Process essay structure and techniques

¶ … haunt all students during the course of their educational careers and beyond, depending on their career choice. Although writing a research paper is never easy, and demands hard work, time, and patience, the task need not be daunting. The process of writing a research paper entails five major steps. First, start with a narrow and focused topic in the area of interest. One of the main mistakes made by beginning writers is attempting to tackle a topic that is too broad. The best research papers have a clear focus and a thesis statement that summarizes it. Second, do all the requisite footwork such as locating bibliographic materials and conducting searches using the Internet and electronic databases. Ideally, all reference materials for the paper should be reputable if not peer-reviewed, from scholastic sources. Blogs might be good starting points for finding initial topics but do not constitute reliable source material. The third stage in the research paper writing process involves the composition of a primary draft. Getting thoughts down on paper without worrying about sounding erudite removes self-censorship and helps the writer overcome mental blocks. Writing the paper should initially proceed according to a formal or informal outline. Fourth, the writer needs to polish the rough draft so that the paper conforms to standard rules of grammar. Editing and revision is one of the most important phases of completing the paper. The fifth stage in writing a research paper is the proper formatting of the paper. Formatting the paper includes elements like page numbers, headers, footers, and citations. Finally, all research papers should be free of plagiarism; the writer should credit all reference materials when necessary and when in doubt, cite the source. Writing a research paper involves five simple yet important steps: focusing the topic, conducting thorough research, writing a first draft, revising the draft into a well-written composition, and creating properly formatted final composition.

The first step in the process of writing a research paper is to narrow the topic as much as possible. For example, rather than discussing American automobiles, narrow the subject to the American automobile industry in the 1960s. Even narrower topics would include a particular manufacturer in the 1960s auto industry, or a specific element of the industry that warrants attention such as marketing demographics. In any case, writing a research paper is a lot easier when the topic has been well thought out and when there is potential for a rich argument. Narrowing the topic helps the writer to form compelling opinions.

Once a specific topic has been selected, writing a research paper involves, well, research. Research can be performed online, in a library, or by searching through computer databases. Regardless of where source material comes from, all of it should be credible. In some situations, establishing a source's credibility can be tricky. The most reliable sources are from peer-reviewed journals or books published by scholastic institutions. However, any credible source will come replete with a set of bibliographic material on which their work was based. Establishing credibility can also involve finding out about the author.

Writing and outline and the first draft is the third step in the process. An initial outline can help the writer organize his or her thoughts before delving into the actual writing. Next, the rough draft, as the name suggests, does not need to be polished and can include grammatical errors. Good first drafts are not necessarily well-written but they are complete: they include the writer's main argument as well as all the material to back it up. The rough draft is also free of plagiarism; any paraphrases are properly cited.

The fourth step in the process of writing a research paper takes care of any grammatical or structural mistakes made in step three. Revising the draft so that it is ready for presentation involves consulting dictionaries, grammar and usage reference books such as the Chicago Manual of Style and any writing resources available on the Internet. At this stage in the process, the writer might choose to cut out entire sections of the paper that are redundant, write new ones, or simply correct spelling mistakes. At this point, the writer also makes sure that no plagiarism has taken place, and that material is properly referenced. The idea here is to complete the paper so that it is ready to be read by its intended audience.

However, before the paper is complete the writer must format it properly, the fifth and final stage of writing a research paper. Many different formatting styles exist: the most common are those from the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Chicago Manual of Style formats. College professors usually have a preference for a certain style, according to their discipline and may even devise their own guidelines for paper formatting. Formatting includes in-text reference citations, bibliographic reference notations that are usually included in a separate "