Writing a Research Essay
Instructions: In this class, you have written a response essay to one author. You have also written a reflective annotated bibliography on six articles. You then wrote a personal research narrative in which you integrated 10 sources, including at least 6 scholarly sources, into your paper. In this final project, you will write a process essay of 1000 words. In this process essay, you will write for your audience the steps involved in finding a topic, locating sources, focusing the topic as a result of finding your sources, and eventually writing a research essay. There are two types of process essays. An informative process essay provides information about how something works. A directive process essay explains how to do something. This essay will most likely be a directive process essay. A good process essay begins with a thesis that tells the reader why the description of the process is important. A writer needs to remember to include each step in the process and all the items needed to complete it. It is important to be specific when describing the actions taken. (G. H. Muller and H. S. Wiener, The Short Prose Reader. McGraw-Hill, 2006) David Taylor has created a short video for the process essay. You may watch it by clicking here. You can find more materials on the Process Essay in Writing For Success (2014) "Chapter 10, Rhetorical Modes," page 15.
Writing a Research Essay
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Writing a Research Essay
Introduction
Carrying out research requires a step by step approach enabling the researcher to gather sufficient information. It is important that the researcher first identifies the specific area of research to ensure consistent focus (University Of Alaska, n.d). This acts as a guide to the progressive research activities that are carried to gather required information. Planning for research ensures that sufficient time is available to search relevant data and analyze it. There are different sources from which the data necessary for research can be gathered, which include primary and secondary sources (Walsh & Wigens, 2003). At the end of any research, it should be possible to have a conclusion or a solution to problem under study. The major steps that enhance carrying out of research include choosing a topic, locating sources for information, using the sources to focus on the topic and finally writing the findings in form of an essay.
Choosing a Topic
To successfully carry out any research, it is important to first choose the topic to be studied to avoid incidences of frustrations. You are supposed to ensure that the topic is clear and there are relevant sources of gathering information for the topic chosen (Writing Center, n.d). It is important that your topic of choice is interesting to you to ensure that you do not get bored along the way. Understanding the purpose for the research is important in guiding you on how to choose the topic. The topic should be able to answer the possible problems at the start. As a researcher, it is important that you develop hypothesis to act as the guide to what you expect from your research (Baker & Brizee, 2013). The hypothesis could be gathered from previous researches carried out on the same topic. The hypothesis statements should be arranged in chronological manner to guide the research all through. To fully develop the topic of study, you should then develop possible questions that you will be answering during your study. The questions will help you understand the topic further and increase chances of getting adequate information for the research. You should also narrow the topic to ensure that you retain your focus throughout your research.
Locating Sources
After choosing your research topic, the next step is to identify the sources which will help you gather relevant information. The sources could either be primary or secondary sources. You are supposed to choose the sources that are more appropriate with your research and those that are available. If you decide to use primary sources of data, you are supposed to identify the sample to include in your research. The sample selected should not be biased and thus should represent the entire population. When you decide to use secondary data, the library is appropriate place to go and find relevant journals or books (Writing Center, n.d). When you get to the library, you should ask the librarian for assistance to show you the section to find materials for your topic. Once in the section with materials with relevant information about your topic, you are supposed to choose resources which are more updated. This means that; information from the resources should be a few years old and thus relatively old resources should be avoided. After identifying the resour...