Writing Research Papers
Research assignments give you an opportunity to demonstrate practically the skills and knowledge learnt in class. In the effort to give the best in writing research papers, students unconsciously make mistakes. This article highlights common mistakes students make in research paper writing especially in their early days of undertaking research assignments.
Topic selection
- Some students select wide topics making it difficult to provide a satisfactory answer. On the other hand, the topics can be too narrow that the writer does not have room to explore.
Objectives of the research
- Coming up with very ambitious research objectives, lacking a depth in research, presenting descriptive researches and failure to create a link between your research objectives and realities on the ground.
Writing formats
- Using more than one format in writing research papers, for instance, giving in text citation in Harvard and the bibliography in APA.
Hypothesis or thesis statement
- Formulating or creating a general hypothesis or thesis statement that does not address a particular issue, and creating a trivial thesis statement or hypothesis that cannot be tested because of unavailability of data.
Literature review
- Focusing on general literature as opposed to literature specific to your project, giving titles for sources and the names of authors, and using outdated resource materials.
Research methodology
- Using data collection and analysis methods that are not suitable to the research,
- Applying in adequate methods,- some researches require that you use more than one method to get the desired results
- Methods that do not demonstrate a clear relationship between data collected and variables under investigation.
- The mistakes stated above should be avoided at all cost when writing research papers. They can contribute to low grades or disqualification of your project. Therefore, it is advisable that students seek for guidance from their instructors of professionals in research papers writing.