1) What is a research paper? 5.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will come across a lot of facts when conducting research and only some of these facts will be relevant to your paper. It takes some skill to separate the wheat from the chaff. The following categorization is quite helpful. Research can be divided into three categories: background information, supporting information and opposing information. The background information should be brief and to the point. It is basically a summary that either a) explains why the topic that you chose is significant or b)provides a brief history of your chosen topic. Either option provides the reader with a context in which to situate your topic. Supporting information helps to drive your argument forward. It is basically research that validates your opinion. Each source that you include in your paper should help make your opinion more believable and plausible to the reader. Opposing information is useful when it is necessary to strengthen your position on an issue. Many writers like to include opposing information before they substantiate their claims. One thing to remember is that the reason you are including opposing information is to counter it. After you state your opposing information, it is important to also state why it is not valid. This is a useful tactic to persuade the reader to take your side. Thus, the key points to remember is that research is necessary to validate your opinion and that research can be organized into the following categories: background, supporting and opposing information.