider at least two points of view, including your own., for example, you may explain a researcher's interpretation or argument and then evaluate the merits of the argument, or give your own alternative interpretation. examples of critical writing assignments include a critique of a journal article or a literature review that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of existing research. the kinds of instructions for critical writing include: 'critique', 'debate', 'disagree' and 'evaluate'., characteristics of a critical thinker  - dr. tom butler,  it is a focused analysis of a piece of writing or a live performance. while it may contain a sentence or two of summary material, the critique will offer the reader a “considered evaluation” of the writing or performance in question., how to write a critique  - pvcc english division, definition & expository , an expository essay "exposes" the reader to a new topic; it informs the reader with descriptions or explanations of a subject. if you are writing an expository essay, your thesis statement should explain to the reader what they will learn in your essay. example: how to lead a healthy lifestyle on a tight budget., descriptive/narrative , the simplest type of academic writing is descriptive. its purpose is to provide facts or information. an example would be a summary of an article or a report of the results of an experiment. the kinds of instructions for a purely descriptive assignment include: 'identify', 'report', 'record', 'summarize' and 'define'.​, writing the descriptive/narrative essay  - lois roma-deeley & john nelson, experimental research, this essay is commonly written for biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology papers. it is used to describe an experimental research case in detail. the student conducts the experiment, shares their results and provides data evidence and sums up the case.  the paper describes your experiment with supporting data and an analysis of the experiment. experiments are aimed to explain some causation or predict a fact or reality with certain actions., interpretive,  this essay requires one to use the knowledge that he or she has gained from a particular case study situation, for example, a poem or work of art, or material from business and psychology fields. this paper requires using learned theoretical knowledge to write the paper and using supporting information for the thesis statement and findings., literary analysis, the purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of literature or an aspect of a work of literature. , literature review, a "literature review“ is a critical analysis of a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles” (university of wisconsin writing center)., outlines the case of a study situation. as a rule, such text includes the summary of a breakdown, situation, identification of the main issue, and recommendations, which means that it is basically a logical and detailed summary of some case study situation. a report is a mere restatement of the significant elements or components of a piece of writing or a live performance. it is, primarily, a summary of the substantial elements (the who, what, where, when and how) which are embedded in a piece of writing or a live performance. .

• English Division Writing Rubric (Based on Arizona State Standardswith college-level emphasis on higher order thinking skills, research, documentation, and manuscript preparation)
• PVCC ENG101 Handbook The ENG101 Handbook was created by PVCC professors Lois Roma-Deeley and John Nelson. This was created prior to the 2009 updates to MLA; therefore, if you use them, be aware you will need to update them. However, the instructions on how to write each essay type are clear and very helpful.
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English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style

• © 2023
• Latest edition
• Adrian Wallwork 0

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• Ideal study-guide for universities and research institutes
• Acts as a tool for improving English language skills
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Part of the book series: English for Academic Research (EAR)

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About this book

This guide draws on English-related errors from around 6000 papers written by non-native authors, 500 abstracts written by PhD students, and over 2000 hours of teaching researchers how to write and present research papers. 

This new edition has chapters on exploiting AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Translate, and Reverso, for generating, paraphrasing, translating and correcting texts written in English. It also deals with contemporary issues such as the use of gender pronouns.

Due to its focus on the specific errors that repeatedly appear in papers written by non-native authors, this manual is an ideal study guide for use in universities and research institutes. Such errors are related to the usage of articles, countable vs. uncountable nouns, tenses, modal verbs, active vs. passive form, relative clauses, infinitive vs. -ing form, the genitive, link words, quantifiers, word order, prepositions, acronyms, abbreviations, numbers and measurements, punctuation, and spelling.

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing Exercises (three volumes)

100 Tips to Avoid Mistakes in Academic Writing and Presenting

English for Writing Research Papers 

English for Presentations at International Conferences

English for Academic Correspondence

English for Interacting on Campus

English for Academic CVs, Resumes, and Online Profiles

English for Academic Research: A Guide for Teachers

Adrian Wallwork is the author of more than 40 English Language Teaching (ELT) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks. He has trained several thousand PhD students and researchers from 50 countries to write papers and give presentations. He edits research manuscripts through his own proofreading and editing service.

• English Grammar
• English Language Learners
• English for Research

Table of contents (18 chapters)

Front matter, abbreviations, acronyms, and punctuation.

Adrian Wallwork

Adverbs and prepositions

Articles: a / an / the / zero article, genitive: the possessive form of nouns, infinitive versus gerund ( -ing form), measurements and numbers, abbreviations, symbols, comparisons, use of articles, modal verbs: can, may, could, should, must etc., nouns: countable vs uncountable, plurals, personal pronouns, names, titles, proofreading tools: checking the correctness of your english, quantifiers: any, some, much, many, much, each, every etc., readability, tenses: present and past, tenses: future, conditional, passive, translation, chatgpt and generative ai, back matter, authors and affiliations, about the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style

Authors : Adrian Wallwork

Series Title : English for Academic Research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31517-6

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Education , Education (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-31516-9 Published: 23 September 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-31517-6 Published: 22 September 2023

Series ISSN : 2625-3445

Series E-ISSN : 2625-3453

Edition Number : 2

Number of Pages : XIII, 232

Number of Illustrations : 49 illustrations in colour

Topics : Language Education , Grammar , Professional & Vocational Education , Syntax

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English 102 Composition II / Research: Topic Selection

• English 102
• Topic Selection
• Library Catalog
• Library Databases
• Website Evaluation
• Is My Source Credible?
• Peer-Reviewed?
• Refining Your Ideas
• APA Citations
• MLA Citations

Getting Started

• Your instructor may provide a "prompt", give you a list of suggestions, or some other guidelines to get you started on a topic. 
• Selection of a topic might start with a question such as "Does race make a difference in getting into college?" or "What are the impacts of daily use of TikTok on young adults?".
•  At this point, it's a good idea to try doing some "pre-research" to see if there is information on the topic.  If there is too much information, you may need to narrow your topic.  If there is too little, you may need to broaden your topic.  You may also discover you might take a different direction with your topic or change it altogether.

Explore Topics with SVC Databases

Login with your MYSVC/Canvas username and password

• Facts On File: Issues and Controversies Topic List List of Topics for Research
• ProCon: List of Topics ProCon is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public charity that researches and publishes pro and con perspectives on critical issues of the day.
• Credo Reference Database This link opens in a new window Online encyclopedia source, including Encyclopedia of the United States in the 19th Century. Good source for images and graphics. Log in from home using MYSVC login & password.
• Encyclopedia Britannica This link opens in a new window Academic Wikipedia. Log in with full SVC email address and password.

Where to find Topics on the Internet

Allsides : Topics & Issues in the news

Pew Research Center : Topics

Tutorial Videos About Topics

1 minute tutorials from Credo Database:

• How to Select a Topic
• Using Pre-Research to Understand Your Topic
• What to do When Your Topic is Too Broad
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Welcome to 2024! Happy New Year!

Composition & Writing

How to write a research paper.

• How to Write an Essay
• General Writing Guides
• Writing for Specific Disciplines
• Creating a Thesis Statement
• Critical Thinking
• Domain Names
• Note Taking Help This link opens in a new window
• Create a Title Page This link opens in a new window
• Avoiding Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
• Paper Rater
• Citation Help This link opens in a new window

Writing the Body of the Paper

Use your notes to write your paper. As you read over your notes, look for main themes and points of interest. These can be the main ideas you read about in your research sources.  Try to support these main ideas with facts and statistics you have collected. If the paper is argumentative, remember to provide an argument for counterpoints to your main ideas. 

Try outlining you ideas. Outlining is a way to organize your information into a series of well-ordered and understandable thoughts. What ideas are your main points and what ideas are supporting information.  You may also find gaps in your ideas and reasoning. Use the outline to give yourself a better idea of what structure you paper is going to take. It will create a map for where information should be placed; how the placement of the information will create a flow of ideas. 

Try to state the main theme and supporting points in your own words. See the  Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing  Guidelines   from Purdue Owl. Try to explain the major ideas. Begin a new paragraph for each main idea. Remember to integrate the research you have found and acknowledge ideas and information you have learned with in-text citations. A research paper is not an essay, in other words, this is not about your opinions. Do not use first person nouns such as "I" or "my."   If you have developed new interpretations or concepts related to your research, great! But, you need to back up these ideas with facts.  Read the paper out loud.  In addition to helping you express ideas in your own words, this exercise may stimulate your own thoughts and viewpoints concerning your topic. Reading out loud also helps with your phrasing and organization of ideas. Even better, read your paper out loud to someone else. You may be more aware of how your words sound when you have an audience, and they may also give you some good feedback. 

Parts of the Paper

Papers should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Your introductory paragraph should grab the reader's attention, state your main idea and how you will support it. The body of the paper should expand on what you have stated in the introduction. Finally, the conclusion restates the paper's thesis and should explain what you have learned, giving a wrap up of your main ideas.   

1. The Title The title should be specific and indicate the theme of the research and what ideas it addresses. Use keywords that help explain your paper's topic to the reader. Try to avoid  abbreviations  and  jargon.  Think about keywords that people would use to search for your paper and include them in your title. 

2. The Abstract The abstract is used by readers to get a quick overview of your paper. Typically, they are about 200 words in length (120 words minimum to  250 words maximum). The abstract should introduce the topic and thesis, and should provide a general statement about what you have found in your research. The abstract allows you to mention each major aspect of you topic and helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Because it is a summary of the entire research paper, it is often written last. 

3. The Introduction The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and explain the focus of the research. You will introduce your overview of the topic, your main points of information, and why this subject is important. You can introduce the current understanding and background information about the topic. Toward the end of the introduction, you add your thesis statement, and explain how you will provide information to support your research questions. This provides the purpose, focus, and structure for the rest of the paper.

4. Thesis Statement Most papers will have a thesis statement or main idea and supporting facts/ideas/arguments. State your main idea (something of interest or something to be proven or argued for or against) as you thesis statement, and then provide your supporting facts and arguments. A thesis statement is a declarative sentence that asserts the position a paper will be taking. It also points toward the paper's development. This statement should be both specific and arguable. Generally, the thesis statement will be placed at the end of the first paragraph of your paper. The remainder of your paper will support this thesis.

Students often learn to write a thesis as a first step in the writing process, but often, after research, a writers viewpoint may change. Therefore a thesis statement may be one of the final steps in writing.  Examples of Thesis Statements from Purdue OWL

5. The Literature Review The purpose of the literature review is to describe past important research and how it specifically relates to the research thesis. It should be a synthesis of the previous literature and the new idea being researched. The review should examine the major theories related to the topic to date and their contributors. It should include all relevant findings from credible sources, such as academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. You will want  to:

• Explain how the literature helps the researcher understand the topic.
• Try to show connections and any disparities between the literature.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.

More about writing a literature review. . . More about summarizing. . .

6. The Discussion ​The purpose of the discussion is to interpret and describe what you have learned from your research. Make the reader understand why your topic is important. The discussion should always demonstrate what you have learned from your readings (and viewings) and how that learning has made the topic evolve, especially from the short description of main points in the introduction. Explain any new understanding or insights you have had after reading your articles and/or books. Paragraphs should use transitioning sentences to develop how one paragraph idea leads to the next. The discussion will always connect to the introduction, your thesis statement, and the literature you reviewed, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the introduction. You want to: 

• Demonstrate critical thinking, not just reporting back facts that you gathered.
• If possible, tell how the topic has evolved over the past and give it's implications for the future.
• Fully explain your main ideas with supporting information.
• Explain why your thesis is correct giving arguments to counter points.

​7. The Conclusion A concluding paragraph is a brief summary of your main ideas and restates the paper's main thesis, giving the reader the sense that the stated goal of the paper has been accomplished. What have you learned by doing this research that you didn't know before? What conclusions have you drawn? You may also want to suggest further areas of study, improvement of research possibilities, etc. to demonstrate your critical thinking regarding your research.

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• Introduction to Writing

Reading and Writing in College

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Understand the expectations for reading and writing assignments in college courses.
• Understand and apply general strategies to complete college-level reading assignments efficiently and effectively.
• Recognize specific types of writing assignments frequently included in college courses.
• Understand and apply general strategies for managing college-level writing assignments.
• Determine specific reading and writing strategies that work best for you individually.

As you begin this section, you may be wondering why you need an introduction. After all, you have been writing and reading since elementary school. You completed numerous assessments of your reading and writing skills in high school and as part of your application process for college. You may write on the job, too. Why is a college writing course even necessary?

When you are eager to get started on the coursework in your major that will prepare you for your career, getting excited about an introductory college writing course can be difficult. However, regardless of your field of study, honing your writing skills—and your reading and critical-thinking skills—gives you a more solid academic foundation.

In college, academic expectations change from what you may have experienced in high school. The quantity of work you are expected to do is increased. When instructors expect you to read pages upon pages or study hours and hours for one particular course, managing your work load can be challenging. This chapter includes strategies for studying efficiently and managing your time.

The quality of the work you do also changes. It is not enough to understand course material and summarize it on an exam. You will also be expected to seriously engage with new ideas by reflecting on them, analyzing them, critiquing them, making connections, drawing conclusions, or finding new ways of thinking about a given subject. Educationally, you are moving into deeper waters. A good introductory writing course will help you swim.

Table 1.1 “High School versus College Assignments” summarizes some of the other major differences between high school and college assignments.

Table 1.1 High School versus College Assignments

This chapter covers the types of reading and writing assignments you will encounter as a college student. You will also learn a variety of strategies for mastering these new challenges—and becoming a more confident student and writer.

Throughout this chapter, you will follow a first-year student named Crystal. After several years of working as a saleswoman in a department store, Crystal has decided to pursue a degree in elementary education and become a teacher. She is continuing to work part-time, and occasionally she finds it challenging to balance the demands of work, school, and caring for her four-year-old son. As you read about Crystal, think about how you can use her experience to get the most out of your own college experience.

Review Table 1.1 “High School versus College Assignments” and think about how you have found your college experience to be different from high school so far. Respond to the following questions:

• In what ways do you think college will be more rewarding for you as a learner?
• What aspects of college do you expect to find most challenging?
• What changes do you think you might have to make in your life to ensure your success in college?

Reading Strategies

Your college courses will sharpen both your reading and your writing skills. Most of your writing assignments—from brief response papers to in-depth research projects—will depend on your understanding of course reading assignments or related readings you do on your own. And it is difficult, if not impossible, to write effectively about a text that you have not understood. Even when you do understand the reading, it can be hard to write about it if you do not feel personally engaged with the ideas discussed.

This section discusses strategies you can use to get the most out of your college reading assignments. These strategies fall into three broad categories:

• Planning strategies. To help you manage your reading assignments.
• Comprehension strategies. To help you understand the material.
• Active reading strategies. To take your understanding to a higher and deeper level.

Planning Your Reading

Have you ever stayed up all night cramming just before an exam? Or found yourself skimming a detailed memo from your boss five minutes before a crucial meeting? The first step in handling college reading successfully is planning. This involves both managing your time and setting a clear purpose for your reading.

Managing Your Reading Time

For now, focus on setting aside enough time for reading and breaking your assignments into manageable chunks. If you are assigned a seventy-page chapter to read for next week’s class, try not to wait until the night before to get started. Give yourself at least a few days and tackle one section at a time.

Your method for breaking up the assignment will depend on the type of reading. If the text is very dense and packed with unfamiliar terms and concepts, you may need to read no more than five or ten pages in one sitting so that you can truly understand and process the information. With more user-friendly texts, you will be able to handle longer sections—twenty to forty pages, for instance. And if you have a highly engaging reading assignment, such as a novel you cannot put down, you may be able to read lengthy passages in one sitting.

As the semester progresses, you will develop a better sense of how much time you need to allow for the reading assignments in different subjects. It also makes sense to preview each assignment well in advance to assess its difficulty level and to determine how much reading time to set aside.

College instructors often set aside reserve readings for a particular course. These consist of articles, book chapters, or other texts that are not part of the primary course textbook. Copies of reserve readings are available through the university library; in print; or, more often, online. When you are assigned a reserve reading, download it ahead of time (and let your instructor know if you have trouble accessing it). Skim through it to get a rough idea of how much time you will need to read the assignment in full.

Setting a Purpose

The other key component of planning is setting a purpose. Knowing what you want to get out of a reading assignment helps you determine how to approach it and how much time to spend on it. It also helps you stay focused during those occasional moments when it is late, you are tired, and relaxing in front of the television sounds far more appealing than curling up with a stack of journal articles.

Sometimes your purpose is simple. You might just need to understand the reading material well enough to discuss it intelligently in class the next day. However, your purpose will often go beyond that. For instance, you might also read to compare two texts, to formulate a personal response to a text, or to gather ideas for future research. Here are some questions to ask to help determine your purpose:

How did my instructor frame the assignment? Often your instructors will tell you what they expect you to get out of the reading:

• Read Chapter 2 and come to class prepared to discuss current teaching practices in elementary math.
• Read these two articles and compare Smith’s and Jones’s perspectives on the 2010 health care reform bill.
• Read Chapter 5 and think about how you could apply these guidelines to running your own business.
• How deeply do I need to understand the reading? If you are majoring in computer science and you are assigned to read Chapter 1, “Introduction to Computer Science,” it is safe to assume the chapter presents fundamental concepts that you will be expected to master. However, for some reading assignments, you may be expected to form a general understanding but not necessarily master the content. Again, pay attention to how your instructor presents the assignment.
• How does this assignment relate to other course readings or to concepts discussed in class? Your instructor may make some of these connections explicitly, but if not, try to draw connections on your own. (Needless to say, it helps to take detailed notes both when in class and when you read.)
• How might I use this text again in the future? If you are assigned to read about a topic that has always interested you, your reading assignment might help you develop ideas for a future research paper. Some reading assignments provide valuable tips or summaries worth bookmarking for future reference. Think about what you can take from the reading that will stay with you.

Improving Your Comprehension

You have blocked out time for your reading assignments and set a purpose for reading. Now comes the challenge: making sure you actually understand all the information you are expected to process. Some of your reading assignments will be fairly straightforward. Others, however, will be longer or more complex, so you will need a plan for how to handle them.

For any expository writing —that is, nonfiction, informational writing—your first comprehension goal is to identify the main points and relate any details to those main points. Because college-level texts can be challenging, you will also need to monitor your reading comprehension. That is, you will need to stop periodically and assess how well you understand what you are reading. Finally, you can improve comprehension by taking time to determine which strategies work best for you and putting those strategies into practice.

Identifying the Main Points

In college, you will read a wide variety of materials, including the following:

• Textbooks. These usually include summaries, glossaries, comprehension questions, and other study aids.
• Nonfiction trade books. These are less likely to include the study features found in textbooks.
• Popular magazine, newspaper, or web articles. These are usually written for a general audience.
• Scholarly books and journal articles. These are written for an audience of specialists in a given field.

Regardless of what type of expository text you are assigned to read, your primary comprehension goal is to identify the main point : the most important idea that the writer wants to communicate and often states early on. Finding the main point gives you a framework to organize the details presented in the reading and relate the reading to concepts you learned in class or through other reading assignments. After identifying the main point, you will find the supporting points , the details, facts, and explanations that develop and clarify the main point.

Some texts make that task relatively easy. Textbooks, for instance, include the aforementioned features as well as headings and subheadings intended to make it easier for students to identify core concepts. Graphic features, such as sidebars, diagrams, and charts, help students understand complex information and distinguish between essential and inessential points. When you are assigned to read from a textbook, be sure to use available comprehension aids to help you identify the main points.

Trade books and popular articles may not be written specifically for an educational purpose; nevertheless, they also include features that can help you identify the main ideas. These features include the following:

• Trade books. Many trade books include an introduction that presents the writer’s main ideas and purpose for writing. Reading chapter titles (and any subtitles within the chapter) will help you get a broad sense of what is covered. It also helps to read the beginning and ending paragraphs of a chapter closely. These paragraphs often sum up the main ideas presented.
• Popular articles. Reading the headings and introductory paragraphs carefully is crucial. In magazine articles, these features (along with the closing paragraphs) present the main concepts. Hard news articles in newspapers present the gist of the news story in the lead paragraph, while subsequent paragraphs present increasingly general details.

At the far end of the reading difficulty scale are scholarly books and journal articles. Because these texts are written for a specialized, highly educated audience, the authors presume their readers are already familiar with the topic. The language and writing style is sophisticated and sometimes dense.

When you read scholarly books and journal articles, try to apply the same strategies discussed earlier. The introduction usually presents the writer’s thesis , the idea or hypothesis the writer is trying to prove. Headings and subheadings can help you understand how the writer has organized support for his or her thesis. Additionally, academic journal articles often include a summary at the beginning, called an abstract, and electronic databases include summaries of articles, too.

Monitoring Your Comprehension

Finding the main idea and paying attention to text features as you read helps you figure out what you should know. Just as important, however, is being able to figure out what you do not know and developing a strategy to deal with it.

Textbooks often include comprehension questions in the margins or at the end of a section or chapter. As you read, stop occasionally to answer these questions on paper or in your head. Use them to identify sections you may need to reread, read more carefully, or ask your instructor about later.

Even when a text does not have built-in comprehension features, you can actively monitor your own comprehension. Try these strategies, adapting them as needed to suit different kinds of texts:

• Summarize. At the end of each section, pause to summarize the main points in a few sentences. If you have trouble doing so, revisit that section.
• Ask and answer questions. When you begin reading a section, try to identify two to three questions you should be able to answer after you finish it. Write down your questions and use them to test yourself on the reading. If you cannot answer a question, try to determine why. Is the answer buried in that section of reading but just not coming across to you? Or do you expect to find the answer in another part of the reading?
• Do not read in a vacuum. Look for opportunities to discuss the reading with your classmates. Many instructors set up online discussion forums or blogs specifically for that purpose. Participating in these discussions can help you determine whether your understanding of the main points is the same as your peers’.

These discussions can also serve as a reality check. If everyone in the class struggled with the reading, it may be exceptionally challenging. If it was a breeze for everyone but you, you may need to see your instructor for help.

As a working mother, Crystal found that the best time to get her reading done was in the evening, after she had put her four-year-old to bed. However, she occasionally had trouble concentrating at the end of a long day. She found that by actively working to summarize the reading and asking and answering questions, she focused better and retained more of what she read. She also found that evenings were a good time to check the class discussion forums that a few of her instructors had created.

Choose any text that that you have been assigned to read for one of your college courses. In your notes, complete the following tasks:

• Summarize the main points of the text in two to three sentences.
• Write down two to three questions about the text that you can bring up during class discussion.

Students are often reluctant to seek help. They feel like doing so marks them as slow, weak, or demanding. The truth is, every learner occasionally struggles. If you are sincerely trying to keep up with the course reading but feel like you are in over your head, seek out help. Speak up in class, schedule a meeting with your instructor, or visit your university learning center for assistance.

Deal with the problem as early in the semester as you can. Instructors respect students who are proactive about their own learning. Most instructors will work hard to help students who make the effort to help themselves.

Taking It to the Next Level: Active Reading

Now that you have acquainted (or reacquainted) yourself with useful planning and comprehension strategies, college reading assignments may feel more manageable. You know what you need to do to get your reading done and make sure you grasp the main points. However, the most successful students in college are not only competent readers but active, engaged readers.

Using the SQ3R Strategy

One strategy you can use to become a more active, engaged reader is the SQ3R strategy , a step-by-step process to follow before, during, and after reading. You may already use some variation of it. In essence, the process works like this:

• Survey the text in advance.
• Form questions before you start reading.
• Read the text.
• Recite and/or record important points during and after reading.
• Review and reflect on the text after you read.

Before you read, you survey, or preview, the text. As noted earlier, reading introductory paragraphs and headings can help you begin to figure out the author’s main point and identify what important topics will be covered. However, surveying does not stop there. Look over sidebars, photographs, and any other text or graphic features that catch your eye. Skim a few paragraphs. Preview any boldfaced or italicized vocabulary terms. This will help you form a first impression of the material.

Next, start brainstorming questions about the text. What do you expect to learn from the reading? You may find that some questions come to mind immediately based on your initial survey or based on previous readings and class discussions. If not, try using headings and subheadings in the text to formulate questions. For instance, if one heading in your textbook reads “Medicare and Medicaid,” you might ask yourself these questions:

• When was Medicare and Medicaid legislation enacted? Why?
• What are the major differences between these two programs?

Although some of your questions may be simple factual questions, try to come up with a few that are more open-ended. Asking in-depth questions will help you stay more engaged as you read.

The next step is simple: read. As you read, notice whether your first impressions of the text were correct. Are the author’s main points and overall approach about the same as what you predicted—or does the text contain a few surprises? Also, look for answers to your earlier questions and begin forming new questions. Continue to revise your impressions and questions as you read.

While you are reading, pause occasionally to recite or record important points. It is best to do this at the end of each section or when there is an obvious shift in the writer’s train of thought. Put the book aside for a moment and recite aloud the main points of the section or any important answers you found there. You might also record ideas by jotting down a few brief notes in addition to, or instead of, reciting aloud. Either way, the physical act of articulating information makes you more likely to remember it.

After you have completed the reading, take some time to review the material more thoroughly. If the textbook includes review questions or your instructor has provided a study guide, use these tools to guide your review. You will want to record information in a more detailed format than you used during reading, such as in an outline or a list.

As you review the material, reflect on what you learned. Did anything surprise you, upset you, or make you think? Did you find yourself strongly agreeing or disagreeing with any points in the text? What topics would you like to explore further? Jot down your reflections in your notes. (Instructors sometimes require students to write brief response papers or maintain a reading journal. Use these assignments to help you reflect on what you read.)

Choose another text that that you have been assigned to read for a class. Use the SQ3R process to complete the reading. (Keep in mind that you may need to spread the reading over more than one session, especially if the text is long.)

Be sure to complete all the steps involved. Then, reflect on how helpful you found this process. On a scale of one to ten, how useful did you find it? How does it compare with other study techniques you have used?

Using Other Active Reading Strategies

The SQ3R process encompasses a number of valuable active reading strategies: previewing a text, making predictions, asking and answering questions, and summarizing. You can use the following additional strategies to further deepen your understanding of what you read.

• Connect what you read to what you already know. Look for ways the reading supports, extends, or challenges concepts you have learned elsewhere.
• Relate the reading to your own life. What statements, people, or situations relate to your personal experiences?
• Visualize. For both fiction and nonfiction texts, try to picture what is described. Visualizing is especially helpful when you are reading a narrative text, such as a novel or a historical account, or when you read expository text that describes a process, such as how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
• Pay attention to graphics as well as text. Photographs, diagrams, flow charts, tables, and other graphics can help make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable.
• Understand the text in context. Understanding context means thinking about who wrote the text, when and where it was written, the author’s purpose for writing it, and what assumptions or agendas influenced the author’s ideas. For instance, two writers might both address the subject of health care reform, but if one article is an opinion piece and one is a news story, the context is different.
• Plan to talk or write about what you read. Jot down a few questions or comments in your notebook so you can bring them up in class. (This also gives you a source of topic ideas for papers and presentations later in the semester.) Discuss the reading on a class discussion board or blog about it.

As Crystal began her first semester of elementary education courses, she occasionally felt lost in a sea of new terms and theories about teaching and child development. She found that it helped to relate the reading to her personal observations of her son and other kids she knew.

Writing at Work

Many college courses require students to participate in interactive online components, such as a discussion forum, a page on a social networking site, or a class blog. These tools are a great way to reinforce learning. Do not be afraid to be the student who starts the discussion.

Remember that when you interact with other students and teachers online, you need to project a mature, professional image. You may be able to use an informal, conversational tone, but complaining about the work load, using off-color language, or “flaming” other participants is inappropriate.

Active reading can benefit you in ways that go beyond just earning good grades. By practicing these strategies, you will find yourself more interested in your courses and better able to relate your academic work to the rest of your life. Being an interested, engaged student also helps you form lasting connections with your instructors and with other students that can be personally and professionally valuable. In short, it helps you get the most out of your education.

Common Writing Assignments

College writing assignments serve a different purpose than the typical writing assignments you completed in high school. In high school, teachers generally focus on teaching you to write in a variety of modes and formats, including personal writing, expository writing, research papers, creative writing, and writing short answers and essays for exams. Over time, these assignments help you build a foundation of writing skills.

In college, many instructors will expect you to already have that foundation.

Your college composition courses will focus on writing for its own sake, helping you make the transition to college-level writing assignments. However, in most other college courses, writing assignments serve a different purpose. In those courses, you may use writing as one tool among many for learning how to think about a particular academic discipline.

Additionally, certain assignments teach you how to meet the expectations for professional writing in a given field. Depending on the class, you might be asked to write a lab report, a case study, a literary analysis, a business plan, or an account of a personal interview. You will need to learn and follow the standard conventions for those types of written products.

Finally, personal and creative writing assignments are less common in college than in high school. College courses emphasize expository writing, writing that explains or informs. Often expository writing assignments will incorporate outside research, too. Some classes will also require persuasive writing assignments in which you state and support your position on an issue. College instructors will hold you to a higher standard when it comes to supporting your ideas with reasons and evidence.

Table 1.2 “Common Types of College Writing Assignments” lists some of the most common types of college writing assignments. It includes minor, less formal assignments as well as major ones. Which specific assignments you encounter will depend on the courses you take and the learning objectives developed by your instructors.

Table 1.2 Common Types of College Writing Assignments

WRITING AT WORK

Part of managing your education is communicating well with others at your university. For instance, you might need to e-mail your instructor to request an office appointment or explain why you will need to miss a class. You might need to contact administrators with questions about your tuition or financial aid. Later, you might ask instructors to write recommendations on your behalf.

Treat these documents as professional communications. Address the recipient politely; state your question, problem, or request clearly; and use a formal, respectful tone. Doing so helps you make a positive impression and get a quicker response.

Key Takeaways

• College-level reading and writing assignments differ from high school assignments not only in quantity but also in quality.
• Managing college reading assignments successfully requires you to plan and manage your time, set a purpose for reading, practice effective comprehension strategies, and use active reading strategies to deepen your understanding of the text.
• College writing assignments place greater emphasis on learning to think critically about a particular discipline and less emphasis on personal and creative writing.
• Authored by : Indigo Eriksen. Provided by : Blue Ridge Community College. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Introduction to Writing. Authored by : Anonymous. Provided by : Anonymous. Located at : http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/successful-writing/s05-01-reading-and-writing-in-college.html . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Table of Contents

Instructor Resources (Access Requires Login)

• Overview of Instructor Resources

An Overview of the Writing Process

• Introduction to the Writing Process
• Your Role as a Learner
• What is an Essay?
• Reading to Write
• Defining the Writing Process
• Videos: Prewriting Techniques
• Thesis Statements
• Organizing an Essay
• Creating Paragraphs
• Conclusions
• Editing and Proofreading
• Matters of Grammar, Mechanics, and Style
• Peer Review Checklist
• Comparative Chart of Writing Strategies

Using Sources

• Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Formatting the Works Cited Page (MLA)
• Citing Paraphrases and Summaries (APA)
• APA Citation Style, 6th edition: General Style Guidelines

Definition Essay

• Definitional Argument Essay
• How to Write a Definition Essay
• Critical Thinking
• Video: Thesis Explained
• Effective Thesis Statements
• Student Sample: Definition Essay

Narrative Essay

• Introduction to Narrative Essay
• Student Sample: Narrative Essay
• "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
• "Sixty-nine Cents" by Gary Shteyngart
• Video: The Danger of a Single Story
• How to Write an Annotation
• How to Write a Summary
• Writing for Success: Narration

Illustration/Example Essay

• Introduction to Illustration/Example Essay
• "She's Your Basic L.O.L. in N.A.D" by Perri Klass
• "April & Paris" by David Sedaris
• Writing for Success: Illustration/Example
• Student Sample: Illustration/Example Essay

Compare/Contrast Essay

• Introduction to Compare/Contrast Essay
• "Disability" by Nancy Mairs
• "Friending, Ancient or Otherwise" by Alex Wright
• "A South African Storm" by Allison Howard
• Writing for Success: Compare/Contrast
• Student Sample: Compare/Contrast Essay

Cause-and-Effect Essay

• Introduction to Cause-and-Effect Essay
• "Cultural Baggage" by Barbara Ehrenreich
• "Women in Science" by K.C. Cole
• Writing for Success: Cause and Effect
• Student Sample: Cause-and-Effect Essay

Argument Essay

• Introduction to Argument Essay
• Rogerian Argument
• "The Case Against Torture," by Alisa Soloman
• "The Case for Torture" by Michael Levin
• How to Write a Summary by Paraphrasing Source Material
• Writing for Success: Argument
• Student Sample: Argument Essay
• Grammar/Mechanics Mini-lessons
• Mini-lesson: Subjects and Verbs, Irregular Verbs, Subject Verb Agreement
• Mini-lesson: Sentence Types
• Mini-lesson: Fragments I
• Mini-lesson: Run-ons and Comma Splices I
• Mini-lesson: Comma Usage
• Mini-lesson: Parallelism
• Mini-lesson: The Apostrophe
• Mini-lesson: Capital Letters
• Grammar Practice - Interactive Quizzes
• De Copia - Demonstration of the Variety of Language
• Style Exercise: Voice

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• English Composition Resources

English composition is defined as the process of combining distinct parts or elements to form a whole essay, research paper, business correspondence, technical report, or literary work and the manner in which these elements are combined or related. The following are examples of composing in English composition classes:

• The art or act of composing a literary work
• The structure or organization of literature
• A short essay, especially one written as an academic exercise (an essay is a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative). 

Composition. (2007). In The Penguin English dictionary . Retrieved from Credo Reference .

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55 Research Paper Topics to Jump-Start Your Paper

Coming up with research paper topics is the first step in writing most papers. While it may seem easy compared to the actual writing, choosing the right research paper topic is nonetheless one of the most important steps. Your topic determines the entire writing process: your core arguments, which sources you use, the structure of your outline, and ultimately how well the paper is received.

Unfortunately, how to select a research topic isn’t always obvious. So here, we explain how to come up with research paper topics that will work for you. We even share a list of research topics to help inspire you.

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What are research paper topics?

A research paper topic is the main focus of a piece of academic writing , encompassing the author’s main argument, thesis, or hypothesis that they plan to research and investigate.

Usually, the assignment stipulates what kind of research paper topics you can use, but even so you should choose topics that you feel passionately about and that have ample resources to fully develop your ideas.

How to come up with research paper topic examples

The ideal approach is to create a list of research topics that fulfill the criteria, and then choose the best one. Because research paper topics can be pretty broad, creating a list helps you narrow down ideas and consider fresh alternatives.

Of course, creating a list of research topics takes some effort. To save you time, here are some tried-and-true methods for how to come up with research paper topic examples:

• Personal interest: Which topics are you interested in or particularly curious about?
• Topics in class discussions: Was anything mentioned in class that you’d like to examine more deeply?
• Current events: Are there any topics in the news that fit the requirements for the assignment?
• Research gaps: For dissertations , are there any topics that haven’t been sufficiently researched before that you could contribute original data to?
• Advice from teacher, colleagues, or friends: Can you ask someone knowledgeable to help you brainstorm research paper topics?
• Search online: What kinds of relevant topics do people discuss online?

Once you have a short list of research topics, it’s time to move on to the next step: deciding how to select a research topic from the list.

How to select a research topic

As we explain in our guide on how to write a research paper , you should choose a topic with enough content to fill the length of your paper. On top of that, it’s best to pick a topic that you’re personally interested in, since you’re going to be spending long hours researching it and discussing it.

To keep your paper focused, choose a specific topic instead of a broad one . For example, instead of a general topic like “the eating habits of cats,” try to narrow it down a little, like “the eating habits of tigers.” With broad topics, you won’t be able to cover everything . Limit the scope of your topic so you can fully discuss it within the paper.

However, if you get too specific, you won’t have enough data, sources, or knowledge to write a substantial report. For example, if your topic was “the eating habits of my cat Charlie,” most likely you wouldn’t have enough information to fill more than a page or two.

So try to pick a topic that’s not only precise but manageable enough to describe completely within the limitations of the assignment.

Research paper topic vs. thesis vs. hypothesis

What’s the difference between a research paper topic, a thesis, and a hypothesis?

A research paper thesis is the main argument your paper tries to prove or explain. As such, the thesis is a core part of your entire research paper topic. A thesis is typically summed up in a thesis statement , a single sentence at the beginning of the paper to introduce your argument to the reader.

For example, if your topic was analyzing wind power in Mexico, your thesis might be:

Wind power effectively enabled Mexico to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement, thanks to natural winds in the south.

With this thesis, your paper would then discuss the availability of wind, what factors of the south make it ideal, and how Mexico went about enacting it with regard to the Paris Agreement.

Specific to scientific works, a research paper hypothesis is a statement that describes what the author hopes to prove or disprove with their paper. A hypothesis is similar to a thesis in that it sums up the research paper topic, but a hypothesis requires original data and often testing to prove whether it’s true, whereas a thesis can draw on other people’s research.

55 examples of research topics

• The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• Comparing the impacts of pollution on freshwater and saltwater ecosystems
• How the Human Genome Project changed the field of biology
• How modern-day urbanization affects wildlife and natural habitats
• The ethical considerations of CRISPR technology
• Leveraging sustainable business practices for marketing purposes
• How attitudes about financial risk management have changed over time
• Different leadership styles and their impact on organizational performance
• The challenges of cross-cultural business negotiations
• The practicality of big data analytics for small businesses

Communication

• How the internet changed in-person social interactions
• The most effective strategies for interpersonal conflict resolution
• The relationship between media literacy and voting habits
• The evolution of communication in family dynamics
• How advertising affects decision-making outside of sales

Computer science

• The application of blockchain technology outside of finance
• The future of quantum computing
• The greatest threats to cybersecurity at present
• The ramifications of humanizing AI
• An in-depth comparison between cloud computing and fog computing

Criminal justice

• Rehabilitation versus punishment in the juvenile justice system
• The merits of decriminalizing certain drugs
• Comparing the apprehension of white-collar and blue-collar criminals
• The evolution of profiling and behavioral analysis
• The effects of a private prison system on lawmaking
• Cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation
• Comparing the historic traditions of younger and older countries
• Effective strategies to preserve indigenous cultures
• The merits of multiculturalism in big cities
• The influence of public school systems on cultural understanding
• The relationship between socioeconomic factors and educational achievements
• The challenges of early childhood education compared to that of older students
• Effective strategies for promoting interest in STEM fields
• Predicting the future of education based on current trends
• Pros and cons of multilingual classrooms
• The evolution of mental health treatment over time
• Analyzing the most successful public health campaigns throughout history
• Misinformation and diet-related illnesses
• Comparing the health effects of natural drugs and synthetic drugs
• The future of telehealth and telemedicine
• Comparing feminist literature of the first, second, third, and fourth waves
• How colonization historically affected literature
• Comparing the genres of high fantasy and magic realism
• The decline of literary journals in the modern era
• The history of metafiction and self-referential literature
• Effective strategies for combating political corruption
• Leading causes of political extremism and terrorism
• Comparing the efficiency of different electoral systems around the world
• Comparing populism in North America and Europe
• The connection between specific governments and the happiness index of their people

Research paper topics FAQs

A research paper topic is the main focus of a piece of academic writing, encompassing the author’s main argument, thesis, or hypothesis, as well as the evidence to support it and the ultimate conclusion.

How do you come up with research paper topic examples?

You can brainstorm some research paper topics by asking people or searching online. Sometimes current events or topics discussed in the classroom can fit the type of topic you need. Try to think of topics you have a personal connection to, or perhaps topics that have not yet been sufficiently researched.

What’s the difference between a research paper topic, thesis, and hypothesis?

A research paper topic describes the general subject matter of the entire paper. A thesis is the specific argument that the author is trying to prove or explain. A hypothesis is particular to scientific papers; it is what the author attempts to prove or disprove through original testing.

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• Research paper

How to Create a Structured Research Paper Outline | Example

Published on August 7, 2022 by Courtney Gahan . Revised on August 15, 2023.

A research paper outline is a useful tool to aid in the writing process , providing a structure to follow with all information to be included in the paper clearly organized.

A quality outline can make writing your research paper more efficient by helping to:

• Organize your thoughts
• Understand the flow of information and how ideas are related
• Ensure nothing is forgotten

A research paper outline can also give your teacher an early idea of the final product.

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Table of contents

Research paper outline example, how to write a research paper outline, formatting your research paper outline, language in research paper outlines.

• Definition of measles
• Rise in cases in recent years in places the disease was previously eliminated or had very low rates of infection
• Figures: Number of cases per year on average, number in recent years. Relate to immunization
• Symptoms and timeframes of disease
• Risk of fatality, including statistics
• How measles is spread
• Immunization procedures in different regions
• Different regions, focusing on the arguments from those against immunization
• Immunization figures in affected regions
• High number of cases in non-immunizing regions
• Illnesses that can result from measles virus
• Fatal cases of other illnesses after patient contracted measles
• Summary of arguments of different groups
• Summary of figures and relationship with recent immunization debate
• Which side of the argument appears to be correct?

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Follow these steps to start your research paper outline:

• Decide on the subject of the paper
• Write down all the ideas you want to include or discuss
• Organize related ideas into sub-groups
• Arrange your ideas into a hierarchy: What should the reader learn first? What is most important? Which idea will help end your paper most effectively?
• Create headings and subheadings that are effective
• Format the outline in either alphanumeric, full-sentence or decimal format

There are three different kinds of research paper outline: alphanumeric, full-sentence and decimal outlines. The differences relate to formatting and style of writing.

• Alphanumeric
• Full-sentence

An alphanumeric outline is most commonly used. It uses Roman numerals, capitalized letters, arabic numerals, lowercase letters to organize the flow of information. Text is written with short notes rather than full sentences.

• Sub-point of sub-point 1

Essentially the same as the alphanumeric outline, but with the text written in full sentences rather than short points.

• Additional sub-point to conclude discussion of point of evidence introduced in point A

A decimal outline is similar in format to the alphanumeric outline, but with a different numbering system: 1, 1.1, 1.2, etc. Text is written as short notes rather than full sentences.

• 1.1.1 Sub-point of first point
• 1.1.2 Sub-point of first point
• 1.2 Second point

To write an effective research paper outline, it is important to pay attention to language. This is especially important if it is one you will show to your teacher or be assessed on.

There are four main considerations: parallelism, coordination, subordination and division.

Parallelism: Be consistent with grammatical form

Parallel structure or parallelism is the repetition of a particular grammatical form within a sentence, or in this case, between points and sub-points. This simply means that if the first point is a verb , the sub-point should also be a verb.

Example of parallelism:

• Include different regions, focusing on the different arguments from those against immunization

Coordination: Be aware of each point’s weight

Your chosen subheadings should hold the same significance as each other, as should all first sub-points, secondary sub-points, and so on.

Example of coordination:

• Include immunization figures in affected regions
• Illnesses that can result from the measles virus

Subordination: Work from general to specific

Subordination refers to the separation of general points from specific. Your main headings should be quite general, and each level of sub-point should become more specific.

Example of subordination:

Division: break information into sub-points.

Your headings should be divided into two or more subsections. There is no limit to how many subsections you can include under each heading, but keep in mind that the information will be structured into a paragraph during the writing stage, so you should not go overboard with the number of sub-points.

Ready to start writing or looking for guidance on a different step in the process? Read our step-by-step guide on how to write a research paper .

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