If you’re in an institution of higher studies like college or university level, you’re often expected to write or contact a research paper company to do a research  on a given topic on your behalf. When it comes to research papers, it’s more than just writing. You need to do a lot of research work, simultaneous evaluation of sources, critical thinking, and correct organization of ideas. Research papers are usually written on the various topic across the fields such as technology, Social science, natural science, business and management, politics and many more. Compiling a research paper can turn into a nightmare if you don’t follow some necessary steps correctly. Here are the 5 steps to writing an excellent research paper.

Steps in Writing Academic Research Papers

Writing a scholarly research paper is not an easy task as you need to carry out research, analytical studies, critical thinking as well as writing skills at various stages. This is a complete guide on how to write an “A+” research paper.

Step 1: Choose a Topic

Sometimes, your professor will give you a topic to write about, though in most cases students are expected to come up with their topic of research. Choose your topic wisely and make sure it suits your academic interests. This way, it will invoke your interests and dedication, and you will not feel bored during the research writing process. Research work is a time-consuming task and process. You don’t want a topic that will cloud your intellectual abilities instead of kindling it. If you’re writing a paper to fulfill your academic studies, then the topic you settle for needs to resonate with the field of your study. Avoid choosing topics randomly.

Step 2: Research

An excellent academic research paper should be detailed and exhaustive. You need to research and explore resources that will aid your writing. Remember not everything you discover during your research adds up to the final write-up. Therefore, you need to be choosy here and go for only relevant and authentic sources of information. This means that you have to do a careful examination of your primary and secondary sources and drop the irrelevant ones. It’s recommended that you go for credible sources authored by trusted parties and higher authorities. While you may refer to online articles and websites such as Wikipedia, they’re not authentic. Instead, you should search for peer-reviewed journals, articles, online and library books, scholarly newsletters and others. Always confirm the credibility and reliability of information before including them in your paper. Gathering many sources of information is the best way to ensure that you come up with a reliable final content for your research paper. Be creative in your research and ensure to bookmark all your sources for referencing purposes.

Step 3: Write your Thesis

This is where you start drafting your paper. Thesis informs your objectives or goals of the research, and of course the research questions. This is the main point of the idea of discussion that prompts the research. A thesis statement is written in the introduction section of the paper, in one or two statements. It gives the reader an overview of what your paper is all about or a summary of the entire paper and should be written in a clear and concise manner to indicate the central theme of the content.

Step 4: Create an Outline of the Paper

After writing the thesis, you now need to start creating a draft of the preliminary version of your research paper. This is like a roadmap for your research writing. Make a content outline for your paper and decide on which format you’re going to use. Also, start organizing your sources and references according to the chosen citation style such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, etc.

Step 5: Write the Paper

This is the last and most important step in research paper writing. Writing a research paper is not just about summarizing your sources. It involves compiling the various sections of the paper; introduction, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references together to come up with a final write-up. You need to organize your ideas, analyze and critique your sources, interpret the gathered information and come up with your findings and conclusion. Your final paper must be original. It should be well formatted, with in-text citations and references depending on the style used. Last but not least, the paper must look professional, free from tense errors, grammar mistakes, and plagiarism issues.
Scoring a good grade in your research paper needs dedication and following the above steps. You may hire a professional to write a research paper for you at an affordable cost.