5 Scientific Issues to Highlight in Your Research Paper

Any postgraduate student will be able to tell you that writing a research paper is probably one of the more difficult tasks to attempt. The main problem with writing a dissertation or thesis is that it is not a linear or static document.

Sure, it helps to have a guideline and the research proposal serves as a type of guide, but as one continues with the actual research, so many things can change. The results, planned and unplanned, has a major effect on the finished product in the end. This is mainly due to predictions and assumptions that were wrong or unforeseen.

To make the process as smooth as possible, here are five scientific issues to highlight in your research paper.

The research problem

This is the most important part of your research paper as it is the question that you are trying to answer. This is the part where you articulate what aspect you are going to tackle with your research.

Due to its complex nature, it is a section that you could use research paper help for students. The online writers can also help you with thesis, dissertation, college essays and other writing works.

Even the most accomplished researcher spends a lot of time on this section. If you are not exactly sure how you are going to tackle the research problem, you could read up on how to start a research paper.

The research problem is like the oar which steers the research paper and provides the writer with a direction and a starting point for the subsequent sections. The nature of the problem will determine how best to conduct the research project.

At this stage, it would be a good idea to examine another research paper example or two. It would also be advisable to study the research paper format. This will save you a lot of time when you reach the advanced stages of your project.

The literature review

In terms of time the literature review is one of the sections where you will spend most of your time. To ensure that your paper will actually add to the existing body of knowledge, you need to read wide and far.

Anything from other research papers, to books and journal articles, need to be consulted to explore all the avenues of your research topic.

Parts of the literature review consist of arguments that you need to state. For many people, this is easier said than done. As your arguments need to lead to the questions that you want to answer in your research.

If you can answer the arguments form the literature review, then it means that the research has already been done and your study is redundant.

For ideas on how to structure your arguments, you could peruse the argumentative essay topics mill. Examining the work of others is often a great way to spark your own creativity and original ideas for great research paper topics.

The methodology

There is probably not a section that is more challenging than your methodology section. This is the section where you structure how you are going to perform your research. There is a myriad of decisions that you need to make in this section and you need to be able to justify each of these decisions.

Everything from your data collection to the analysis of your research needs to be outlined here. This is the section that is critiqued the most by research supervisors because they also have their own ideas of how the research could be conducted. It is your job to convince them that your method is the best, or at least one that can be done.

The results and conclusions

Depending on whether you followed a qualitative or quantitative methodology, your results section can get tricky. In any research paper, there are results that expected and then there are results that you did not expect.

You will also have results that are irrelevant and it can become difficult to sift through everything and present the results that actually matter.

Qualitative researchers spend quite some time in writing up their results as they have to go through hours of notes, interviews observations and code their results into something where patterns in the data forms.

Quantitative researchers have some powerful software that can crunch the numbers for them and they only need to select the relevant info.

From here, you will have to apply some abstract thinking to write up your findings and conclusions. This is a very exciting part of the research paper as you finally have a chance to pen down your own discoveries.

Technical aspects

Novice researchers often fall into the trap to leave the technical care of their research papers for the end of the product. The problem is that seeing that a research project can span many years, it can become difficult to track down all the sources that you used throughout the journey.

The best practice is to keep the technical side of things on par as you continue with your research. You will save yourself many hours of work once your paper is finished. You will thank yourself later when the deadlines draw near for submitting your papers.

Conclusion

If you are an aspiring researcher, then you have some interesting times ahead of you. Writing a research paper is difficult, but it is also one of the more satisfying accomplishments that you will ever reach. To know that you have written something, or discovered something that no other person has, is extremely satisfying.

There might be times when you doubt your abilities, or even your sanity, but if you push through the tough times, you will be rewarded with something that no one will ever be able to take away from you.

Author Bio:

Ray Campbell is an academic writing expert helping students to develop their skills to master the art of writing. His coaching has helped many students realize their dreams of becoming professional writers and blogger and even improve their college grades because of high-quality assignments. In his free time, he practices yoga, meditates, reads fiction books and learns new languages.