Research Paper Guide
Research Paper
This quality standard sets forth the requirements for a research paper. Unless otherwise
provided by the client’s instructions, the writer must observe the following guidelines:
1. Abstract
One-paragraph summary of the entire study – typically not more than 250 words in
length.
2. Introduction
This section must answer the question “What is the topic and why is it worth studying?”
It should describe the topic under investigation, summarize or discuss relevant prior
research (however, a literature review could be a separate section), identify unresolved
issues that the current research will address, and provide an overview of the research
that is to be described in greater detail in the sections to follow.
3. Literature review
The research process uncovers what other writers have written about your topic. Your
education paper should include a discussion or review of what is known about the
subject and how that knowledge was acquired. Once you provide the general and
specific context of the existing knowledge, then you yourself can build on others’
research. The guide Writing a Literature Review will be helpful here.
4. Methods
This section details how the research was performed. It should feature a description of
the participants/subjects that were involved, the study design, the materials that were
used, and the study procedure. A rule of thumb is that the Methods section should be
sufficiently detailed for another researcher to duplicate the research.
5. Results
This section describes the data that was collected and the results of any statistical tests
that were performed.
6. Discussion
This section must answer the question “What is the significance of your results?”. It
should provide a summary of the results that were obtained in the study, describe how
those results address the topic under investigation and/or the issues that the research
was designed to address, and expand upon the implications of those findings.
Limitations and directions for future research should be addressed as well.
7. References
List of articles and any books cited.
Note: There are two main types of research: qualitative and quantitative. The writer
should be familiar with the major aspects of each method: Qualitative vs Quantitative
Research