Research Basics
Writing the Research Paper (or Proposal)
There are 5 major steps to take a research project from the beginning to its end. This section highlights the major elements in each step.
“Tell me what you’re going to tell me, tell me what you said you were going to tell me, and tell me what you just told me.”
After completing the five research steps, you are now ready to write the research paper. However, for some, before you even collect data for your project, you must write a research proposal that will be approved by a professor, a funder, or an organization. For those interested in the proposal, you can skip this section and go directly to proposal writing.
There is a general format that most social science papers follow. This format is clear and straightforward and it generally follows the essence of the five research steps. Not surprisingly, there are five key components of a research paper that presents original analysis.
