How to Write a Research

Paper
Presentation by
Dr.K.Prabhakar
profkprabhakar@gmail.com

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 Statement of Ethics
• The materials are from
1.http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/658/01/
• 2. IIM (Banglore) teachers and students
projects from tejas@iimb.
• 3. I have only compiled the information
and contributed my experience.
• 4. However, if there is any error it is totally
mine. Please write to the author.
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 What is a Research Paper
• A research paper is the culmination and final product of an involved
process consisting of
• research,
• critical thinking,
• source evaluation,
• organization, and composition.
• Research paper is a living thing, which grows and changes as the
student explores, interprets, and evaluates sources related to a
specific topic.
• Primary and secondary sources are the heart of a research paper,
and provide its nourishment.
• The research paper serves not only to further the field in which it is
written, but also to provide the student with an exceptional
opportunity to increase his or her knowledge in that field.

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 What is not a Research Paper
• A research paper is not simply an informed summary of a topic by
means of primary and secondary sources.
• It is neither a book report nor an opinion piece nor an expository
essay consisting solely of one's interpretation of a text nor an
overview of a particular topic.
• Instead, it is a genre that requires one to spend time investigating
and evaluating sources with the intent to offer interpretations of the
texts, and not just compilation of sources.
• The goal of a research paper is not to inform the
reader what others have to say about a topic, but to
draw on what others have to say about a topic and
engage the sources in order to thoughtfully offer a
unique perspective on the issue at hand. This is
accomplished through two major types of research
papers.

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 Argumentative research paper
• 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; this
stance is often identified as the thesis statement.
An important goal of the argumentative research
paper is persuasion, which means the topic
chosen should be debatable or controversial.
For example, it would be difficult for a student to
successfully argue in favor of the following
stance.
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 Thesis Statement
• Consuming alcohol is bad for health and
likely to ruin the family.

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 Thesis Statement
• Perhaps 25 years ago this topic would
have been debatable; however, today, it is
known that drinking alcohol indeed,
harmful to one's health.
• What should be a better thesis statement?

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 Thesis Statement
• Although it has been proven that alcohol may lead to
sundry health problems in the consumer , the social
acceptance of drinking alcohol in social occasions
demonstrates that many still do not consider consuming
alcohol is dangerous to health.
• In this sentence, the writer is not challenging the current
accepted stance that alcohol drinking is dangerous;
rather, she is positing that the social acceptance of the
latter over the former is indicative of a cultural double-
standard.
• The student would support this thesis throughout his or
her paper by means of both primary and secondary
sources, with the intent to persuade her audience that
her particular interpretation of the situation is viable.

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 Analytical research paper
• The analytical research paper often begins with
the student asking a question on which he has
taken no stance. Such a paper is often an
exercise in exploration and evaluation.
• How should one interpret the failure of ONGC
public issue?
• The probable answer to his question may be
people are perceiving having high uncertainty
about oil prices.

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 The Way
• Though his topic may be debatable and
controversial, it is not the student's intent
to persuade the audience that his ideas
are right while those of others are wrong.
• Instead, his goal is to offer a critical
interpretation of primary and secondary
sources throughout the paper--sources
that should, ultimately, support his
particular analysis of the topic.
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 Please Provide the Thesis
Statement
• Write your statement and handover to the
volunteer.
• Every paper will have a thesis statement.
• It is typically not until the student has begun the
writing process that his thesis statement begins
to take solid form.
• In fact, the thesis statement in an analytical
paper is often more fluid than the thesis in an
argumentative paper.
• That is the one of the benefits of approaching
the topic without a predetermined stance.

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 Choosing the Topic (tejas@iimb)
• TRAILERS AS EFFECTIVE MEANS OF
MOVIE ADVERTISEMENTS
(The ideas are borrowed from tejas@iimb
and the author acknowledge their
contribution. If there are any mistakes or
errors, it is the responsibility of the author)

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 Thesis statement
• Trailers are understood to be one of the
most effective means of movie advertising.
This article analyses the effectiveness
of the different movie trailers by
looking at various parameters required
to make a good trailer. It also analyses
the effect of movie trailers on movie
revenues, especially on first week
collections.
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 Topic
• REVITALISING WOMEN'S HORLICKS IN
INDIA

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 Thesis Statement
• Women's Horlicks is India's first health drink
designed specifically for women's nutritional
needs. It targets a hitherto untapped segment as
identified by GSKCH (GlaxoSmithKline
Consumer Healthcare), namely, health
conscious urban working women, in metros and
mini-metros, leading hectic lives balancing
career and family. Women's Horlicks seemed to
have all the elements necessary for success.
And yet, at present, sales appear to be
flagging, a seeming contradiction that
presents an intriguing case for analysis.

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 The Four Ps

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 Is the price justified?
•

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 Conclusion
• Conclusion: Is Women's Horlicks Ahead of Its Time?
• There seems to be a disconnect between the intended core
message of Women's Horlicks and the interpretations made by the
target consumers.
• While the key emphasis appears to be the health aspect, from a
consumer perspective, substantial differentiation from other Horlicks
products appears to be absent.
• In addition, women in India generally consume health drinks when
they are ill or during pregnancy.
• Since Horlicks already has a product for pregnant women, it is
possible that it could cannibalize into Women's Horlicks' market. It is
therefore open to debate whether Women's Horlicks is ahead of its
time in the Indian market. There is possibly a latent need for the
product but at present Women's Horlicks hasn't been able to expose
that perceived need and satisfy it.

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 Topic
• RETAIL PROMOTIONS AND
EFFECTIVENESS

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 Thesis Statement
• The retail market in India today is flooded with
promotional offers in order to attract customers because
of increasing competition. Managers' incentives make
them concerned about their own motives and often
forget what the customer actually values and prefers.
Satisfying these unstated needs of consumer can give
any brand/store an intangible and inimitable competitive
advantage.
• This article focuses on the needs of different types
of consumers belonging to different age groups (15-
24 and 25-40), their perception on discounts and
what they value most.

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 Topic
• PREDICTING STOCK MARKET
CRASHES

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 Thesis Statement
• Bull or bear, time and again sentiments have proved to
be an uncontrollable force in taming them down. No
matter how strong the fundamentals are, strong negative
sentiments can pull down a strong bull market. Stock
market crashes and sharp corrections are no longer a
rare phenomenon. Indian markets dipped 50% in the
months from January to September 2008. When
sentiments are so critical, can technical indicators predict
stock market crashes? This article presents two
models based on technical analysis fundamentals
which could serve as predictors of stock market
crashes in India. Tested on market data of the last 8
years, the models yielded an accuracy of 80%.
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 How to Choose the Topic?
• Thinking early leads to starting early. If the student
begins thinking about possible topics half of the work is
completed. Therefore start the writing process.
• It is important for the student to keep in mind that an
initial topic may not be the exact topic about which he
ends up writing. Research topics are often fluid, and
dictated more by the student's ongoing research than by
the original chosen topic. Such fluidity is common in
research, and should be embraced as one of its many
characteristics.
• Therefore do not worry about your title too early. It may
undergo change.

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 What Happens to You?
• When you sit down to write...
• Does your mind turn blank?
• Are you sure you have nothing to say?
• If so, you're not alone. Many writers experience this at some time or
another, but some people have strategies or techniques to get them
started. When you are planning to write something, try some of the
following suggestions.
• State your thesis.
• Write an outline.
• Write the first draft.
• Revise and polish.
• There is no particular formula. Everyone has to devise their own way
of writing.

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 Purpose
• Create a Purpose or create a canvas
• Next step is to answer the purpose.

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 How to do it?
• Explore the problem — not the topic
• Who is your reader?
• What is your purpose?
• Who are you, the writer? (What image or
persona do you want to project?)
• Make your goals operational
• How can you achieve your purpose?
• Can you make a plan?
• Generate some ideas

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 Some Ideas
• Brainstorm
• Keep writing
• Don't censor or evaluate
• Keep returning to the problem
• Talk to your readers
• What questions would they ask?
• What different kinds of readers might you have?
• Ask yourself questions
• Journalistic questions
• Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? So What?

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 Stasis
• D'Angelo defines stasis as "the main point
in a legal argument," which can take one
of four forms:
• ConjecturalIs: it a dispute over a fact? (Did
something happen?)
• 2:DefinitionalIs it a dispute over a
definition? (Allowing that something did
happen, what was it?)

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 Stasis
• 3QualitativeIs it a dispute over the value, quality, or
nature of an act? (Acknowledging that both something
happened and that it was a particular thing, what kind of
a thing was it?)
• 4TranslativeIs it a dispute over moving the issue from
one court or jurisdiction to another? (To whom is the
defendant accountable?)
• In modern terms stasis is commonly referred to as a
balance between two or more forces within an argument.
Corbett and Eberly refer to stasis, at least initially, simply
as question, or more to the point, five forms of a question
regarding any particular issue:
• Questions of conjecture :What happened?

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 Stasis
• Does a shared reality exist?
• Questions of definition What should we call it?
• Questions of cause or consequence
• How did this come to happen? What will follow
from it?
• Questions of valueIs: this good or bad?
• Is this functional?
• Is this just?
• Questions of procedure or proposal.

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 Employee Engagement
• Let us consider an example of definition of
employee engagement.

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 Definition
How does the dictionary define ____?
• What do I mean by ____?
• What group of things does ____ belong to?
• How is ____ different from other things?
• What parts can ____ be divided into?
• Does ____ mean something now that it didn't years ago?
If so, what?
• What other words mean about the same as ____?
• What are some concrete examples of ____?
• When is the meaning of ____ misunderstood?

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 Comparison/Contrast

• What is ____ similar to? In what ways?

• What is ____ different from? In what
ways?
• ____ is superior (inferior) to what? How?
• ____ is most unlike (like) what? How?

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 Relationship
• What causes ____?
• What are the effects of ____?
• What is the purpose of ____? - What is the
consequence of ____?
• What comes before (after) ____?

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 Testimony

• What have I heard people say about

____?
• What are some facts of statistics about
____?
• Can I quote any proverbs, poems, or
sayings about ____?
• Are there any laws about ____?

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 Circumstance

• Is ____ possible or impossible?

• What qualities, conditions, or
circumstances make ____ possible or
impossible?
• When did ____ happen previously?
• Who can do ____?

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 Circumstance

• If ____ starts, what makes it end?

• What would it take for ____ to happen
now?
• What would prevent ___ from happening?

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 Tagmemics
Contrastive features
• How is ____ different from things similar to
it?
• How has ____ been different for me?
Variation
• How much can ____ change and still be
itself?

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 Tagmemics
• How is ____ changing?
• How much does ____ change from day to
day?
• What are the different varieties of ____?
Distribution
• Where and when does ____ take place?

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 Tagmemics…
• What is the larger thing of which ___ is a
part?
• What is the function of ____ in this larger
thing?
• Cubing (considering a subject from six
points of view)
• *Describe* it (colors, shapes, sizes, etc.)
• *Compare* it (What is it similar to?)
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 Tagmemics…
• *Associate* it (What does it make you
think of?)
• *Analyze* it (Tell how it's made)
• *Apply* it (What can you do with it? How
can it be used?)
• *Argue* for or against it
• Make an analogy

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 Who are my audience?
• The following are questions that may help
the student discern further her audience:
• Who is the general audience I want to
reach?
• Who is most likely to be interested in the
research I am doing?
• What is it about my topic that interests the
general audience I have discerned?
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 Who are my audience?
• If the audience I am writing for is not particularly
interested in my topic, what should I do to pique its
interest?
• Will each member of the broadly conceived audience
agree with what I have to say?
• If not (which will likely be the case!) what counter-
arguments should I be prepared to answer?
• Remember, one of the purposes of a research paper is
to add something new to the academic community, and
the first-time researcher should understand her role as
an initiate into a particular community of scholars. As the
student increases her involvement in the field, her
understanding of her audience will grow as well. Once
again, practice lies at the heart of the thing.
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 Outline
• Parallelism - How do I accomplish this?
• Each heading and subheading should preserve
parallel structure. If the first heading is a verb,
the second heading should be a verb. Example:
• Choose Desired Colleges
• Prepare Application
• ("Choose" and "Prepare" are both verbs. The
present tense of the verb is usually the preferred
form for an outline)

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• Coordination - How do I accomplish this?
• All the information contained in Heading 1 should have
the same significance as the information contained in
Heading 2. The same goes for the subheadings (which
should be less significant than the headings). Example:
• Visit and evaluate college campuses
• Visit and evaluate college websites
– Note important statistics
– Look for interesting classes
• (Campus and websites visits are equally significant.
They are part of the main tasks you would need to do.
Finding statistics and classes found on college websites
are parts of the process involved in carrying out the
main heading topics.)

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• Subordination - How do I accomplish this?
• The information in the headings should be more
general, while the information in the subheadings
should be more specific. Example:
• Describe an Influential Person in Your Life
– Favorite high school teacher
– Grandparent
• (A favorite teacher and grandparent are specific
examples from the generalized category of
influential people in your life.)

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• Division - How do I accomplish this?
• Each heading should be divided into 2 or more
parts. Example:
• Compile Resume
– List relevant coursework
– List work experience
– List volunteer experience
• (The heading "Compile resume" is divided into 3
parts.)
• Technically, there is no limit to the number of
subdivisions for your headings; however, if you
seem to have a lot, it may be useful to see if
some of the parts can be combined.

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 Thank you

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