How To Write A Research Paper Plan And Organize Your Ideas

One of the most important and significant resources that you can use and develop for any writing is a project diary. Get a note book, not a small one that would fit into your pocket, but one a bit larger than a paperback book. The book should preferably have a hard cover and ideally some lined pages and some blank pages. You can even buy some project books that have pockets for loose papers and graph paper. Getting one of these books may seem to be a minor concern but as you research paper progresses this book will become your go-to for all the information you collect.

The next most important action is to talk to your tutor/professor about the research that you are considering. By verbalising your ideas, it will help you gain clarity and direction for your paper. If you can’t verbalise it, the idea may be too complicated or too obscure. Talking to your tutor will also allow you to tap into their expertise. Take Notes, start using your project diary.

Start making a timetable and breakdown the tasks you have to accomplish. Be realistic about the time it will to complete each section. When devising your timetable work backwards, for the date you have to hand in the paper. Consider targeting a date a week prior to the end date to give yourself a bit of a buffer.

As you start researching for your paper, take notes. There is nothing more time consuming and irritating than when you are writing up your paper than thinking ‘I know that I have read ……. (a statement), which supports the point I am trying to illustrate but, I cannot remember where!’ The link that you cannot make at that point may have been the most useful and significant quote that your mark may rely on.

Be very clear about your thesis statement. Again talking through your thesis statement help you clarify and solve the central problem that you are investigating.

As you gather momentum with your research, start putting an outline of you paper together. Once you start working on your Introduction, things should start coming together and you will be using this as your starting point for discussing your thesis.

Draft an outline of what you intend to cover in each paragraph (a single idea for each paragraph and make sure it is backed up with evidence) Remember to consider how you are going to draw all the information together.

Using your outline, start writing. You can always amend your original paragraph outline as your writing may start taking you in a slightly different direction as you continue to research.

As you write, add to your list of references and citations, do not leave this until you have written your paper.

Redraft until you have confidence in your work.