Research Paper
...research-paper writing process (as with any writing process) is quasi-linear at best. Follow the green navigation bar on the left from top to bottom to follow the nine major steps in writing a research paper, or if you're working on a particular step, click on that step to jump ahead in the process.
The entire process will require a lot of hard work on your part, but the results will be more than satisfying if you give it your best. In the end, you'll have passed an important "write of passage" in your academic career and picked up a heap of useful skills along the way.
Though we've laid the process out step by step, the hypertext capability of the Web allows you to rewind and fast-forward at your own ease, pace, and convenience. So for a picture of what the process will really end up being like, see Cleveland State University Writing Center's map of the writing process. Remember that our OWL tutors are around to help you at any stage of the process. Email them with any questions that you may have.
Now take a deep breath and click on Genre. The journey's about to begin.
Genre
An introduction to the key aspects of the research paper genre
Usually at the post-secondary level, when it finally comes time to write your first real research essay--or "paper" as it's more commonly called--you may find yourself confronted with confusion, resentment, panic, and a touch . . . okay, let's be real . . . a heap of 'page fright.'
Maybe you have a creative writing background from high school or even college where you were accustomed to writing "personal essays," the only research involved being a mental rifling through your brain's repositories for relevant experiences you've had.
Or you vaguely remember writing a five-paragraph expository essay in English Comp. 12 on William Golding's Lord of the Flies where the body of the essay was filled only with your ideas...
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