There are three certainties throughout your academic life: classes, homework, and a shift in perspective by the time you finish a certain level of study. When it comes to assignments, academic papers are perhaps the most common.
These essays measure a student’s capacity for conceptual analysis and the use of different existent concepts to address academic issues. Sadly, students’ poor understanding of academic writing frequently leads to a ton of stress and a variety of mistakes that affect a student’s final grade.
This article will cover a variety of writing-related topics to assist you in producing high-quality papers without experiencing excessive stress, which is common among students.
What is an academic paper?
An academic paper is a factual essay that draws on previously published material to support its numerous claims. These essays frequently focus on an issue within the student’s field of study to gauge their ability to apply learned concepts to a specific challenge.
Unlike blogs, academic papers have a set format with chapters that each contribute to the analysis of a particular topic.
What is academic research?
Academic research is the term used to describe the methods used to investigate to verify a hypothesis. Depending on your topic of study, this research could be qualitative or quantitative. Academic research is common in master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.
Types of academic papers
Throughout your studies, you may encounter a variety of academic paper forms. Opinion essays, case studies, argumentative essays, research papers, and brief reports are a few of the most popular kinds of writing.
As the name implies, opinion essays showcase your position on a given subject. To avoid emotive reasons that are likely to be critiqued by your tutor, each point in this article should, however, be backed up by a substantial number of academic sources.
Case studies examine a phenomenon to educate the reader about a new development. These essays frequently investigate different facets of a problem to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of the issue at hand.
Similar to opinion essays, argumentative essays are prepared in favor of or in opposition to a particular position. Your opinions are not allowed in these articles, though, and each assertion must be supported by solid research. Last but not least, research papers use several academic research methods to test a hypothesis and showcase the data obtained on a specific subject.
How to write an academic paper?
The following are some of the steps we recommend for writing academic papers:
- Decide on a topic
Focus on the subject that most interests you if you have a choice of several. On the other side, if you must select your subject, develop a list of all the subjects you are enthusiastic about and look through topic boards for ideas.
- Express your viewpoint
Make a position that your paper will support after selecting your subject. The planning of your arguments should be aided by your position, which should serve as your thesis.
- Search for proof
Once you’ve chosen a position, look for sources that support it. Keep track of the important facts while you perform your research so that you may use them in your outline later.
- Develop the conclusion
In the end, review your paper’s main points and underline its main conclusion.
- Make an essay draft
Following your research, make an outline of your points and the evidence you will use to support them. The plan will make it easy to write your paper without having to veer off course from your main topics.
Format of academic paper
Key elements of an academic research report include the following:
- Abstract
The purpose, methods, and findings of the study are frequently summarized in the abstract.
Your thesis should be included in this summary, which should also highlight your major discoveries and research findings.
- Introduction
The background information is necessary to identify a research gap that justifies your study is included in the introduction to the research paper. The primary issue your study seeks to address as well as any additional research goals you want to accomplish through your experiment should be highlighted in this section.
- Methods
This section outlines the factors in your research and your research methodology so that other researchers can replicate your findings.
- Results
The findings of your experiment are shown in the results section as summaries and graphs. Results, in contrast to other sections of your research report, do not include any supporting data and instead ask you to discuss your conclusions.
- Discussion
The discussion is the heart of an academic paper; it connects your findings to the hypothesis and refers to other sources you came across during your literature review. Here, you can make deductions about how the facts relate to one another and how the findings support or refute certain claims.
- Conclusion
Your research paper’s conclusion summarizes your findings and makes suggestions for further research on the subject. The main points of your case should be emphasized in this chapter, and any novel concepts that weren’t covered throughout your research should be avoided.