To help you with your research paper I selected some excerpts from“How to write a research paper” written by Sarah Hamid from anexcellent website:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/:Use this website when you need more help.Excerpts:

What is a research paper?

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that requires a moreabstract, critical, and thoughtful level of inquiry than you might beused to. But not to worry, you'll gradually pick up that mindset themore you envelop yourself in tutorial discussions and lectures at thecollege level, and of course, the more you write. Not just researchpapers but any paper, period.Writing a research paper involves (1) first familiarizing yourself withthe works of "experts"--for example, on the page, in cyberspace, or inthe flesh through personal interviews--to build upon what you knowabout a subject and then (2) comparing their thoughts on the topicwith your own. You'll end up using relevant information--facts and/or opinions--fromthese expert sources, these "others," to support the topic you havebeen given or chosen to explore. Then, as our subsequent steps willoutline, the final product will be a unique and appropriate integrationof evidence you have located outside yourself and personal insightsgenerated from your own internal think tank--your mind! The final product will be a unique and appropriate integration of evidence you have located outside yourself and personal insights.Often to the surprise of many a first-year student, it is the latter thatyour professors are most interested in. The inclusion of sources isn't just some arbitrary can-you-use-the-library? test in disguise, butcomplements your own ideas by providing academic context andcredibility to what you are asserting. No professor will be marking whatthe published experts have to say, only how well you use what theexperts have to say to advance your paper's purpose.

Why and How to Create a Useful Outline

Why create an outline? There are many reasons; but in general, it maybe helpful to create an outline when you want to show the hierarchicalrelationship or logical ordering of information. For research papers, an

outline may help you keep track of large amounts of information. Forcreative writing, an outline may help organize the various plot threadsand help keep track of character traits. Many people find thatorganizing an oral report or presentation in outline form helps themspeak more effectively in front of a crowd. Below are the primaryreasons for creating an outline.

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Aids in the process of writing

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Helps you organize your ideas

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Presents your material in a logical form

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Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing

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Constructs an ordered overview of your writing

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Defines boundaries and groupsHow do I create an outline?

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Determine the purpose of your paper.

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Determine the audience you are writing for.

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Develop the thesis of your paper. Then:

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Brainstorm

: List all the ideas that you want to include in yourpaper.

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Organize

: Group related ideas together.

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Order

: Arrange material in subsections from general to specificor from abstract to concrete.

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Label

: Create main and sub headings.Remember: creating an outline before writing your paper will makeorganizing your thoughts a lot easier. Whether you follow thesuggested guidelines is up to you, but making any kind of outline (even just some jotting down some main ideas) will be beneficial to yourwriting process.

The First Draft

Before you begin writing, you should have a thesis or question thatyou're comfortable with and an outline that gives you structure onwhat you need to say and where.Writing an

introduction

: Introductions are important. They arouse areader's interest, introduce the subject, and tackle the So What?factor. In short, they're your paper's "first impression." But you don'thave to write them first. In fact, many students prefer launching rightinto the body of the essay before they tackle intros and conclusions.However, other students prefer writing the introduction first to help"set up" what's to follow.

Your

body paragraphs

are perhaps the most important part of yourpaper; without them your thesis is meaningless and your researchquestion . . . well . . . remains an unanswered question. The number of paragraphs you have will entirely depend on the lengthof your paper and the complexity of each subtopic. However, after youhave begun to double space your prose, there should be a newparagraph somewhere on each page; a page without an indent isusually a signal that a paragraph somewhere is running too long.Moving through your essay should be like strolling through hilly terrain.At the hill peaks, you introduce your readers to the 'bigger picture' withmore general, abstract words. Then you descend the hill from theseheights of generality to the examples down in the valleys. Here youexplain in concrete terms what you mean by your lofty claims andshow them in action. Eventually, you make your way back up again sothat readers can see the examples in their context, that is, what theymean to the bigger picture. This is how your essay should flow: up anddown and up again. If, on the other hand, your valleys mutate into vastprairies, readers begin to lose a sense of the original generalassertions. Or, if your peaks become heady plateaus, the audience willget dizzy from the high altitude and long for examples in the concreteworld. Therefore, you must always achieve a sense of balance betweenthe general and the particular.According to Bell and Corbett's The Little English Handbook, the threemost important features of a paragraph (and unfortunately the mostcommon errors as well) are unity, coherence, and adequatedevelopment.ACTIVITY: see if the above paragraph on essays like hills fits thefollowing three criteria. If not, how would you fix it?Unity is the development of a single controlling idea usually presentedin the topic sentence. Each sentence should somehow develop thatidea and no other. A paragraph on the role of midwives in child-birthshould not digress to child-rearing in the same paragraph. Thus, if you're typing a sentence in your draft that doesn't seem to fit where itis, keep it in but flag it somehow. During revision, you'll see whetherthere isn't a better spot for it or if it ought to be scrapped.Coherence is a quality where the writer makes it explicitly clear whatthe connections are between thoughts. In Latin, coherence basicallymeans "to stick together." Make things stick together for your readers. You won't be there beside them saying "oh, this is what I meant." Tellthem what you mean in writing! Don't think "but, that's obvious"--makeit obvious by saying it. Bell and Corbett include the following tips forachieving coherence: