writing a research paper for graduate school

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

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Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

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How to Write Excellent Graduate-Level Papers

“How to Write Excellent Graduate-Level Papers” brought to you by the Student Academic Success Center (SASC) at UNE.

Becoming a better writer – the process

Breaking a writing project down into phases helps with motivation as well as managing your time and workload effectively. The phases of the process – prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing – are described below. Each step allows you to focus your energy in a particular way, with it all adding up to a more thoughtful, clear piece of writing.

The phases don’t have to be done in a set, linear order, if that’s not effective for you. If you like to write some rough draft paragraphs first, then go back and do a post-draft outline or revise those paragraphs before continuing, that’s fine. The key is to make sure each part of the process is done thoroughly before you consider your paper finished.

Let’s start with using prewriting to get the process rolling:

Using various prewriting strategies can help you avoid procrastinating and start a draft on the right track. You aren’t under pressure to develop a paper yet – this is about unlocking the flow of ideas. Play around with some of these strategies to find ones that work best for you:

• Tap into your curiosity

When you’re faced with an assignment, spend some time simply wondering about the topic. What intrigues you? Why should you and others in your profession care about it? Come up with a couple of relevant questions that you want to explore. Then consider which questions are most meaningful to you personally and professionally—and why? This can be done on paper, in conversation with someone else, or internally.

• Relate the assignment to your profession

Think about why the assignment is important to your field of study and work as a health professional, a social worker, an educator, etc. Making your assignment as personally and professionally relevant as possible helps with generating the motivation to start writing and keeping the momentum through the process. View this as an opportunity to learn useful information.

• Use the assignment itself as an outline

Copy the assignment and paste it into a new document. Break it apart visually by adding line spaces and/or tabs. This will help you more easily identify key concepts which need to be explained and verbs that indicate critical thinking is required (e.g., analyze, compare, evaluate). Create a rough outline using parts of the assignment as headings for different sections of the paper.

Similarly, you could annotate the assignment by marking up the key words and concepts and making little notes in the margins about what to add or how sections or ideas might tie together.

• Leverage what you already know, and then research with a purpose

Another very helpful strategy is to identify key concepts in the assignment description, then brainstorm what you already know about them based on the class readings or videos. Next, make a list of questions you still have about the concepts and overall topic. These will help drive the additional research needed to fill in your gaps of knowledge and locate credible evidence to support your explanations.

Having those questions makes researching more efficient because you have a purpose for reading: you’re looking for pieces of information rather than simply reading articles.

Read more: Faculty Spotlight: Lori Rand, Writing Specialist at SASC

The drafting phase involves determining your focus and starting to develop paragraph ideas within a structure. Keep a copy of the assignment on your draft as you write. Clarify the point of your paper – what is the main question that the assignment asking you to answer?

Think of a draft as packaging ideas into paragraphs that all relate to the paper’s main focus, as summed up in the thesis statement. For clarity, try to keep each paragraph focused on one idea at a time. However, because this phase is about getting thoughts down, and thoughts often jump around, drafting tends to be messy. That’s okay! The next step, revision, is where you really improve the writing.

In this phase, you can work on improving how you are guiding your reader through your thinking. Your reader will understand your ideas more easily if they are clearly focused, well-developed with specific evidence (correctly cited), and nicely organized.

Two strategies to guide you through revision include SASC’s Revision Checklist and Post-draft Outline, found here under Writing Resources. A writing appointment is also a great way to learn about and practice revision skills.

Editing is the final, polishing phase; it involves correcting sentence-level issues and technical aspects, such as word choice and grammar. Readers pick up these issues quickly because they can be the most obvious. Carelessness with grammar or word choice can lead to misunderstandings and make your writing seem unprofessional.

Trust the process

As mentioned earlier, the writing process is not necessarily a linear, step-by-step approach; it’s recursive, so it’s highly likely you’ll move back and forth between phases as you figure out your focus and organization of ideas.

Using this process gets easier with practice, and it works well in any writing situations, not just for graduate school assignments and scholarly papers.

Once you develop the most efficient method for your learning style, not only will you get faster, you will produce better academic papers.

Book an appointment

The SASC can help with all phases of the writing process via an Online Writing Support Appointment.  Visit the Online Student page for more details about writing support and resources.

For more online education insider tips and guides, subscribe today!

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APA Writing Guide: Formatting for Graduate Students

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Writing Center

The Liberty University Writing Center is available to provide writing coaching to students. Residential students should contact the  On-Campus Writing Center  for assistance. Online students should contact the  Online Writing Center  for assistance.

General Rules

Liberty University has determined that graduate students will use APA 7’s formatting guidelines for professional papers. To assist you, Liberty University's Writing Center provides a template paper and a  sample paper .

For professional papers, the following four sections are required: 

• Title Page with Running Head
• Abstract with Keywords
• Reference List

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you format your paper:

• Fonts  - LU recommends that papers be typed in 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Calibri fonts.  
• Use only one space at the end of each sentence in the body of your paper.
• In general, APA papers should be double spaced throughout. A list of exceptions can be found here.
• To make sure that your paper is double spaced throughout,  select the text ,  right click , select ' Paragraph ,' and look under the section ' Line Spacing ' as shown below:

• Margins/Alignment  - Your paper should use 1-inch margins on standard-sized paper (8.5' X 11'). Make sure that you use  Align Left  (CTRL + L) on the paper, except for the title page.  
•   Indentation – The first sentence in each new paragraph in the body of the paper should be indented a half inch. The abstract, however, should not be indented. References use hanging indentation .  
• Headings:   Please note that all headings are in title case. Level 1 headings should be centered (and in bold), and Level 2 and 3 headings should be left-aligned (and in bold or bold italic, respectively). Level 4 and 5 headings are indented like regular paragraphs. An example of formatting headings in a paper is available here

Title Page: When setting up the professional title page, please note the following elements should be present on the page:

• There is no limit to the number of words in the title.
• Add an extra blank double-spaced line between the title and author’s name.
• Name of each author (centered)
• Name of department and institution/affiliation (centered)
• Place the author note in the bottom half of the title page. Center and bold the label “Author Note.” Align the paragraphs of the author note to the left. For an example, see the LU Writing Center template for graduate students here .
• Page number in top right corner of the header, starting with page 1 on the title page
• The running head is an abbreviated version of the title of your paper (or the full title if the title is already short).
• Type the running head in all-capital letters.
• Ensure the running head is no more than 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
• The running head appears in the same format on every page, including the first page.
• Do not use the label “Running head:” before the running head.
• Align the running head to the left margin of the page header, across from the right-aligned page number.

Abstract Page: The abstract page includes the abstract and related keywords.

The abstract is a brief but comprehensive summary of your paper. Here are guidelines for formatting the abstract:

• It should be the second page of a professional (graduate level) paper.
• The first line should say “Abstract” centered and in bold.
• The abstract should start one line below the section label.
• It should be a single paragraph and should not be indented.
• It should not exceed 250 words.

Keywords are used for indexing in databases and as search terms. Your keywords should capture the most important aspects of your paper in three to five words, phrases, or acronyms. Here are formatting guidelines:

• Label “ Keywords ” one line below the abstract, indented and in italics (not bolded).
• The keywords should be written on the same line as and one space after the label “ Keywords ”.
• The keywords should be lowercase (but capitalize proper nouns) and not italic or bold.
• Each keyword should be separated by a comma and a space and followed by a colon.
• There should be no ending punctuation.
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• Last Updated: Aug 29, 2023 11:29 AM
• URL: https://libguides.liberty.edu/APAguide

• Communication
• Graduate Level Writing Tips

Graduate-Level Writing Tips: Definitions, Do’s and Don’ts

Debra Davenport, PhD

In your communication master’s program, you will be expected to demonstrate well-honed writing skills in your essays. Your courses will require proficiency in real-world business communications, as well as scholarly writing and the use of APA formatting.

Real-world written business communications may include:

• Executive summaries
• News releases
• Media advisories
• Company fact sheets
• Business reports

Academic papers are those you will write in your courses that:

• Review and discuss the scholarly literature
• Synthesize theories, models and course readings
• Present critical analysis, research and scholarly insight in an objective manner
• Are formatted according to APA standards
• Are written in the scholarly voice

What Is the Scholarly Voice?

Essentially, the scholarly voice is unbiased, high-level and evidence-based writing that reflects the epitome of good grammar, syntax and tone. Follow the do’s and don’ts below to excel at this format in your graduate school essays.

Scholarly Resources:

• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/683/1/
• http://blog.apastyle.org/
• http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/scholarlyvoice
• http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/scholarlyvoice/tone

The “Do’s” of Scholarly Writing

1. Use proper syntax. Syntax is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.” Syntax is an important aspect of writing that helps to ensure clarity. Incorrect syntax often results in sentences and paragraphs that do not make sense, and this can pose serious perceptual issues for professional communicators. See this article for a number of examples.

2. Follow the rules of punctuation. Common errors include incorrect placement of quotation marks and erroneous use of the semicolon. As an example, note that quotation marks follow periods and commas, (“The sky is blue.”)

3. Include references, citations and /or footnotes, no matter what kind of document you’re writing. Taking the time to locate sources that substantiate your statements demonstrate your proficiency as a scholar-practitioner and your commitment to excellence. Citations are required in your academic papers, but clients also appreciate this attention to detail. When pitching a project or campaign, the inclusion of reputable sources will support your recommendations and boost your own credibility.

4. Proofread and edit your work. Many errors are missed during the first proofread; be prepared to review your work multiple times.

The “Don’ts” in Scholarly Writing

1. Don’t write in the second person narrative. The second person voice is typically used in articles like this one, where the writer is intending to inform and instruct. According to WritingCommons.org , “writing from the second person point of view can weaken the effectiveness of the writing in research and argument papers. Using second person can make the work sound as if the writer is giving directions or offering advice to his or her readers, rather than informing [them].”

Here is a comparison of second and third person perspectives from WritingCommons.org:

• Weak: You should read the statistics about the number of suicides that happen to your average victim of bullying! (2nd person)
• Stronger: The statistics from a variety of research reports indicate that the suicide rate is high among victims of bullying; they are under so much psychological pressure that they may resort to taking their own lives. (3rd person)

2. Don’t rely on software to correct your writing. Certainly, tools such as spell check, grammar check and grammarly have some benefit, but they cannot replace firsthand knowledge and mastery of proper writing. I recall one particular paper I received several years ago that was, quite literally, gibberish. When I inquired about the content of the student’s paper, she replied, “Well, I used grammar check!”

Don’t hesitate to seek writing coaching if you have questions or concerns about any aspect of good writing. As graduate students in a masters-level communication program, writing excellence should be a top priority.

By taking an informed and proactive approach to your writing, you will strengthen your academic performance, hone your professional and communication skills and enhance your career.

Dr. Debra Davenport is an online faculty member for Purdue’s online Master of Science in Communication degree program. The program can be completed in just 20 months and covers numerous topics critical for advancement in the communication industry, including crisis communication, social media engagement, focus group planning and implementation, survey design and survey analysis, public relations theory, professional writing, and communication ethics.

Find out more about what you can do with a MS in Communication from Purdue University. Call us today at 877-497-5851 to speak to an admissions advisor, or request more information .

*The views and opinions expressed are of the author and do not represent the Brian Lamb School of Communication.

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Tips for Grads: The right way to write

By Olivia Gacka, PhD Student

Writing is unavoidable in graduate school (it feels ironic to be conveying this to y’all through writing). Whether it’s a research paper, personal/purpose statement, funding proposal, or even an email, we’re not going to be getting away from it anytime soon! Some of us take to it naturally, some people only feel confident in a certain style of writing, and some people just don’t enjoy it, or can never seem to make themselves sit down and start. Here are some things to keep in mind, whether you love or hate writing:

• Figure out your ideal conditions. Everyone has their own specific conditions that make writing easier for them, and those conditions don’t necessarily have to mirror studying conditions. For example, I cannot study with any noise around, and yet somehow, I’ve figured out that I write best when surrounded by people. Things like environment, time of day, or the tools you use to write all factor in. I’ve known more than one person who figured out that they write components of research papers best by hand.
• Leverage the Writing Center. This is what they’re here for! Whether you are looking for just one or two sessions with an instructor , want a continuous relationship with someone who will get to know your writing over time , or want to peruse their online resources yourself, they are an incredible asset. Their workshops are especially great because they range from brushing up on the fundamentals to how to write a cover letter or apply for funding. They also offer opportunities for writing accountability and support .
• Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes it happen. Sometimes, just learning to sit down and start writing is the hardest part. And trying to force it can feel like a chore if you don’t start small. Integrating writing as a matter of course in my day came, for me, when I learned to separate the action from the content. Basically, I had to learn to stop judging myself based on the quality of what I wrote or what I wrote about and start to acknowledge the victory of writing at all. Some folks really benefit from having “writing time” marked in their schedule. I personally found my stride when I started journaling whenever I had a quiet moment in the day, which snowballed into writing just a sentence or two of a paper, and onward. Consider participating in something like the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity’s 14 Day Writing Challenge to help you get in the habit, or to force yourself to schedule the time to write.

Tips for Grads is a professional and academic advice column written by graduate students for graduate students at UW­–Madison. It is published in the student newsletter, GradConnections Weekly.

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Graduate Writing Center

Standard paper structure - graduate writing center.

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Standard Paper Structure

• Introductions, Thesis Statements, and Roadmaps
• Body Paragraphs and Topic Sentences
• Literature Reviews
• Conclusions
• Executive Summaries and Abstracts
• Punctuation
• Style: Clarity and Concision
• Writing Process
• Writing a Thesis
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Most academic papers take a standard form:

• They begin with an introduction that frames the paper’s project and significance and encapsulates its findings in a thesis statement .
• The body of the paper comes next, providing background and context before delivering analysis and evidence for the main claim.
• Papers end with a conclusion , which echoes the introduction, emphasizes the implications of the work, and may make recommendations based on the findings.

Sometimes, essays include a counterargument. This may take the form of a section near the end of the paper in which the writer acknowledges and responds to alternative positions from the literature or anticipated critique from a critical or skeptical reader. The counterargument is often signaled by a phrase like “Some scholars have claimed” or “Critics of this position might argue.” Describe the counterargument charitably and accurately, then answer it with a rebuttal using clear evidence.

Longer, more complex research documents are often broken into subsections, which may be demarcated by section headings. In theses , the document will be divided into chapters. However, the general flow of even a lengthy research document still follows the sequence of first framing the project in the introduction, then providing relevant background or context, delivering analysis and evidence, and finally identifying conclusions and recommendations.

Some research write-ups will need to also include discussions of the methodology used to shape the research or conduct experiments. A literature review should be included in most theses, sometimes as a part of the introduction and in other cases as an early chapter.

Paper Structure Links

• GWC video (6:11): " What's Different about Academic Writing? "
• Handout (printable): " P atterns of Organization ," Monterey Peninsula College
• Webpage (printable): " Structure of a Scientific Paper ," Kenyon College
• Webpage (printable): " Essay Structure ," Harvard
• Video (5:33): " Components of a Research Paper ," Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching
• GWC workshop video (52:06): " Organization: The Secret to Clear Writing "
• GWC workshop video (48:36): " Building Blocks for Academic Papers "

Writing Topics A–Z

This index makes findings topics easy and links to the most relevant page for each item. Please email us at [email protected] if we're missing something!

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J   K   L    M    N    O    P    Q   R    S    T    U    V    W   X  Y   Z

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="writing a research paper for graduate school"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Guide to writing your thesis/dissertation, definition of dissertation and thesis.

The dissertation or thesis is a scholarly treatise that substantiates a specific point of view as a result of original research that is conducted by students during their graduate study. At Cornell, the thesis is a requirement for the receipt of the M.A. and M.S. degrees and some professional master’s degrees. The dissertation is a requirement of the Ph.D. degree.

Formatting Requirement and Standards

The Graduate School sets the minimum format for your thesis or dissertation, while you, your special committee, and your advisor/chair decide upon the content and length. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other mechanical issues are your sole responsibility. Generally, the thesis and dissertation should conform to the standards of leading academic journals in your field. The Graduate School does not monitor the thesis or dissertation for mechanics, content, or style.

“Papers Option” Dissertation or Thesis

A “papers option” is available only to students in certain fields, which are listed on the Fields Permitting the Use of Papers Option page , or by approved petition. If you choose the papers option, your dissertation or thesis is organized as a series of relatively independent chapters or papers that you have submitted or will be submitting to journals in the field. You must be the only author or the first author of the papers to be used in the dissertation. The papers-option dissertation or thesis must meet all format and submission requirements, and a singular referencing convention must be used throughout.

ProQuest Electronic Submissions

The dissertation and thesis become permanent records of your original research, and in the case of doctoral research, the Graduate School requires publication of the dissertation and abstract in its original form. All Cornell master’s theses and doctoral dissertations require an electronic submission through ProQuest, which fills orders for paper or digital copies of the thesis and dissertation and makes a digital version available online via their subscription database, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses . For master’s theses, only the abstract is available. ProQuest provides worldwide distribution of your work from the master copy. You retain control over your dissertation and are free to grant publishing rights as you see fit. The formatting requirements contained in this guide meet all ProQuest specifications.

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Focus: Education — Career Advice

How to write your first research paper.

Writing a research manuscript is an intimidating process for many novice writers in the sciences. One of the stumbling blocks is the beginning of the process and creating the first draft. This paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript. The paper discusses seven rules that allow the writer to prepare a well-structured and comprehensive manuscript for a publication submission. In addition, the author lists different strategies for successful revision. Each of those strategies represents a step in the revision process and should help the writer improve the quality of the manuscript. The paper could be considered a brief manual for publication.

It is late at night. You have been struggling with your project for a year. You generated an enormous amount of interesting data. Your pipette feels like an extension of your hand, and running western blots has become part of your daily routine, similar to brushing your teeth. Your colleagues think you are ready to write a paper, and your lab mates tease you about your “slow” writing progress. Yet days pass, and you cannot force yourself to sit down to write. You have not written anything for a while (lab reports do not count), and you feel you have lost your stamina. How does the writing process work? How can you fit your writing into a daily schedule packed with experiments? What section should you start with? What distinguishes a good research paper from a bad one? How should you revise your paper? These and many other questions buzz in your head and keep you stressed. As a result, you procrastinate. In this paper, I will discuss the issues related to the writing process of a scientific paper. Specifically, I will focus on the best approaches to start a scientific paper, tips for writing each section, and the best revision strategies.

1. Schedule your writing time in Outlook

Whether you have written 100 papers or you are struggling with your first, starting the process is the most difficult part unless you have a rigid writing schedule. Writing is hard. It is a very difficult process of intense concentration and brain work. As stated in Hayes’ framework for the study of writing: “It is a generative activity requiring motivation, and it is an intellectual activity requiring cognitive processes and memory” [ 1 ]. In his book How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing , Paul Silvia says that for some, “it’s easier to embalm the dead than to write an article about it” [ 2 ]. Just as with any type of hard work, you will not succeed unless you practice regularly. If you have not done physical exercises for a year, only regular workouts can get you into good shape again. The same kind of regular exercises, or I call them “writing sessions,” are required to be a productive author. Choose from 1- to 2-hour blocks in your daily work schedule and consider them as non-cancellable appointments. When figuring out which blocks of time will be set for writing, you should select the time that works best for this type of work. For many people, mornings are more productive. One Yale University graduate student spent a semester writing from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. when her lab was empty. At the end of the semester, she was amazed at how much she accomplished without even interrupting her regular lab hours. In addition, doing the hardest task first thing in the morning contributes to the sense of accomplishment during the rest of the day. This positive feeling spills over into our work and life and has a very positive effect on our overall attitude.

Rule 1: Create regular time blocks for writing as appointments in your calendar and keep these appointments.

2. start with an outline.

Now that you have scheduled time, you need to decide how to start writing. The best strategy is to start with an outline. This will not be an outline that you are used to, with Roman numerals for each section and neat parallel listing of topic sentences and supporting points. This outline will be similar to a template for your paper. Initially, the outline will form a structure for your paper; it will help generate ideas and formulate hypotheses. Following the advice of George M. Whitesides, “. . . start with a blank piece of paper, and write down, in any order, all important ideas that occur to you concerning the paper” [ 3 ]. Use Table 1 as a starting point for your outline. Include your visuals (figures, tables, formulas, equations, and algorithms), and list your findings. These will constitute the first level of your outline, which will eventually expand as you elaborate.

The next stage is to add context and structure. Here you will group all your ideas into sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion ( Table 2 ). This step will help add coherence to your work and sift your ideas.

Now that you have expanded your outline, you are ready for the next step: discussing the ideas for your paper with your colleagues and mentor. Many universities have a writing center where graduate students can schedule individual consultations and receive assistance with their paper drafts. Getting feedback during early stages of your draft can save a lot of time. Talking through ideas allows people to conceptualize and organize thoughts to find their direction without wasting time on unnecessary writing. Outlining is the most effective way of communicating your ideas and exchanging thoughts. Moreover, it is also the best stage to decide to which publication you will submit the paper. Many people come up with three choices and discuss them with their mentors and colleagues. Having a list of journal priorities can help you quickly resubmit your paper if your paper is rejected.

Rule 2: Create a detailed outline and discuss it with your mentor and peers.

3. continue with drafts.

After you get enough feedback and decide on the journal you will submit to, the process of real writing begins. Copy your outline into a separate file and expand on each of the points, adding data and elaborating on the details. When you create the first draft, do not succumb to the temptation of editing. Do not slow down to choose a better word or better phrase; do not halt to improve your sentence structure. Pour your ideas into the paper and leave revision and editing for later. As Paul Silvia explains, “Revising while you generate text is like drinking decaffeinated coffee in the early morning: noble idea, wrong time” [ 2 ].

Many students complain that they are not productive writers because they experience writer’s block. Staring at an empty screen is frustrating, but your screen is not really empty: You have a template of your article, and all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Indeed, writer’s block is a logical fallacy for a scientist ― it is just an excuse to procrastinate. When scientists start writing a research paper, they already have their files with data, lab notes with materials and experimental designs, some visuals, and tables with results. All they need to do is scrutinize these pieces and put them together into a comprehensive paper.

3.1. Starting with Materials and Methods

If you still struggle with starting a paper, then write the Materials and Methods section first. Since you have all your notes, it should not be problematic for you to describe the experimental design and procedures. Your most important goal in this section is to be as explicit as possible by providing enough detail and references. In the end, the purpose of this section is to allow other researchers to evaluate and repeat your work. So do not run into the same problems as the writers of the sentences in (1):

1a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation. 1b. To isolate T cells, lymph nodes were collected.

As you can see, crucial pieces of information are missing: the speed of centrifuging your bacteria, the time, and the temperature in (1a); the source of lymph nodes for collection in (b). The sentences can be improved when information is added, as in (2a) and (2b), respectfully:

2a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000g for 15 min at 25°C. 2b. To isolate T cells, mediastinal and mesenteric lymph nodes from Balb/c mice were collected at day 7 after immunization with ovabumin.

If your method has previously been published and is well-known, then you should provide only the literature reference, as in (3a). If your method is unpublished, then you need to make sure you provide all essential details, as in (3b).

3a. Stem cells were isolated, according to Johnson [23]. 3b. Stem cells were isolated using biotinylated carbon nanotubes coated with anti-CD34 antibodies.

Furthermore, cohesion and fluency are crucial in this section. One of the malpractices resulting in disrupted fluency is switching from passive voice to active and vice versa within the same paragraph, as shown in (4). This switching misleads and distracts the reader.

4. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness [ 4 ].

The problem with (4) is that the reader has to switch from the point of view of the experiment (passive voice) to the point of view of the experimenter (active voice). This switch causes confusion about the performer of the actions in the first and the third sentences. To improve the coherence and fluency of the paragraph above, you should be consistent in choosing the point of view: first person “we” or passive voice [ 5 ]. Let’s consider two revised examples in (5).

5a. We programmed behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods) as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music. We operationalized the preferred and unpreferred status of the music along a continuum of pleasantness. 5b. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. Ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal were taken as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness.

If you choose the point of view of the experimenter, then you may end up with repetitive “we did this” sentences. For many readers, paragraphs with sentences all beginning with “we” may also sound disruptive. So if you choose active sentences, you need to keep the number of “we” subjects to a minimum and vary the beginnings of the sentences [ 6 ].

Interestingly, recent studies have reported that the Materials and Methods section is the only section in research papers in which passive voice predominantly overrides the use of the active voice [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For example, Martínez shows a significant drop in active voice use in the Methods sections based on the corpus of 1 million words of experimental full text research articles in the biological sciences [ 7 ]. According to the author, the active voice patterned with “we” is used only as a tool to reveal personal responsibility for the procedural decisions in designing and performing experimental work. This means that while all other sections of the research paper use active voice, passive voice is still the most predominant in Materials and Methods sections.

Writing Materials and Methods sections is a meticulous and time consuming task requiring extreme accuracy and clarity. This is why when you complete your draft, you should ask for as much feedback from your colleagues as possible. Numerous readers of this section will help you identify the missing links and improve the technical style of this section.

Rule 3: Be meticulous and accurate in describing the Materials and Methods. Do not change the point of view within one paragraph.

3.2. writing results section.

For many authors, writing the Results section is more intimidating than writing the Materials and Methods section . If people are interested in your paper, they are interested in your results. That is why it is vital to use all your writing skills to objectively present your key findings in an orderly and logical sequence using illustrative materials and text.

Your Results should be organized into different segments or subsections where each one presents the purpose of the experiment, your experimental approach, data including text and visuals (tables, figures, schematics, algorithms, and formulas), and data commentary. For most journals, your data commentary will include a meaningful summary of the data presented in the visuals and an explanation of the most significant findings. This data presentation should not repeat the data in the visuals, but rather highlight the most important points. In the “standard” research paper approach, your Results section should exclude data interpretation, leaving it for the Discussion section. However, interpretations gradually and secretly creep into research papers: “Reducing the data, generalizing from the data, and highlighting scientific cases are all highly interpretive processes. It should be clear by now that we do not let the data speak for themselves in research reports; in summarizing our results, we interpret them for the reader” [ 10 ]. As a result, many journals including the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Investigation use joint Results/Discussion sections, where results are immediately followed by interpretations.

Another important aspect of this section is to create a comprehensive and supported argument or a well-researched case. This means that you should be selective in presenting data and choose only those experimental details that are essential for your reader to understand your findings. You might have conducted an experiment 20 times and collected numerous records, but this does not mean that you should present all those records in your paper. You need to distinguish your results from your data and be able to discard excessive experimental details that could distract and confuse the reader. However, creating a picture or an argument should not be confused with data manipulation or falsification, which is a willful distortion of data and results. If some of your findings contradict your ideas, you have to mention this and find a plausible explanation for the contradiction.

In addition, your text should not include irrelevant and peripheral information, including overview sentences, as in (6).

6. To show our results, we first introduce all components of experimental system and then describe the outcome of infections.

Indeed, wordiness convolutes your sentences and conceals your ideas from readers. One common source of wordiness is unnecessary intensifiers. Adverbial intensifiers such as “clearly,” “essential,” “quite,” “basically,” “rather,” “fairly,” “really,” and “virtually” not only add verbosity to your sentences, but also lower your results’ credibility. They appeal to the reader’s emotions but lower objectivity, as in the common examples in (7):

7a. Table 3 clearly shows that … 7b. It is obvious from figure 4 that …

Another source of wordiness is nominalizations, i.e., nouns derived from verbs and adjectives paired with weak verbs including “be,” “have,” “do,” “make,” “cause,” “provide,” and “get” and constructions such as “there is/are.”

8a. We tested the hypothesis that there is a disruption of membrane asymmetry. 8b. In this paper we provide an argument that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

In the sentences above, the abstract nominalizations “disruption” and “argument” do not contribute to the clarity of the sentences, but rather clutter them with useless vocabulary that distracts from the meaning. To improve your sentences, avoid unnecessary nominalizations and change passive verbs and constructions into active and direct sentences.

9a. We tested the hypothesis that the membrane asymmetry is disrupted. 9b. In this paper we argue that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

Your Results section is the heart of your paper, representing a year or more of your daily research. So lead your reader through your story by writing direct, concise, and clear sentences.

Rule 4: Be clear, concise, and objective in describing your Results.

3.3. now it is time for your introduction.

Now that you are almost half through drafting your research paper, it is time to update your outline. While describing your Methods and Results, many of you diverged from the original outline and re-focused your ideas. So before you move on to create your Introduction, re-read your Methods and Results sections and change your outline to match your research focus. The updated outline will help you review the general picture of your paper, the topic, the main idea, and the purpose, which are all important for writing your introduction.

The best way to structure your introduction is to follow the three-move approach shown in Table 3 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak [ 11 ].

The moves and information from your outline can help to create your Introduction efficiently and without missing steps. These moves are traffic signs that lead the reader through the road of your ideas. Each move plays an important role in your paper and should be presented with deep thought and care. When you establish the territory, you place your research in context and highlight the importance of your research topic. By finding the niche, you outline the scope of your research problem and enter the scientific dialogue. The final move, “occupying the niche,” is where you explain your research in a nutshell and highlight your paper’s significance. The three moves allow your readers to evaluate their interest in your paper and play a significant role in the paper review process, determining your paper reviewers.

Some academic writers assume that the reader “should follow the paper” to find the answers about your methodology and your findings. As a result, many novice writers do not present their experimental approach and the major findings, wrongly believing that the reader will locate the necessary information later while reading the subsequent sections [ 5 ]. However, this “suspense” approach is not appropriate for scientific writing. To interest the reader, scientific authors should be direct and straightforward and present informative one-sentence summaries of the results and the approach.

Another problem is that writers understate the significance of the Introduction. Many new researchers mistakenly think that all their readers understand the importance of the research question and omit this part. However, this assumption is faulty because the purpose of the section is not to evaluate the importance of the research question in general. The goal is to present the importance of your research contribution and your findings. Therefore, you should be explicit and clear in describing the benefit of the paper.

The Introduction should not be long. Indeed, for most journals, this is a very brief section of about 250 to 600 words, but it might be the most difficult section due to its importance.

Rule 5: Interest your reader in the Introduction section by signalling all its elements and stating the novelty of the work.

3.4. discussion of the results.

For many scientists, writing a Discussion section is as scary as starting a paper. Most of the fear comes from the variation in the section. Since every paper has its unique results and findings, the Discussion section differs in its length, shape, and structure. However, some general principles of writing this section still exist. Knowing these rules, or “moves,” can change your attitude about this section and help you create a comprehensive interpretation of your results.

The purpose of the Discussion section is to place your findings in the research context and “to explain the meaning of the findings and why they are important, without appearing arrogant, condescending, or patronizing” [ 11 ]. The structure of the first two moves is almost a mirror reflection of the one in the Introduction. In the Introduction, you zoom in from general to specific and from the background to your research question; in the Discussion section, you zoom out from the summary of your findings to the research context, as shown in Table 4 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak and Hess [ 11 , 12 ].

The biggest challenge for many writers is the opening paragraph of the Discussion section. Following the moves in Table 1 , the best choice is to start with the study’s major findings that provide the answer to the research question in your Introduction. The most common starting phrases are “Our findings demonstrate . . .,” or “In this study, we have shown that . . .,” or “Our results suggest . . .” In some cases, however, reminding the reader about the research question or even providing a brief context and then stating the answer would make more sense. This is important in those cases where the researcher presents a number of findings or where more than one research question was presented. Your summary of the study’s major findings should be followed by your presentation of the importance of these findings. One of the most frequent mistakes of the novice writer is to assume the importance of his findings. Even if the importance is clear to you, it may not be obvious to your reader. Digesting the findings and their importance to your reader is as crucial as stating your research question.

Another useful strategy is to be proactive in the first move by predicting and commenting on the alternative explanations of the results. Addressing potential doubts will save you from painful comments about the wrong interpretation of your results and will present you as a thoughtful and considerate researcher. Moreover, the evaluation of the alternative explanations might help you create a logical step to the next move of the discussion section: the research context.

The goal of the research context move is to show how your findings fit into the general picture of the current research and how you contribute to the existing knowledge on the topic. This is also the place to discuss any discrepancies and unexpected findings that may otherwise distort the general picture of your paper. Moreover, outlining the scope of your research by showing the limitations, weaknesses, and assumptions is essential and adds modesty to your image as a scientist. However, make sure that you do not end your paper with the problems that override your findings. Try to suggest feasible explanations and solutions.

If your submission does not require a separate Conclusion section, then adding another paragraph about the “take-home message” is a must. This should be a general statement reiterating your answer to the research question and adding its scientific implications, practical application, or advice.

Just as in all other sections of your paper, the clear and precise language and concise comprehensive sentences are vital. However, in addition to that, your writing should convey confidence and authority. The easiest way to illustrate your tone is to use the active voice and the first person pronouns. Accompanied by clarity and succinctness, these tools are the best to convince your readers of your point and your ideas.

Rule 6: Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations in a concise and convincing tone.

4. choosing the best working revision strategies.

Now that you have created the first draft, your attitude toward your writing should have improved. Moreover, you should feel more confident that you are able to accomplish your project and submit your paper within a reasonable timeframe. You also have worked out your writing schedule and followed it precisely. Do not stop ― you are only at the midpoint from your destination. Just as the best and most precious diamond is no more than an unattractive stone recognized only by trained professionals, your ideas and your results may go unnoticed if they are not polished and brushed. Despite your attempts to present your ideas in a logical and comprehensive way, first drafts are frequently a mess. Use the advice of Paul Silvia: “Your first drafts should sound like they were hastily translated from Icelandic by a non-native speaker” [ 2 ]. The degree of your success will depend on how you are able to revise and edit your paper.

The revision can be done at the macrostructure and the microstructure levels [ 13 ]. The macrostructure revision includes the revision of the organization, content, and flow. The microstructure level includes individual words, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The best way to approach the macrostructure revision is through the outline of the ideas in your paper. The last time you updated your outline was before writing the Introduction and the Discussion. Now that you have the beginning and the conclusion, you can take a bird’s-eye view of the whole paper. The outline will allow you to see if the ideas of your paper are coherently structured, if your results are logically built, and if the discussion is linked to the research question in the Introduction. You will be able to see if something is missing in any of the sections or if you need to rearrange your information to make your point.

The next step is to revise each of the sections starting from the beginning. Ideally, you should limit yourself to working on small sections of about five pages at a time [ 14 ]. After these short sections, your eyes get used to your writing and your efficiency in spotting problems decreases. When reading for content and organization, you should control your urge to edit your paper for sentence structure and grammar and focus only on the flow of your ideas and logic of your presentation. Experienced researchers tend to make almost three times the number of changes to meaning than novice writers [ 15 , 16 ]. Revising is a difficult but useful skill, which academic writers obtain with years of practice.

In contrast to the macrostructure revision, which is a linear process and is done usually through a detailed outline and by sections, microstructure revision is a non-linear process. While the goal of the macrostructure revision is to analyze your ideas and their logic, the goal of the microstructure editing is to scrutinize the form of your ideas: your paragraphs, sentences, and words. You do not need and are not recommended to follow the order of the paper to perform this type of revision. You can start from the end or from different sections. You can even revise by reading sentences backward, sentence by sentence and word by word.

One of the microstructure revision strategies frequently used during writing center consultations is to read the paper aloud [ 17 ]. You may read aloud to yourself, to a tape recorder, or to a colleague or friend. When reading and listening to your paper, you are more likely to notice the places where the fluency is disrupted and where you stumble because of a very long and unclear sentence or a wrong connector.

Another revision strategy is to learn your common errors and to do a targeted search for them [ 13 ]. All writers have a set of problems that are specific to them, i.e., their writing idiosyncrasies. Remembering these problems is as important for an academic writer as remembering your friends’ birthdays. Create a list of these idiosyncrasies and run a search for these problems using your word processor. If your problem is demonstrative pronouns without summary words, then search for “this/these/those” in your text and check if you used the word appropriately. If you have a problem with intensifiers, then search for “really” or “very” and delete them from the text. The same targeted search can be done to eliminate wordiness. Searching for “there is/are” or “and” can help you avoid the bulky sentences.

The final strategy is working with a hard copy and a pencil. Print a double space copy with font size 14 and re-read your paper in several steps. Try reading your paper line by line with the rest of the text covered with a piece of paper. When you are forced to see only a small portion of your writing, you are less likely to get distracted and are more likely to notice problems. You will end up spotting more unnecessary words, wrongly worded phrases, or unparallel constructions.

After you apply all these strategies, you are ready to share your writing with your friends, colleagues, and a writing advisor in the writing center. Get as much feedback as you can, especially from non-specialists in your field. Patiently listen to what others say to you ― you are not expected to defend your writing or explain what you wanted to say. You may decide what you want to change and how after you receive the feedback and sort it in your head. Even though some researchers make the revision an endless process and can hardly stop after a 14th draft; having from five to seven drafts of your paper is a norm in the sciences. If you can’t stop revising, then set a deadline for yourself and stick to it. Deadlines always help.

Rule 7: Revise your paper at the macrostructure and the microstructure level using different strategies and techniques. Receive feedback and revise again.

5. it is time to submit.

It is late at night again. You are still in your lab finishing revisions and getting ready to submit your paper. You feel happy ― you have finally finished a year’s worth of work. You will submit your paper tomorrow, and regardless of the outcome, you know that you can do it. If one journal does not take your paper, you will take advantage of the feedback and resubmit again. You will have a publication, and this is the most important achievement.

What is even more important is that you have your scheduled writing time that you are going to keep for your future publications, for reading and taking notes, for writing grants, and for reviewing papers. You are not going to lose stamina this time, and you will become a productive scientist. But for now, let’s celebrate the end of the paper.

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Writing a Research Paper

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The Research Paper

There will come a time in most students' careers when they are assigned a research paper. Such an assignment often creates a great deal of unneeded anxiety in the student, which may result in procrastination and a feeling of confusion and inadequacy. This anxiety frequently stems from the fact that many students are unfamiliar and inexperienced with this genre of writing. Never fear—inexperience and unfamiliarity are situations you can change through practice! Writing a research paper is an essential aspect of academics and should not be avoided on account of one's anxiety. In fact, the process of writing a research paper can be one of the more rewarding experiences one may encounter in academics. What is more, many students will continue to do research throughout their careers, which is one of the reasons this topic is so important.

Becoming an experienced researcher and writer in any field or discipline takes a great deal of practice. There are few individuals for whom this process comes naturally. Remember, even the most seasoned academic veterans have had to learn how to write a research paper at some point in their career. Therefore, with diligence, organization, practice, a willingness to learn (and to make mistakes!), and, perhaps most important of all, patience, students will find that they can achieve great things through their research and writing.

The pages in this section cover the following topic areas related to the process of writing a research paper:

• Genre - This section will provide an overview for understanding the difference between an analytical and argumentative research paper.
• Choosing a Topic - This section will guide the student through the process of choosing topics, whether the topic be one that is assigned or one that the student chooses themselves.
• Identifying an Audience - This section will help the student understand the often times confusing topic of audience by offering some basic guidelines for the process.
• Where Do I Begin - This section concludes the handout by offering several links to resources at Purdue, and also provides an overview of the final stages of writing a research paper.

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How to Write a Research Paper for Grad School Application

Most doctoral programs require applicants to submit a research sample and though they are not typically required for graduate school applications, they can help take your application from average to outstanding. 

I know the task of writing a research paper for this kind of application may seem intimidating at first. How can an undergraduate or masters student hope to submit work that will measure up to a PhD program’s standards? First, try to re-envision your research sample as a window on your curiosity: your chance to get professors genuinely excited about how you think. In this blog on how to write a research paper for graduate school applications, you’ll learn how to select, position, and revise your early-career ideas.

Selecting Your Draft

The form and function of your research sample will vary widely depending upon your field. Undergraduates in STEM are far more likely to have early-career publications and to be involved in group lab research than are humanities and social science students. If you are contributing to a research team or already have a publication of your own, consult with your supervising professor about if and how you might use this work as your research sample. Don’t submit any account or draft of an unpublished group project without your professor’s permission, and try to write at least one research paper that is entirely your own, as a back-up option. 

Writing a Research Sample  

Now, let's turn our attention to unpublished, single-author research papers, focusing on humanities research samples as a paradigm.

The first step to writing your research sample is to think realistically about what kind of paper you can edit to make a self-contained, insightful argument within the page limit. Use these questions to narrow down your options.

• Did you write an undergraduate thesis that you’re proud of? If not, skip to question 4.
• Was it divided into chapters around the same length as your research sample’s page limit? If so, choose your strongest chapter as your starting point for your research sample, and move on to learn about “Positioning Your Ideas.”
• If not, can you imagine making your writing more concise to fit the page limit? Or could you zoom in on one facet of your argument, to make a smaller paper out of your longer project? If so, consider isolating your main point and restructuring a portion of your paper to stand alone, as a research sample. This process may prove time consuming, so if your deadline is approaching, ditch this idea and go to question 4.
• Can you identify two or three strong (A-range or distinction) research papers around the length of the research sample’s page limit? Is at least one of these papers in the subfield that you hope to explore in graduate school? If so, move on to the next section on “Positioning Your Ideas.”
• If not, can you identify the beginnings of a research project or an idea worth expanding on in any of your undergraduate work? If so, consider working with a CRI Mentor (a professor or PhD student) to develop this idea into your sample.

Positioning Your Ideas

Once you have selected a handful of stand-alone essays or a portion of your thesis to revise, pause to position your ideas. What I mean by “positioning” is pairing your personal statement and research samples so that they point towards a consistent set of interests and methodological approaches within your field of study. 

If you’re applying to a program that only requires one research sample, then you should select a stand-alone essay or portion of your thesis that is solidly within your subfield of interest. Then, draft a paragraph of your personal statement clearly explaining how this research sample illustrates your engagement with this subfield. For guidance on how to begin this personal statement exercise, check out our previous post on How to Write a Personal Statement for Grad School . If you can’t write a paragraph making this connection, then you’re probably working with the wrong research sample draft—choose another, and move on to the process of revising your paper.

Suppose you’re applying to a program with two research samples (e.g., Harvard's English Department). In that case, you should select one sample solidly within your subfield and a second to demonstrate your interest in a different topic or methodology. Use your second sample to demonstrate the breadth of your curiosity but also to draw out subtle patterns in your ways of thinking. There should be something in common between your two papers for you to draw out in your personal statement: a method of research, a kind of primary source, an ideological agenda, etc. If you can make a clear connection between your research papers in your personal statement, then you’re on your way to positioning yourself as a coherent yet versatile scholar. And you’re ready to begin revising!

Revising Your Research

Once you’ve selected your research paper draft, you should begin the revision process by rereading it and taking notes in the margins: tracking where your argument is clearest and most exciting versus moments when it seems dull or loose. Then, reread any comments that your work has already received from professors. If you don’t have any comments, consider asking a professor mentor to review your work or signing up for a session with a CRI mentor . You might also ask a peer in your field to read your paper and tell you when they are most confused and/or most convinced by your writing. This combination of your own notes and other readers’ initial feedback will help you determine what parts of your essay to cut, rewrite, or expand.

Last Minute Advice

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to editing research, but I’ll conclude with some general advice to keep your revisions on track:

• Make sure that you have a clear thesis—and that you coherently prove it within the word limit for your sample.
• Engage with the kinds of secondary sources that you hope to one day write yourself. If you notice that your paper fails to engage with a range of secondary scholarship, hit the library and rework your argument to demonstrate your engagement with current criticism.
• Signpost, signpost, signpost. In every transition, introductory, and concluding sentence of every paragraph, make sure that you announce what you are trying to prove—and how that mini-proof relates to your larger argument. Remember, admissions readers have to move quickly through an enormous stack of essays, so your argument must be clear.
• Triple check your citations. You will not get into graduate school if you accidentally commit plagiarism. 
• Have fun writing! If you’re not intellectually excited about your essay topic, no one will be.

If you ever feel stuck or bored of your revisions, then put down your paper for a day or two. Do not force yourself to slog through revisions—forced edits usually do more harm than good. Remember, you can always return to your work later, with guidance from a friend, colleague, or CRI mentor !

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Prospectus writing.

Writing your prospectus is the first step towards completing your dissertation. It represents an opportunity to identify your project goals, create a roadmap for completing your graduate work, and to frame the significance of your work.  Your committee will provide you with feedback on the prospectus.

While different departments and disciplines will have their own requirements, in general, your prospectus will include an abstract, background and significance of research, a literature review, a description of the preliminary work you have completed, an explanation of your method or approaches, potential limitations or issues with the project, a timetable for completion, a conclusion, and a list of references.

The Graduate Writing Lab’s team of writing consultants can help you at any stage of your prospectus drafting, from brainstorming ideas, through early drafts, and polishing a final product. You can make an appointment with a consultant at:  https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/writing/graduate .

• General Guidelines for Writing a Prospectus

The Graduate Writing Lab has collected sample prospectuses from various disciplines for your reference, which are available here as downloadable resources.

• East Asian Languages and Literature  
• Film Studies  
• History of Art and African American Studies  

Social Sciences

• African American Studies 
• Political Science  
• Cell Biology  
• Computational Biology and Bioinformatics  
• Neuroscience
• Pharmacology  
• Physiology  

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HUMA6370 - Writing for Academic Research

HUMA 6370 Writing for Academic Research (3 semester credit hours) Advanced academic writing course for students in the Bass School graduate programs whose aim is to write and publish original academic research. Emphasis on learning to assess the expectations of a disciplinary audiences, construct sound arguments, effectively structure texts, and make meaningful contributions to an academic community. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 semester credit hours maximum). (3-0) Y

How Science, Math, and Tech Can Propel Swimmers to New Heights

One hundred years ago, in the 1924 Paris Olympics, American Johnny Weissmuller won the men’s 100m freestyle with a time of 59 seconds. Nearly 100 years later in the most recent Olympics, the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo, Caeleb Dressel took home the same event with a time that was 12 seconds faster than Weissmuller’s.  

Swimming times across the board have become much faster over the past century, a result of several factors, including innovations in training, recovery strategy, nutrition, and some equipment advances.  

One component in the improvement in swimming performances over the years is the role of biomechanics — that is, how swimmers optimize their stroke, whether it's the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, or freestyle.  

Swimmers for decades have experimented with different techniques to gain an edge over their competitors. But in more recent years, the application of mathematics and science principles as well as the use of wearable sensor technology in training regimens has allowed some athletes to elevate their performances to new heights, including members of the University of Virginia’s swim team.  

In a new research paper , a UVA professor who introduced these concepts and methods to the team and some of the swimmers who have embraced this novel approach to training lay out how the use of data is helping to transform how competitive swimmers become elite.

‘Swimming in Data’

Ken Ono thought his time working with swim teams was over. Ono — a UVA mathematics professor, professor of data science by courtesy, and STEM advisor to the University provost — had spent years working with competitive swimmers, first during his time at Emory University in Atlanta and then with other college teams, including Olympians, over the years.

However, he didn’t plan to continue that aspect of his work when he arrived at UVA in 2019. But after a meeting with Todd DeSorbo, who took over the UVA swim program in 2017, Ono soon found himself once again working closely with athletes, beginning his work as a consultant for the team during the 2020-21 season . The UVA women’s swim team would win their first of four consecutive national championships that year.  

“One of the things that I like quite a bit about this work is that swimming is crazy hard,” Ono said. “We were never meant to be swimmers, and it is both an athletic challenge as well as a scientific challenge — it has it all.”

Last fall, following a suggestion from DeSorbo, Ono offered a class that outlined the science-focused approach to improving swimming performances that had proven so successful at UVA, but he wanted to make sure there were no misconceptions about the seriousness of the material.

“We don’t want people thinking that it’s a cupcake course that’s offered for the swimmers,” Ono said.

So, Ono teamed up with UVA students Kate Douglass, August Lamb, and Will Tenpas, as well as MIT graduate student Jerry Lu who had worked with Ono and the UVA swim team while an undergraduate at the University, to produce a paper that covered the key elements of the class and Ono’s work with swimmers.  

Tenpas and Lamb both recently completed the residential master’s program at the School of Data Science as well as their careers as competitive collegiate swimmers. Douglass, who finished her UVA swim career in 2023 as one of the most decorated swimmers in NCAA history, is a graduate student in statistics at the University and is set to compete in the Paris Olympics after winning a bronze medal in the 2020 games.

The group drafted the paper, which they titled “Swimming in Data,” over the course of two months, and it was quickly accepted by The Mathematical Intelligencer. There, Ono said, it has become one of the most-read papers on a STEM subject since tracking began. In July, a version of the paper will also be published in Scientific American.  

“It seems to have taken off,” Ono said.

The impact of digital twins

After outlining the evolution of swimming over the past 100 years, the paper explains how an understanding of math and physics, combined with the use of technology to acquire individual-level data, can help maximize performances.  

Essential to understanding the scientific principles involved with the swimming stroke, the paper says, are Newton’s laws of motion. The laws — which cover inertia, the idea that acceleration depends on an object’s mass and the amount of force applied, and the principle that an action exerted by an object on another elicits an equal and opposite reaction — help simplify how one should think about the many biomechanical factors involved with swimming, according to Tenpas.

“There are all sorts of flexibility limitations. You have water moving at you, you have wakes, you have currents — it’s easy to kind of get paralyzed by the number of factors,” said Tenpas, who after four years at Duke, where he studied mechanical engineering, enrolled in UVA’s data science program and joined the swim team with a fifth year of eligibility.

“I think having Newton’s laws is nice as it gives you this baseline we can all agree on,” he added.  

It’s a way to understand pool mechanics given the counterintuitive motion swimmers must use to propel themselves forward, according to Ono.  

“The reason that we go to great extent to recall Newton’s laws of motion is so that we can break down the factors that matter when you test a swimmer,” he said.  

To conduct these tests, Ono and his team use sensors that can be placed on swimmers’ wrists, ankles, or backs to gather acceleration data, measured as inertial measurement units. That information is then used to generate what are called digital twins, which precisely replicate a swimmer’s movements.  

These twins reveal strengths and weaknesses, allowing Ono and the coaching staff to make recommendations on technique and strategy — such as how to reduce drag force, a swimmer’s true opponent — that will result in immediate improvement. In fact, through the analysis of data and the use of Newton’s laws, it is possible to make an accurate prediction about how much time a swimmer can save by making a given adjustment.

Lamb, who swam for UVA for five years while a computer science undergrad then as a data science master’s student, likened digital twins to a feature in the popular Nintendo game Mario Kart where you can race against a ghost version of yourself.  

“Being able to have this resource where you can test at one month and then spend a month or two making that adjustment and then test again and see what the difference is — it’s an incredibly valuable resource,” he said.  

To understand the potential of digital twins, one need only look at the example of Douglass, one of the co-authors, which is cited in the paper.

A flaw was identified in her head position in the 200m breaststroke. Using her digital twin, Ono and the coaching staff were able to quantify how much time she could save per streamline glide by making a modification, given her obvious talent and aerobic capacity. She did, and the results were remarkable. In November 2020, when her technique was tested, the 200m breaststroke wasn’t even on her event list. Three years later, she held the American record.

‘Everyone’s doing it now’

Swimming will be front and center in the national consciousness this summer. First, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials will be held in Indianapolis in June, leading up to the Paris Olympics in July and August, where DeSorbo, UVA’s coach who embraced Ono’s data-driven strategic advice, will lead the women’s team.  

Many aspiring swimmers will undoubtedly be watching over the coming weeks, wondering how they might realize their full athletic potential at whatever level that might be.  

For those who have access to technology and data about their technique, Tenpas encouraged young swimmers to take advantage.  

He noted the significant amount of time a swimmer must put in to reach the highest levels of the sport, estimating that he had been swimming six times per week since he was 12 years old.  

“If you’re going to put all of this work in, at least do it smart,” Tenpas said.  

At the same time, Lamb urged young swimmers who may not yet have access to this technology to not lose faith in their potential to improve.  

“While this is an incredibly useful tool to make improvements to your technique and to your stroke, it’s not the end all, be all,” he said.

“There are so many different ways to make improvements, and we’re hopeful that this will become more accessible as time goes on,” Lamb said of the data methods used at UVA.

As for where this is all going, with the rapidly expanding use and availability of data and wearable technology, Ono thinks his scientific approach to crafting swimming strategies will soon be the norm.  

“I think five years from now, our story won’t be a story. It’ll be, ‘Oh, everyone’s doing it now,’” he said. 

MSDS Student Profiles: August Lamb and Will Tenpas on Balancing Swimming and Graduate School

Ken Ono Talks About Using Data to Improve Swimmer Performance on CBS19 for “Inside The Numbers”

Data Science Master’s Students Tackle Diverse, Real-World Challenges in Capstone Projects

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Ryan Jackovic Awarded Best Student Paper; Engineering Economy Division - School of Industrial Engineering - Purdue University

Ryan Jackovic Awarded Best Student Paper; Engineering Economy Division

The paper, titled "Financial Risk in Supply Chains: Predicting Bankruptcy in Private Firms Using Public Data", was co-authored by Khir and Sanders. According to a summary provided by Khir, the paper focuses on bankruptcy as a measure for assessing the financial risk of companies within supply chain networks. "This paper introduces a simple, yet effective, bankruptcy prediction model tailored for private U.S. companies, leveraging only publicly available information.

Jackovic's thesis is focused on risk assessment and optimization of resilient food supply chains in the defense sector.

Source:  Reem Khir

Writer:  Dave Montgomery

Edwards’ latest studies shed light on climate-tech needs

May was a big month for Assistant Professor Morgan Edwards , as she published two important climate technology studies. These new papers could provide timely insights into the development of technologies that must scale rapidly to meet the needs of the warming planet and the 2015 Paris Agreement established to limit global temperature increases.

Assessing direct air capture with carbon storage technology

On May 6, a study co-led by Edwards and PhD student Zachary Thomas debuted in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The research found that direct air capture with carbon storage (DACCS) could help remove nearly five gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) by midcentury if the emerging technology, which uses chemicals to capture the heat-trapping gas directly from the air, develops at a rate similar to other technologies that grew quickly in the past.

“Countries around the world and many other actors – from local governments to corporations to universities – are setting net zero targets,” Edwards says. “We know we will need to rapidly reduce CO 2 emissions at the source, but technologies like DACCS that can remove CO 2 directly from the atmosphere could also play an important role.”

The international team of researchers working on Edwards’ project also included La Follette Professor Gregory Nemet and La Follette alum Jenna Greene (MPA ’22), now a PhD student with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Read more about this study

Corporate investments boost climate-tech startups

On May 15, a  new study  co-authored by Edwards was published in Nature Energy . This research, led by Assistant Research Professor Kathleen Kennedy of the Center for Global Sustainability in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, found that corporate investments into climate-tech start-ups coupled with public and other private funding can expedite the deployment of new technologies. Edwards and her co-authors hope that this research can help policymakers develop more effective strategies for incentivizing the innovation needed to address the climate crisis.

“This analysis addresses a critical knowledge gap on the effects of growing corporate investments on the success of climate-tech,” Edwards says. “We find that corporate investment is consistently associated with higher rates of exits, and in recent years corporate investment is not correlated with failure, indicating that corporations may have learned from earlier losses and could play a larger role in supporting climate-tech moving forward.”

Next up, Edwards, Nemet, and other study coauthors will share additional insights on climate-tech innovation when they release the second edition of the  State of Carbon Dioxide Removal  report on June 4, 2024.

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Surfacing race and gender representations in online literacy development materials on a k-12 digital learning platform using nlp.

Richard (Chenming) Tang

Race and gender biases have been a long-standing issue in paper textbooks, but prior research showed that online literacy development materials still carry significant biases and misrepresentations, potentially exacerbating the problem at a much larger scale. Surfacing these biases and stereotypes thus becomes crucial in flagging problematic content and ensuring the integrity of these learning materials. This study applies NLP techniques to nearly 2000 news articles used as literacy development materials by a popular K-12 digital learning platform to answer two following research questions: 1) which race and gender groups are more associated with which topics, and 2) how similar are the contexts in which different race and gender groups appear? Results from topic modeling show that different gender and race groups are associated with widely different set of topics: men are associated more with “crime and law enforcement”, “politics”, “healthcare/medicine”, and “war”, whereas women are associated more with “education”, and “international issues”; white people with “politics” and “government/national issues”; black people with “crime and law enforcement”; Asian and Latinx people with “minority” and “immigration”.  In addition, results from word embedding show that different race groups don’t often appear in similar contexts, indicating potentially narrow and stereotypical portrayals of minorities, consistent with prior research. Overall, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of race and gender misrepresentations in digital literacy development materials and highlights the importance of culturally responsive education in the digital age and the need for a more inclusive and just education for future generations.

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