Research Papers

Perhaps no other assignment sends chills down the spines of undergraduate students than the research paper. Doing good research and writing requires serious effort, but it doesn’t have to be the dreaded assignment that many students make it out to be. The following guidelines are designed to demystify the process of creating a good research paper. Included are time-tested strategies to help you deal with some necessary steps in the process, special insights from professors in the Department of Public and International Affairs, and links to web sites that provide further guidance.

Choosing Your Topic

While some professors require you to write on a topic they choose for you, many allow students to choose their own topic. If your professor has already assigned you a topic, go to the Getting Started section.

Choosing an appropriate research topic is crucial to producing a quality research paper. Unfortunately, students often give little thought to their topic. To help you develop your topic, ask yourself the following questions:

Does my proposed topic relate to the course in which it is assigned? For example, does the topic stem from material covered in the texts or lectures?

Is my topic something that can be adequately covered in the required number of pages?

Is my topic something I (and possibly my professor) would find interesting, versus something that is "easy" or "safe" to cover?

Overcoming Writer’s Block and Procrastination

Are you still having trouble finding an interesting and suitable topic? Writer’s block can strike at any stage of the process. Frequently, students become frustrated because they can’t translate their broad interests into a workable research topic. There are several techniques to overcome this problem including freewriting, brainstorming and clustering.

Freewriting is a technique where you write your way into a topic by avoiding that part of your mind that refuses to write or can’t think of anything to put on paper. Try to write without stopping for a certain time (e.g., ten minutes) or for a given length (e.g., one page). Put down any thoughts or words on paper and let them suggest other words or thoughts. Keep writing even if it means writing the same word several times. Don’t go back and read or revise what you have already written. Once you have finished, go back and review what you wrote with an eye to insight about your interests, perspective, and position on issues.

Brainstorming is a form of list-making that requires you to list everything that seems even remotely related to your topic. The idea is to focus intently on your topic for a fixed amount of time and to push yourself to list every idea and detail that comes to mind. Like freewriting, the trick is to short-circuit your internal editor long enough to advance your thinking and organization on a given topic. Click here for more information and help on brainstorming.

Clustering is a form of free association that combines writing and nonlinear drawing. Your cluster radiates out from your topic. When you get an idea related to your basic topic, try to "branch out" from it by pursuing its implications. As new ideas are generated from the branches, continue with other branches. The result is a cluster of ideas, some of which are useful, some of which are not.

Narrowing Your Topic

Most students initially choose a topic that is too broad to cover in the semester schedule, or too complex to be thoroughly covered in the allotted page limitations. If your professor or someone else suggests your topic is too broad, don’t fret about it. This is a problem that frequently plagues your professors too! Virtually all research topics must be refined during the research and even writing process. The sooner you get comfortable with this fact, the easier and more enjoyable the whole research and writing process will be.

How does a student determine if her topic is too broad? A real example can help clarify this problem. A student in one of the department's international studies courses was interested in researching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But with help from her professor she soon realized that her topic was too broad. For example, NAFTA had different effects on trade between the U.S. and Mexico and between the U.S. and Canada. She probably couldn’t cover both in the same paper. The student then decided to only focus on trade between the U.S. and Mexico. This approach worked for a while until she realized that NAFTA affected specific industries differently, and that all the differences could not be thoroughly covered. Finally, she decided to focus specifically on how NAFTA has altered trade relations in the car manufacturing and automotive parts industry. This allowed her to review the relevant primary and secondary resources on the topic, and speculate about NAFTA’s effects on other industries.

Your Research Question

The research question should be a complete question consisting of one or two sentences. Generally, the shorter and simpler the research question, the better. Your research question should be something you can answer systematically using sources (primary and secondary), reasoning and persuasion. It is generally useful to begin devising your research question at the same time you develop (and narrow) your research topic. For example, a student in the American Presidency course first proposed the following question: What has been the historical role of presidential press secretaries? Although the student’s professor thought the question was interesting, he considered it too broad because it spanned too much history and raised multiple issues that could not be covered in fifteen to twenty pages. After considerable thought the student narrowed his question down to this: How did the press secretary’s role differ in the George Bush and Bill Clinton Administrations? Although this version was an improvement, it was still too broad. Clinton had several press secretaries. Moreover, the role of press secretary seemed to differ in both administrations depending on whether you examined his or her role in foreign versus domestic issues. Finally, the student settled on the following question: How did the role of press secretaries Marlin Fitzwater and Mike McCurry differ in their handling of Bush and Clinton’s foreign policy crises? Even this question proved to be too broad. The student’s final paper compared Fitzwater’s press relations with the press during the Persian Gulf War with Mike McCurry’s press relations during the Bosnian crisis.

Your Research Thesis

Your thesis is the most important and central idea or assertion you wish to convey in your paper. A good thesis should (1) narrow your topic to a single idea you want your readers to gain from your essay, and (2) clarify your purpose, position and attitude in the paper. Because your thesis tells readers why they are reading your paper, it should be stated somewhere in your paper’s introduction.

Keep in mind that your initial thesis is not written in stone. Most students (and professors) typically revise their thesis as they complete the research and writing stages. At this point you may be asking yourself: If the thesis can be revised as you go, why do you need it? It is important to have a working thesis because it helps you stay on track during the research and writing process. Why are you wading through the testimony of congressional hearings on national security? Reviewing your thesis will remind you that those hearings will help you show that U.S. policymakers were unaware of the broad threats posed by terrorism.

For more help on formulating a great working thesis, check out these links on thesis writing.

Your Research Methods and Resources

What methods will you use to research your topic, address your question and argue you thesis? Obviously, your methods will include examining books, articles and other written sources on the topic. But at this point it is important to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are things like historical documents (e.g., treaties), official reports or memoranda, hearing transcripts, interviews and your direct observations. Secondary sources include things like books and articles that often analyze primary sources.

Ideally, your research will include a mixture of primary and secondary sources.

Your essay’s main argument is strengthened when you go beyond just a review of what others have said about a particular subject. Moreover, your professors will likely be more impressed if you go the extra mile to compile primary sources.

For more information on research methods and compiling primary and secondary resources, go to the GMU Library’s research help in political science.

Your Outline

One reason that many writers procrastinate and experience false starts is because they lack a plan for writing drafts and continuing their research. The key to staying on track is develop and stick to a working outline. There are many different outlines ranging from loose and general to tight and specific. No matter what form you use, any outline can help you clarify your thinking, explore further patterns of thought, and devise strategies to fulfill the intentions of your research question and thesis. For further help and examples of outlines, click here.

Your First Draft

Be forewarned! Students and professors alike often find that writing the first draft is the most uncomfortable (even painful!) step in the writing process. Why is that? One problem is that we expect our thoughts to flow in a logical and clear manner. Consequently, anything we first put on paper inevitably falls short of our expectations. To overcome this problem remind yourself that you will need to develop several drafts before you complete your paper, and that no one else will see your first draft. Rest assured that your initial discomfort will diminish once you have your initial thoughts on paper.

Another problem may be that your outline is an insufficient guide to what you want to say. If so, go back and add specifics to your outline. Try to use your outline to begin thinking about transitions and subheadings. At some point a very detailed outline actually resembles a first draft. It’s now just a matter of filling in the blank spots to complete the first draft.

Here are some other tricks for starting and completing your first draft. They are derived from The Little, Brown Handbook written by H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane E. Aaron (New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 1992: pp. 48-9).

Freewrite (see section on freewriting).

Pretend you are writing to a friend about your topic.

Skip the opening and start in the middle–Or write the conclusion.

Be as fluid as possible. Keep going and skip over sticky spots

Resist self-criticism and don’t worry about style, grammar, spelling, etc.

Don’t feel constrained by your thesis and outline. If your writing leads in interesting directions, follow them.

Editing Your Drafts

The key to producing a quality research paper is to produce several drafts, with each succeeding draft being a refined version of the prior draft. The necessary process of revision involves improving both the underlying meaning and structure of your essay as well as the mechanics of sentences and paragraphs. There are various things to think about when editing your drafts. The following checklist is derived from The Little, Brown Handbook written by H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane E. Aaron (New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 1992: pp. 53, 59). For further information and guidance on revising and editing, click here.

For revising your essay’s underlining meaning and structure, consider the following:

Does the body of the essay carry out the purpose and central idea expressed in your thesis sentence?

Are there adequate details, examples, or reasons to support each of your main points?

Does each paragraph relate clearly to the thesis sentence? For help with paragraphs, click here.

Does your introduction engage and focus your readers’ attention? Does your conclusion provide a sense of completion? For further help with introductions and conclusions, click here.

For editing your essay’s mechanics, consider the following:

Are your sentences grammatical? For help on this, click here.

Are your sentences clear and concise?

Is your use of commas, semicolons, colons, periods and other forms of punctuation correct? For further help on this, click here.

Is your use of capitals, italics, abbreviations, numbers and hyphens correct?

Do the words you use exactly convey your meaning and feeling?

Are the words spelled correctly? Beware, spell check isn’t a foolproof way to determine this. For further help with spelling, click here.