effective writing and research

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Writing, including publication, is critical to conveying science, and is often an important indicator of success in a c/t research career. Depending on the document you are writing – a grant, proposal, article, or another format – there are a variety of styles and approaches to consider. Explore the resources below to learn to write effectively and publish across several  mediums.

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The sections below provide strategies, organizing tips and resources to help you become a successful writer. 

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How to prepare for the multi-step process

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11.1 The Purpose of Research Writing

Learning objectives.

• Identify reasons to research writing projects.
• Outline the steps of the research writing process.

Why was the Great Wall of China built? What have scientists learned about the possibility of life on Mars? What roles did women play in the American Revolution? How does the human brain create, store, and retrieve memories? Who invented the game of football, and how has it changed over the years?

You may know the answers to these questions off the top of your head. If you are like most people, however, you find answers to tough questions like these by searching the Internet, visiting the library, or asking others for information. To put it simply, you perform research.

Whether you are a scientist, an artist, a paralegal, or a parent, you probably perform research in your everyday life. When your boss, your instructor, or a family member asks you a question that you do not know the answer to, you locate relevant information, analyze your findings, and share your results. Locating, analyzing, and sharing information are key steps in the research process, and in this chapter, you will learn more about each step. By developing your research writing skills, you will prepare yourself to answer any question no matter how challenging.

Reasons for Research

When you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened. In other words, you want to answer a question that you (and other people) have about the world. This is one of the most basic reasons for performing research.

But the research process does not end when you have solved your mystery. Imagine what would happen if a detective collected enough evidence to solve a criminal case, but she never shared her solution with the authorities. Presenting what you have learned from research can be just as important as performing the research. Research results can be presented in a variety of ways, but one of the most popular—and effective—presentation forms is the research paper . A research paper presents an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources.

If you are curious about the possibility of life on Mars, for example, you might choose to research the topic. What will you do, though, when your research is complete? You will need a way to put your thoughts together in a logical, coherent manner. You may want to use the facts you have learned to create a narrative or to support an argument. And you may want to show the results of your research to your friends, your teachers, or even the editors of magazines and journals. Writing a research paper is an ideal way to organize thoughts, craft narratives or make arguments based on research, and share your newfound knowledge with the world.

Write a paragraph about a time when you used research in your everyday life. Did you look for the cheapest way to travel from Houston to Denver? Did you search for a way to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe? In your paragraph, explain what you wanted to research, how you performed the research, and what you learned as a result.

Research Writing and the Academic Paper

No matter what field of study you are interested in, you will most likely be asked to write a research paper during your academic career. For example, a student in an art history course might write a research paper about an artist’s work. Similarly, a student in a psychology course might write a research paper about current findings in childhood development.

Having to write a research paper may feel intimidating at first. After all, researching and writing a long paper requires a lot of time, effort, and organization. However, writing a research paper can also be a great opportunity to explore a topic that is particularly interesting to you. The research process allows you to gain expertise on a topic of your choice, and the writing process helps you remember what you have learned and understand it on a deeper level.

Research Writing at Work

Knowing how to write a good research paper is a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout your career. Whether you are developing a new product, studying the best way to perform a procedure, or learning about challenges and opportunities in your field of employment, you will use research techniques to guide your exploration. You may even need to create a written report of your findings. And because effective communication is essential to any company, employers seek to hire people who can write clearly and professionally.

Writing at Work

Take a few minutes to think about each of the following careers. How might each of these professionals use researching and research writing skills on the job?

• Medical laboratory technician
• Small business owner
• Information technology professional
• Freelance magazine writer

A medical laboratory technician or information technology professional might do research to learn about the latest technological developments in either of these fields. A small business owner might conduct research to learn about the latest trends in his or her industry. A freelance magazine writer may need to research a given topic to write an informed, up-to-date article.

Think about the job of your dreams. How might you use research writing skills to perform that job? Create a list of ways in which strong researching, organizing, writing, and critical thinking skills could help you succeed at your dream job. How might these skills help you obtain that job?

Steps of the Research Writing Process

How does a research paper grow from a folder of brainstormed notes to a polished final draft? No two projects are identical, but most projects follow a series of six basic steps.

These are the steps in the research writing process:

• Choose a topic.
• Plan and schedule time to research and write.
• Conduct research.
• Organize research and ideas.
• Draft your paper.
• Revise and edit your paper.

Each of these steps will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter. For now, though, we will take a brief look at what each step involves.

Step 1: Choosing a Topic

As you may recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , to narrow the focus of your topic, you may try freewriting exercises, such as brainstorming. You may also need to ask a specific research question —a broad, open-ended question that will guide your research—as well as propose a possible answer, or a working thesis . You may use your research question and your working thesis to create a research proposal . In a research proposal, you present your main research question, any related subquestions you plan to explore, and your working thesis.

Step 2: Planning and Scheduling

Before you start researching your topic, take time to plan your researching and writing schedule. Research projects can take days, weeks, or even months to complete. Creating a schedule is a good way to ensure that you do not end up being overwhelmed by all the work you have to do as the deadline approaches.

During this step of the process, it is also a good idea to plan the resources and organizational tools you will use to keep yourself on track throughout the project. Flowcharts, calendars, and checklists can all help you stick to your schedule. See Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , Section 11.2 “Steps in Developing a Research Proposal” for an example of a research schedule.

Step 3: Conducting Research

When going about your research, you will likely use a variety of sources—anything from books and periodicals to video presentations and in-person interviews.

Your sources will include both primary sources and secondary sources . Primary sources provide firsthand information or raw data. For example, surveys, in-person interviews, and historical documents are primary sources. Secondary sources, such as biographies, literary reviews, or magazine articles, include some analysis or interpretation of the information presented. As you conduct research, you will take detailed, careful notes about your discoveries. You will also evaluate the reliability of each source you find.

Step 4: Organizing Research and the Writer’s Ideas

When your research is complete, you will organize your findings and decide which sources to cite in your paper. You will also have an opportunity to evaluate the evidence you have collected and determine whether it supports your thesis, or the focus of your paper. You may decide to adjust your thesis or conduct additional research to ensure that your thesis is well supported.

Remember, your working thesis is not set in stone. You can and should change your working thesis throughout the research writing process if the evidence you find does not support your original thesis. Never try to force evidence to fit your argument. For example, your working thesis is “Mars cannot support life-forms.” Yet, a week into researching your topic, you find an article in the New York Times detailing new findings of bacteria under the Martian surface. Instead of trying to argue that bacteria are not life forms, you might instead alter your thesis to “Mars cannot support complex life-forms.”

Step 5: Drafting Your Paper

Now you are ready to combine your research findings with your critical analysis of the results in a rough draft. You will incorporate source materials into your paper and discuss each source thoughtfully in relation to your thesis or purpose statement.

When you cite your reference sources, it is important to pay close attention to standard conventions for citing sources in order to avoid plagiarism , or the practice of using someone else’s words without acknowledging the source. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to incorporate sources in your paper and avoid some of the most common pitfalls of attributing information.

Step 6: Revising and Editing Your Paper

In the final step of the research writing process, you will revise and polish your paper. You might reorganize your paper’s structure or revise for unity and cohesion, ensuring that each element in your paper flows into the next logically and naturally. You will also make sure that your paper uses an appropriate and consistent tone.

Once you feel confident in the strength of your writing, you will edit your paper for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and formatting. When you complete this final step, you will have transformed a simple idea or question into a thoroughly researched and well-written paper you can be proud of!

Review the steps of the research writing process. Then answer the questions on your own sheet of paper.

• In which steps of the research writing process are you allowed to change your thesis?
• In step 2, which types of information should you include in your project schedule?
• What might happen if you eliminated step 4 from the research writing process?

Key Takeaways

• People undertake research projects throughout their academic and professional careers in order to answer specific questions, share their findings with others, increase their understanding of challenging topics, and strengthen their researching, writing, and analytical skills.
• The research writing process generally comprises six steps: choosing a topic, scheduling and planning time for research and writing, conducting research, organizing research and ideas, drafting a paper, and revising and editing the paper.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Ten Tips for Effective Research Writing

Thousands of books, manuals and how-to guides offer advice on research writing. Of course, if the advice given in these books were definitive, there would be no reason to publish new volumes year after year. Individual writing processes vary depending, in part, on personal preference and disciplinary expectations. Although there is no single recipe for success, here are some practical suggestions to keep in mind when approaching a research writing project.

• Plan for the long process ahead. Establish deadlines for yourself when it comes to data collection, analysis, and the actual writing phase. Aim to meet or exceed these deadlines.
• Figure out who you are writing for. What are the expectations of your audience? Consider writing for readers with less background knowledge than your target audience. This should help improve your clarity.
• Decide what shape your research writing will take. Carefully analyze the writing style of articles in your target publication and emulate that style.
• When writing about your methodology, simply tell readers what you did. Keep your discussions of various possible methods to a minimum and avoid excessive detail.
• Write in a straightforward manner, avoiding clichés. Re-examine any uses of jargon, as they could be covering up unclear thought.
• Decide which of your findings are important and give them a prominent place. For the sake of clarity, be prepared to relegate some of your findings to the appendices.
• Be prepared to struggle with the presentation of statistics. Remember that tables should speak for themselves. Readers should not have to dig through the main text to make sense of them.
• Strive for clear, straightforward sentences. The simplest form is best. Recognize that revision will be necessary.
• Share your writing with readers of various levels. Their input can prove illuminating.
• Always proofread a hard copy of your writing. If possible, work with a partner and read your prose out loud, punctuation and all.

Common myths about writing

Good writing ….

• must be perfect, the first time – Expecting your first draft to be your final product is unrealistic and demands perfectionism that can be paralyzing.
• requires me to know exactly what I think before I even start writing – Writing is a process of discovery. Attempting to write in a linear fashion can be overwhelming and often results in procrastination. Outlining is an excellent first step and is much less daunting.
• emerges spontaneously as a result of inspiration – Waiting for the muse to strike is a common pitfall that can lead to procrastination and self-doubt.
• should proceed quickly and effortlessly – Perpetuated by impatience, this myth can result in frustration and binge writing. Expect to spend time making necessary revisions and spread the writing process out over a reasonable amount of time. Good writing takes work.
• comes from extensive training or an innate “gift” – There is no secret formula for writing success; although, much like physical exercise, the more writing you do, the easier it gets.
• requires large blocks of time – Whole days of uninterrupted writing time are hard to come by, so this myth can result in procrastination and anxiety.
• must be all consuming – Devoting all of your time and attention to your writing is unrealistic and unnecessary.

Working towards productive writing

• Make writing part of your regular routine. Writing researcher Robert Boice suggests that writing for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week makes it possible to produce two journal­ length articles over the course of a year. You can't write a final draft in 30 minutes, but you can use this time to chip away at your writing project. Work on your bibliographical notes, outline a chapter – these small steps add up and go a long way in reducing writing anxiety.
• Make these sessions automatic. Regardless of mood, try to work on some aspect of your research writing project every single day. Consider making a recurrent activity (like phone calls to friends) contingent on writing for a minimum period of time first.
• Set realistic goals for each session. Divide large projects into a set of smaller tasks. This practice helps prevent binge writing and results in a sense of accomplishment.
• Write when you’re fresh. You’re more likely to be productive when feeling energized and alert. Know your own peak periods and work with them rather than against them.
• Be task specific and plan ahead. Take a few minutes near the end of each session to gauge your progress and map out your next steps so you can easily pick up where you left off.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the  CTE Support  page to find the most relevant staff member to contact.

• Boice, Robert.  Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing . Stillwater: New Forums Press, 1990.
• Booth, Wayne C. et al.  The Craft of Research . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
• Delamont, Atkinson & Parry (eds.).  Supervising the PhD . Buckinham, UK: SRHE and Open University Press, 1997.

This Creative Commons license  lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format:  Ten Tips for Effective Research Writing . Centre  for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo .

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Developing effective writing habits.

In this module, you’ll learn how to overcome the barriers that keep you from finishing—or starting—a writing project, and how to develop a writing routine. With a few of these tools under your belt, you’ll be ready to form a writing habit that saves you time and maximizes your productivity.

We imagine prolific writers as geniuses who, struck by an idea, simply begin to write and, with very little effort, produce a finished product. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, prolific and skilled writers have developed writing habits that help them take charge of the writing process.

Make writing a habit

When you make writing a regular part of your life, it becomes much less of a burden. When writing becomes part of your routine, you’ll start getting more done in less time; thus your writing becomes more automatic, fluid, and natural.

Identify and overcome writing obstacles

When you have a writing project with an approaching deadline, you may suddenly decide to do more reading, check your email, or start a load of laundry . . . instead of sitting down to write. In effect, you’ve basically decided to procrastinate.

Procrastination is not an obstacle but a manifestation of a writing block. While nearly every writer is aware of procrastination, far fewer writers know about the different types of obstacles that are at procrastination’s root.

Writing obstacles include (a) lack of confidence, (b) distaste for writing, or (c) a lack of time. These three top obstacles have one thing in common: Once they’re identified as productivity blocks, they can be directly confronted and overcome.

^ identified by psychologist Robert Boice, Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press, 1990. PP 20-22.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper. —E.B. White

Writing Obstacle 1: Lack of confidence

Writers who lack confidence worry they don’t have the skills necessary to make a contribution to their field or they haven’t correctly analyzed their data, so their conclusion must either not be worthwhile or simply wrong. This is similar to the impostor syndrome: the belief they aren’t good enough to succeed, or they’ve deceived themselves or others about their ability to succeed. Additionally, telling yourself that you’re “not a good writer” is also counterproductive.

Strategy: Counter negative self-talk

Self-talk is about remaining confident in your skills and addressing any negative thoughts about your abilities. When your negative voice emerges, recognize it and gently self-correct. Counter those feelings with an affirmation about your abilities: You’re in graduate school because you are smart enough. You can learn to write well. From there, take one task at a time (if you’re overwhelmed by a number of tasks, it’s difficult to make headway). A checklist helps build confidence in your abilities to continue making progress. Source: thewritepractice.com/self-talk

Strategy: Form a writing group

Writing groups help you gain confidence by providing feedback, receiving encouragement from others, and helping you realize you’re not alone in your struggle to write. When you share your project timeline with others, you also become more accountable in completing tasks. Writing groups work best when writers are at a common stage in their careers (working on a final paper is a different task from writing a dissertation) and have a similar disciplinary focus, although members need not be from the same department. However, a word of caution is in order: A writing group must retain its focus; if it devolves into a social gathering or a meeting to vent frustrations together, you should either redirect the members to the group’s original purpose or, failing that, leave the group altogether. To start a writing group, talk with colleagues in your department or contact the Office of Graduate Studies.

Work on a good piece of writing proceeds on three levels: a musical one, where it is composed; an architectural one, where it is constructed; and finally, a textile one, where it is woven.” ―Walter Benjamin, One Way Street And Other Writings

Writing Obstacle 2: Distaste for writing

Perhaps the most common obstacle, many writers have a distaste for writing. Those who dislike writing think about how difficult it is and what they’d rather be doing. They often find writing exhausting.

Strategy: Outline

For writers who have a distaste for writing or who lack confidence in their writing abilities, outlining is a strategy to help them make measurable progress. Before writing, outlining the argument for a chapter, section, or even a paragraph gives the writer perspective on the project and shepherds thoughts into place. When it’s time to write, the writer doesn’t have to sit staring at a blank screen, wondering how to start.

Below are a writer’s two attempts to outline his progress report on the 1988 forensic investigation of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 103—an air disaster that killed 243 passengers and 16 crew members.

When you read it closely, you’ll see that the weak outline suffers from vague descriptions, inconsistent coordination and subordination of ideas, single item headings, and an overall lack of transparent logic. After reading it, ask yourself this question: Does this outline really provide the direction the writer needs?

Weak Outline

• Debris recovered
• Cataloguing
• Interpretation
• Bomb makeup
• Work to be done

Unlike the first attempt, the revised outline reflects the writer’s intentional efforts to organize thoughts into a naturally logical, consistently well-coordinated and subordinated flow of ideas . . . before the actual writing begins! The strong outline provides clear directions for the writer.

Strong Outline

• Recovering debris
• Cataloguing debris
• Interpreting debris
• Placement of bomb
• Construction of bomb
• Future work

So, you’ll need to be self-critical of your first attempts at outlining . Taking the time to do so will make writing much easier and save you a great deal of time. Outlining is a powerful tool that helps you reflect on your own thinking and puts you in charge of meaning making when you’re ready to put thoughts onto the page.

Strategy: Create a distraction-free environment

Once you’ve scheduled writing times, it’s important to have an environment that’s conducive to writing. A designated workspace minimizes distractions and helps you get in the right frame of mind for working. Before you start writing, have things like snacks, water, and tissues within easy reach. Doing so will keep you from getting up every few minutes. Turn off your phone and leave it in another room. Let your family and friends know there will be times when you’ll be unavailable because you’ll be writing. Similarly, use a productivity application on your computer to block internet sites you know will be especially distracting to you. In addition to physical distractions, there are mental distractions to writing—usually remembering something you have to do that’s totally unrelated to the task at hand. Keep a pad of paper within easy reach to jot down reminders for later, then put the pad aside.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you. —Zadie Smith

Writing Obstacle 3: Lack of time for writing

Ask any graduate student, postdoc, or faculty member—there are a lot of demands on their time, and there’s always something else that needs to be done. If you don’t make writing a priority it’s easy to go days or weeks without writing, and deadlines arrive before you know it.

Strategy: Create a schedule

Scheduling a regular writing time will help you make writing a priority and keep you working on your writing projects, even in the middle of a busy semester. Here’s how to schedule a regular writing time:

• Use a weekly planner to break days into 30-minute increments. First, fill in your weekly commitments: classes, meetings, and appointments.
• Next, schedule one or two hours a few times a week at the time of day you know you do your best work.
• Finally, allocate the time for less important tasks to the slots that are left. These blocks of time are flexible—you might use them to scan readings ahead of a seminar or quiz. Start writing for 15 minutes or half an hour. Over time, you’ll be able to lengthen your writing sessions to an hour or two. Distinguish your writing time independent from secondary writing tasks such as outlining, editing, fact-checking, and writing footnotes. These are common distractions for writers who put off the more challenging writing task of actual writing.

Strategy: Set goals

Make the most of your writing time by setting goals—for the project, sections of the project—even for a day or a week.

The best goals are SMART goals. They are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

Setting SMART writing goals takes practice. Over the course of a project, by setting goals and reflecting on the work you did that day, you’ll learn when you’ve been too ambitious and when you can push yourself a little more.

Goals that are SPECIFIC are narrow and defined. For example, "I will write every day" is vague, while “I will draft the methods section” is clearly defined.

MEASURABLE goals can be checked off of a to-do list. “I will write two pages” or “I will finish the data analysis section” can be measured.

ACHIEVABLE goals are challenging, but reachable. Doing anything worthwhile requires persistence in spite of obstacles. Writing is no different. By keeping to your schedule of specific tasks, the more likely you’ll be of completing your writing project.

All of your intermediate writing goals are RELEVANT because they help you finish your writing project. They are also RELEVANT because they move you closer to having your research published, completing all course requirements, or finishing your dissertation. Finishing the project matters to you because it’s another step towards achieving your long-term aspirations.

TIME-BASED goals include completion dates and intermediate deadlines to serve as checkpoints.

It’s true that writing takes serious intellectual engagement. Sitting still for an hour or two, finding the right words, and shepherding ideas into a logical order takes extreme focus. But there’s a pleasure in creating clear prose, of communicating a particularly difficult idea so the reader grasps your meaning. There are a few common obstacles that can stymie even the most seasoned writer, but they can be overcome! Counter a lack of confidence with affirming self-talk or by participating in a writing group. Work through a distaste for writing by learning to develop an effective outline for a writing project and then creating a distraction-free writing environment. Find time to write by establishing a workable writing schedule and setting SMART writing goals. With a little practice, you can develop the good writing habits that will help you finish your writing projects. Developing these writing skills will help you look forward to the writing process (or dread it far less!). These skills eventually become habits that translate to other realms of your working life as well.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. —Robert Cormier

15 Steps to Good Research

• Define and articulate a research question (formulate a research hypothesis). How to Write a Thesis Statement (Indiana University)
• Identify possible sources of information in many types and formats. Georgetown University Library's Research & Course Guides
• Judge the scope of the project.
• Reevaluate the research question based on the nature and extent of information available and the parameters of the research project.
• Select the most appropriate investigative methods (surveys, interviews, experiments) and research tools (periodical indexes, databases, websites).
• Plan the research project. Writing Anxiety (UNC-Chapel Hill) Strategies for Academic Writing (SUNY Empire State College)
• Retrieve information using a variety of methods (draw on a repertoire of skills).
• Refine the search strategy as necessary.
• Write and organize useful notes and keep track of sources. Taking Notes from Research Reading (University of Toronto) Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks
• Evaluate sources using appropriate criteria. Evaluating Internet Sources
• Synthesize, analyze and integrate information sources and prior knowledge. Georgetown University Writing Center
• Revise hypothesis as necessary.
• Use information effectively for a specific purpose.
• Understand such issues as plagiarism, ownership of information (implications of copyright to some extent), and costs of information. Georgetown University Honor Council Copyright Basics (Purdue University) How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests from Indiana University
• Cite properly and give credit for sources of ideas. MLA Bibliographic Form (7th edition, 2009) MLA Bibliographic Form (8th edition, 2016) Turabian Bibliographic Form: Footnote/Endnote Turabian Bibliographic Form: Parenthetical Reference Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks

Adapted from the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries "Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction" , which are more complete and include outcomes. See also the broader "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education."

Discover the newest features to support effective writing and research

Academic Writer is APA’s revolutionary writing platform designed to help students develop long-lasting scholarly writing and research skills. Combining self-paced learning with seamless integration of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), this resource helps students grow and succeed in their academic careers while enabling educators to focus on teaching their curriculum.

To help your academic community maximize institutional access to Academic Writer, we’re excited to share the latest features and resources available in the platform. Read on to learn more and share these updates with your users:

New Product Features

14 New Lessons

Academic Writer now includes 14 new lessons to support student writing skills. These lessons include:

• Summarizing and Paraphrasing
• Transition Sentences
• Plain Language
• Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

• Common Punctuation Errors
• Apostrophes
• Commonly Confused Words
• How to Organize Ideas
• Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-On Sentences
• Supporting Ideas With Facts and Analysis
• Basic Academic Paragraph Structure
• Addressing Alternate Claims and Limitations
• Parallel Structure

All lessons can be found under “Fundamental Writing Skills” in your Learning Management System.

New Tutorials

This update also includes new tutorials on the following topics:

• Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

Offline Mode

If users are traveling or their connection is unstable, Academic Writer can now be used offline without any interruption to their writing process or losing their hard work. Once they re-connect to the Internet, their offline updates will sync to their account.

Check My Writing

This new feature evaluates student papers for basic elements of academic writing, checking for repeated words and phrases, sentence variety, transition words, and more.

Updated Paper Comments

We have made improvements to the functionality and user experience to the comments feature in the Writing Center, making it easier for instructors and students to submit and respond to comments on papers in progress.

In-Product Tours

The Academic Writer platform now includes self-guided overviews of key functionalities, saving instructors time and allowing students to learn the platform easily.

OpenAthens Integration

Academic Writer now has OpenAthens integrated into the login screen, making it easier for institutional users to log in remotely. Simply visit academicwriter.apa.org and select your institution under the OpenAthens drop-down menu to log in with your institutional credentials.

New User Resources

Curriculum Guides for Academic Writer

In order to give instructors a launch point for incorporating Academic Writer into their courses, we’ve added two new curriculum guides. The first is a “crash course” on APA Style and the basics of scholarly writing for undergraduates and new graduate students. The second provides a framework for students to use research to create scholarly writing, and is suited for undergraduates completing capstone projects or graduate student research and thesis writing. Both curriculum guides provide can be mixed and matched to support students’ specific needs and match course assignments.

Academic Writer YouTube Tutorials

To help your academic community maximize institutional access to Academic Writer, we’ve compiled a series of video tutorials demonstrating various features of the platform. Here are some of the newest tutorials available on our YouTube channel, which you can share on your library’s website or social media channels:

Using Academic Writer Reference Forms

Using Academic Writer Check Tools

How to Insert Citations in Your Academic Writer Paper

APA Publishing Learning Commons

We’re here to help! Send students and instructors to our Learning Commons , which features FAQs and articles to help users troubleshoot and answer questions about the features of Academic Writer. If they can’t find an answer, there’s a form to submit a question for a support expert to assist with. Users can also send an email to [email protected] with questions.

Need more help with Academic Writer?

• Explore Academic Writer FAQs
• Subscribe to the APA Publishing Training YouTube channel for the latest tutorials
• Share this Getting Started Guide on the basics of using Academic Write r
• Learn to create an annotated bibliography in the Writing Center
• Organize your references with this helpful guide

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Katherine Stevens

The Basic Characteristics of Effective Writing

Why Good Grammar Alone Does Not Make a Good Writer

skynesher / Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Experiences in school leave some people with the impression that good writing simply means writing that contains no bad mistakes—that is, no errors of grammar , punctuation  or spelling . However, good writing is much more than just correct writing. Good writing responds to the interests and needs of its intended audience and at the same time, reflects the writer's personality and individuality (the author's voice).

Good writing is often as much the result of practice and hard work as it is talent. You may be encouraged to know that the ability to write well is not necessarily a gift that some people are born with, nor a privilege extended to only a few. If you're willing to put in the effort, you can improve your writing.

Rules for Professional and Academic Writing

When writing term papers or essays for school, or should you go on to a career as a professional writer—be it as a technical writer, journalist, copywriter, or speechwriter—if follow you these established rules for effective writing, you should be able to excel, or at least perform competently for any given assignment:

• Good writing has a clearly defined purpose .
• It makes a definite point .
• It supports that point with specific information.
• The information is clearly connected and arranged .
• The words are appropriate, and the sentences are concise , emphatic , and correct .

Use Good Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation

While having a grasp on proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation won't make you a good writer, these basics are more essential to academic and professional writing than most other genres (although advertising is often a curious hybrid of creative and non-fiction writing).

Your Part in a Conversation

The trick to creating academic or professional writing that someone will actually want to read is to balance the aforementioned essentials with your own voice. Think of your writing, no matter how academic as your part in a conversation . Your job is to explain the information you're trying to convey in a way that's clear and easily understood. (Sometimes, it helps to imagine you're talking rather than writing.)

Creative and Nonfiction Writing

Of course, if there were only one kind of writing, it would be easier to come up with an overarching set of conventions to define what good writing is, however, non-fiction alone encompasses a wide array of genres and formats and what works for one doesn't necessarily fly with another. Now, when you add poetry , fiction (in its myriad genres and subgenres), personal essays , playwriting, blogging, podcasting, and screenwriting (to name but a few) to the mix, it's almost impossible to come up with a one-size-fits-all umbrella that covers what makes writing good—or bad.

Separating Good Writing From Bad

One of the main reasons it's so hard to separate good writing from bad writing when it comes to disciplines such as fiction, poetry, or plays, is that the definition of what's "good" is often subjective, and that subjectivity is a matter of personal taste. People generally know what they like and what they don't like—but that doesn't necessarily mean the writing we don't like is "bad" writing.

Whale of a Tale

Let's just choose one famous piece of literature as an example: Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby Dick," a cautionary allegory of obsession and revenge that pits man against nature. While there's no arguing that the novel is considered a classic of American literature and is filled with its fair share of fascinating characters, Melville's narrative clocks in at over 200,000 words and nearly 600 pages (depending on the edition). When you consider that the average novel runs between 60,000 and 90,000 words, in terms of length alone, Melville's tale of the whale is a whopper.

But Not for Everyone

Unfortunately for many reading the book, the experience is much akin to being a sailor during a whaling-era sea voyage in which you went for days on end going through the routine, tedious, mundane, redundant tasks required to keep the ship going, with the exciting parts of the journey few and far between. Unless you're fascinated by page after page relating to all things whaling, reading "Moby Dick" can be a chore. Does that make it a "bad" book? Obviously not, it's just not a good book for everyone.

Famous Writers on Writing

Most professional writers—those gifted people who make writing look easy—will be the first ones to tell you that often it's not easy at all, nor is there a right way or wrong way to go about it:

Ernest Hemingway: "There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."

Stephen King: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

Paddy Chayefsky: "If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work. It's hard physical work. You keep saying, 'No, that's wrong, I can do it better.' "

Isaac Bashevis Singer: "One is never happy. If a writer is too happy with his writing, something is wrong with him. A real writer always feels as if he hasn't done enough. This is the reason he has the ambition to rewrite, to publish things, and so on. The bad writers are very happy with what they do. They always seem surprised about how good they are. I would say that a real writer sees that he missed a lot of opportunities."

Sinclair Lewis: "Writing is just work—there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes—it's still just work."

Ray Bradbury: "Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer."

Harlan Ellison: "People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it."

Writing Rarely Comes Easily

As you can see, writing rarely comes easily to anyone—even the most accomplished writers. Don't lose heart. If you want to be a better writer, you're going to have to put in the work. Not everything you write is going to be great or even good, but the more you write the better your skills will become. Learning the basics and continuing to practice will help you gain confidence.

Master the Basics, and Learn to Enjoy It

Eventually, you'll not only be a better writer—you might actually enjoy writing. Just as a musician cannot deliver an inspired performance without first learning the rudiments of the craft and studying technique, once you've mastered the basics of writing, you'll be ready to let inspiration and imagination take you almost anywhere you wish to go.

• Guides for Students and Instructors in English 101
• What Makes Someone a Good Writer?
• 14 Ways to Write Better in High School
• F.L. Lucas Offers Principles for Effective Writing
• Writers on Reading
• Characteristics of a Good Editor
• What Does It Mean to Be a Writer?
• 12 Writers Discuss Writing
• The Writer's Voice in Literature and Rhetoric
• Doris Lessing
• What Literature Can Teach Us
• Explore and Evaluate Your Writing Process
• Best Practices for the Most Effective Use of Paragraphs
• 6 Traits of Writing
• What E.B. White Has to Say About Writing
• Defining Nonfiction Writing

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Writing an Effective Research Paper: Structure & Content

Essential Guidelines for Structuring a Research Paper

Lecturer: kevin j. heintz, m.a. english.

This lecture was presented at ChungAng University in Seoul, South Korea in November 2018. Wordvice/Essay Review Managing Editor Kevin J. Heintz explains how to organize and compose a research manuscript that will get your study published in top journals.

Even researchers whose first language is English must learn some specific rules and follow some standard conventions when writing research papers. This takes a completely different skillset than essay writing or sending emails to your professors and friends, and therefore it is a good idea for every researcher to keep learning how to improve research writing.

Research is about more than just the scientific principles and discoveries you are making—it is about sharing these discoveries with fellow researchers and with the public. And to do this, researchers must publish their work in journals. Strong writing is key to making your research more accessible and powerful, and therefore this presentation is not about the rigors of research, but the demands of research writing. The methods and information in this lecture can be applied to almost any kind of research paper, although of course the exact structure and content will be somewhat determined by where you are submitting your research.

Lecture Content

• Overview of Research Paper Writing
• The Structure of a Research Paper
• Composing Your Paper Sections
• Tips for Improving Quality of Writing

*Quizzes are given throughout the lecture to test your comprehension and understanding.

Research Paper Structure Overview

“what should a research paper do”.

• Share the knowledge you have gained about a specific area of study with other researchers
• Show how your study fits into current science.
• Inform the public about important scientific activity.
• Explain clearly and succinctly the context of your study, including relevant literature (Introduction), the methods used for research and analysis (Methods), the findings of your study (Results), and the implications for these results and further research that might be needed (Discussion and Conclusion).

“What are the most important factors to consider when writing a research paper?”

The research you conduct should of course be novel, timely, rigorous, and hopefully interesting. But you must also transmit your scientific research into  writing —a well-written paper will greatly improve your chances of getting accepted into journals. Here is an overview of the factors that help create quality writing in a research paper:

• All of the parts of your paper should fit together in an order that makes sense.
• Include all necessary information in each section needed to understand the other sections.
• Do not repeat information unless it is necessary.
• Ensure that your sentences are grammatically and logically coherent.

Organization

• Most scientific papers follow the  IMRD  structure—be sure to put the right parts in the right section (e.g., don’t include the literature review in the Methods section).
• As you do research you will notice that there are a great many pieces of information and data you COULD include in your paper. However, you need to conform to length guidelines and keep your paper focused. Therefore, you should be sure that you are choosing a proper number of items to focus on for each section.
• For example, if your study has 10 results but your paper can only be 4,000 words, you might want to narrow down these results to only those that support your hypothesis, perhaps the 3-5 most important results.
• The same applies to the Introduction, where you must choose what background, context, and relevant literature to include. Be sure to only include information that gives readers a focused and relevant understanding of your area of study.
• Clarity is related to coherence, organization, and relevance. It means ensuring that each paragraph and sentence in your paper is natural and easy to read and understand: proper grammar, phrasing, and style are key to writing a paper that is readable and comprehensible to both experts and possibly non-experts, depending on your target audience.
• Perhaps the most important rule is to  conform to the formatting guidelines and other style conventions of the journal to which you are submitting.  Check the “GUIDE FOR AUTHORS” section of the journal or conference, or if the paper is for a class, ensure that you are using the proper formatting requirements. Here is one handy site:  OWL—Online Writing Lab at Purdue University

Research Paper Structure

The general structure of scientific research papers is IMR&D (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). The information moves from broad to specific to broad again as seen in this diagram, the Introduction and Discussion taking up the most room in your paper and the Methods and Results usually being the shortest ad most focused sections. However, the order in which you write your paper will not be the same as the final order of the information. Let’s first look briefly at what each section does and then discuss how to organize and compose your work.

Introduction Section

What does it do.

*Discusses the problem to be solved (purpose statement)

*Describes where your research fits into the current science (background and context)

*Uses primary literature with citations and summarizes the current understanding of the problem (“literature review”)

When do you write it?

*Write it last—after the conclusion and before the title and abstract

Methods Section

*Tells how you did the study—what materials and methods of research and analysis were used.

*First section you write—after preparing your figures and tables

Results Section

What does it do.

*Explains the important findings of your study that help to answer your research question or hypothesis and address your purpose statement.

*After the Methods and before the Discussion/Conclusion

Discussion/Conclusion Section

*Explains what your findings mean and what the implications and importance are both to your specific area of research and in a broader context (i.e., to the wider field or to society ).

*Includes limitations to your study and discusses possible future research that is needed to answer your research question more clearly and address closely related questions.

*After the Results Section and before the Introduction

Composing Your Research Paper Sections

This portion of the lecture focuses on developing techniques for composing your paper. You should always go back through your paper after one section is finished and correct or change another part, but by composing in this order you will be sure to include all of the important information. Not that the Methods and Results sections are written first. The reason for this is because you will not be changing or adding to these sections after you have evaluated your research—they represent the core data of your study.

Step 1: Prepare the figures and tables

Most likely, your research paper will use some figures, tables, or other graphics—they are also core data because they are usually numbers representing your findings and methods used. We won’t go into the details of how to prepare these here, but in the  Results section , we will go over how to write captions for the figures based on the data and research questions. For a detailed explanation of preparing and formatting figures, check out these sites (every journal will have their own formatting guidelines):

• Springer Online Research Resources
• ACSESS Digital Library (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA publications for reference)

Step 2: Write the Method s section

This section responds to the question  “How was the problem studied and analyzed?”

The Methods section should:

• Describe how an experiment was done
• Give a rationale for why specific experimental procedures were chosen
• Describe what was done to answer the research question and how it was done.
• Explain how the results were analyzed

Organization of Methods

Write the Methods section in this order to ensure proper organization and make it easier for readers to understand how your study was carried out:

• Description of materials used, including site and sample
• Explanation of how materials were prepared
• Explanation of how measurements were made and calculations performed
• Explanation of statistical methods to analyze data

Tips for the Methods Section

• Organize description of preparations, measurements, and protocol chronologically
• List the Methods in the same order as they will appear in the Results section
• Material should be organized by topic from most to least important
• Headings can be used to separated different results; paragraphs are often used instead

Step 3: Write the Results

This section responds to the question  “What did you find?”  Only the direct results of  your  research should be presented here, not any results from other studies. This is essentially an analysis of the data explained in sentence form so that it is easier to read and put into context.

The Results section should include:

• Findings presented in the same order as in the Methods section
• Data presented in tables, charts, graphs, and other figures (placed among research text or on a separate page)
• Reports on data collection, recruitment, and/or participants
• Data that corresponds to the central research question(s)
• Secondary findings (secondary outcomes, subgroup analyses, etc.)

Organization of Results

Write the Results in the same order as you wrote your Methods. One trusted method of writing the results is addressing specific research questions presented in the figures. Within each research question, present the type of data that addresses that research question.

Sample research question asked in a survey:

“What do hospital patients over age 55 think about postoperative care?”

Present this answer as a statement based on the data:

“Hospital patients over the age of 55 were 30% more likely to report negative experiences after postoperative care (M=83; see Fig. 1).”

Elaborate on this finding with secondary information included in the same paragraph:

“The most common negative issues reported were inattention by nurses, lack of proper medicine and a prolonged waiting period for personal issues ((P>12), (W>13), and (D>10); see Fig. 3).”

Caption your figures with the same method, using the data and research question to create phrases that give context to the data:

“Figure 1: Attitudes towards postoperative care in patients over the age of 55.”

Grammar Guidelines for Results

• When referencing figures, use the present tense; when discussing events of the experiment/study, use past tense
• Passive or active voice are generally acceptable—but consistency is most important. (Read articles from target journal).
• Cite the figure or table every time you reference it, just as you would another text.

Dos and Don’ts for Results

• Limit your results to only those that address your research questions; return to the Results section later after you have completed the Introduction and remove less relevant information.
• Indicate the statistical tests used with all relevant parameters. E.g., mean and standard deviation (SD): 44% (±3); median and interpercentile range: 7 years (4.5 to 9.5 years).
• Use mean and standard deviation to report normally distributed data.
• Use median and interpercentile range to report skewed data.
• For numbers, use two significant digits unless more precision is necessary (2.08, not 2.07856444).
• Never use percentages for very small samples. E.g., “one out of two” should not be replaced by 50%.

Step 4: Write the Discussion/Conclusion

This section responds to the question  “What do the results mean?”  This section is easy to write, but difficult to write well. It requires more than a simply analysis—you have to interpret and “sell” your data to the journal and researchers, explaining just how important your findings are. In fact, many manuscripts are rejected because the Discussion section is weak.

The Discussion and Conclusion are often considered to be part of the same section, but the Conclusion is sometimes considered a separate section. At any rate, the Conclusion will be a very short and clear justification of your work or suggestion for future studies.

In the Discussion Section you should:

• Critique your study—be honest about the effectiveness of your design; suggest modifications and improvement.
• Answer this question: “Did your study contribute to knowledge in the field or not?”
• Discuss the impact of this research on related research within the domain

Pre-writing Questions to Answer for the Discussion:

• How do these results relate to the original question or objectives outlined in the Introduction section?
• Do the data support your hypothesis?
• Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported?
• Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies. If your results were unexpected, try to explain why
• Is there another way to interpret your results?
• What further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results?

Organization of the Discussion Section

The Discussion section is more open than the Results and Methods section, but you should always focus first on what is MOST important and then move to what is less important to your research problem. Divide the analysis of results by paragraph and do not combine unrelated datasets in one paragraph

• The first paragraph/part should summarize the process, the results, and the overall purpose of this study.
• The second paragraph/part should answer questions about the limitations and potential flaws or shortcomings of this study (e.g., the “failure to reveal clear relationships between samples or groups”). Assesses which of the results are most useful in answering the research question.
• The third paragraph should focus on the successes of the study and highlight which method or approach yielded the best results or those most closely hypothesized. You can also compare the results of different methods and assess which was more fruitful and why.
• In subsequent paragraphs, discuss the implications of this research and compare it to the results of other studies. This is the other section (in addition to the Introduction) where you can cite related studies to show how your study compares.

The Conclusion paragraph offers you a chance to briefly show how your work advances the field from the present state of knowledge. It adds a sort of exclamation point at the end of your paper and makes it more memorable as well.

Add a justification for your work here as well as indicate extensions and wider implications, as well as suggest future studies/experiments and point out any work that is currently ongoing. Do not simply repeat the Introduction or abstract here—extend the claims or questions raised in these sections.

Dos and Don’ts for Discussion/Conclusion

• Don’t be TOO broad about the impact of this research—set some limitations.
• Don’t include new terms or ideas in this section—they should be presented in the Introduction.
• Use specific expressions: instead of “higher temperature” write “41ºC”; instead of “at a lower rate” write “0.7% less”; instead of “highly significant” write “p<0.001.”

Step 5: Write the Introduction

The  Introduction section might be the most important section of the body of your paper—it comes first and introduces what you will be doing, telling readers why your work is important.

A good introduction should:

• Establish the context of the work
• State the purpose of the work in the form of a hypothesis, question, or problem investigated
• Give aims and rationale for your approach

Pre-writing questions to answer for the Introduction

• What is the problem to be solved? (background and problem)
• What do we know about this problem? (literature)
• Are there any existing solutions? (literature)
• What are the limitations or gaps in knowledge of existing solutions?
• What do you hope to achieve with this study? (hypothesis/statement of purpose)

Organization of the Introduction

• Background information
• Motivations
• Key primary literature
• Hypothesis/research problem investigated
• Approaches and rationale

Improving Quality of Writing

In order to write an effective research paper, authors need to know what areas of their writing to improve, and this includes avoiding grammar and style errors. Among the top writing errors we see at  Wordvice  are the following:

• Article and Determiner Misuses
• Nominalization and Wordiness
• Usage of Past and Present Tense

Receiving Language Editing Before Submission

After you are finished writing your Results section and have polished the rest of your research paper, be sure to submit your manuscript to an English proofreading service and paper editing service  before delivering it to journal editors for publication. And learn more about the  editing process  to determine which kind of revision your paper needs.

Wordvice Resources

• How to Write a Research Paper Introduction
• Writing the Results Section of a Research Paper
• Which Verb Tenses to Use in a Research Paper
• How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Research Paper Title
• Useful Phrases for Academic Writing
• Common Transition Terms in Academic Papers
• Active and Passive Voice in Research Papers
• 100+ Verbs That Will Make Your Research Writing Amazing
• Tips for Paraphrasing in Research Papers

Related Resources

• Springer Online Research Resources  (Springer)
• ACSESS Digital L ibrary (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA publications for reference)  (ACSESS Digital Library)

Lecture Research Paper Reference

Yoon S-R, Kim SH, Lee H-W, Ha J-H (2017) A novel method to rapidly distinguish the geographical origin of traditional fermented-salted vegetables by mass fingerprinting. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188217.

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Getting Started

Decoding the assignment, academic writing at the gsd, reading and notetaking.

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On this page you will find resources offering an overview of the writing process to help you begin your writing journey. This page focuses on best practices for academic writing and stages of the writing process, and it includes helpful guides for the types of writing you might encounter at the GSD. 

• Frances Loeb Library Homepage From the library homepage, you can access all kinds of resources and tools to help with your research.
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Successful academic writing starts with identifying the explicit and implicit expectations of the assignment. If you don't understand the assignment, you may not only have trouble starting to write but might put effort into the wrong things. If you are still unsure how to proceed after following these steps, ask your instructor. And if you want support at any point in the writing process, including reading through the assignment, make an appointment with GSD's Writing Services at Frances Loeb Library.

Explicit Expectations

Look for these elements in the assignment prompt:

- Is it asking for outside research?

- Are there course texts or materials you will need to include?

- Is there an approximate length requirement?

- Which skills does it want you to demonstrate? Look for the verbs

• Compare or contrast

Implicit Expectations

Some expectations of the assignment may not be mentioned in the prompt, so give some thought to the context of the assignment to figure these out. 

- What kind of theoretical, practical, or disciplinary frameworks or procedures has the professor been modeling in class and assigning for homework? This writing assignment is probably in some way asking you to demonstrate understanding and proficiency in applying them.

- Who is your audience and what is the situation? You will adjust your use of industry terminology and the density of your writing depending on whether you are writing for your instructors or for a broader community. The assignment might not tell you that your writing will be persuasive or evaluative, but if you know your relationship to your audience, you can determine if you need to persuade them with evidence and analysis, help them make their own decision by providing pros and cons for a project, or energize them by helping them imagine the benefits and practicality of a design.

• Understanding Assignments UNC's Writing Center provides a detailed process for decoding assignments, including definitions of many key terms to watch for.
• Tips for Reading Assignment Prompts Harvard College Writing Center's brief overview of steps to take in understanding an assignment.
• Understanding Assignments Purdue OWL's succinct step-by-step guide for understanding assignment prompts.
• How to Read an Assignment Harvard College Writing Center's brief advice on what to do and avoid with examples.
• What is "Academic" Writing? This essay is useful for understanding style and method in academic writing.
• Harvard Faculty Explain Analytical Writing Faculty from Harvard College explain analytical writing in this project from the Harvard College Writing Center.
• Advice on Academic Writing This catalog of advice from the University of Toronto was created by writing instructors.
• Scholarly Pursuits (GSAS) This searchable booklet from Harvard GSAS is a comprehensive guide to writing dissertations, dissertation-fellowship applications, academic journal articles, and academic job documents.
• Strategies for Essay Writing This resource from Harvard College Writing Center offers strategies to begin a writing project.

On this page you will find resources to help you on the "front end" of your writing journey. Most of these documents and sites focus on reading and notetaking strategies to help you build a research agenda and argument. Also included are a series of resources from the GSD and Harvard for productivity and time management. 

Questions to ask before you start reading:

1. how much time do i have for this text.

If you have more to read than you can realistically complete in the time you have, you will need to be strategic about how to proceed. Powering through as fast as you can for as long as you can will not be efficient or effective. 

2. What do I most need from this text?

Knowing your purpose will help you determine how long you should spend on any one part of that text. If you are reading for class or for research, or if you are reading for background information or to explore an argument, you will use different reading strategies.

3. How can I find what I need from this text?

Once you know what you need, there are strategies for finding it quickly, like pre-reading, skimming, and scanning.

Determining your purpose

Your purpose will become clearer if you first situate the text within a larger context.

Reading for Class

Your professor had a reason for assigning the text, so first try to understand their intention. The professor might tell you their reason or provide reading questions to direct you. You can also infer the purpose from headings and groupings in the syllabus and from how the professor has approached prior readings in past lectures. Looking ahead to how you might use the text in future assignments or projects will also help you decide how much time to spend and what to focus on.

Reading for Research

For independent research, you will first need to decide if a text is even worth reading. Plan ahead by knowing what you need, like background information, theoretical underpinnings, similar arguments to engage with critically, or images and data. Check the source's date and author(s) to determine its relevance and authority. Keep your research goals in mind and try to stay focused on your immediate goals. If you discover a text that interests you but is not for this project, make a note to come back to it later. However, a source that excites your interest and changes your research goals or argument can be worth following now so long as you still have time to make that change. 

Once you decide that a source is worth your time, you will apply your choice of reading strategy based on the type of information the text contains and how you plan to use it. For instance, if you want to use a graphic or obtain biographical information, a quick search would be enough. If you want to challenge the author’s argument, you will need to read more rigorously and slowly.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Academic Health Sciences : Prompt Writing

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What is Prompt Writing?

Components of an effective prompt, prompt writing techinques, additional resources for creating prompts.

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Prompt writing (also known as "prompt engineering") is the process of creating instructions or queries to elicit a desired response from a generative AI model. A prompt is a bit like a roadmap for AI models; the better you design your map (i.e., prompt), the more likely the AI model will arrive at your desired destination (i.e., output).

This page gives you an overview of the components of an effective prompt, and some additional techniques you can use to elicit desired responses from AI models.

An effective prompt typically includes some (or all) of the following components:

• A command for what you want the model to do.
• Example: "List the works of Victor Hugo."
• Additional, contextual information that can be used to further inform the model's output. When used, this is typically included alongside the instruction.
• Example : "Write an email wishing your coworkers a happy new year. Incorporate themes of wellness, happiness, and fulfillment." -In this case, the themes would be the supporting content.
• The text you would like the model to process. Primary content can be in a variety of formats, such as sentences, lists, and tables.
• Example: "Summarize the following paragraph: [insert paragraph]" -In this case, the inserted paragraph would be the primary content.
• Zero shot learning refers to when no example is given in the prompt.
• One shot learning refers to when one example is given in the prompt.
• Few shot learning refers to when more than one example is given in a prompt.
• Example: "Title: Oliver Twist , Author: Charles Dickens. Title: War and Peace , Author: Leo Tolstoy. Title: Moby Dick , Author: " -In this case, Oliver Twist and War and Peace would be the examples.
• A "hint" or "jump start" for how you would like the model to structure its output.
• Example: "Summarize the following paragraph [insert paragraph]. Key points: (1)" -In this case "Key points: (1)" would be the cue, as it tells the model to structure the response as Key Points: (1) [insert first point] (2) [insert second point] etc.

Note : This information was based on Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service Documentation . Visit their page for additional tips on prompt writing.

There are additional techniques you can use to produce an effective prompt. A few of these techniques are listed below.

• Models typically prioritize text at the beginning and end of the prompt. Repeating an instruction can help to generate a more effective response from the model.
• Be concise and explicit with what you want from in the prompt. This includes stipulating the length of the response, and refraining from using ambiguous language.
• Example : Instead of asking, "Why should I read Don Quixote?" tell the model, "List 5 key themes in Don Quixote, and how each theme is relevant to modern society."
• This gives additional context to the model, and tells it how to frame its response.
• Example: "You are a bookstore owner that gives customers advice on what books to read."
• This makes your prompt easier to read for the model. You can use labels for each part of the prompt, use punctuation to separate out each part, or a combination of the two.
• Models can sometimes have trouble with long, complex prompts. To help with this, you can break down your prompt into "chunks."
• Example: "Extract factual claims from this paragraph. [insert paragraph]. Next, fact check the queries using a search engine."
• With this technique you instruct the model to outline each step of the process it used to create its response.
• Example : "Take a step-by-step approach in your response."
• This is telling the model the specific format in which you would like the response to be presented.
• Example: "List the books you would recommend as a bulleted list using the format: author, title, year."
• With this technique you are giving the model data from which to draw its responses. This increases the likelihood the model will provide accurate responses (reducing the risk of fabrication).
• Example : "Extract what Jean Valjean stole from the following paragraph: [insert paragraph]."
• With this technique you are telling the model to output something if it cannot complete the assigned task. This helps to reduce fabrication.
• Example : "Respond with 'Unknown' if you can't find the answer."
• If the model isn't giving you the desired response, try rephrasing your prompt. Creating a prompt that works is an iterative process!
• Example: If you inserted the prompt: "State whether X journal has characteristics of a predatory journal" and the model responds that it doesn't have real-time access to the internet, you can revise to "Based on the data you have, state whether X journal has characteristics of a predatory journal."

Note : These techniques were based on those from Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service Documentation . Visit their page for additional tips on prompt writing.

• Azure OpenAI Service Documentation "The goal of this article is to help get you started with this learning process [prompt writing]. It attempts to capture general concepts and patterns that apply to all GPT models."
• LinkedIn Learning LinkedIn Learning is free for current UW Madison faculty, staff, and students. The platform offers a variety of courses relating to prompt writing, in addition to several other topics.
• OpenAI Cookbook "The OpenAI Cookbook is an open-source collection of examples and guides for building with the OpenAI API."
• OpenAI Prompt Engineering Guide "This guide shares strategies and tactics for getting better results from large language models (sometimes referred to as GPT models) like GPT-4."
• Prompt Engineering Guide by DAIR.AI "The Prompt Engineering Guide is a project by DAIR.AI. It aims to educate researchers and practitioners about prompt engineering."
• << Previous: Types of Generative AI
• Next: AI in Teaching and Learning >>
• Last Updated: May 9, 2024 12:11 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/AI-academic-health-sciences

5 Things To Keep In Mind While Writing A College Paper

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Research before writing the research paper

Writing a research paper is not an easy task, and it makes students most of the time very stressed. Sometimes the future depends on the research paper, which is why writing it correctly is essential. Most of the time, different niches of paper have another format, but the point of view of writing is the same. Professors want students to write the paper in such a way that they quickly convey their research.

To help you more about writing a research paper, here are some points that should not be missed. These key points will help you in writing and make the process of registering easy.

Select A Good Topic:

The first thing that earns the brownie point is the topic selected for writing the research paper. If the topic is good, the professor instantly grabs attention and reads it correctly. Selecting a good topic is the crucial point of writing any research paper. While choosing the case, always choose a unique topic and will help in knowing the subject better.

A good topic selection shows that the student is clear about the research and keen to deliver their studies to society.

Research Well About The Topic:

After selecting the topic, the next thing to do is research well about the subject. Read all the information from different-different sources and do not summit from a single source. It is essential to know the topic well before you start writing it down. While researching, always check if the source is reliable and then grasp that information of the relevant subject.

When the research is done up to the mark, it becomes easy to write it on paper. As the topic is precise, you can easily convey your points and make professors communicate about your research.

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Include All The Necessary Details:

The third thing after completing the research is to write it down in the paper. Whatever you researched about the topic, try to include it in your research paper. While writing, always follows the format as it gives a direction to the research paper. Also, when a student follows the design, it makes professors comfortable in reading the article.

Even while referring different-different sources, it is essential to mention all the details in the paper. So that professors get to know the basis of your information.

Check For Errors:

The fourth thing to do is to check all the errors. If the research paper is filled with mistakes, it might get rejected. Also, after writing the essay, proofread it two times and check its error on different-different software. Edit all the grammatical mistakes and before submitting it, check and remove even the slightest syntax error.

An error-free research paper helps in scoring better marks as it gives professors a vision that students are clear about the topic and know what they want to convey about their observations.

Write Good Citations:

Citation plays a significant role in what you are going to convey in your research paper . Try to get your message directly and include all your opinion with facts. Whatever you are trying to say, convey it now without any twist and turn. Always try to make the flow and language easy to understand.

By following these steps, a student can write a good research paper. A well-written essay helps students know the subject better and helps in grabbing a good opportunity in the future. Always remember to research the topic well and cite it from a clean and clear point of view. After completing the paper, always check the errors and proofread them before the submissions. You can also check out our blog on how to write a research paper appendix .

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