Understanding the Parts of a

Research Paper

Abstract

A concise summary of how you have gone about engaging in your research

State the purpose of the study Goals and objectives

Explain the approach to your research question/the problem

Describe the experiment

Results

Important conclusions or new questions

Introduction/Lit Review Introduce your study.

Provides background information.

Includes a review of current literature on the topic (hence “lit review”).

Describe the importance of your research.

Why did you conduct the research in the way that you did?

State your hypothesis and objectives.

Describe past, important research and relate it to the research problem.

Synthesize previous literature and the new idea being researched.

Methods, Process or Approach

Describe the research design and methodology.

What you did, and how you did it.

Report how procedures were done (not step-by-step, but rather, in a general sense).

Think about what would be important for another researcher to know about your study if they’re working on a project similar to yours? (think reliability)

Results, Product(s) or Findings

Results depend on if the study was qualitative, quantitative or mixed.

Present and illustrate your research findings.

Present your results/findings, but DO NOT discuss the significance.

Use figures and tables if appropriate.

Discussion, Analysis and/or Evaluation

Provide an interpretation of your results and support for your conclusions using evidence from your research.

Clearly describe the significance of your findings.

What impact do your findings have in your field of study?

What impact do your findings have on other fields of study?

If results differ from expectations, state why that may have happened. If results agree with expectations, give evidence as to why/how that is so.

Discussion, continued…

How do the results relate to previous research mentioned in the lit review?

What are the limitations of your findings?

Conclusion and Future Directions

Reiterate your thesis and your findings.

What were you able to add to the conversation?

Suggest where to go from here…

What questions remain?

What future work needs to happen?

Bibliography

A list of the academic references you used in the work and throughout the paper.

It needs to be in the correct formatting style based on discipline:

APA

MLA

Chicago

Etc.

Giving Credit

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html

http://ece.k-state.edu/~starret/684/paper.html

https://cirt.gcu.edu/research/developmentresources/tutorials/researchpaper