research paper about humanities

WashU Libraries

Conducting research.

• The Process
• Step 1: Exploring an idea
• Step 2: Finding background info.
• Step 3: Gathering more info.
• Get it This link opens in a new window
• Step 5: Evaluating your sources
• Step 6: Citing your sources
• FAQs This link opens in a new window
• Library Vocabulary

Researching in the Humanities

Recommended research guides.

• Research in the Social Sciences
• Research in the Sciences

Subject Librarians

The staff at Reference Help Desk can also help you finding appropriate sources for background information.  You are also welcome to contact a Subject Librarian for assistance:

Subject Librarians, alphabetical listing

Subject Librarians, subject listing

The fields in the Humanities discipline generally include the visual and performing arts, philosophy, literature, religion, history, languages, art history, and classics.  Although research methods differ among the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Sciences, any research project in any discipline starts with curiosity and a hypothesis.  Often research topics are interdisciplinary and may include multiple subject areas and methods from more than just one discipline.

When beginning a research project in the humanities, you must develop a deep knowledge base in a subject area, choose original sources to examine, locate and evaluate sources that also explore your areas of interest, and then come to your own original conclusions. Libraries can help you find the material you need to get started.  The research guides listed on the right are created by WUSTL Subject Librarians.  Subject Librarians have expertise in both searching techniques and academic fields, and their online guides suggest resources for the different phases of the research process: 1) Use background sources to establish your knowledge base.  These could be subject encyclopedias, key works in a field, bibliographies, etc. 2) Select original sources, commonly referred to as primary sources, for your analysis.  Primary sources are simply original works, e.g., novels, photographs, diaries, correspondence, advertisements, eyewitness accounts. 3) Find articles, reviews, and books that analyze primary sources.  These are known as secondary sources. Then, synthesize all this information with your own thinking and draw your original conclusions, thus creating new research in the field.

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Baylor Graduate Writing Center

Helping Grad Students Become Better Writers

Systematic Strategies for Humanities Research-Paper Writing: Part One

By Sørina Higgins, Consultant

Hello, fellow grad students in the humanities! It’s just about time to start thinking about those big end-of-term papers you’ll write for most of your grad classes, those 20- to 30-pagers that hover somewhere between an exhausting school assignment and the draft of a professional article. Well, here are some suggestions for you to consider applying to the process of researching and writing those seminar papers. Hopefully these ideas will be useful for you whether you’re about to write your first one or your last one ever. Either way, congrats! This is a big deal; you’re about to produce some original research to add to the scholarly conversation, and it’s a chance to really dig into doing what you love, the thing you came to grad school for. I’ll try to help smooth the way here so that you don’t have to figure out the research process for yourself. And feel free to add additional strategies in the comments below!

First, plan ahead. Set aside a day well before the deadline (at least a month; six weeks or two months is better) in order to start preliminary research and order books. Don’t panic; you needn’t begin writing the paper at this point, but you do need to provide enough lead time for getting materials through interlibrary loan , and you probably want to at least glance over the most relevant and/or recent scholarship to make sure someone else hasn’t done exactly what you want to do. At this point, you can do a few of the steps below. You don’t need to do all of them now, and you can probably get away with never doing some of them, but the more of this background research you complete early on, the smoother the writing process will be and the better the final product.

• Choose authors, texts, themes, time periods, events, or issues of interest, as relevant to the project and your field. Make sure to read and reread the assignment prompt carefully and ask your professor for clarification if needed. But here’s something to consider: I don’t think “choosing a topic” really works for serious research. Instead, I recommend picking a field of interest, narrowing it down considerably, and honing your focus until you develop a Research Question .
• Crafting your Research Question is an important step that many inexperienced scholars omit or rush past. The better your initial Research Question, the more successful and less stressful the whole process will be. There are lots of reasons for this: Your question guides the type of research you’ll do, what sources you’ll investigate, the kind of research design or method you’ll employ, even the scope and structure of the paper. So don’t “pick a topic”; take the time to develop a truly workable question instead. There is lots of advice available about the characteristics of good and bad Research Questions ; here are a few I’ve found particularly helpful. The question must be researchable by you and must fit into the rest of this semester—so there probably isn’t time for extensive field work or archival research. It must be a fact-finding question, not an ethical or interpretive question at this stage. It must be a question to which you do not currently know the answer, but which has high stakes for your field. Take your time on this step, consulting with faculty or advanced students and browsing around in publications in your field.
• Okay, once you’ve drafted a solid Research Question, it’s time to start the initial research. See if there is a recent “state of the field” article, bibliography, or some other resource that covers what’s being published right now in your area. If you don’t readily find such a thing, ask the professor to recommend one. The more focused this can be on works that potentially answer your Research Question, the better. Even just reading through the titles of the most recent articles and books in your field can give you a sense of what’s being done now and what the current concerns are.
• For studies involving literature and other print-heavy fields (English, Theatre, History, Religion, American Studies, Music, etc.) it’s a good idea to find the best, most recent bibliography of your target authors’ works and to find out which are the official editions of these authors’ works. You can usually discover this by looking in the latest issues of the top journal(s) in this field. If you don’t readily find out, ask the professor which ones are currently the most acceptable. It would be a shame to write your whole Thomas Malory paper, say, using Vinaver only to find out that your target journal—or worse yet, your professor!—favors Field. Horrors.
• Now you might want to compile a list of the relevant primary sources in chronological order. Hopefully this already exists, in the form of a handy bibliography. But if not, make one yourself—then narrow it down. There’s no way you’re going to read all that in the next few weeks. No, seriously. You won’t.
• Similarly, compile a list of the relevant secondary sources, but in reverse chronological order. While you’re at it, do a quick check to find out what your professor has written (if they haven’t already assigned their Complete Works to you in their seminar. Yup. It happens). Do they have anything relevant on the subject? If so, be sure to read it and cite it if possible. Anyway, back to this reverse chronological order thing. See, the idea is that you’ll want to have a general sense of both what’s hot in your field and also what the classic, game-changing, most-cited academic works are. If you start reading (skimming, really, or maybe even just reading abstracts) with the newest stuff, you’ll accomplish that first goal of seeing what’s hot right away, and pretty soon you’ll start seeing certain Names repeated over and over. Those are the Founding Folks of your field; get their works. Have a glance inside. Cite them a teeny bit. That’s cocktail party cred right there.
• Take a breath. What have you learned? Do you get a sense of the most pressing concerns in your field right now? Do you need to revise your Research Question at this point? Take a break. Let it all settle for a while. Then come back and cut your lists in half. For real. You still won’t read all of that, so cut out whatever is not absolutely necessary, and then some of what’s left. Now acquire the rest of it. Check books out of the library, order things via ILL, download or print articles, and that sort of thing. Somewhere in this initial researching phase, make an appointment with your subject-area’s liaison librarian to get assistance with locating anything you’ve missed or with filling in gaps.
• As you work on this initial research process, put everything in a Zotero folder. Researching, writing, and citing are one integrated activity, so always keep track of sources and citations as you go.

TL;DR: Read, read, read! Come up with a research  question , rather than a research topic; the narrower, the better. Know the foundational texts related to your question. Check out the bibliography of related article from a journal that you really like. Compile a list of primary texts you need, then narrow to the essentials. Do the same with secondary texts, but prioritize by the most recent scholarship. Do preliminary searches and skims, then revise your lists again. Keep track of everything in a Zotero folder.

Tune in next week when we talk about actually beginning to write!

2 thoughts on “ Systematic Strategies for Humanities Research-Paper Writing: Part One ”

Thanks for sharing the strategy. what is the appropriate strategy for writing the next paper part two?

Hey! Check out our blog; part two has been posted!

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Home » Humanities Research – Types, Methods and Examples

Humanities Research – Types, Methods and Examples

Table of Contents

Humanities Research

Definition:

Humanities research is a systematic and critical investigation of human culture, values, beliefs, and practices, including the study of literature, philosophy, history, art, languages, religion, and other aspects of human experience.

Types of Humanities Research

Types of Humanities Research are as follows:

Historical Research

This type of research involves studying the past to understand how societies and cultures have evolved over time. Historical research may involve examining primary sources such as documents, artifacts, and other cultural products, as well as secondary sources such as scholarly articles and books.

Cultural Studies

This type of research involves examining the cultural expressions and practices of a particular society or community. Cultural studies may involve analyzing literature, art, music, film, and other forms of cultural production to understand their social and cultural significance.

Linguistics Research

This type of research involves studying language and its role in shaping cultural and social practices. Linguistics research may involve analyzing the structure and use of language, as well as its historical development and cultural variations.

Anthropological Research

This type of research involves studying human cultures and societies from a comparative and cross-cultural perspective. Anthropological research may involve ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, interviews, and other qualitative research methods.

Philosophy Research

This type of research involves examining fundamental questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, morality, and other philosophical concepts. Philosophy research may involve analyzing philosophical texts, conducting thought experiments, and engaging in philosophical discourse.

Art History Research

This type of research involves studying the history and significance of art and visual culture. Art history research may involve analyzing the formal and aesthetic qualities of art, as well as its historical context and cultural significance.

Literary Studies Research

This type of research involves analyzing literature and other forms of written expression. Literary studies research may involve examining the formal and structural qualities of literature, as well as its historical and cultural context.

Digital Humanities Research

This type of research involves using digital technologies to study and analyze cultural artifacts and practices. Digital humanities research may involve analyzing large datasets, creating digital archives, and using computational methods to study cultural phenomena.

Data Collection Methods

Data Collection Methods in Humanities Research are as follows:

• Interviews : This method involves conducting face-to-face, phone or virtual interviews with individuals who are knowledgeable about the research topic. Interviews may be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured, depending on the research questions and objectives. Interviews are often used in qualitative research to gain in-depth insights and perspectives.
• Surveys : This method involves distributing questionnaires or surveys to a sample of individuals or groups. Surveys may be conducted in person, through the mail, or online. Surveys are often used in quantitative research to collect data on attitudes, behaviors, and other characteristics of a population.
• Observations : This method involves observing and recording behavior or events in a natural or controlled setting. Observations may be structured or unstructured, and may involve the use of audio or video recording equipment. Observations are often used in qualitative research to collect data on social practices and behaviors.
• Archival Research: This method involves collecting data from historical documents, artifacts, and other cultural products. Archival research may involve accessing physical archives or online databases. Archival research is often used in historical and cultural studies to study the past.
• Case Studies : This method involves examining a single case or a small number of cases in depth. Case studies may involve collecting data through interviews, observations, and archival research. Case studies are often used in cultural studies, anthropology, and sociology to understand specific social or cultural phenomena.
• Focus Groups : This method involves bringing together a small group of individuals to discuss a particular topic or issue. Focus groups may be conducted in person or online, and are often used in qualitative research to gain insights into social and cultural practices and attitudes.
• Participatory Action Research : This method involves engaging with individuals or communities in the research process, with the goal of promoting social change or addressing a specific social problem. Participatory action research may involve conducting focus groups, interviews, or surveys, as well as involving participants in data analysis and interpretation.

Data Analysis Methods

Some common data analysis methods used in humanities research:

• Content Analysis : This method involves analyzing the content of texts or cultural artifacts to identify patterns, themes, and meanings. Content analysis is often used in literary studies, media studies, and cultural studies to analyze the meanings and representations conveyed in cultural products.
• Discourse Analysis: This method involves analyzing the use of language and discourse to understand social and cultural practices and identities. Discourse analysis may involve analyzing the structure, meaning, and power dynamics of language and discourse in different social contexts.
• Narrative Analysis: This method involves analyzing the structure, content, and meaning of narratives in different cultural contexts. Narrative analysis may involve analyzing the themes, symbols, and narrative devices used in literary texts or other cultural products.
• Ethnographic Analysis : This method involves analyzing ethnographic data collected through participant observation, interviews, and other qualitative methods. Ethnographic analysis may involve identifying patterns and themes in the data, as well as interpreting the meaning and significance of social and cultural practices.
• Statistical Analysis: This method involves using statistical methods to analyze quantitative data collected through surveys or other quantitative methods. Statistical analysis may involve using descriptive statistics to describe the characteristics of the data, or inferential statistics to test hypotheses and make inferences about a population.
• Network Analysis: This method involves analyzing the structure and dynamics of social networks to understand social and cultural practices and relationships. Network analysis may involve analyzing patterns of social interaction, communication, and influence.
• Visual Analysis : This method involves analyzing visual data, such as images, photographs, and art, to understand their cultural and social significance. Visual analysis may involve analyzing the formal and aesthetic qualities of visual products, as well as their historical and cultural context.

Examples of Humanities Research

Some Examples of Humanities Research are as follows:

• Literary research on diversity and representation: Scholars of literature are exploring the representation of different groups in literature and how those representations have changed over time. They are also studying how literature can promote empathy and understanding across different cultures and communities.
• Philosophical research on ethics and technology: Philosophers are examining the ethical implications of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology. They are asking questions about what it means to be human in a world where technology is becoming increasingly advanced.
• Anthropological research on cultural identity: Anthropologists are studying the ways in which culture shapes individual and collective identities. They are exploring how cultural practices and beliefs can shape social and political systems, as well as how individuals and communities resist or adapt to dominant cultural norms.
• Linguistic research on language and communication: Linguists are studying the ways in which language use and communication can impact social and political power dynamics. They are exploring how language can reinforce or challenge social hierarchies and how language use can reflect cultural values and norms.

How to Conduct Humanities Research

Conducting humanities research involves a number of steps, including:

• Define your research question or topic : Identify a question or topic that you want to explore in-depth. This can be a broad or narrow topic, depending on the scope of your research project.
• Conduct a literature review: Before beginning your research, read extensively on your topic. This will help you understand the existing scholarship and identify gaps in the literature that your research can address.
• Develop a research methodology: Determine the methods you will use to collect and analyze data, such as interviews, surveys, archival research, or textual analysis. Your methodology should be appropriate to your research question and topic.
• Collect data: Collect data using the methods you have chosen. This may involve conducting interviews, surveys, or archival research, or analyzing primary or secondary sources.
• Analyze data: Once you have collected data, analyze it using appropriate methods. This may involve coding, categorizing, or comparing data, or interpreting texts or other sources.
• Draw conclusions: Based on your analysis, draw conclusions about your research question or topic. These conclusions should be supported by your data and should contribute to existing scholarship.
• Communicate your findings : Communicate your findings through writing, presentations, or other forms of dissemination. Your work should be clearly written and accessible to a broad audience.

Applications of Humanities Research

Humanities research has many practical applications in various fields, including:

• Policy-making: Humanities research can inform policy-making by providing insights into social, cultural, and historical contexts. It can help policymakers understand the impact of policies on communities and identify potential unintended consequences.
• Education: Humanities research can inform curriculum development and pedagogy. It can provide insights into how to teach critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, and communication skills.
• Cultural heritage preservation: Humanities research can help to preserve cultural heritage by documenting and analyzing cultural practices, traditions, and artifacts. It can also help to promote cultural tourism and support local economies.
• Business and industry: Humanities research can provide insights into consumer behavior, cultural preferences, and historical trends that can inform marketing, branding, and product design.
• Healthcare : Humanities research can contribute to the development of patient-centered healthcare by exploring the impact of social and cultural factors on health and illness. It can also help to promote cross-cultural understanding and empathy in healthcare settings.
• Social justice: Humanities research can contribute to social justice by providing insights into the experiences of marginalized communities, documenting historical injustices, and promoting cross-cultural understanding.

Purpose of Humanities Research

The purpose of humanities research is to deepen our understanding of human experience, culture, and history. Humanities research aims to explore the human condition and to provide insights into the diversity of human perspectives, values, and beliefs.

Humanities research can contribute to knowledge in various fields, including history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and more. It can help us to understand how societies and cultures have evolved over time, how they have been shaped by various factors, and how they continue to change.

Humanities research also aims to promote critical thinking and creativity. It encourages us to question assumptions, to challenge dominant narratives, and to seek out new perspectives. Humanities research can help us to develop empathy and understanding for different cultures and communities, and to appreciate the richness and complexity of human experience.

Overall, the purpose of humanities research is to contribute to a deeper understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our world. It helps us to grapple with fundamental questions about the human experience and to develop the skills and insights needed to address the challenges of the future.

When to use Humanities Research

Humanities research can be used in various contexts where a deeper understanding of human experience, culture, and history is required. Here are some examples of when humanities research may be appropriate:

• Exploring social and cultural phenomena: Humanities research can be used to explore social and cultural phenomena such as art, literature, religion, and politics. It can help to understand how these phenomena have evolved over time and how they relate to broader social, cultural, and historical contexts.
• Understanding historical events: Humanities research can be used to understand historical events such as wars, revolutions, and social movements. It can provide insights into the motivations, experiences, and perspectives of the people involved, and help to contextualize these events within broader historical trends.
• Promoting cultural understanding : Humanities research can be used to promote cross-cultural understanding and to challenge stereotypes and biases. It can provide insights into the diversity of human experiences, values, and beliefs, and help to build empathy and mutual respect across different cultures and communities.
• Informing policy-making: Humanities research can be used to inform policy-making by providing insights into social, cultural, and historical contexts. It can help policymakers understand the impact of policies on communities and identify potential unintended consequences.
• Promoting innovation and creativity : Humanities research can be used to promote innovation and creativity in various fields. It can help to generate new ideas, perspectives, and approaches to complex problems, and to challenge conventional thinking and assumptions.

Characteristics of Humanities Research

Some of the key characteristics of humanities research:

• Focus on human experience: Humanities research focuses on the study of human experience, culture, and history. It aims to understand the human condition, explore human values and beliefs, and analyze the ways in which societies and cultures have evolved over time.
• Interpretive approach: Humanities research takes an interpretive approach to data analysis. It seeks to understand the meaning behind texts, artifacts, and cultural practices, and to explore the multiple perspectives and contexts that shape human experience.
• Contextualization : Humanities research emphasizes the importance of contextualization. It seeks to understand how social, cultural, and historical factors shape human experience, and to place individual phenomena within broader cultural and historical contexts.
• Subjectivity : Humanities research recognizes the subjective nature of human experience. It acknowledges that human values, beliefs, and experiences are shaped by individual perspectives, and that these perspectives can vary across cultures, communities, and time periods.
• Narrative analysis : Humanities research often uses narrative analysis to explore the stories, myths, and cultural narratives that shape human experience. It seeks to understand how these narratives are constructed, how they evolve over time, and how they influence individual and collective identity.
• Multi-disciplinary: Humanities research is often interdisciplinary, drawing on a range of disciplines such as history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and more. It seeks to bring together different perspectives and approaches to understand complex human phenomena.

Advantages of Humanities Research

Some of the key advantages of humanities research:

• Promotes critical thinking: Humanities research encourages critical thinking by challenging assumptions and exploring different perspectives. It requires researchers to analyze and interpret complex texts, artifacts, and cultural practices, and to make connections between different phenomena.
• Enhances cultural understanding : Humanities research promotes cross-cultural understanding by exploring the diversity of human experiences, values, and beliefs. It helps to challenge stereotypes and biases and to build empathy and mutual respect across different cultures and communities.
• Builds historical awareness: Humanities research helps us to understand the historical context of current events and social issues. It provides insights into how societies and cultures have evolved over time and how they have been shaped by various factors, and helps us to contextualize current social, political, and cultural trends.
• Contributes to public discourse: Humanities research contributes to public discourse by providing insights into complex social, cultural, and historical phenomena. It helps to inform public policy and public debate by providing evidence-based analysis and insights into social issues and problems.
• Promotes creativity and innovation: Humanities research promotes creativity and innovation by challenging conventional thinking and assumptions. It encourages researchers to generate new ideas and perspectives and to explore alternative ways of understanding and addressing complex problems.
• Builds communication skills: Humanities research requires strong communication skills, including the ability to analyze and interpret complex texts, artifacts, and cultural practices, and to communicate findings and insights in a clear and compelling way.

Limitations of Humanities Research

Some of the key limitations of humanities research:

• Subjectivity: Humanities research relies heavily on interpretation and analysis, which are inherently subjective. Researchers bring their own perspectives, biases, and values to the analysis, which can affect the conclusions they draw.
• Lack of generalizability : Humanities research often focuses on specific texts, artifacts, or cultural practices, which can limit the generalizability of findings to other contexts. It is difficult to make broad generalizations based on limited samples, which can be a challenge when trying to draw broader conclusions.
• Limited quantitative data : Humanities research often relies on qualitative data, such as texts, images, and cultural practices, which can be difficult to quantify. This can make it difficult to conduct statistical analyses or to draw quantitative conclusions.
• Limited replicability: Humanities research often involves in-depth analysis of specific texts, artifacts, or cultural practices, which can make it difficult to replicate studies. This can make it challenging to test the validity of findings or to compare results across studies.
• Limited funding: Humanities research may not always receive the same level of funding as other types of research. This can make it challenging for researchers to conduct large-scale studies or to have access to the same resources as other researchers in different fields.
• Limited impact : Humanities research may not always have the same level of impact as research in other fields, particularly in terms of policy and practical applications. This can make it challenging for researchers to demonstrate the relevance and impact of their work.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Organizing Research for Arts and Humanities Papers and Theses

• General Guide Information
• Developing a Topic
• What are Primary and Secondary Sources
• What are Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Sources
• Writing an Abstract
• Writing Academic Book Reviews
• Writing A Literature Review
• Using Images and other Media

Critical Engagement

Note: these recommendations are geared toward researchers in the arts or humanities.

Developing a research topic is an iterative process, even for a short paper. This is a process that emerges in stages, and one which requires critical (but not criticizing) engagement with the evidence, literature, and prior research. The evidence can be an object, an artifact, a historic event, an idea, a theoretical framework, or existing interpretations.

Ultimately, you want to be able to pose a research question that you will then investigate in your paper.

If you are writing a paper for a course, the initial critical ideas and theoretical frameworks may come from your course readings. Pay attention to footnotes and bibliographies in your readings, because they can help you identify other potential sources of information.

As you are thinking about your topic, consider what, if anything, has already been written. If a lot of literature exists on your topic, you will need to narrow your topic down, and decide how to make it interesting for your reader. Regurgitating or synthesizing what has already been said is very unlikely to be exciting both for you and for those who will be reading your wok. If there is little or no literature on your topic, you will need to think how to frame it so as to take advantage of existing theories in the discipline. You may also be able to take advantage of existing scholarship on related topics.

Types of Research Papers

There are two common types of research papers in the arts and humanities: expository and argumentative . In an expository paper you develop an idea or critical "reading" of something, and then support your idea or "reading" with evidence. In an argumentative essay you propose an argument or a framework to engage in a dialog with and to refute an existing interpretation, and provide evidence to support your argument/interpretation, as well as evidence to refute an existing argument/interpretation. For further elaboration on expository and argumentative papers, as well and for examples of both types of essays, check the book titled The Art of Writing About Art , co-authored by Suzanne Hudson and Nancy Noonan-Morrissey, originally published in 2001. Note that particular disciplines in the arts or humanities may have other specialized types of frameworks for research.

Also, remember that a research paper is not "merely an elaborately footnoted presentation of what a dozen scholars have already said about a topic; it is a thoughtful evaluation of the available evidence , and so is, finally, an expression of what the author [i.e., you] thinks the evidence adds up to." [Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005), 238-239.]

If you select a broad topic

If a lot has been written on your topic, perhaps you should consider the following:

• why are you interested in this topic?
• is there something specific you want to address?
• can you offer a different or a more nuanced interpretation?
• is there a specific theoretical or methodological perspective that you would like to apply?
• can you shed more light on specific evidence or detail(s)?
• review scholarship cited in the footnotes/bibliographies of your readings and see if there are lacunae you can address.

If you stick with a broad topic, you run into the danger of over-generalizing or summarizing existing scholarship, both of which have limited value in contemporary arts and humanities research papers. Summarizing is generally useful for providing background information, as well as for literature reviews. However, it should not constitute the bulk of your paper.

If you select a narrow or a very new topic

If you are interested in something very specific or very new, you may find that little has been written about it. You might even find that the same information gets repeated everywhere, because nothing else is available. Consider this an opportunity for you to do unique research, and think of the following:

• is there a broader or a related topic that you can investigate in order to circle back and hone in on your chosen topic?
• can your topic be critically examined within an existing theoretical or methodological framework?
• are you able to draw on another field of study to investigate your topic?
• review scholarship cited in the footnotes/bibliographies of the readings. - in other words, engage in citation chaining.
• if the pertinent readings you find are not scholarly (this is not necessarily a bad thing), evaluate how you can use them to develop a more scholarly and critical context for investigating your topic.

Citing sources

Remember to keep track of your sources, regardless of the stage of your research. The USC Libraries have an excellent guide to citation styles  and to citation management software . 

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What is Humanities Research?

Research in the humanities is frequently misunderstood. When we think of research, what immediately comes to mind for many of us is a laboratory setting, with white-coated scientists hunched over microscopes. Because research in the humanities is often a rather solitary activity, it can be difficult for newcomers to gain a sense of what research looks like within the scope of English Studies. (For examples, see Student Research Profiles .)

A common misconception about research is reinforced when we view it solely in terms of the discovery of things previously unknown (such as a new species or an archaelogical artifact) rather than as a process that includes the reinterpretation or rediscovery of known artifacts (such as texts and other cultural products) from a critical or creative perspective to generate innovative art or new analyses. Fundamental to the concept of research is precisely this creation of something new. In the humanities, this might consist of literary authorship, which creates new knowledge in the form of art, or scholarly research, which adds new knowledge by examining texts and other cultural artifacts in the pursuit of particular lines of scholarly inquiry.

Research is often narrowly construed as an activity that will eventually result in a tangible product aimed at solving a world or social problem. Instead, research has many aims and outcomes and is a discipline-specific process, based upon the methods, conventions, and critical frameworks inherent in particular academic areas. In the humanities, the products of research are predominantly intellectual and intangible, with the results contributing to an academic discipline and also informing other disciplines, a process which often effects individual or social change over time.

The University of Washington Undergraduate Research Program provides this basic definition of research:

"Very generally speaking, most research is characterized by the evidence-based exploration of a question or hypothesis that is important to those in the discipline in which the work is being done. Students, then, must know something about the research methodology of a discipline (what constitutes "evidence" and how do you obtain it) and how to decide if a question or line of inquiry that is interesting to that student is also important to the discipline, to be able to embark on a research project."

While individual research remains the most prevalent form in the humanities, collaborative and cross-disciplinary research does occur. One example is the "Modern Girl Around the World" project, in which a group of six primary UW researchers from various humanities and social sciences disciplines explored the international emergence of the figure of the Modern Girl in the early 20th century. Examples of other research clusters are "The Race/Knowledge Project: Anti-Racist Praxis in the Global University," "The Asian American Studies Research Cluster," " The Queer + Public + Performance Project ," " The Moving Images Research Group ," to name a few.

English Studies comprises, or contains elements of, many subdisciplines. A few examples of areas in which our faculty and students engage are Textual Studies , Digital Humanities , American Studies , Language and Rhetoric , Cultural Studies , Critical Theory , and Medieval Studies . Each UW English professor engages in research in one or more specialty areas. You can read about English faculty specializations, research, and publications in the English Department Profiles to gain a sense of the breadth of current work being performed by Department researchers.

Undergraduates embarking on an independent research project work under the mentorship of one or more faculty members. Quite often this occurs when an advanced student completes an upper-division class and becomes fascinated by a particular, more specific line of inquiry, leading to additional investigation in an area beyond the classroom. This also occurs when students complete the English Honors Program , which culminates in a guided research-based thesis. In order for faculty members to agree to mentor a student, the project proposal must introduce specific approaches and lines of inquiry, and must be deemed sufficiently well defined and original enough to contribute to the discipline. If a faculty member in English has agreed to support your project proposal and serve as your mentor, credit is available through ENGL 499.

Beyond English Department resources, another source of information is the UW Undergraduate Research Program , which sponsors the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium . They also offer a one-credit course called Research Exposed (GEN ST 391) , in which a variety of faculty speakers discuss their research and provide information about research methods. Another great campus resource is the Simpson Center for the Humanities which supports interdisciplinary study. A number of our students have also been awarded Mary Gates Research Scholarships .

Each year, undergraduate English majors participate in the UW's Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium as well as other symposia around the nation. Here are some research abstracts from the symposia proceedings archive by recent English-major participants.

UW English Majors Recently Presenting at the UW's Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

For additional examples, see Student Profiles and Past Honors Students' Thesis Projects .

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Research articles

More than news! Mapping the deliberative potential of a political online ecosystem with digital trace data

• Lisa Oswald

Supply chain transformational leadership and resilience: the mediating role of ambidextrous business model

• Taiwen Feng

Anticompetitive effect of drug name trademark registration: lessons from China

• Xiaoting Song

Fake News: a conceptual model for risk management

• João Varela da Costa
• Silvia Bogea Gomes
• Miguel Mira da Silva

Establishment of an equity evaluation method for urban parkland layout under the process-outcome perspective

Linking organisational learning, performance, and sustainable performance in universities: an empirical study in Europe

• Roba Elbawab

Indigenous bodies, gender, and sexuality in the Jesuit Missions of South America (17th–18th centuries)

• Jean Tiago Baptista
• Tony Willian Boita

Exploring the effects of audience and strategies used by beauty vloggers on behavioural intention towards endorsed brands

• Apurva Bakshi

Urban traffic-parking system dynamics model with macroscopic properties: a comparative study between Shanghai and Zurich

• Biruk Gebremedhin Mesfin

The influence of rural tourism landscape perception on tourists’ revisit intentions—a case study in Nangou village, China

• Xiaojie Xue

Longitudinal trajectories of self-esteem, related predictors, and impact on depression among students over a four-year period at college in China

• Xinqiao Liu
• Yunfeng Luo

A home health management app designed in the post-epidemic era using empirical evidence based on the demand collection of elderly users

• Chengmin Zhou

A tale of two paths to vaccine acceptance: self-interest and collective interest effect, mediated by institutional trust, and moderated by gender

• Dorit Zimand-Sheiner
• Shalom Levy

Unveiling the origins of non-performance-oriented behavior in China’s local governments: a game theory perspective on the performance-based promotion system

• Huping Shang
• Hongmei Liu

The effects of social support and parental autonomy support on the mental well-being of university students: the mediating role of a parent–child relationship

• Arif Jameel
• Zhiqiang Ma

The impact and effectiveness of China’s entrepreneurship policy for back-home migrant workers

• Xianzhou Zhao
• Rob Kim Marjerison
• Chuanyu Peng

An STS analysis of a digital humanities collaboration: trading zones, boundary objects, and interactional expertise in the DECRYPT project

• Benedek Láng
• Beáta Megyesi

Firm value adjustment speed through financial friction in the presence of earnings management and productivity growth: evidence from emerging economies

• Saifullah Khan
• Adnan Shoaib

Keep the (social) distance! Turnout and risk perception during health crisis

• Andreea Stancea
• Aurelian Muntean

Social, economic, and demographic factors drive the emergence of Hinglish code-mixing on social media

• Ayan Sengupta
• Tanmoy Chakraborty

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Writing in Philosophy   values logical reasoning — in other words, Philosophy is interested in  how  you argue. Writing in Philosophy can include   several types of writing tasks, like original arguments, argument reconstruction, objections and replies, and/or thought experiments. As the UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center’s Philosophy writing guide points out, each type of writing has a different goal to achieve and so needs a different approach from the writer.

For example, an objection to an argument must give reasons for why the argument or its reasoning is flawed: maybe the premises don’t really support the claims, or the argument doesn’t use its terms consistently, or the conclusion relies on unspoken assumptions; etc. When building arguments in Philosophy, writers need to be careful to avoid logical fallacies, which create flaws in an argument and weaken its reasoning. 

Remember, also, that writing in Philosophy often uses specialized terminology with meanings that are specific to Philosophy itself. When defining these terms in an argument — like ‘vague,’ ‘logical,’ or ‘truth’ — writers should  not  use a standard dictionary. For philosophical terms, look up Philosophy reference materials or even Pryor’s “Philosophical Glossary for Beginners” for a head-start.

Writing in Philosophy should be clear and straightforward so that a reader does not misinterpret the argument. So, writers should use plain prose and a clear structure. To help your reader follow your argument, try to ‘signal’ to them what you’re doing (for example, “As I have just explained” or “Smith’s next premise that…”).

Writing in Music can involve several types of assignments, and   UNC-Chapel Hill’s Writing Center’s Music writing guide talks about approaches for argumentative papers, concert reports, historical analyses, song analyses, and performance or media comparisons. They also give tips for describing music, using music terminology (and terms to avoid), and making arguments about music.

Writers in Music should be careful to avoid common pitfalls, like projecting emotional content, mixing or misusing terminology, or using the wrong tense.   When writing technical descriptions of music, explain why the details you’ve described are important — try to avoid giving a “‘blow-by-blow’ analysis.”   Duke University’s Writing Studio’s Music writing guide explains more “actions” for writing in Music, including tips like providing the relevant sections of the score in your examples, supporting your evaluations with evidence from the music, and always explaining your examples.

The ultimate goal in writing in the humanities is to explain or understand the human experience and human values. The humanities—also called the liberal arts—include philosophy, religion, art, music, literature, history, and language. These fields are a broad way of studying and understanding how people express ideas, information, and feelings—the experience of what makes us human. Sometimes mislabeled as the “opposite” of the applied sciences or professional programs such as business, the humanities are in fact at the core of every human endeavor to pursue, discover, and pass on knowledge.

A good literature paper has a debatable argument (or thesis) that is well supported. This argument is your own original idea, based on a thorough understanding of the text and supported with careful reasoning. So, what makes a good literature paper? 

An argument:  when you write an extended literary essay, often one requiring research, you are essentially making an argument. You are arguing that your perspective-an interpretation, an evaluative judgment, or a critical evaluation-is a valid one.

A Debatable Thesis Statement:  like any argument paper you have ever written for a first-year composition course, you must have a specific, detailed thesis statement that reveals your perspective, and, like any good argument, your perspective must be one which is debatable.

• You would not   want to make an argument of this sort:

Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play about a young man who seeks revenge.

That doesn't say anything-it's basically just a summary and is hardly debatable.

• A better thesis would be this:

Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is in love with his mother.

That is debatable, controversial even. The rest of a paper with this argument as its thesis will be an attempt to show, using specific examples from the text and evidence from scholars, (1) how Hamlet is in love with his mother, (2) why he's in love with her, and (3) what implications there are for reading the play in this manner.

• You also want to avoid a thesis statement like this:

Spirituality means different things to different people. King Lear, The Book of Romans, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance each view the spirit differently.

Again, that says nothing that's not already self-evident. Why bother writing a paper about that? You're not writing an essay to list works that have nothing in common other than a general topic like "spirituality." You want to find certain works or authors that, while they may have several differences, do have some specific, unifying point. That point is your thesis.

Lear, Romans, and Zen each view the soul as the center of human personality.

Then you prove it, using examples from the texts that show that the soul is the center of personality.

Research papers are perhaps the most common form of writing you should expect in a history course.   As the name suggests, these assignments require you to participate in historical research. After reading through primary and secondary sources, you will need to interpret them in a way that can answer some question about the past.

When writing a historical research paper, your goal is to choose a topic and write a paper that:

      1) Asks a good historical question—your inquiry should capture the complexities of history, examining how certain factors contributed to an event or how an event could be examined or understood in a new light, apart from what previous historians have suggested.

      2) Tells how your ideas connect to previous work by other historians, and

      3) Offers a well-organized and persuasive thesis of your own.

Art History

Evaluating and writing about visual material uses many of the same analytical skills that you have learned from other fields, such as history or literature. In art history, however, you will be asked to gather your evidence from close observations of objects or images. Beyond painting, photography, and sculpture, you may be asked to write about posters, illustrations, coins, and other materials.

Some helpful tips when writing for theology classes:

1. Know what kind of paper you are writing.

• If it is a spirituality/reflection paper, you can use first person.
• If it is a biblical studies/analysis paper, use third person only.

2. Be extremely clear. Theological writing is very academic. If it helps, state what you will be doing or the purpose of your paper directly in the thesis/introduction.

• In this paper, I will _______.

3. Read sources carefully

• Be able to understand what the author is saying and summarize it in your own words.
• Read footnotes.
• Make use of sources frequently in your paper.
• When including a quote, make sure you explain it and incorporate it into the sentence.

4. Useful sources

• Commentaries: analyses on scripture
• Good for: exegesis, passage analysis, biblical studies
• Examples: Anchor Bible Commentary
• Practical sources: applying theology to the public sphere
• Good for: ethics, philosophy, history, spirituality
• Examples: St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, Catholic Church catechisms

Philosophy Links

• Arguments in Philosophy
• UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center’s Philosophy writing guide
• Harvard College's Philosophy writing guide

Theatre Links

• UNC-Chapel Hill’s Writing Center’s drama guide
• University of Wisconsin’s Writing Center’s play review guide
• University of Richmond’s Guidelines for Writing Critiques for Theatre Performances

Literature Links

• William H. Hannon Library Literature Guide

Music Links

• UNC-Chapel Hill’s Writing Center’s Music writing guide
• Richmond University’s Writing Center’s Music writing guide
• Duke University’s Writing Studio’s Music writing guide

Writing about theatre or drama includes writing about plays, productions, and performances. UNC-Chapel Hill’s Writing Center’s drama guide explains that “writing about drama often means explaining what makes the plays we watch or read so exciting.” They provide a handout for writing about drama, including mini-guides to what elements to consider and analyze when writing specifically about a play, a performance, or a production. 

For a brief overview of some general principles for writing about theatre, refer to the University of Richmond’s Guidelines for Writing Critiques for Theatre Performances. 

Typically, you should format and organize a theatre paper in the same way you would format a paper for your humanities classes, including English 101 and 102. Here are some general guidelines:

• Begin with an introduction paragraph that includes your thesis. A good thesis for a theater paper will be an argument or central claim about some aspect of the play, production, or performance (such as the ones discussed above) that is specific, bold, and, most importantly, supportable by the evidence you will present in the body paragraphs of the paper.
• Evidence includes both primary sources (the play or production itself as well as analysis based on your own interpretation) and secondary sources such as scholarly publications you may consult. 
• End with a conclusion paragraph that reiterates the main points of the paper and gestures beyond its scope to the larger significance of what you have accomplished.
• Citations should be in MLA format (unless otherwise indicated by your instructor)
• << Previous: Writing for Education
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• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2023 12:20 PM

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Statewide organization recognizes Southwestern University’s Library staff with “Branding Iron Awards” for excellence in marketing and public relations.

A conversation with Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez.

A Comprehensive Guide for Writing Research Papers: Humanities Edition

September 16, 2019

Megan Betancourt ’21

Open gallery

Welcome to college!  

Congrats on making it this far! You’ve spent the last year and a half or so of your life doing tedious research, going on campus tours, hunting down people who like you enough to write recommendation letters, filling out applications, having mental breakdowns and—most importantly—writing a college essay. Now, you’re probably thinking if that essay was good enough to get you into college, you must be pretty good at writing essays, right?

Fast forward a little bit. You’ve registered for a humanities class or two, and boom : you have a research paper due in two weeks. But you’re not worried because you had this on lock in high school: A three-part thesis, five paragraphs, add a little garlic for extra fragrance, sauté, and voilà! You have an A+ ! Or so you think, until you get maybe a B– , and in your unadulterated terror and confusion, you burst into your professor’s office and ask why your perfectly formulated essay garnered you anything less than an A . 

And that’s where they drop the bomb on you: your essay was too formulaic. Too mechanical. It looked *stock horror violins* like a high-school essay! 

You’re devastated. Your world has been shattered. Your academic career during K–12 has been a sham. You don’t even know who you are anymore. You mournfully tell them that your high-school education has stunted your essay-writing abilities and inflated your ego, and, in yet another moment of hubris, you ask if there’s anything you can do to change your grade. 

But there isn’t. There never is. 

Your professor patiently tries to explain to you exactly what went wrong, but you’re too panicked to take away anything from the conversation besides “don’t write like this.”  But you don’t know how else to write academic essays. You leave their office absolutely distraught and are frantically wondering, “How else am I supposed to write?” 

Since this exact scenario may or may not be coming from personal experience, I’m willing to bet that’s how you ended up at this nifty little article here. Well, maybe not that exact scenario (for your dignity and sanity’s sake, I hope not) but you are at least sitting with the question, “How do I write a college essay that doesn’t follow the three-part thesis, five-paragraph format?” As someone with several years of experience writing college essays who also had to throw out everything I thought I knew, I’d like to share with you some high-quality, gamer-approved, pro tips on the entire essay writing process. And when I say the entire process, I mean it. 

Time-management tips to help you the whole way

This probably goes without saying, but do try and keep deadlines in mind. Put them on your calendar; set a reminder—you know the drill. 

But turning something in by the deadline that you did during one all-nighter isn’t what I mean. That’s the complete opposite of time management. Instead, try to develop a sense of how long it takes you to get things done. Do you just galaxy brain the moment you open up Microsoft Word and crank out five pages in an hour and a half? Great!se the extra time to edit. Does your brain turn to TV static the moment you finish your MLA heading? That’s OK. Just make sure you get an early start and plan breaks so you don’t frustrate yourself. Again, timely does not mean all at once. If you know how long it takes you to accomplish certain tasks, you can fit working on your essay into your schedule better and won’t have to cram everything in at the last minute. It’ll feel like less of a gargantuan task if you spread the work out into smaller chunks over a longer period of time. 

Pick a topic

Although some professors may tell you exactly what they want you to write about, it’s more likely that you’ll be given a list of open-ended topics to choose from or you’ll be able to come up with your own topic as long as they approve it. This can be great for some people who are really enthusiastic about the class and have a lot of ideas already swimming around. For others, you can practically hear the crickets chirping while you stare blankly at your essay guidelines. Here are some ways you can strike a good balance between a fun and a practical paper:

• Again, make sure your topic is something you’re at least mildly interested in. It’ll make the writing process more enjoyable and make for a more compelling read. Readers, including your professor, can usually tell how much care went into a piece of writing, and that will go a long way regarding the reception of it.
• The types of sources your topic will need are usually pretty intuitive. For example, if you’re writing a critical response to a text, you’ll probably need to cite existing critical responses to back you up. Or if you’re writing about what it was like to live in a certain place at a certain time, some primary sources might be in order.
• Keep in mind the plausibility of there being available sources. Something super contemporary might not have a lot of existing research surrounding it, and what does exist might not be peer reviewed. 
• Keeping your question specific will help whittle down how much research you will need to do, but there is such a thing as too niche a topic (see above).
• Try to have a backup. Your topic might not be super researchable once you get to looking or might not be as interesting as you thought it would be.
• Run everything by your professor. They can provide good insight regarding the intrigue and researchability of your topic so you know whether you’re heading in the right direction before you invest too much time and effort.

The research

You’ve used the above information to help you formulate a professor-approved topic as well as a plan B. Now it’s time for you to hit Google and start gathering research. And while the old trick of using literally anything other than Wikipedia was enough in high school, you will likely encounter the phrase “peer reviewed” when looking at the source requirements for your paper. This means that you need to be looking for scholarly sources by experts that have been reviewed by other experts in that field. But how could you possibly know that?

The good news is that there are these incredible things known as academic databases that contain literally nothing but scholarly resources. You might actually be somewhat familiar with these if you ever used Google Scholar and found what you thought was the perfect source, only to click on the link and have the website tell you that you need to pay money if you want to read anything besides the abstract. Thankfully, full access to academic databases will usually be provided by your college. So now that you know where to look, here’s how to go about your research: 

• Make a list of keywords and keyphrases relating to your topic. This will come in handy because you usually won’t turn up many results if you type your question word for word into a database’s search bar. 
• JSTOR is your best friend. Just type in your keywords or keyphrase into the search bar, and you’ll be greeted with an almost overwhelming amount of results. You can narrow things down based on different types of sources: academic journal articles (usually the most abundant and most helpful), book chapters, research reports, and pamphlets. You can also search for content tagged by subject. Each search result will also have a list of topics, which is an additional set of keywords you can use for your research. You can also narrow it down to a range of publication years. Beyond being well organized, all sources on there are peer-reviewed, scholarly sources.
• Related to JSTOR, there is also a database called ARTSTOR that contains an immense library of visual media, from museum pieces to illustrations. Images are sources, too, and if you’re required to cite one, this is a great place to look.

Although databases like JSTOR are immensely helpful, there will inevitably come a moment when you need to find something that just isn’t there. The rest of the Internet obviously isn’t devoid of useful sources, but you will need to use a more discerning eye. 

• You’ve heard it from your teachers for years, and you’re going to hear it again from me: don’t use Wikipedia. However, it is not totally useless. Check the sources at the bottom of the article; there’s usually a hidden gem or two every now and again.
• Google Scholar isn’t just good for psyching you out by showing you sources that are behind a paywall. You can actually find a lot of book sources on there via Google Books. You may have to have books be a part of your citations, and if you can’t find a helpful one on JSTOR, you may just find it through Google Scholar.
• Websites ending in .gov or .edu will usually be more reliable because, as the extensions imply, they are run by government agencies or educational institutions. But, as with most things, caution and common sense must be exercised. 
• Lastly are things I like to call “metasources.” As with Wikipedia, this is where you look at the citations of another source. If you’ve found a source that’s already helpful, there’s a good chance it’ll send you in the direction of other good sources, which can be a great timesaver! 

Planning and outlining your paper (I’m begging you not to skip this step; please just hear me out)

I’m a big fan of outlining. I know some of you reading this have gotten into the habit of just opening up a Word document and just trucking along with your paper, and while I won’t stop you (although I absolutely cannot relate), I do want to champion the benefits that come with outlining. First and foremost, it’ll improve how your essay is organized. Your thoughts will already be in a logical order, and it’s easier to move paragraphs and ideas around before you end up writing a really good sentence you get attached to but just doesn’t fit anymore. Outlining also prevents or at least minimizes writer’s block. If you have an outline, you’ll always have at least somewhat of an idea about what’s coming next, and if you lose your train of thought while you’re writing, that’s OK—you’ll have the outline to reference! 

Now that you’re sold on the idea of outlining because why wouldn’t you be, how can you go about it?

• Often, a simple bulleted list will suffice. Just putting your ideas in the order you want to talk about them will strengthen the logical flow of your paper before you even begin drafting it. But if you’re a more visual person, put all of your ideas onto sticky notes and put them up on a board or wall. It’s extra easy to reorder things that way.
• Come up with your thesis. This is going to be the backbone of your paper, and everything you discuss needs to relate to it somehow. If your thesis is strong, it will usually be fairly easy to generate the rest of the paper. Decide on the kind of evidence you are going to provide to building on your thesis. This can be done by either referencing what kind of sources you’ll be citing or summarizing them. Briefly trace the steps you’ve taken to reach your claim. The body paragraphs will expand upon those steps.
• Run everything by your professor, especially your thesis statement. Just letting them know what you’re thinking of doing will go a long way in helping you plan a stronger paper before you start writing. After all, it’d be a real bummer if you came up with a thesis, wrote your whole essay around it, and asked your professor to look at your draft only for them to say it doesn’t work.

Actually writing

Now it’s time to write. But before you do, I’m going to let you in on what is probably the most important tip I can give you, especially in regards to combating the five-paragraph essay: Write organically! If you write in the way that comes most naturally to you, your authorial voice will be more present. There will be more of you in the paper, and it will make for a more interesting read and compelling argument. Give yourself room for creative freedom. 

Honestly, if that was your only takeaway from this guide, I’d be more than happy. I wish I had known that I was able to do this in the beginning, but sometimes we feel like we need permission to change the way we do things, especially when it comes to school. So for those of you who need it, I am not only giving you permission but even encouraging you to write how you want to write. 

Of course, writing a college essay isn’t just about putting heart into it;there’s some technique involved as well. The following advice, however, pertains mostly to my own preferred style. If you like, you can always try them on for size and see :

• Spice up your punctuation. Diversifying how you split up and deliver sentences will give you stronger control over the pacing of your essay. For example, if you want to deliver a particularly hard-hitting line, use an em dash (—). It’s sort of the written equivalent of a dramatic pause and can let your reader know you’re about to deliver some hot takes.
• Weave (properly cited) quotes into your own prose. You’ll know you’ve done it correctly when you read the paper aloud and it’s nearly impossible to distinguish quotations from your own writing. So rather than saying something like “according to ____” or “as stated by ____,” you write around the quoted material. This will improve the flow of your paper.  
• Put down the thesaurus! Purple prose will just distract from your ideas and come off as inauthentic. I know we all want to make Oscar Wilde proud, but your college essays aren’t the place to do it. 

You’re done! Except you’re not.

Now it’s time for my favorite part: proofreading. And, just like outlining, do not skip this step. I don’t care how good you think your paper is; I know you missed something: a skipped word, a misplaced apostrophe, a sentence that needs omitting. Even if you get to do an official rough draft and then a final draft, it’s better to take the sand-blaster to the rough draft and the glass file to the final draft than the other way around. It’ll save you a lot of time and frustration because I know it can be a little disheartening to get back a draft covered in red ink. 

• Put some distance between yourself and your work. You’re gonna get so used to reading the same thing over and over that you’ll start to miss stuff. Do whatever you need to to make it feel new again, whether that’s giving yourself a day away from it or playing around with the margins or font (let me tell you, reading something in Comic Sans is a whole different experience than Times New Roman; just remember to change fonts again before you turn it in).
• Not sure if that comma is in the right place? How do you use a semicolon? If you aren’t sure, look it up. Plenty of universities have online writing center resources with answers to these exact questions. 
• Read it aloud. Note any mistakes. Fix them. Read it aloud again. Repeat. Got a roommate or friend who will be a mildly tolerant audience? Even better. And yes, I know you’re going to feel weird doing it, but it is an absolute lifesaver and one of the best things you can do in the editing phase, and I will die standing on this hill. Read. It. Aloud. 

Bold of you to assume I was finished

The essay odyssey doesn’t end when you turn it in, and neither will I! So you’ve done all of the above, you got that paper written (congratulations!), and you finally, finally got it back from your professor, annnnnnd … it wasn’t the grade you were hoping for. Before I get into my spiel about coping with these kinds of things, here’s some quick advice on doing something productive with a less-than-ideal grade: 

• If you want to better understand why you got the grade you did, again, go to your professor’s office hours and talk to them about it. You’ll get a better understanding of what you can improve on. The rubric (if you get one) isn’t going to cover every little nuance of how they grade, so if you don’t know, ask.Save all of your work, regardless of the grade! Your professor’s constructive criticism and praise will be invaluable resources in improving all subsequent work and providing a little reassurance along the way. 

Granted, if you followed at least most of the suggestions here, your grade is probably going to be more than fine, but hey, these things happen, right? Maybe you misunderstood the prompt or couldn’t make time to go over it with other people. Maybe life got in the way, or it just didn’t quite come together. We can follow all the practical advice in the world but still just not be in the right headspace to write, and that’s OK. Your “best” isn’t a fixed measure of performanceL your “best” for one week may not be as good as your “best” the week before. Don’t stress over a B or a C– , especially if it’s the first paper you’ve written for that class. It took me a long time to figure that out. This isn’t just about breaking bad writing habits; it’s about breaking unhealthy habits about how we view our own productivity and success. So here are my final suggestions:

• Don’t be so hard on yourself.
• And remember: you’re always going to be a better writer by the last sentence than you were when you wrote the first. Develop good habits and practice, and there’s nothing you can do except improve.

Good luck, guys, and happy writing! 

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Writing in Humanities: Do’s and Don’ts for Researchers

Academic writing in humanities plays a pivotal role in advancing the field and disseminating new ideas to a diverse global audience. With readers from various cultures and first languages, effective writing in humanities and sociology requires clarity, convention, and a structure that supports reader comprehension. To help researchers make their mark in influential international journals, we present five essential dos and five critical don’ts of effective academic writing in humanities and sociology to help researchers create a lucid narrative and showcase concepts that can strengthen your argument.

5 Dos to keep in mind when writing in humanities

Maintain focus on the problem statement.

When writing in humanities, remember to clearly state the aim of the study and the problem statement in the introduction, and refer back to this in later sections so that readers do not stray away from the key message.

Present relevant, interesting original work

Leading international journals will only publish work that is original and fills gaps in our current understanding. So, choose the topic of your research carefully to ensure your work is novel, relevant, and interesting.

Write in clear, concise, simple language

When writing in humanities, it’s always helpful to use short sentences that convey your message in a clear, easy-to-understand way. While you may be tempted to use technical jargon, steer clear of complex terms and convoluted phrases that can be confusing or even misleading for your audience.

Be aware of the target journal’s scope

Some journals focus on a certain aspect of the subject, while others publish work from related fields like anthropology, psychology, economics, political studies, and history. So, when writing in humanities, keep in mind the target journal’s scope, audience, and ensure your research can be understood by non-academics or peers from other fields.

Make your Abstract impactful and discoverable

Abstracts are perhaps the most important part of your manuscript and must be crafted with a lot of thought. Typically, keywords from the Abstract and research paper title are used to drive its success on search engines so use at least one phrase to indicate your problem statement, the methodological approach used and why it is important for readers and understand.

5 Don’ts when writing in humanities

Not including visuals to break the monotony of text.

Visuals are a great way to convey complex concepts at a glance, but these should be designed to clearly communicate ideas, without needing to refer to body text. Avoid complicated or ambiguous visuals, use high-definition images, include captions and legends, provide abbreviations and symbols where required, and appropriately cite copyrights, sources, or permissions.

Not adhering to ethical reporting guidelines

Academic writing in humanities often include human subjects, which requires appropriate permissions, ethical reporting, data sharing, and author identification. Adherence to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and the ASA’s Code of Ethics on informed consent is considered mandatory; neglecting to follow these ethical guidelines can be cause for manuscript rejection.

Not paying attention to analyses of results

Most reputed journals require authors to include an analysis of the study in the Discussion section; it is not enough to merely mention the validity of findings. This is a common reason for journal rejection among early career academics, who detail their findings and state the methods and approach but overlook this aspect in their humanities research paper.

Not addressing the limitations of the study

Humanities and sociology involve the study of human society and culture, with all its diversity and complexities. This makes it crucial to mention the limitations of your study in the final paragraphs of your humanities research paper to help readers understand the study’s purpose in the context of existing relevant international literature. Provide a brief summary of the issues you addressed, the restrictions your report uncovered, and how your research can benefit future studies in the field.

Not mentioning the impact and applications

Researchers aspire to conduct studies that are relevant and positively impacts our world, so when writing in humanities, highlight the value of your work. It is essential to explain why your study is relevant to readers and how it directly connects with existing themes and concepts. Highlighting your study’s potential applications, relevance and contribution allows readers to analyze your work from specific perspectives and understand its significance in the broader context.

Don’t miss the chance to learn more on how to write a good humanities research paper , where the writing style, structure, and presentation differs from other disciplines. And when you are writing in humanities, remember to write simply and clearly to connect with a diverse audience. By following the dos and avoiding the don’ts mentioned above, researchers writing in humanities can elevate their manuscripts, engage their readers, and leave a lasting impact on the field. Happy writing!

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Try it for free or upgrade to  Paperpal Prime , which unlocks unlimited access to premium features like academic translation, paraphrasing, contextual synonyms, consistency checks, submission readiness and more. It’s like always having a professional academic editor by your side! Go beyond limitations and experience the future of academic writing.  Get Paperpal Prime now at just US$12 a month !    

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16.1: Formatting a Research Paper

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Learning Objectives

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style, the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style, from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract, or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred to one hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12, you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Exercise 1
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings”.

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings”, but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\)

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2”, begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11, the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Section 13.2 and Section 13.3 provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

writing at work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. (Section 13.3 provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.