如何写研究论文

作业句：

这篇[课程论文 / 实验报告 / 学位论文章节]必须针对[读者]，在[页数或字数范围]内，用[APA / MLA / Chicago / 编号]引用，对[对象或问题]进行[分析 / 论证 / 比较 / 评价]。

研究问题：

不是“[题目]是什么？”，而是“支持[具体主张]的证据有多可靠，什么会改变答案？”

工作论点 / 目的：

我将论证[一位审慎读者可以反驳的主张]，使用[作业允许的证据类型]。

组织检验：

每一节都回答论点的一个子问题。若标题只是来源名称或情节事件，来源仍在组织这篇论文。

IMRaD门槛：

若作业是方法与结果报告，不要把五段式作文贴上去。把 Introduction、Methods、Results 和 Discussion 写成彼此独立的工作。

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment.

Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later.

Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic.

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience.

You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

research—gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters.

The simple three-point essay taught in high school is far too restrictive for the complexities of most university assignments.

If you are used to writing essays that are similar to the five-paragraph essay (one claim and then three points that support that claim), it can be daunting to think about how to structure your ideas in a longer essay.

Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.

Pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem to be solved

The first step in writing a research paper is to establish the topic.

Once you have figured out what you are asking (your research question), your thesis is simply the answer.

他们官方的大学体育成对例子（不是编造的论文）：

Should college athletes be paid for playing?

College athletes perform a valuable service for their schools and should be paid for their performance.

It should allow for reasoning as well as gathering of information—not just what the proto-Iroquoians ate, for instance, but how valid the evidence is for early introduction of corn.

In academic writing, an argument is usually a main idea, often called a “claim” or “thesis statement,” backed up with evidence that supports the idea.

You will almost always need to do more than just summarize information that you have gathered or regurgitate facts that have been discussed in class.

过于单薄（他们的例子）：

Frank Lloyd Wright was a great architect.

具体到足以研究（他们的例子）：

Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture combines elements of European modernism, Asian aesthetic form, and locally found materials to create a unique new style

Your essay must be an expression of your own thinking, not a patchwork of borrowed ideas.

Copy out exact words only when the ideas are memorably phrased or surprisingly expressed—when you might use them as actual quotations in your essay.

The best time to think about how to organize your paper is during the pre-writing stage, not the writing or revising stage.

Though there are no easy formulas for generating an outline, you can avoid one of the most common pitfalls in student papers by remembering this simple principle: the structure of an essay should not be determined by the structure of its source material.

Your obligation is to advance your argument, not to reproduce the plot.

Despite Hamlet’s highly developed moral nature, he becomes morally compromised while delaying his revenge.

I. Introduction: Hamlet’s father asks Hamlet not only to seek vengeance but also to keep his mind untainted.
II. Hamlet has a highly developed moral nature.
    A. Hamlet is idealistic.
    B. Hamlet is aware of his own faults, whereas others are self-satisfied.
    C. Hamlet does not want to take revenge without grounds for acting.
III. Hamlet becomes morally compromised while delaying.
    A. The turning point in Hamlet’s moral decline is his killing of Polonius.
    B. Hamlet’s moral decline continues when he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their death.
    C. Hamlet already began his moral decline before the turning point in the play, the killing of Polonius.
        1. Hamlet treats women badly.
        2. Hamlet criticizes others in the play for acting falsely to get ahead, but in adopting the disguise of madness he, too, is presenting a false face to the world.
IV. Though Hamlet becomes more compromised the longer he delays, killing the king would have been a morally questionable act.
V. Conclusion: The play Hamlet questions the adequacy of a system of ethics based on honour and revenge.

The second of these two paragraphs is much stronger, largely because it is not plot-driven. It makes a well-defined point about Hamlet’s moral nature and sticks to that point throughout the paragraph.

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake”(54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well”(51) is less convincing.

Build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., don’t let your sources organize your paper)

Summarize, analyze, explain, and evaluate published work rather than merely reporting it

present relevant background or contextual material

define terms or concepts when necessary

explain the focus of the paper and your specific purpose

reveal your plan of organization

In order to use a source effectively in your paper, you must integrate it into your argument in a way that makes it clear to your reader not only which ideas come from that source, but also what the source is adding to your own thinking.

each source you use in a paper should be there for a reason, and your reader should not have to guess what that reason is.

APA 7 括号：

([姓氏], [年份], p. [页码])

MLA 9 括号：

([姓氏] [页码])

Chicago 注释（Notes-Bibliography）：

首次注释：完整书目信息。其后注释：简短作者、简短题名、页码。

Revision literally means to “see again,” to look at something from a fresh, critical perspective. It is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering your arguments, reviewing your evidence, refining your purpose, reorganizing your presentation, reviving stale prose.

Writing is a process of discovery, and you don’t always produce your best stuff when you first get started.

That’s called proofreading. It’s an important step before turning your paper in, but if your ideas are predictable, your thesis is weak, and your organization is a mess, then proofreading will just be putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.

Just read through your essay, and every time you make a new point, summarize it in the margin. If the essay is reasonably well-organized, you should have one point in the margin for each paragraph, and your points read out in order should form a coherent argument.