How to write a research paper

COVER

Include the name of the project, your name and class, the date (month), the subject and an attractive image related to the content.

INDEX

Leave the index for the very end, when you can number the pages and design the index correctly.

INTRODUCTION

It's normally a good idea to write the introduction when you finish the work and you have a clear idea of your topic. The intention of this section is to engage the reader and catch their attention. To think of your introduction, you can use some of these guiding questions:

· Why did you choose this topic?

· Is it related to the subject you are studying?

· Is this topic a world-changing one? 

· Why should the reader be interested in this paper?

· When and how did I first hear about this topic?

CONTENT

Do your research before you start working on the Word, Powerpoint or Canva file. You can use a notepad for storing all the information you'll later use. Don't forget copying the URL of the websites you've gotten the information from. In this notepad you can also insert the images you think you'll later use.

Super important: FIND THE INFORMATION DIRECTLY IN ENGLISH so you don't have to translate later on.

Find information to answer some of these guiding questions, depending on the topic. You can think of many more:

· WHAT. What is it? What are the advantages/drawbacks of this? 

· WHY. Why is this topic important? Why did this happen? Why are there people who love/hate it?

· WHEN. When did this happen? When will this be lauched to the public/market? When will this end? When did it become popular?

· WHO. Who invented/designed/made/etc it? Who can be interested in this topic? Who can this be good/bad for? Who helped this happen? Who paid for this? Who made/lost money with this?

· WHERE. Where did this happen? Where in the world was this important? Where do people use/need/make/design/etc this?

· HOW. How is this made? How much money has been invested in this?

· (WHICH)

Once you have all the information you need, you can start to draft your written paper: use your own English, write short clear sentences, separate your ideas into sentences or paragraphs, and use connectors. Don't write the questions! Just turn each question and answer into a paragraph. 

It`s also the moment to write a caption for each image you'll use. Discard images that are not useful (remember they must add something to the paper, not there for decoration!).

Only when all your text is written it's when you will open the Word, Powerpoint or Canva file and start carrying your text there and formatting it to make it look great.

CONCLUSION

It's normally a good idea to write the conclusion when you finish the work and you have a clear idea of your topic. The intention of this section is to show that you've committed to the topic, understood it and forged your own personal opinion about it. So the trick is to write it in the first person and make it just very unique. To write your conclusion, you can use some of these guiding questions, or others you come up with:

· What did I learn during this research?

· How is this going to change my life or the world around me?

· Who would you like to teach about this subject?

· How did this research make me feel?

· What is my (deep personal) opinion about this topic?

WEBGRAPHY

Include all the websites visited. Remember using trustworthy websites and going further than just Wikipedia!!

Don't write the full URL, only the resource name (domain). For example:

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_masks_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic

www.wikipedia.org

IDEAS TO MAKE YOUR PAPER MORE DYNAMIC

You can include quotes, fun facts or "did you know" sections in any chapter of your paper.