Notes on writing a research paper from Cal Newport (author of Deep Work). Gathered from his various articles and podcasts.
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Paper-writing process can be broken down into three separate components:
Average student does all that in one go. The straight-A approach, on the other hand, is to separate these components into distinct challenges, each of which can be handled by a fine-tuned and efficient system.
Writing assignments come in many varieties and can be classified according to their length.
A research paper requires you to choose a topic within provided parameters and then devise an original thesis relevant to your chosen topic. For example, the broad parameters for your topic choice might be “anything involving the British Empire,” the specific topic you choose from within these parameters might be “public schools and the British Empire,” and the thesis you choose might be “the public school system in nineteenth-century England had a curriculum specifically tailored to the requirements of the British Empire.”
Research papers require original research to support your original thesis, and, accordingly, their page lengths are long and their due dates are generally a ways off from when they are assigned. If you spread out the work appropriately and choose the right topic, research papers can provide a rewarding intellectual challenge. Proposing and supporting an original argument is exciting.
Critical analysis essays differ from research papers in several significant ways: Topics are provided in advance, your thesis is nothing more than a specific answer to the question asked in the assignment, and there is little-to-no original research required. Not surprisingly, these essays require less time to complete than research papers. Their goal is to test your understanding of the material presented in class, not to seek out and present new ideas.
ALL THIS IS TACKLED IN 8 STEPS MENTIONED BELOW -
Typically, the professor will provide some loose parameters. For an art history course, these might be: “Any artist covered in the class so far.” For a political science class they might be: “Economic policy and Latin America.” The key is to choose a topic, within the constraints of the assignment, that excites you.
Typically, the essay prompt will contain a specific question(i.e.,“How do the two arguments differ?” or “Why does the author say this?”), and your thesis is a summary of your answer. For a research paper, on the other hand, you might be dealing with a very broad topic that requires significant digging to find an interesting and supportable idea that can be expanded to fit the required page limit. For a critical analysis essay, the solution is simple: Review both the reading notes and lecture notes that relate to the essay prompt. And that’s it! This should provide a rough idea of how you are going to answer the question posed by the assignment.
The art of conducting research paper thesis-hunting expeditions. Their goals are twofold: (1) find an interesting thesis that can be supported within the scope of the assignment; and (2) minimize the time required to conduct this search. Accomplishing both of these goals sounds hard, but straight-A students get it done. One simple phrase: Start general, then move one layer deep.
If your topic is Faulkner’s early writing, you might find one or two Faulkner biographies and then focus only on the chapters dealing with his early years. If you have a hard time finding a few general sources for your topic, then ask your professor—he’ll have plenty of titles to recommend. So that’s step one (the “start general” part of the strategy). The second step of your thesis-hunting expedition is to examine the list of books and articles cited in the relevant sections of your general sources. From this list, choose the cited works that look the most promising these sources will be more focused—perhaps journal articles or books addressing only a small number of specific arguments. A thesis should show a grasp of the complexities of a subject —‘in this poem, X symbolizes Y because Z’ is a weak type of thesis structure, far too reductive and simplistic—don’t be afraid to leave room for ambiguity and unresolved issues.
Your thesis will change and evolve as you continue the paper-writing process. This is inevitable, because you haven’t done your exhaustive research yet. At this early stage, your thesis more likely explains the type of connection or answer you hope to find, rather than the final connections and answers themselves. Before continuing, make sure that your preliminary research strongly indicates that something similar to your thesis idea will be supported by the more detailed investigations to follow. Be honest with yourself: If you made up your thesis simply because it sounded cool, but have no real reason to believe it to be true, then you’re courting a paper-writing disaster. If, on the other hand, several pieces of early evidence point to the types of interesting connections described by your thesis, then you’re on the right track.
Once you think you have a good thesis, a final step remains before diving fully into the research and writing process. For every research paper and significant critical analysis essay (i.e., assignments more than just a few pages long), you should make a habit of discussing your targeted thesis idea with your professor. Go to office hours, or make an appointment, explain your topic and thesis, then ask the following questions:
For a critical analysis essay, if the professor deems your thesis appropriate, this is a good sign that you are not going to get stuck. You can now move ahead with confidence. For a research paper, if the professor deems your thesis appropriate, take advantage of this time to explain some of the sources you plan to examine. The professor will likely have some additional sources to suggest. Write these down. This just saved you some serious research time! For both types of papers, if the professor isn’t enthusiastic about your thesis idea, then he or she will likely help you adjust it into something that is reasonable. When you leave this meeting, which should require only ten to twenty minutes, you will have confidence in the foundation of your paper. Remember, this step is not intended as a shortcut. If you skipped the previous step and show up at office hours without a targeted idea, the professor is not going to give you one for free but they always help with thought out ideas.
Means to have a system to follow for research. The system is based on these four steps:
Find sources - here are two strategies that can help you accomplish this goal. The first is stolen straight from Step #2: Start with general sources and then look in their bibliographies for more targeted resources. OR break Up Your Query into General Chunks for library online card catalog OR use journal database searches (like JSTOR) on the specific topic OR google but don’t cite Websites. Academics don’t trust them. Journal articles go through extensive peer-reviewing before they are published, and academic books are written by experts and rigorously edited. On Web sites, however, anything goes. Therefore, they’re worthless in terms of supporting an argument OR ask a librarian, they can be of immense help in it.
Make personal copies of all sources - take photocopy or PDF of relevant material combined in one document. Make sure you label each photocopy with all of the information needed to later construct a formal citation. For example, if you photocopy a book chapter, jot down on the first page the name of the book, the author(s), the publisher and its location, and the copyright date. Or, if you prefer, follow Christine’s advice and simply “make a photocopy of the title and copyright info” as found in the front of the book, so you can use it later while constructing the works cited for your paper. Second, photocopy each source’s bibliography. This way, if you come across an interesting reference in one of your photocopies, you will have easy access to the full citation attached to the reference.
Annotate the material - Every time you pass by an important definition, idea, or opinion that seems relevant to your thesis, jot down (on your computer or by hand) the page number and a quick description.
Decide if you’re done. (If the answer is “no,” then loop back to #1) - The Research termination determination procedure is a 3 step framework.
List the topics (specific questions, facts, or accounts from your research) that are crucial to support your thesis.
List the topics that might help you support your thesis.
If you have at least two good sources for each of the topics from #1, and have at least one good source for a majority of the topics from #2, then you’re done. Otherwise, you need to keep researching.
In general, a good college-level argument should accomplish the following:
Draw from previous work on the same topic to define the context for the discussion.
Introduce a thesis and carefully spell out how it relates to existing work on similar issues.
Support the thesis with careful reasoning and references to existing arguments, evidence, and primary sources.
Introduce some final prognostications about extending the argument and its potential impact on the field as a whole.
That being said, there are some general pointers about how to go about formulating your argument.
Tip #1: When it comes time to craft the storyline of your paper, put yourself in the right mind-set.Grab a copy of Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Harper’s, or any other publication that features well-crafted discussions. Peruse some articles, and then go for a walk along a quiet path.
Tip #2: At this point, grab your source material from the previous step. If your assignment is a critical analysis essay, this will consist of only a couple of books and your reading notes. If it’s a research paper, you might have a large stack of photocopied chapters and articles. In either case, dive into this information, and start letting the relevant facts and arguments settle into your mind and the relevant facts and arguments settle into your mind. This is where your annotations will point you toward what’s interesting, and help you avoid the irrelevant.
Tip #3: Take a break. Do something else. Let the pieces float around in the background noise of your mind.
CONSTRUCTING AN OUTLINE
Don’t over outline or under outline. Healthy mix example is given below for our hypothetical paper about the Eiger:
It can be in any order later you can decide the order. Next step is to fill in the details that you have gathered in your outline which will make it a bulky document. When it comes time to write, you don’t want to be flipping through your sources, hunting down the right support. This drains your energy. This is why it is crucial that you extract the information from your sources in advance. Later, the writing process will be reduced to the much simpler task of simply building a framework around this already identified and organized information structure.
Means your professor and friends (like sachin chauhan). The second conference with the Professor is more detailed, making sure that you managed to stay on course. Jason, a straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania, explains: “If you can explain why your argument works in a rational, step-by-step manner, and you have an arsenal of sources to cite to support the argument, then you’re ready to go.”
To improve writing skills, try to write as much as you can. Also, don’t be afraid to plunk a Chicago Manual of Style above your desk or flip through well-known style guides like William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Writing is deep work so do it in quiet isolation.
Have a writing schedule laid out clearly in your calender. Follow your outlines and move slowly. Always make sure your current point reads clearly before moving on to the next.
Editing means three passes as it is very important to straighten out the mistakes so that it is publishing worthy.
The Argument adjusting pass - our first pass through your work should be conducted on your computer. Read carefully, and focus on the presentation of your arguments—don’t worry about small grammatical mistakes for the moment. Take in the paper one paragraph at a time. If a section is awkwardly stated, clarify the sentences. If it makes a point you already explained earlier, ruthlessly cut it out. If the argument is lacking detail, add in more sentences as necessary to fully explain your point. If a transition is lacking between topics or paragraphs, add one.
Also be on the lookout for any major structural issues. Sometimes you don’t realize until you finish an entire draft that your topic outline wasn’t optimal. Don’t be afraid to shift around major chunks of text.
This is your chance to make serious edits to the structure of your paper, so take this seriously. Do this editing at a time when you are rested and unhurried by upcoming appointments. For a large paper, spread this pass out over several days if possible.
When you’re done, your paper may still contain small mistakes. That’s okay. You’ll fix those next. The goal here is to tweak the argument until you’re satisfied that it makes every point that you want to make in the order that you want to make them. Once you’re done with this pass, these big picture details are locked in.
The out loud pass - Accordingly, for this next pass, you should first print out a copy of your paper, and then take it where you can have some privacy. With a pencil in hand, and this is the important part, begin to read your paper out loud. Don’t cheat. Use a strong voice and articulate each word as if you’re delivering a speech. For a long paper, it may take a long time to read the entire thing, so be prepared to split this into several sessions. You might also want water or hot tea on hand to prevent you from losing your voice. Whatever you do, however, don’t avoid actually articulating every word.
Whereas the last pass focused on your arguments, the goal of this pass is to root out small mistakes that might otherwise distract a reader from your engaging thesis. While reading, whenever you come across a grammatical mistake or an awkward construction, mark it clearly on the printout. Then go back up to the beginning of the preceding paragraph and start reading again. After you have marked up the entire document, go back to your computer and enter the changes you noted on your printout. A word of warning—this process always takes longer than expected, so leave yourself plenty of time.
Reading it out loud helps you catch typos or strange wording better than reading it in your head.” No matter how many times you review a draft, if you’re scanning silently, there are certain awkward phrases you might skip over every time—our subconscious minds have a habit of patching over these mistakes when reading our own writing. When you say the words out loud, on the other hand, your ear will catch even minor problems and draw your attention to them.
The Sanity Pass - In this, just take a quick pass of your printed paper before handing it over. It is called sanity pass because once you hand in your paper, you can now confidently tell yourself: “Unless I’m going insane here, I’m pretty sure that I just handed in a damn good piece of writing!”
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