Teaching How to Write a Research Paper

A project paper is a very formal piece of writing and aims at presenting and discussing the results of your in-depth study. The following guidelines should be followed. The project paper must have an introduction, a main body and a conclusion. Before you start the writing process, you should make a detailed outline. Source: NDLA

CHOOSE A TOPIC. Choose a topic which interests and challenges you. …
FIND INFORMATION. Surf the Net. …
STATE YOUR THESIS. Do some critical thinking and write your thesis statement down in one sentence. …
MAKE A TENTATIVE OUTLINE. …
ORGANIZE YOUR NOTES. …
WRITE YOUR FIRST DRAFT. …
REVISE YOUR OUTLINE AND DRAFT. …
TYPE FINAL PAPER.

Correct Use of Sources

It is important that you use the information you gather in an independent way. You should never pretend that something someone else has written was written by you. That is called plagiarism. That is why it is important that you cite and reference your sources correctly so that the reader can find the sources you have used. There are several methods for citing your sources. We have chosen the Harvard method for citations and list of sources.

Direct Quotations

If the quotation is shorter than three lines, then the quotation is to be placed within your text and marked with quotation marks. (Author, Year, Page).
A quotation that exceeds three lines, should be placed in its own paragraph. A long quotation should be in single-spaced lines, to clearly show that it is a quotation. For a long quotation, you should not use quotation marks (Author, Year, Page).

Indirect Quotations

If you use information from another source, but rewrite the text so that it is not a direct quotation, you will still need to cite the source. The indirect quotation should not be shown in any other way but by the reference, i.e. without quotation marks or any other graphical stress (Author, Year, Page).

See more info on plagiarism here.

Research Paper: Establish Your Topic
Teach your students how to select and narrow down a topic for a research paper. This advice is helpful for students of all ages.