Guide on how to write a research paper

  

Date Posted: 3/18/2020 12:13:34 PM

Posted By: Justus mbindyo  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 672

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How to write a research paper and main components of a research paper.

In academic writing people are required to follow certain laid down format to write a research paper. This format is actually the thing that makes your paper be considered or be rejected as the format in most of the cases will act as the marking scheme of your work. Most of the learning institutions usually have their format tailored to the output they require at the end of research paper, but here is the most common format for the most of institutions across the world.

The topic.
This is the most important part of the research paper. It sheds light to what your entire study is going to carry out throughout your time of research proposal. Am saying it is the most important part because no one can research of nothing, you must be guided by a topic which must be related to your area of study. For the researcher to continue with the project he/she must first get his topic approved by his/her supervisor before beginning to pen down words in the name of writing a research paper.

Preliminary pages.
These are the pages before the start of chapter one. They include but not limited to; First, Declaration- the phrase where you affirm that the work you are submitting to your supervisor is your original work and has never been submitted by anyone in the very before. Acknowledgement; this is like a thanks giving section of the researcher; here he thanks all the supportive team who made him successfully take the project with ease.

Dedication – this part is not very important, but when included in a research paper the researcher dedicates his work to the people he may wish to appreciate and dedicate the work to. They may include family

members, friends, wife or even children. The next part is the list of abbreviations and acronyms. Here the research lists down all the acronyms and abbreviations used in the academic paper to give a glance to the other people read his work easy time to understand them since the same abbreviation may have different meanings to different meanings.

Abstract; This is the study summary which contains; The topic, specific objectives, theories on which the paper is based, Research design, Population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, Data collection methods, data analysis tools and the study findings.

The next part contains the list of figures, tables and the table of contents. Figures are any other drawing made in the research which is not a table e.g conceptual framework. On the other hand, the table of contents is the summary of all what is contained in the paper, which must correspond to the page number where that chapter topic or subtopic is found. This helps readers to easily retrieve your work.

Chapter 1: Introduction
This part of the study is concerned with; Background of the study which specifically summarizes related studies from three different perspectives, that is, from outside your continent, within your continent but outside your home country and finally from with the country. Under the same topic, the following subtopics are developed; discussion of the independent variable, dependent variable and the areas of the study e.g SMES within a given locality.

The next part is concerned with the statement of the problem. A research is a paper aimed at solving a certain problem within an area of economy or people. Here the problem is defined in simple terms which can easily be understood by the learners and other interested groups. It is stated following a specific format, that is, the ideal situation, real situation and finally the research gap. From there the researcher now writes down his specific objectives, research questions which are mainly developed from the specific objectives, significance of the study and then operationalization of the terms.

Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter gives detailed information on; theoretical framework, concepts of the independent variable, conceptual framework, Empirical review, and summary of research gaps of the reviewed literature. In the case where there are no theories on which the study is based on, the researcher can leave out the part as well as the concepts of the independent variable are not compulsory.

Chapter three: Research methodology
This chapter provides details of the research design, Population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, Data collection tools used in the study, Data analysis methods, Data reliability and validity and finally the chapter ends with the ethical issues taken into account during the study period.

Chapter 4: Data presentations, Analysis and Interpretation.
This chapter is concerned with; The chapter overview, Response rate in the case where the researcher used questionnaire as a data collection tool, General information from part one of the questionnaire, followed by all the specific objectives of the study which takes a form of independents subtopics, regression analysis, summary model, ANOVA, coefficients of the regression model which will give the equation which is interpreted to give the findings of the study.

Chapter 5: Discussion, conclusion and recommendations.
This is the last chapter in a standard research paper. It discusses the findings drawn from data analysis in details as well as comparing the study findings with the findings of the other studies. In addition, after the discussion, the chapter provides conclusion based on the findings and give recommendations from three different viewpoints, that is, to the regulatory bodies, to the participants in the field and lastly to the researchers. This chapter finally provides other researchers with research gaps they may take advantage of in the future or simply a gap that need to be explored.

Last part: References and appendixes
References provide the list of all research papers which were used in the study and any other study materials used to contribute in the study. On the appendix, this will contain the questionnaire used in the study and any other information from the regression model that was not used in the study.

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