research paper writers

research paper writers

The Art and Science of Research Paper Writing

1. Introduction to Research Paper Writing

In this essay, we show the courtesan and artisan on how we have managed those challenges. We introduce the major sections of this essay. In other words, we have signposted the structuration of this essay. We hope you will read it, engage with it as knowledge, and demonstrate understanding on its questions and engage with us as authors in this engrossing discourse. This essay shows how we have tackled the key challenges we have confronted as social researchers, who have been called upon to present research papers in seminars, annual meetings, congresses and annual general meetings, workshops and informal and formal conferences on the African continent, Europe and North America. We hope that it will install you into a similar or parallel universe. As the Renaissance ideal holds, art and craft have always lent beauty, sophistication, innovation and inspiration in the ever-changing, agitational, questioning and conflictive human tapestries of life, and the worlds of the human sciences.

The best research is one that produces pithy, contextual, actionable and, sometimes, mesmerizing insights into dynamic phenomena and the drivers of those changes. Researchers’ ability to achieve the aforementioned objective is largely a function of their mastery of the art and science of research paper writing. Writing a research paper paves the way for discussion and is disruptive to abstractions or ancient wisdom, and adds value to debates that matter, if done right. It is by getting around the challenges that arise in the research and writing of high-quality research papers worth reading, commenting on, critiquing, deconstructing, reconstructing or using in planning or benchmarking that this work derives its life and utility.

Introduction.

2. Key Components of a Research Paper

Most research papers follow a standard formula with the numbered headings of: ‘Abstract’, ‘Introduction’, ‘Methods’, ‘Results’, ‘Discussion’ or ‘Results and Discussion’, and finally, ‘Conclusion’. The abstract should represent the most direct and concise writing in the whole paper, introducing it without including very specialized vocabulary that would be off-putting for a casual reader. The introduction then provides the background to the study and the research question and then the research aims are set out. The methodology or methods section spells out what the team did and how. The results section describes what they found and after the discussion presents what their results mean or might mean. The conclusion contains a recapitulation of the main findings and is longer than the abstract. It should also make a judgment about the findings in the light of reality. This guide section will describe these expected parts of the paper and a bit about the accepted contents under each heading.

Research papers are written to communicate the findings of a scientific study. It represents the actual work of the researcher, who conducted the study, and presents it in a systematic way, following a somewhat fixed methodology. Research papers are usually journals, but they may also be lectures, reviews, demonstrations, or case studies. The focus of this chapter is on research papers that form part of the main publication history of the researcher. An authentic paper should represent a complete, encapsulated account of the study, and research paper writing must therefore be presented in the brief, standard form, with an outlined structure that consists of the required parts.

3. Effective Strategies for Research Paper Writing

Based on our experience, we offer the following strategies that we randomly assigned for the writing process include advice for performing a review of the literature, an analysis of the data, and recommendations for citation management. Constructing a literature review section can be a fairly daunting task for anybody who is attempting to craft a scientific manuscript. Unlike a standard literature review paper, which typically requires the reviewer to thoroughly research and critically evaluate existing literature, this process should not be as daunting! The empirical manuscript review paper should be designed to maximize speed and quality of writing so as not to hold up the rest of the paper writing process. We believe the main purpose of this section is to prime manuscript authors to create a more comprehensive foundational knowledge about their study and also to ensure the study they are conducting and writing about is innovative or at the very least additive in the field.

Effectively drafting a research paper, regardless of its length, is a multifaceted process that requires a specific skillset and a systemized approach. Writing for peer-reviewed publication is accompanied with an expectation of the publication of original data that advances the field of the authors. However, writing a research paper also requires writing skills that are not inherited, but acquired through practice over time. Some tips involve using a podcast to increase reading, to improve the understanding of the students who prefer the auditory learning style, and barriers to solving maths problems to illustrate the barriers in writing that should be addressed. This article is not specifically aimed at one stage, but the whole process of research paper writing and tries to provide the greatest possible help for the researchers.

4. Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Second, some researchers find it difficult to avoid plagiarizing the works of others and jeopardizing the authenticity of their work through acts such as unjustified data manipulation or duplicate submissions. The practice of textual recycling, also known as self-plagiarism, is one such activity that researchers need to be aware of. Many experienced researchers might, for convenience, aim to reuse their own words and textual material, both verbatim and near-verbatim, to analyze and discuss data or present the background for a new submission. This is where the trap is set, since it can be difficult to resist this particular type of activity. Last, it can be difficult for some novice researchers to comprehend the rules of academic integrity, especially when the standards of academic publications can vary widely by country. It is easy to duplicate a piece of text and utilize it as the basis for your research in order to create the desired effect. However, this tends to lead to rather poor scientific papers that all too often rapidly raise the ire of journal editors. Instead, provide more granularity, precision, and strict significance testing when discussing a wealth of already-published data from other studies.

Though research paper writing can be smooth sailing for many full-fledged scientists, there are common pitfalls that a researcher needs to keep an eye on when creating a manuscript. First, many researchers hit a barrier when beginning the process of structuring a paper. The following mind map provides an example of the outline that you might use for constructing a narrative from a comprehensive list of ideas. The inclusion of the introduction and discussion sections in the upper levels of the outline is for illustrative purposes and does not necessarily reflect the order in which individual ideas will need to be developed in your final paper.

5. Conclusion and Future Directions

In this essay, we combined evidence and insights from various academic sources and personal experience with the intention of giving the reader insight into the multifaceted nature of research paper writing, which we consider as both a science and an art. A research paper is both a communication device and a playground for learnable skills in analytical reasoning, source critique, and writing alike. Yet, exactly because of the many said skills combined, performing good research—making credible and interesting claims within one’s own limitations and producing results that qualify as a mini-contribution to the scientific community—is easier said than done. We have offered some tools, tricks, and practices that clarify the writing process to the reader, addressing them as scientists conducting research: experiment, measure by observing closely, draw conclusions on how things did not, would, could work out as expected, prompt suggestions. The future of writing in the subject(s) should definitely include practical, exploratory work into a data-centered design methodology specifically for the crafting of research papers as well as investigation of the malleability of the reviewed sciences. It may very well be that more principles concerning specific sciences/journal types are out there, ready to be extracted. We suggested tasters such as visualizing the typical results of a given field and applying keyword statistics to research article abstracts and the like.

The main goal of a conclusion is to bring together the main points of the essay and make sense of the information that has just been read. A conclusion should summarize the main points made and explain their relevance. It should summarize the main hypothesis or thesis, the evidence examined, the methodology chosen, and the general results. It should also explain the importance of the research and make suggestions for future work in the area of interest or emerging trends.