How to Apply Research Methodology to Your Essays

Research is essential in the college student's life. You will be formulating topics for research papers and evaluating research paper subjects throughout your academic career. The logical process of writing a research paper, once you have a specific topic is considered research methodology. Whether you are aware of the processes involved in research methodology, you still follow the systematic flow of what the method entails.

The parts of research methodology include hypothesis, deduction, predictions, observation, testing of prediction, and induction. The methodology involved in writing a research paper is similar to the scientific method '" just applicable to writing.

The first step in a research paper is introducing your topic to your audience. You are sharing your views on the topic and generalizing through a hypothesis what information you are writing about in your paper. This hypothesis might be in the form of a question or statement, which the remainder of your paper follows through to answer.

In the research paper writing process you collect information to deduce your own opinions. You generally share these sources within your writing, allowing your reader to also deduce for themselves information based on your topic. It is up to the reader if they come to the same conclusions as you, or need more information to come to an educated answer.

Through the deduction process, based on the information you have collected you start to make observations, pose questions, and test the prediction that you made in your hypothesis. You start to form your own ideas, views, and opinions based on information you are collecting for your sources, and as you write, you start to see these ideas come to life. You might even start to see your original views or question posed take on a different perspective that you intended. Your original hypothesis might be discredited, leaving you to complete your paper with the conclusion of a changed view, or rewriting your original hypothesis to coincide with the information you gained.

Through the collection of information, you are inducing the answer to your question posed by your hypothesis, which is the foundation of your research. Your own research along with sources will help shape your final views and answer the question you originally posed as you started your research.

Research methodology follows this basic guide, with or without the awareness of the writer since it is a natural progression from start to finish when writing a paper. Much like the scientific method, the events take place in phases as you star to question the purpose of your research paper and start to put your ideas down on paper, from original question posed '" to resources collected and data shared with your readers to come to a conclusion. Every time you sit to write a research paper, you utilize this methodology from start to finish.