If you are in university or in your job, you may be asking yourself how to write a research paper fast? Both in university and your job, being able to write good research papers is important. Being able to write a good research paper fast, can really help you save time and be more efficient.
Research papers can sometimes be very daunting, but by following the steps in this article you’ll be able to write a research paper fast.
Have the skill to write research papers well and doing it quickly, will surely help you throughout university and into your professional career. All research papers share the same fundamental aspects for them to be good.
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Pre-Writing
It’s important to give yourself better context before your start your research paper. This will ensure that you are approaching it with clarity and get your thoughts out in paper in coherent manner. The work you do in your pre-writing is vitally important to writing a good research paper fast.
Picking your research paper topic
The first step of the pre-writing phase is to start to brainstorm possible ideas for your research paper. You will want to make sure that the topic you choose is easily researchable. Therefore you should aim to do some brief research on your possible research topic.
Use websites like:
- Google Scholar
- PubMed
- ScienceDirect
- Cochrane Library
- Free resources available through your university
Remember that this is just to get an idea of if your topic will be easily researchable or if they is no literature around your topic. Meaning that it will be harder to be researched. And unless this is for your thesis or a long term research paper – I suggest you refrain from topics that are harder to find high quality content in a quick search.
Once you’ve brainstormed and found a topic that has content on it, now it’s time to do more research.
Doing the research
To write a good research paper you will have you cite many different and usually complex papers. Therefore the first thing I want you to do here, is to take notes of what you are reading so it’s easier to find and to reference it if this knowledge is used in your research paper.
I would highly recommend that as you do research you save the papers that you have read. During university I used Zotero to easily save and cite articles in my paper. Zotero helps by storing and saving a PDF file of the source you loaded into the program. And it then allows you to easily enter in-text citations and quickly create a bibliography.
If you do use Zotero and download PDF’s of the papers you are using, you can use the highlight feature to mark important findings from each paper that you use.
By taking notes as you read, this can help you to visualize what position you are going to take on the topic you are researching. This will also help you to know what your main arguments are going to be before you even begin writing. This step can truly help you save time so that you can complete your paper as fast as possible.
Outlining your research paper fast
Once you have begun doing deep research on the topic, the outline will be the next important step.
Before you even begin writing you will want to develop a thesis for your paper. A thesis essentially is the focus of your research paper in about one or two sentences. It’s important to make this as specific as the researchable content allows. Generally, the more specific the better.
Once you have formulated your thesis, you will want to draft an outline for your research paper. The outline should consist of:
- Write your thesis statement
- List the top 3 or 4 ideas supporting your thesis statement
- Mark the supporting ideas (main arguments) for each of these bigger ideas
- Add one counterpoint and refute it with evidence
- Link each article you researched to each of the supporting (or main) arguments you are making
- Conclusion
Once you are able to write out an outline with your major talking points, it will make it easier to add more content under each point. This will also make it easier for you to see if the arguments you want to make are relevant to your thesis statement.
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Writing A Research Paper Fast
Before you begin writing, make sure that you know what format writing format your professor or employer wants. The most common citation formats are:
- APA
- MLA (Modern Language Association)
- Chicago
It’ll be important to know this so you can set your tools like Zotero to cite using the specific citation format necessary. Citing as you write from the notes that you took can save you lots on time when writing a research paper.
Write the introduction paragraph
When writing your introduction paragraph, it can be helpful to write a short abstract to show the purpose of the paper. Once you have done this, then you can move on to writing your introduction paragraph.
The opening of your research paper should put the topic of your research into the spotlight with relevant context. Also you should aim to state clearly which side of an issue you are arguing for, if applicable.
To write a good introduction:
- Start with a strong, attention-grabbing opening sentence
- Then provide some background information stating why this topic is important
- Explain how you are going to approach your topic (i.e. what side you are on)
- State your main argument points
- Clearly end with your thesis statement
It is important to have a strong first and last sentence in your introduction. This usually sets the rest of your paper up for success.
Start with a strong opening sentence that will grab your readers’ attention. Then you should provide some background information relevant to your topic and briefly explain why this topic is important. You should also explain how you are going to approach your topic. End your introduction with your thesis statement.
Write the body
The outline you created earlier will now be used to write your body paragraphs. Ensure that you are writing focused on your thesis statements and main arguments.
Each body paragraph should start with a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a sentence that gives the reader of the one idea that you will cover in your paragraph. Ensure that you are using a strong topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph.
Be sure to use good transitional words from paragraph to paragraph. This will help your paper flow better and make it easier for your reader to follow along your train of thought.
Your body paragraphs should focus on this topic sentence, but use credible sources (that you researched earlier) to support your own original ideas. It’s important that when you use and cite a credible source that you are going beyond and giving more context for your argument.
Yes, its great to have citations, but you need to use them to build on your own argument for the paper. When using citations ensure you are doing the correct citation – footnote or in-text are common ones. It also makes it faster if you are continuously citing as you write your body paragraphs.
Citations should be a mix of quotations from other sources and paraphrasing. It’s important that you use quotes scantly. Too many citations in your paper means that you are relying too heavily on others thoughts and need to put more of your ideas into your research paper.
Writing a conclusion
When you are complete with your body paragraphs, now you can focus on your concluding paragraph. It is always a good idea to read over your introduction before you write your conclusion to capture the context for your research paper.
Start your conclusion by restating your thesis statement using different words and summarize your research paper. Try to avoid the repetition of facts or phrases from your body paragraph. Also ensure that you are not adding any new points in your conclusion.
You can use your concluding paragraph to briefly explain why and how your arguments support your thesis statement.
Depending on what sort of research paper it is, you may want to suggest some new ideas that should be looked at in future research that may have come up from researching your topic.
Ending your research paper strong will help ensure that your reader understands the points you were trying to make throughout your paper.
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Editing your research paper fast
Revise and Edit
After you have completed your research paper, it is time to revise and make edits. If you want to finish you research paper fast, then you may want to review your work every paragraph or two as you write. This will help you to find mistakes and will also help with the flow of your paper.
Reread your entire research paper to make sure that everything is just the way you want it. You want to reread the paper from the viewers perspective to ensure that you are coming across as clear as possible.
Make sure to fix any grammatical or spelling mistakes you find. It may also be of value to shorten wordy sentences. This phase will allow you to see if your entire paper flows well from paragraph to paragraph. And if you need to re-arrange paragraphs or parts of them, this is the perfect time to figure this out and make changes. Also ensure that you have good transitions throughout your paper.
Look for and delete repetitive sentences. Check to see if you like your word choices, adjust them as necessary. You will want your paper to be clear, concise and not open to any ambiguity. Reading your paper allowed can help you eliminate syntax errors or weird sentences.
Finally, go back over your paper one more time to look for spelling, grammar, punctuation and typo mistakes. Fix these as you find them and re-read the paragraph you made changes to. After this you can ask a friend or coworker to give your article a read. Then ask them to summarize it for you to ensure that they got out of it what you were trying to say. There is no limit to how many times you can re-read your own paper to ensure you are putting your best foot forward.
The last thing you may want to do is put your paper through a plagiarism checker. Since most university’s do this to make sure students are being honest – you should check your paper for unintentional plagiarism. A good site to do this at is Grammarly Plagirism Checker. Usually these tools take some time to check your paper so always give yourself 48hours so that you can make any necessary changes.
Citations
The last thing you will want to do when reviewing your research paper is to check the citations. You will want to ensure that you have used the correct citation format that your professor or boss wants. Always check to ensure that all your citations match up with the correct format.
Creating your bibliography should be done while you do your research. Zotero allows you a one-click mechanism where you can create a bibliography from the articles you cited in. Even when you use, Zotero or another citation machine, you should check over your bibliography to make sure they are no errors. Too long have students lost marks for wrongly formatted bibliographies. So review your bibliography before you submit your research paper.
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Conclusion
Now you have learnt how to write a research paper fast. By using this guide you would have learnt how to create a good research topic, create an outline around this topic, and tools to quickly write your paper.
Writing a research paper can be stressful and surely feel very daunting. However, if you start early and break your paper into outlines then this makes it a lot easier to write your paper. If you focus on writing your paper in chunks or sections, the outline is the perfect way to guide what you should write about on a given day.
When you master the skill of writing a research paper quickly, this can really help your productivity around other classes and projects you have due. The more practice you get doing this sort of outlining and brainstorming the better your research papers will be in the long run.
What has been helpful for you to write your research paper fast?
