How to Write a Research Essay

March 13, 2024 CustomEssay.com Write my essay

When you arrive at your new college or university, you may soon discover that a research essay is quite different from a regular essay. A research essay is created to explore and test a theory about a topic, rather than simply outlining the facts known to academic thought. While there obviously is a much more obvious focus on research in mathematics and the sciences, in pretty much every area of study, from the arts to social sciences and humanities, research essays are a given. This article will provide you with some tips on constructing a place for your research essay.

Planning:

The first step is to plan carefully. Research essays usually have three sections that allow the research to be delineated in a specific way. Although there are different popular formats for research essays, the following outline is the most common.

Introduction:

The Introduction of your research essay allows you to familiarize your reader with your thesis and the general information known about your topic. This first section also gives you the opportunity to outline what you will be covering in your research and the conclusions that you expect to find. Begin with a thesis statement sentence, which is a simple sentence or two sentences that briefly introduce the author’s main idea and summarize what question or idea the essay will address.

Literature Review:

The second section is called the Literature Review. It allows you to provide background information on other research completed on this topic in the past, or related topics that may have an effect on your findings. Very often students read an article only to find good quotations for their own work, or for summaries of debates and problems in the field. You need to go further than this and develop strong ideas about the meaning of what you read.

Analysis:

The third section, the Analysis, provides the reader with a specific formula that you are following to test your hypothesis, whether qualitative or quantitative. This section also develops the analysis of your findings, and discusses any anomalies.

Conclusion:

The research essay ends with a conclusion which draws together ideas about the thesis and any implications for the field.