Writing Your Research Paper

Part IVDrafting Your Research Paper

By Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

In previous presentations, you’ve learned some important research paper skills: How to research a topic, write a thesis, and create an outline.

Now you’re ready for the next step: drafting your research paper.

Before we begin, here’s an important point to remember: Follow your instructor’s directions exactly.

Some instructors have special requirements for their research assignments.The instructions in this presentation will work for most research papers.

The topic we’ve chosen is ragtime, the unique African-American music that created a sensation from 1895 to 1915.

Here’s the thesis: Ragtime changed American history.

The keyword is changed.

This sample paper explores three ways that ragtime changed America.

Here’s the outline—three ways that ragtime changed America:

Outline

Historians today point to the ragtime era (1895-1915) as a turning point in American musical history. THESIS Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and

traditional European musical forms, it became the first distinctively American musical style.

Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American rhythms, it brought black and white musicians together right from the beginning.

Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn America from a musical follower into a world leader.

Notice that the most important supporting idea comes last (in bold):

Outline

Historians today point to the ragtime era (1895-1915) as a turning point in American musical history. THESIS Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and

traditional European musical forms, it became “the first distinctively American musical style.”

Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American rhythms, it brought black and white musicians together right from the beginning.

Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn America from a musical follower into a world leader.

(If you’re not sure of your outline, talk to your instructor or a librarian. Please!)

Now let’s look at the parts of a research paper:

The introduction The middle (supporting ideas plus examples and

details)The conclusion (a paragraph that wraps up the

paper)A Works Cited page (which you’ll learn more about

in Part V)

Writing Your IntroductionThe introduction is the first paragraph in your research paper. It should include:an attention-grabber background informationa quotation or statistics about the importance of

your topicyour thesis (the main point you’ll be making)

Your attention-grabber can be a surprising fact, a startling statistic, or an interesting anecdote.

If you have a lot of background, you can use two paragraphs for your introduction.

Here’s the introduction to the ragtime research paper:

Let’s see how it’s put together. Here’s the attention-getter (a brief story about Scott Joplin):

Here’s the background (information about ragtime):

Notice there’s a quotation from an expert—Edward Berlin:

Here’s the thesis—the central point the paper is making:

You’ll remember that the thesis is the sentence that does the “heavy lifting” in your research paper.

The rest of this research paper will consist of ideas, examples, and details that support this thesis.

The introduction includes a quotation about the importance of ragtime:

The entire introduction should fit on the first page of your research paper.

Now it’s time for the supporting ideas.We’ll do them one at a time, and we’ll write several paragraphs about each one.

First supporting idea Second supporting idea MOST IMPORTANT

supporting idea

Here’s the first supporting idea (in blue).

It explains one way that ragtime changed America:

Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and traditional European musical forms, it became “the first distinctively American musical style” (Smithsonian 227).

- first supporting idea

There are several paragraphs explaining what was distinctively American about ragtime.

Here’s the second supporting idea.

It’s another way that ragtime changed America—by bringing the races together.

Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American rhythms, it brought black and white musicians together right from the beginning.

- second supporting idea

There are several paragraphs about black and white ragtime musicians working together.

And now we come to the most important supporting idea (in blue):

This is the biggest change wrought by ragtime:

Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn America from a musical follower into a world

leader.- most important supporting

idea

It’s supported by several paragraphs with examples and facts.

We’ll finish the paper with a conclusion.

The conclusion is a paragraph at the end that ties up and closes down the research paper.

This is the time to shut down your paper.

Don’t put anything new in your conclusion. It’s time to wrap up your paper.

A common mistake is saving the main point for the very end. (The main point belongs on the first page.)

You can read the entire ragtime paper free at www.ragtimeresearchpaper.com.

Please take a few minutes to do that! You’ll see how it’s organized and how all the parts work together.

There’s one more important point. Writing is a messy process.

When you’re writing a research paper, give yourself plenty of time to revise.

Although my finished research paper about ragtime looks tidy, there were many deletions and start-overs during the drafting process.

Be sure to watch all the parts in the Writing Your Research Paper series at

www.ResearchPaperSteps.com.

I Researching Your TopicII Focusing Your Research Paper

III Organizing Your Research PaperIV Drafting Your Research Paper

V Documenting Your Sources

If you’d like to sharpen your writing skills…

…go to Amazon.com for a free preview of What Your English Teacher Didn’t Tell You by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

And remember to check out the free resources at www.WritewithJean.com.