Build the Meat of Your Paper with the Right Research

Doing the correct amount of research for a paper is the most important step in the writing process. You could be a highly skilled writer with a natural gift for words and for sounding impressive, but that doesn't make a good grade. Most professors can see right through the 'fluff' and can tell whether or not your paper has enough relevant content. Not to say that having a paper that sounds good is bad-in fact, good style and a clear voice often comes into play when assigning a grade. However, proper research is essential for the building blocks of the paper. Think of it as the cement foundation for a beautiful mansion.

Explore Lots of Sources

Often, professors assign papers that can have a fairly broad focus. For instance, one year I was asked to write a paper about the "...significance a poem of [my] choosing had on literature at the time it was published." This is a fairly broad topic, and in order to even begin writing I had to do a lot of research, mainly to determine just exactly which poems were significant!

When you first start your research, you are reading for general ideas. In the case above, I read many poems that were cited by one source or another by being 'significant.' By doing so, I was able to narrow down a few poems to choose from. This preliminary research gave me the groundwork needed to choose a proper subject for my paper, one that I could speak strongly about.

Explore Different Types of Sources

In today's technological age, the internet is the primary tool for research. However, there are lots of other sources out there to be investigated: books, newspapers, and scholarly journals.

Books - Reference and nonfiction books contain a wealth of information, all in one convenient place. Published books not only include specified information on one general subject, but also ensure legitimacy of the information. These materials go under rigorous editing to make sure all of their content is accurate and correct.

Newspapers - Newspaper articles are an often-neglected source for primary accounts of events. These articles are great for use in history papers because they provide a first-hand description of the event in question.

Scholarly Journals - Also a resource that often goes untapped, scholarly journals are especially helpful for papers that deal with current issues. There are all types of scholarly journals, on subjects ranging from biology and chemistry to archaeology and anthropology. Use scholarly journals to find the most up-to-date information in a certain field.

Put You Research Into Categories

As you do your research, group your findings into distinct categories. For the poetry example mentioned above, I divided my research by the impact it was said to have - whether it made people consider moral issues, whether it developed a new style, etc. By divided the research into categories, picking and choosing what I wanted to include in my paper became much easier. Do the same with your research-group like with like. That way, when it comes time to actually write your paper, you have all the information for one category in one place, which can cut your writing time in half.

Your research will make up the bulk of your paper, so it's important to remember to have lots of relevant research from lots of sources. Adding information from various sources lends legitimacy to your research, and allows your professor to see that you put a lot of work into your paper, so don't neglect to check books, newspapers, and scholarly journals in addition to your online research!