Meaning of a Research Paper Outline

An outline helps you structure the ideas you have for your paper. For you to come up with outstanding research, you need to have an outline. For research that mostly needs facts, you need to have a profile. Researching for your paper is vital but how you bring out the points is way more than that. If you do not have the skills of writing, you need to practice and make sure you are perfect. Apart from writing an outline, the topic you choose will also say a lot about your paper. 

Choose a topic that is engaging and is not too broad. If you encounter any problem in selecting a heading, you can consider other alternatives. For you to have an excellent paper, your foundation has to be top-notch. It makes the process easier and makes you focus more on your work. You will not confuse yourself by writing things that are outside the topic. For your paper to be impressive to both you and the reader, you have to sacrifice and come up with an effective outline.

Steps to Follow When Writing a Paper Outline

You need to know the steps that will enable you to write a pleasant outline. Worry no more because you are going to learn all that here. You are not the only student with writing problems, there are many like you, but you are different because you want to learn and become better. There are sections that you should include when writing a paper. Do not skip any part if you want your work to make sense. You can number them in any way you want, but using roman numerals look much better.

Title Page

It comes first in your outline, do not forget about that. You will write all your necessary details here, including your name, department, and many more. You should use the correct format to write the above information to make your work look more presentable. Use the style that your professor wants when writing. Do not use your method and end up getting bad grades.

Abstract

It is a summary of your work. It has to be short and precise for it to make sense. Do not write too much information on this part because it will not be interesting anymore. It is a part that should tell the reader more about your findings. You should have the main points of your paper for you to have a splendid abstract.

Introduction

It is the most vital part because it brings out the topic and ideas of your work. You have to put so much effort when writing your introduction. If you want to succeed when writing, you have to come up with an outstanding introduction. You do not have to exaggerate anything. Make it short and precise.

But choosing a topic to research can be tricky at times. Sometimes there are too many options, or the student may not know how best to choose. If you are facing such a problem, read on to discover more.

Guidelines to remember

• Select a topic you want to know more about

Assignments are generally more enjoyable to do if you are interested in the topic. However, some students opt for a topic that can impress the teacher even if they barely have a clue about the issue. Yes, the internet has a lot to say about many things, but your paper will be very difficult if you are bored or generally confused. So for your psychology class, choose something you really want to know more about.

• Ensure there are enough resources

Though you like it, if there are not enough resources, you will not be able to continue. Most teachers require a minimum of three sources for each side of the problem. So this may mean at least six for your paper.

Psychology topics to choose

To help jumpstart your selection process, take a look at these possible topics for your class.

1. How do parents deal with their children’s dreams?
2. Making sense of recurring nightmares
3. How does racism become ingrained in a child’s psyche?
4. Is media to blame for the mass shootings today?
5. Is social media making suicide more popular?
6. How is body shaming affecting teenagers today?
7. Mindset of calamity survivors
8. The draw of sex cults
9. Is anorexia a bigger problem today than two decades ago?
10. How can teachers prevent bullying in class?
11. How realistic is Hollywood’s portrayal of psychopaths?
12. Why do opposites attract?
13. How can you detect a cheater before getting married?
14. Why do wives cheat on their husbands?
15. Can co-parenting worth it?
16. Does hypnosis really work?
17. Top techniques for marketers to appeal to their target markets
18. Best conflict management techniques managers should be using today
19. Are gadgets affecting how students view school?
20. Are children today more or less disciplined than two decades ago?
21. Coping mechanisms of children when they have to move home
22. Can criminals be truly reformed while in jail?
23. Are school guidance counselors actually helping students with their psychological concerns?
24. Top three factors that are causing depression among teens
25. Postpartum blues: What can mothers do?
26. Gender roles: The big changes in the 21st century
27. Arranged marriages: What conditions are needed for true love?
28. Nonverbal signals that future husbands should be aware of
29. Is sex education at school really helping children?
30. How do children view marriage today?

Summary

If you want your psychology research paper to go smoothly, choose a topic you will enjoy doing. So, select a topic from above or tweak one to fit your needs. Good luck.

So how can you give the first time impression that will give your research work the standing ovation right from the word goes? How can the opening lines cause a ripple effect on your readers? We shall show you the secrets to unlocking the rewards that you are entitled to research papers right from the first few lines of your paper.

Your concepts 

There are concepts that you are going to include in your work. You must bear in mind that you are writing your research consumption for general public consumption. Therefore, all the details of the concepts that you are about using must be fully explained. Every academic jargon that you are going to include in your write up should be explained for the benefit of your readers. This will make your audience to appreciate your work best.

Include a hook statement 

You must include a hook statement in the introduction that will capture the attention of your readers. Take your time to think about a strategy that will create a bright picture in the head of the reader. They will remember this when they are reading through your paper.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to start with a quotation. This is one quotation that will capture the heart of your topic. You can effectively make use of this in a situation where your essay is on social subjects. 

Your structure

It is a must to present your essay in a particular structure. Your readers should be carried along as they read through your paper. The modulus Operandi to achieve the results that mattered should be explained as the readers go through your paper. Every reader is expected to understand what is going on. Your findings must be seen to be valuable by all your readers.

What is the best time to write the introduction?

The excellent introduction that will get the attention of your readers must be one that matches the info that is contained in the body of your research paper. In essence; you cannot begin the introduction immediately after you land your topic.

Carry out in-depth research that will bring out an outline that will anchor your paper. Go through the outline and pick out the catchy aspect of it. This is the best weapon that you can include in your introduction. This will introduce the readers smoothly to the topic and facilitate excellent reading. 

Final thoughts

What you have above are the core elements that will help you bring out the best results in your introduction. They are excellent takeaways that will add color to the introductory part of your research paper. You are sure of the higher marks with the tips above.

Students have to write these papers to apply cultural and literary methods, and theories learned besides developing skills that will necessitate clinical text analysis, process information, besides reporting research. Academic writing gets directed to particular audiences and would generally follow conventions and rules defined by the audience or the specific academic institution. Additionally, such a paper’s content must prove concise and precise to meet the audience’s expectations and requirements.  Further, the sources have to get identified clearly, prove recent, besides coming across as unambiguous.

Guidelines to Writing an Effective Academic Term Paper

Most academic papers come across as either essays or seminar papers, and they often follow similar regulations and guidelines. Such papers have to gather, consolidate, and present concepts analytically based on the primary text. However, seminar papers and essays differ distinctly in features, especially regarding the length and the skills gained. Both of them, however, articulately require the organization of concepts to become suitable to the audience.   

So what do you need to consider before embarking on the research process?

• Work with sources. It becomes prudent to get valuable sources to base your research write-up upon. You can obtain your sources either from print or online resources. However, it becomes crucial to avoid sources that fail to follow the expected research standards. Three types of sources exist: primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

1. Primary sources. It encompasses the critical analysis text and can entail poems, films, novels, and short stories.
2. Secondary sources. It entails scholarly journals and articles that get published. It mostly deals with the first group of sources (primary sources) and the analysis of their methodology.
3. Tertiary sources. It includes literary term glossaries besides specialized encyclopedias. Most of such sources get highlighted at the onset of your study.

• Picking reliable sources. You have to pick the correct sources while trying to develop your research. Therefore, it becomes prudent to avoid non-scholarly encyclopedias and sites. Additionally, ensure the sites picked have sufficient and reliable information for use in your study.
• Avoid plagiarism. You have to ensure your work passes the plagiarism test as plagiarism often comes as a grave breach of academic integrity. It matters none if the material used has copyright status or not. Having plagiarized content will always lead to your paper getting rejected and, worse, facing the full force of the law. Therefore, try and avoid plagiarism by properly citing sources.

Structure of an Academic Term Paper

1. Introduction. The rationale and subject within the introduction have to revolve around the guiding question. Additionally, it has to contextualize and issue an understandable explanation, besides specifying the relevant conditions to be followed.
2. Body. Also referred to as the main part, it gives an argument, which answers the study question besides supporting the key claim. You have to incorporate scholarly literature at this point. Ensure that the statements used prove consistent, in-depth, and coherent. However, in instances where you are writing your seminar paper, you can include thematic sub-headings. It becomes essential to provide a clear structure with a logical flow of thoughts.
3. Conclusion. It has to summarize and provide the analyzed concepts and results from the research. Here, you can also incorporate other concepts not succinctly captured in the paper’s analysis section but may require additional clarification.
4. Bibliography. It has to contain every relevant source of information cited, including secondary, tertiary, and primary sources.Try and arrange the sources in an alphabetical order, which has to start with the author’s names (APA style).

Conclusion

Academic term papers prove helpful as a grading mechanism for concepts students have learned. As such, students have to ensure they do their academic papers as effectively as possible.

A thesis statement is not as objective as a hypothesis, but it serves a similar purpose. A researcher may have a hypothesis that they are testing into their research, but it has not been proved or disproved yet. The purpose of the thesis statement is to show how one understands and interprets what they are learning from their research or study by providing an interpretation with evidence.

When writing academic research topics, it is important to develop and write thesis statements. In order to accomplish this goal, students first begin with a personal research topic that is important to them. It helps if the person making this type of paper knows what they are interested in. When writing a research paper about your own experiences and feelings on the topic, then it is most likely that the student will have a good topic. After completing the paper, one needs to edit it to make sure that all of the information is accurate and well written.

How to write a thesis statement

What determines the thesis statement’s topic is the writer’s point of view or opinion about the subject matter. The paper is entitled as the writer’s point of view. A writer has personal thoughts and opinions on each topic that can be used to draw conclusions on the topic. These conclusions can all be supported with evidence so that it can be considered as an argumentative paper. There are 5 steps on how to write a thesis statement:

1. The first step in order to complete the thesis is drafting an introduction. It is best to make a thesis statement based on the introduction. The introduction needs to be enticing enough for the reader to want to keep reading. There needs to be sufficient background information for the paper and thoughtful questions that can be answered by writing the research paper.
2. The second step is having an organized outline of the paper, which will help in making a thesis statement. It is not hard if there is an organized outline already created with headings, sections, and sub-sections using numbers from one to four.
3. The third step is writing the thesis statement. This statement can be a general summary of the body of information or it can be a description, explanation, interpretation, or interpretation. The thesis statement is a reflection of the writer’s thoughts and views on the subject matter. It needs to be well thought out and have well-referenced examples that prove the contentions made by writer.
4. The fourth step is having a declaration of an argument that is strong. The writer needs to use inductive logic so that they can make a statement and support it with evidence. This does not mean that the writer has to have all the evidence, but enough so that it supports their thesis statements.
5. The last step is having a conclusion that summarizes what you have learned from your own research project and what you discovered by reading other people’s research papers.

A thesis statement is a sentence that describes an argument on a research paper. This should be placed in the introduction. The thesis helps the reader to understand what the paper is about and how it is going to be narrowed down and focus on what points the writer wants to make in their paper. When writing down your thesis statement, ask yourself if you agree or disagree with what you are writing. This will help you determine whether or not this should be your topic of choice. 

Improper Placement of Commas and Full Stops

A comma is often misused, and at the same time, it gives more clarity to sentences. Improper use of the comma makes sentences unclear and challenging to read and understand. Long sentences with missing commas make them challenging to read, and the information is often misinterpreted or misunderstood. Separating long sentences with a lot of information into smaller parts makes the information readable and easy to comprehend.

Ignoring Citations when Rephrasing

When writing a research paper, citations are vital even when you use your own words to write the phrases. It shows that you did the research personally and that you understand the subject well enough to use your own words. Writers often forget to cite rephrased content which is very wrong. Using your own words does not mean you should not cite the content obtained from someone else’s work. Apart from making your work authentic, it also saves your work from getting flagged as plagiarism.

Making Unnecessary Citations

Many students overuse citations when writing their research papers. Most of them do that to avoid plagiarism but end up using citations unnecessarily. Some information does not require Citation because it is general knowledge. You can also make citations at the end of a paragraph instead of a sentence if the information gets obtained from the same content. Too many citations make you unreadable or uninteresting to the reader.

Inconsistence in the style of Citation used

There are plenty of Citation styles one can use. Many students use more than one style in one document, which makes the content inconsistent. It is hence very vital to use the same style all through the paper. Using different styles in one paper confuses a reader and makes your work unreliable for use if another student wants to use your work as a template.

Confusing between References and Citations

Many writers cannot differentiate between references and citations. Citations get used in the content found in the paper’s body. The content gets cited using direct quotes. Inside the quotes, the following information gets found: the author and the source of information. References on the other end get placed at the end of the paper. References explain where the writer got their citations from. Therefore, without citations, references would not make sense.

Excluding Page Numbers

Including the page numbers of the books or articles used to get information is very vital. It makes it easier for the reader to refer to the source. Even better, the reader refers to the exact page without wasting time going through the whole paper or book.

Excluding Web Addresses

With the advancement in the internet and technology, many writers source their information from the internet. Data got constantly added on the internet, and hence, it is crucial to provide the addresses where you get your information. Not incorporating the web addresses makes you unreliable. It also avoids plagiarism which is a very detriment to your grades as a student.

Contorting Spelling

Some words are difficult to spell when writing.  However, most of the time, words that prove hard to spell for a writer are often words that the writer does not understand. It is hence very crucial to use words correctly and spell them correctly too. Not using the correct spelling often changes the meaning of the message for words close in spelling.  The credibility of your work is also lost or undermined if the correct spelling gets missed.

Conclusion

Often, students confuse references and citations, which costs them a big deal when writing their research papers. The two are related, especially the reference, which is dependent on the Citation used. It is therefore important to understand the differences and the different styles.

Regardless of the stress involved, you want to give your best performance because of their significant effect on your grades. Therefore, you need a lot of time and effort while ensuring that you don’t get unnecessarily anxious about your general studies.

One thing you must learn to reduce the heat of challenges is confidence in your chosen topic. It helps you a lot, especially when you have the opportunity to select a topic.

The best way to start your paper is to make your discussions and thought flow intriguing and exciting for your readers. Coming up with an original and well-researched content increases your chances of scoring high by your professor’s evaluation.

How to Select the Best Research Paper Topic

A quick way to making a smart decision with topic selection is looking out for topics that are quite interesting but not overused by other researchers. Readers specifically get intrigued by innovative topics, so make sure to be creative too.

However, you might experience some difficulty trying to create your topic.  In such situations, it is advisable to seek help from writers at Mypaperdone.com here.

Helpful Tips on Topic Selection

We’ve got helpful tips for you in selecting the best topics.

1. Your Field of Interest

You have more motivation and ability to make meaningful contributions if your research is on a topic you are most interested in or passionate about. This problem is the case for many people who have a hard time writing on matters in which they have no interest.

Therefore, passion and interest are two crucial additives that make it easier for writers to explore the contexts of their topics sufficiently.

2. Your Topic Should be Clear

As a writer, you should display a high level of clarity and understanding of whatever topic you have chosen. Your good grasp of the subject matter helps you seamlessly communicate the same and also helps the reader’s comprehension too.

3. Show Precision and Specificity

A research paper is primarily based on stated facts and figures, and not just mere comparisons or descriptions of patterns. This effect requires that your propositions and conclusions need to be supported with relevant examples, evidence, and references to other well-respected research and academic texts.

4. Be Innovative

Maintaining an innovative approach while writing a paper gives you a good standing. It would help if you delved into an investigation on the facts you have available. They help you communicate with such innovation that impresses your readers. By so doing, you are not only giving readers a respectable impression about you, but your work also stands out.

Conclusion

Creating a good research topic is crucial for excellent performance, even though it seems overly challenging for students. These ideas will help you boost your confidence.   

Abstracts are like the “executive summary” of a business document or annual reports. It serves as your selling point to your readers. With the overloaded internet space, you have only a little time to “wow” your readers.

The Academic Publishing and Conference International opine that journals are rated on 12 points. This opinion means that your abstract must score on the 12 points to stand out. Your summary must capture the heart of your work.

With the above said, the below structures might be of immense help to you. It will also show you how to write a captivating abstract.

Important Note Before You Start

Before you begin writing the abstract, choose the abstract type you want to write. Although there are two basic abstract styles, they all have the same aim. Your abstract can be either the descriptive or informative type.

•  Descriptive Abstract

Descriptive abstract usually comprise of 100 to 200 words. It supplies information about the research paper, such as the purpose and objective. It also speaks about the methods used but excludes the result and conclusion.

• Informative Abstract

This type is about a paragraph long. It gives a summary of all aspects of your work, results inclusive. An informative abstract is widely used compared to the descriptive.

Follow the Abstract Requirements

There might be specific guidelines and requirements needed for your abstract. Ensure you follow the demands for your paper. For instance, some might involve word length, particular formatting style, abstract type, etc.

Audience

The research paper might not be for everyone. The awareness of your audience would have a lot of influence on your work. Is your paper for specific kinds of researchers or the general public?

Since your abstract is going to be short, ensure you include only relevant information. Avoid phrases, acronyms, and abbreviations that would confuse your readers.

 If you must use words or references, ensure they are well known. Maximize the use of keywords because they increase your chances of being read. Use commonly searched words as your keyword.

Structuring Your Abstract

The demands for an abstract are high. It is expected to take as much work as the whole paper would. It should have the following to do a good job.

• Show the purpose of your paper. Why is the study relevant to your field and the general public?
• Give information about the problem you are talking about. Also, give the scope of the study.
• Explain your methodology, variables, and depth.
• Give a concise summary of your results. Relate your result with your hypothesis. Where the outcomes predicted or unexpected?
• Give the conclusion in connection to your result. What is the implication of your study on the topic?

Conclusion

After writing your abstracts, go through it again to ensure you stayed within the guidelines. You can also give it to a colleague who should provide his feedback. You can also solicit a review from your professor.