Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of Babylon

College of Education for Human Sciences

Department of English

A Presentation in Methodology

Writing A Research Paper

Supervised by:

Dr. Wafaa M

By:

Ahmed Fadhil Abbas

2018
List of contents

1.What is Research Paper ?

2. What is the significance of Research paper ?

3. Where Research Paper begins ?

4. Strategies for selecting subjects

5. Narrowing the subject to a specific topic

6. How to make your topic unique

 1. What is Research Paper ?

A research is a report differs from other kinds of

persuasive writing: it must rest on shared facts that readers accept
as truths independent of your feelings and beliefs. They must be
able to follow your reasoning from evidence that they accept to the
claim you draw from it. Your success as a researcher thus
depends not just on how well you gather and analyze data ,but on
how clearly you report your reasoning so that your readers can test
and judge it before making your claims part of their knowledge and
understanding. (Turabian, 2007,)

Research is performing a methodical studying in order to

prove a hypothesis or an answer to a specific question. The writer
should find a definite answer of any experimental process.
Research should be systematic and follow series of steps and
standard protocols. These rules are similar but they differ from one
field to another. Research includes any gathering of data,
information, and facts for the advancement of knowledge.
Research is an analytical essay used to convince the readers that
the writer's argument is valid or at least deserves consideration .
You should put in your mind that research is not a collection of fact
on a topic or a summary of information from sources.

(https://explorable.com/definition-of-research)

Research is a special form of writing that is located in

the real world, so that it becomes a form of real-world research.
 It discusses social, political and many other actions, and then
explaining to others what the writer has done, why s/he has
done it, and what s/he hopes to achieve by doing it. Because it
is depended on practice. Research is also often referred to as
‘practice-based’. It is also often called ‘practitioner research’,
because it is carried out by practitioners. (McNiff, 2016).

Research paper is meant to research and express

other’s points of view on a topic, as well as incorporating the
insights and ideas. It is usually long in length and requires
comprehensive understanding of a topic by researching it
thoroughly. Familiarity required with research writings
associates with a chosen topic. Research paper helps build
writers knowledge of a topic in which the writer compares
various pieces of information on a topic and then presents a
cumulative overview of the findings. (Wallwork, 2011).

Also, Day (1983) defined research paper as a report that is

written and published to describe original research results. In
addition, a research is required to meet certain requirements
regarding the mechanisms of writing the paper and the way of its
publishing it.

2.What is the significance of Research Paper ?

 You do research every time you ask a question and look for
facts to answer it, whether the question is as simple as finding a
plumber or as profound as discovering the origin of life. When only
you care about the answer or when others need just a quick report
of it, you probably won't write it out. But you must report your
research in writing when others will accept your claims only after
they study how you reached them. In fact, reports of research tell
us most of what we can reliably believe about our world—that once
there were dinosaurs, that germs cause disease, even that the
earth is round. (Turabian, 2007).

You may think your report will add little to the world's
knowledge. Maybe so. But done well, it will add a lot to yours and
to your ability to do the next report. You may also think that your
future lies not in scholarly research but in business or a profession.
But research is as important outside the academy as in, and in
most ways it is the same. So as you practice the craft of academic
research now, you prepare yourself to do research that one day
will be important at least to those you work with, perhaps to us
all.(ibid)

As you learn to do your own research, you also learn to use

and judge that of others. In every profession, researchers must
read and evaluate reports before they make a decision, a job you'll
do better only after you've learned how others will judge yours.
Before we believe those reports, though, we must think about them
critically to determine whether they are based on evidence and
reasoning that we can trust. (ibid)
 To be sure, we can reach good conclusions in ways other
than through reasons and evidence: we can rely on tradition and
authority or on intuition, spiritual insight, even on our most visceral
emotions. But when we try to explain to others not just why we
believe our claims but why they should too, we must do more than
just state an opinion and describe our feelings.(ibid)

Writing research papers make researchers learn lots about

their chosen subject. Another reason is that writing the paper
teaches the conventions of scholarly writing, the accepted styles of
documentation and the ethics of research. A third reason is that
the researcher will become familiar with the library through the
“learning by doing” method. Even the simplest library is an intricate
storehouse of information, bristling with indexes, encyclopedias,
and abstracts. Writing a research paper may also mean
interviewing experts about your subject and blending their ideas
with your own distinct point of view. (Mcniff, 2016).

A primary task of a researcher is the communication of

technical results to the broader scientific community. Whether in
written or oral form, scientific communication is a critical step in the
scientific method and is the key driver of movement within a
scientific field. Therefore, the construction of a written scientific
manuscript must not be taken lightly. The aim of doing any kind of
research is to find out something that the writer does not already
know: research is about discovering existing knowledge or creating
new knowledge. Discovering or creating knowledge enables
him/her to claim that she/he knows something that he/she did not
know before: this becomes the claim to knowledge. Further,
knowledge can contribute to theory; the word ‘theory’, broadly
speaking, means ‘an explanation’. The writer can both say what
he/she knows now and also explains and analyze how he/she has
come to know it. Therefore, if he/she can explain and analyze what
he/she has done in the practice, he/she can claim that he/she has
generated a personal theory of practice. (ibid).

The aim of all research is to enable the writer to make a

knowledge claim. The writer can claim to have discovered existing
knowledge, something that was known already, and he/she can
also claim to have generated entirely new knowledge, something
that no one knew before. However, if the writer is prepared to
make a knowledge claim, he/she must test and demonstrate its
validity, truthfulness and believability, to show that people can
believe him/her. This involves producing evidence: the writer
describes the actions he/she took, explain why he/she took them
and what he/she hoped to achieve, gather data to show the
processes involved, and produce evidence from the data in
relation to identified criteria to show that what he/she is saying may
be believed. The writer invites others to consider their knowledge
claim and scrutinize the evidence so that they may agree (or not)
that what he/she says is trustworthy (ibid).

Research paper is an efficient and useful way for

gathering and giving new information which are reliable. The
research paper is important in many fields such as law,
manufacturing, retaliating, security, computer technology, banking
and insurance. (Rozakis,1999(

3.Where Research Paper begins ?

 Writing a research paper involves two interrelated
processes. One concerns the idea you are trying to investigate.
The other deals with the resources employed to support yours
idea. This interaction between the materials or sources and the
ideas you develop lead you to search out additional materials, and
thus new ideas are obtained. The topic of the research would draw
a framework of the domain where you have to search in. Through
reviewing the different resources, it is possible to distinguish
between pieces of information central to the research from those of
little significance. Thus, the researcher could evaluate the
information, frames the questions s/he intends to answer, and to
arrive at objective conclusions. Normally, at the beginning of doing
any research, the researcher has only some ideas and unrelated
points. But reading more and more about the topic in purposeful
resources enables the researcher to come up with meaningful
results .The best research will begin with a question that you want
to answer, this question represents the problem of your topic that
you want to research about it but we must then imagine readers
asking a question of their own. Then we focus on how to find a
research question whose answer worth your time and your reader
's attention. (Davis, 1997).

For Creswell (2012), research is a process of steps used to

collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a
topic or issue.

At a general level, a research consists of three steps :

1.Pose a question.

2.Collect data to answer the question.

3.Present an answer to the question.

In some academic context, you may choose the subject

yourself usually with instructor's approval but in other context you
may be required to choose from small number of topics with a
predetermined focus. Each of these circumstances provide a
distinct impetus for your research work. After choosing a subject
yourself or receiving an assigned topic, you are not ready to rush
to library to check out books or search on the Internet. You can do
preliminary reading. (ibid)

4.Strategies for selecting subjects

There are steps in writing a research paper. One of these

steps is choosing a subject for your research. Before the starting in
the writing the research, there are some issues that the researcher
should keep in mind. it is very important for the researcher to
understand the subject he is studying. He must gain knowledge in
the field in which he is working on in order to be qualified to work
on his research. Having interest and information about the
research is one of the essentials for narrowing a topic. The
researcher need to understand the recent trends and
developments within the field in which he is working. He must take
suggestions and notes from his instructor which will be so helpful
in narrowing down the topic. Also the researcher must focus on his
aims and objectives and should have a clear vision in his mind
that exactly what is supposed to dedicate or find. It is something
might be helpful in narrowing down the topic.

(https://www.thoughtco.com).
(ThoughtC0. Glossary of Key Terms).

There some strategies for selecting a topic for research paper ;

1.Choose a general topic that interest you which means your

topic should be modern and useful .

2. Find a topic that will provide enough information and write down
the topic and all the categories or major issues, then study areas
that are part of the topic .

3. Learn about regular activity: make a list of things you do on

regular basis, listen to music, read, work, swim etc.

4. Explore possibilities in academic subjects using textbooks for an

academic course, perhaps on your major or minor .

5. Consider subjects introduced in your classes: review notes and

reading as segment from other classes, productive idea or
information that presents assumption. Ask your instructor for the
names of organizations and acronyms.

6. Consider problems: Research provides an excellent opportunity

to learn about the scope of selected problems, personal and
political.

7. Explore life changes : you can learn a great deal about changes
that occur in your life, whether they include healthy life, good life or
family life .

8. Explore special interests : Consider your special interests or

hobbies. You are already to know a great deal about subjects that
interest you.
9. Know about social, political or cultural events that you follow on
regular basis.

( http://www. Dbu.edu/uwc.)

Dallas Baptist University

5. Narrowing the subject to a specific one

There are steps in writing a research paper. One of these

steps is narrowing down the topic. This step needs to break down
the topic smaller to help you in discussing the subject more
thoroughly. The failure in narrowing the topic will lead to very
general information about the topic. ( Baracers, 2000).

We can't say everything about a broad topic in a single

research paper. That is way the topic must be narrowed and
focusing it on a particular aspects of it that is interesting. One way
for doing this is to pose a proposition for a discussion or by asking
questions that need a specific answer. These can be political,
theoretical, and social or economic aspects of the topic. . ( Ellison,
2010, 53).

There are number of ways to narrow a topic. .

1.Ask yourself a question that needs a precise answer.

2. Pose a subject that is open for discussion.

3. Focus on an interesting aspect that you found after analyzing

your topic. (ibid).
A challenge in writing a research paper is narrowing down your
topic. If your topic is too broad, you may

encounter two major problem:

1.Too much information to manage .

2.Inability to state an effective thesis .

You can avoid these problems by applying the following limitations

to your topic.

1.Time

2. Location

3. People/Person
4.Events/Objects

Example Topics :

French Literature → Time: 18th Century French Literature

Place: 18th Century Literature in Southern

France

People: Women’s Literature in 18th Century

France

Events: Illuminated Manuscripts in 18th

Century French Literature

Another example :

Pollution → Location: Pollution in the Fraser River .

Time: Pollution in the Fraser River, 1962
 Events: The Salmon Fishing Industry and Pollution
Person & Events: David Suzuki and Pollution activism

https://www.tru.ca

University of Thompson Rivers

6.How to make your topic unique !

A common challenge when beginning to write a research

paper is determining how to make your topic unique one.

There are number of strategies help to make your topic unique

one :

1.Aspect: Choose one aspect of your topic and through it view

your research paper problem, or look at one part of the topic.
Rather than studying the role of food in religious rituals, we can
talk about the role of food in Indian rituals.

2. Component: Determine if your topic can be broken down to

small parts, which can then be analyzed precisely.

3. Methodology: The way of gathering information can also

reduce the material to suit a narrowed topic. A single case study
and gathering information for it is better than a multiple case study
that needs extensive explanation.

4. Place: The smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more

narrow the topic [e.g., rather than study trade relations in West
Africa, study trade relations between Niger and Cameroon as a
case study that helps to explain problems in the region].

5. Time : the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow
the focus [e.g., study of trade relations between Niger and
Cameroon during the period of 2010 - 2018].

6. Type: focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of

people, places, or phenomena [e.g., a study of developing safer
traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student
drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area].

URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

University of Southern California

References

Baraceres. L . (2000). Communication skill. Florentino,

Philipppine.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Planning, Conducting, Evaluating
Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Pearson: University of
Nebraska _Lincolon.

Davis, M. (1997). Scientific Papers and Presentations, Academic

Press, San Diego, CA.

Day, R. A. (1983). How to write and publish a scientific paper.

ISI Press, Philadelphia, PA.

Ellison. C. (2010). Writing Research Paper, Mc grow Hill

companies, New York.

McNiff, J. (2016). Writing Up Your Action Research Project. 2

Park Square: Routledge.

Laurice Rozakis, Ph. D. (1999). Schaum's Quick Guide to

Writing Research Paper. McGraw_Hill, The State of University of
New York.

Turabain, K. L. (2007). A manual for writers of Term Papers,

Thesis and Dissertations on Writing. The University of Chicago
press: Chicago and London.

Wallwork, A. (2011). English for Writing Research Papers.

Springer: New York.

2017 Sophia Learning. LLc. Sofoia is a registered trade mark of

SOPHIA Learning LLC. Home of Dissertations copy wright (2016)
Enquiry@ dissertation home.com / Sep 21 , 2018 10:59 AM.

Dallas Baptist University. http://www. Dbu.edu/uwc . August

2015 / Sep 21 , 2018 10:45 AM.
General Reference @ Research Help, https://libguides. Use.
edu/writingguide. @University of Southern California. / Sep 20 ,
2018 8:30 AM.

URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

University of Southern California / Sep 21 , 2018 8:59 AM

https://www.tru.ca / University of Thompson Rivers /Sep 21, 2018

9: 32 AM.