How to Write Standard Research Paper

20 July 2020

5 Steps for Writing a Research Paper

To know -How to write a research paper, the student needs to understand that a research paper is a very important document that offers a path breaking solution to a particular field of academics. Being able to submit a well-researched document to a University means a lot, as it offers a rewarding experience to the researcher. Moreover, the research paper gets recognized and is used for further research in the respective field.

This article aims to guide you through 5 steps for writing a research paper. All the provisions are about understanding the process of writing an academically recognized research paper.

Step 1: Understanding Gap.

This is the stage where the researcher must realize that there is a need for research work in a particular domain. This stage brings in the step for the inception of the research purpose. It is this purpose that the researcher must keep as the core base for the ways to write a research paper. At this step, the researcher needs to understand voracious readings as part of building an authentic understanding of the research purpose and the contributions that have been made in this particular field.

As a research paper means to offer path-breaking solutions to certain issues that are still unresolved, the researcher needs to accomplish the following steps-

Gain a clear understanding of the selected field of research
Collect reliable resources to support your understanding
Initiate reading data from every valid Secondary source
Review the former research works to identify the Gaps
Develop a Topic

Step 2: Get Organised.

Step 2 -How to write a research paper, is all about creating notes based on the background preparation to write a research paper. It needs clear knowledge about the field of research and a clear understanding of the research purpose. The research paper begins at this stage but in a very intensive manner. This step demands that the researcher get well equipped with relevant secondary data sources and prepare a framework for the research process. This will lead the research to identify the gaps as obtained from the secondary data sources. After the identification of the Gaps from secondary data, the researcher must collect data from primary sources.

Source of Primary Data and Secondary Data:-

Moreover, for different fields these data can vary considerably-

Following the instructions and the regulations stated by the University to lead a dissertation, must remain intake.

At this step of a research paper, the researcher must have:-

Confirmed aims and objectives through the Research Proposal
Knowledge about the ethical criteria involved in the research process
Writing and collecting data from the Primary sources
Selection of the right Referencing Style among – Chicago, APA, MLA, and Turabian.
Categorical distribution timeframes for all the sections or the Gantt chart-

Step 3: Structuring & Writing.

Research paper, in general, should have 6sections- Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Findings & Analyses, Discussion, and Conclusion & Recommendations.

Introduction: Research writing starts with the Introduction section. This section offers all the details about the research aims and objectives, and its relevance in the respective field.
Literature Review: The next writing session starts with the Literature Review, whereby the researcher can critically evaluate all the former research works and secondary sources. While reviewing the relevant research works, the researcher needs to attain more practically justified ways to establish and confirm the research purpose and relevance.
Research Methodology: The research writing then leads to the Research Methodology, which decides the way through which the researcher will conduct the research. Selections of qualitative, quantitative, or mixed approaches get decided in this section.
Findings &Analyses: The research paper then offers the Findings collected from the primary data sources and the same gets evaluated through critical Analyses.
Discussion: The section for Discussion critically analyses and evaluates the information collected from both primary and secondary sources. In this section, the evaluations are done to meet the research objectives.
Conclusion & Recommendations: Eventually, the research paper gets accomplished by Conclusion & Recommendations. In this section, the aims of the research are expressed as per the derived data and critical evaluations.

Check It Out: Exploring the Best Practices for Conducting a Review of Literature in Research Papers!

Thus, to answer - How to write a research paper- the researcher must follow the stages noted below-

Investing relevant secondary data sources and writing the Literature Review
Writing the Section for Introduction with declarations related to background and aims & objectives
Structuring the Research Methodology as per the Research Philosophy and Research Approach
Declaring all the data collected from the primary sources and Analyzing them accordingly
Analyzing all the collected data on qualitative and/or quantitative approaches leads the research to a Conclusion, with necessary Recommendations –

For analyzing Data, there are some latest and well-upgraded software applications, that need to be considered for high-quality derivations under a statistical approach. These software applications are SPSS, Microsoft Analysis, Nvivo, Analytical, Route, Matlab, IC Cube, and JAVA.

Step 4: Generating Research Structure.

The Step 4 is an extended part of Step 3. In the way -How to write a research paper, the researcher prepares various drafts to gain approval from the Supervisor. To avoid all kinds of confusion in the ways to write a research paper, it is suggested that this process of generating drafts should be section-wise rather than topic-wise. Typical emphasis should be placed upon the selected Aims & Objectives and the Research Methodology.

Selection of the right Research Methodology in the research paper is the most important decision that a researcher needs to make. This decision must be taken by the research domain, the process of considering the empirical and theoretical research initiatives, and the research philosophy related to the study. For this purpose, in Research Methods for Business Students (2018), Prof Mark N. K. Saunders, Dr Philip

Lewis and Adrian Thorn Hill have illustrated the entire research methodology in a very comprehensive manner –

Figure 1: Saunders’ Research Onion.

Source: Adapted from Saunders, et al. (2018)

Following Saunders’ Research Onion, the research paper must generate drafts. The first draft must be generated by considering-

Natural feelings that the researcher attains while reading all the former research works
Writing the important points that the secondary data have provided to the researcher
Enlisting all the theoretical and empirical derivations
Write the outline of the research paper and consider it as the map to the research paper
The sense of gaining a vision of the research outcomes.

The 1st draft will soon be followed by the 2nd draft, where the researcher must accomplish-

The connection with the vision attained through the 1st draft
The task of meeting assumptions with necessary justifications
The research paper must be based on absolutely substantiated clarifications
The absolute arrangement of the ideas and the purpose of the research paper
The process of discarding points that cannot be established or justified by any source.

Step 5: Review and Proofread.

To write a research paper, there is a need for constant review and continuous proofreading. Being an academic document, there cannot be any compromise made in terms of quality of the research paper. Since the research paper is an academic representation of analyzing a path-breaking provision in the respective field, its importance is severe in the academic domain. Any kind of grammatical or syntactical error can make the research paper get rejected for various future recognitions. There is also zero tolerance for the act of plagiarism. The entire research paper must be very much original. It should make clear declarations about all the sources that it considers for leading the research paper. Every secondary and primary source must be well cited and mentioned, respectively. Thus the core checklist for review and proofreading is as-