Write a research paper in 5 steps.

This post will help you to write a paper within 5 steps and in a very short time. This post teaches you how to overcome the barriers that you may have to write an article in a short time. Here are the most important steps:

Step #1: Get Everything In Place

It’s like cooking dinner. You need to have your onions chopped, your tomatoes at the ready, and olive oil ready to go. If you don’t, it can lead to confusion. There are many students trying to write the paper as they go along, thinking it’s going to be more efficient, but it’s not. Writing is the last 10% of your project. so don’t even bother starting if you don’t have that heart of your paper, your findings, your figures, and your tables are ready to go.

Step #2: Write The Paper From Inside Out

This step is incredibly important and not everybody knows this. Many students start to write their papers they get stuck they just stare blankly at the computer for hours. In fact,  the issue is they’re trying to write the paper from start to finish going linearly through the introduction to the methods to the result to the conclusion. That’s wrong. That’s a mistake and no wonder you’re having problems. instead, you should write the paper from the inside out. You want to start with the methods.

For many of you, this is actually the easiest section to write. It’s going to give you confidence. So don’t forget to start with the methods. Get that done and then move into the results. Again this is backward from how you may have done it before. but it’s going to help you avoid getting stuck. it’s going to help you move faster. So those results you’re going to simply describe in order your tables, and figures and your key findings. Make sure that you’ve organized those to tell a clear and coherent story about what you want to show your readers and show the editors of the journal, where you’re going to send the paper.

Step #3: Write The Conclusion

Now go into the conclusion, not the introduction. The conclusion has several components that are quite formulaic. so in the first part of the conclusion, you want to recapitulate your findings. Restate very succinctly what your keep findings were. But don’t go into any detail about them. Yet that’s the first paragraph of your conclusion. The second paragraph of your conclusion always is the limitations. This is a really great opportunity for you to fend off reviewer criticisms by saying I anticipated that, I already knew about that, etc. List your limitations out. Make it very simple for yourself. You know what those limitations are. You were probably well aware of them and they may have even given you nightmares before. This is a chance to make the limitation transparent. Then go into the implications for future research. Think what are the implications, if any, for policy, interventions, or other actions in your field of study. This may not apply to all of you. But will likely apply to most of the fields that you’re working.

Step #4: Write The Introduction

Now you’re ready for the introduction. The introduction is the biggest stumbling block and it can be quite difficult. but actually, it’s a lot like the conclusion and it doesn’t need to be as difficult as we sometimes make it to be. An introduction is going to have a three-part structure:

  1.  In the first part of your introduction, you want to set out why are we having this conversation now. why is your topic so important? why do people care in your field? Try to set that up.
  2. You want to get into what is the weakness of what’s been done before. Means that what’s missing in this conversation? You might want to go and do a quick literature review to back up those points. Cite the existing studies that have been done before and state what’s missing from those. Finally, you lead right into your study.
  3. The third part of your introduction is the value that your study is going to bring to the table. How are you going to plug those gaps? What gaps are you filling? You really want to take this opportunity to articulate very clearly and succinctly what the value-added of your paper is.

Step #5: Don’t be a perfectionist

It’s a very important thing to remember that is it doesn’t have to be perfect. This is a very common error students make. Perfect is the enemy of the good. Don’t worry. You’re going to clean the mistake up later. Think about it like climbing a mountain. As you climb the mountain you slowly work your way up to the top and it might be the first pass of the paper you just dump facts and information in. that’s fine. You’ve got the skeleton and you’ve got the bones of the paper together. Then as you continue climbing up that mountain, you’re going to continue to polish and clean up and edit that writing. 

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