Marianne K. and Katie W., Writing Center tutors
Please keep in mind that these are only general guidelines; always defer to your professor’s specifications for a given assignment. If you have any questions about the content represented here, please contact the Writing Centers so that we can address them for you.
Introduction
Like other writing, research writing needs to be well-organized and should include a thesis, topic sentences, transitions, etc. Research papers should be free of grammatical and sentence-level errors, and they should follow the standards of citation required by the discipline. Most commonly used styles are APA, MLA or Chicago style (AKA Turabian). It is important to remember that the requirements for research papers vary according to disciplines. Research papers differ from reflective essays, editorials, memoirs, etc, in that research develops an argument based on evidence, not opinion or personal point of view.
Standard Research
In general, every research paper includes:
- Thorough research about the topic from experts in the field.
- A thesis that argues for a particular position or point of view.
- Supporting evidence from primary and secondary sources
- Primary: Original texts, documents, manuscripts and artifacts. news articles
- Secondary: Commentary/criticism, articles from scholarly journals
- Field work/observations (where appropriate)
- A bibliography or works cited section
You may also want to check out UNC’s general overview of “good” academic writing.
Other Research-based Writing
- Abstract
- Annotated Bibliography
- Conference Paper
- Literature Review
- Proposal
- Research Essay
- Thesis and Dissertation Writing
Avoiding Plagiarism
It is important that you develop your own ideas in your research writing, even though your writing is based on the research of others. However, when you do use other’s ideas, it is important to correctly cite your sources.
- Plagiarizing—failing to give credit to the author of an idea or claiming actual words and phrases as your own.
- Summarizing—explaining the author’s ideas in your own words
- Direct quotes—the exact words used by the author, enclosed in quotation marks.
- In-text citation—a parenthetical reference to the author/text immediately following a sentence incorporating a summary or direct quote
Citation Styles
Every research paper requires some form of citation. The following lists indicate the styles generally required according to discipline. Though most disciplines use a specific style guide, others are more flexible. Always check with your professors to see which style they prefer.
| MLA | APA | Chicago/Turabian |
| English, literature, philosophy, art, music, religion | Psychology, sociology, education, political science | history, social science |
| AP | CSE | |
| journalism | Biology, medicine, science |
Additional Resources
Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference
