📜 What is an Academic Paper?
There are many forms of academic writing, but an
academic paper should always meet three basic
criteria. It should be written by scholars for other
scholars, focus on issues that concern the academic
community, and contain an informed argument. Other
characteristics of academic writing include a formal
writing style, specific vocabulary terms, and the
use of the third-person perspective.
📝 Types of Academic Papers
There are four general
types of academic texts. A
descriptive text describes a phenomenon, person, or
fact. A
reflective text conveys the author's response
to experiences, opinions, or new information. An
analytical paper shows the relationships between
different phenomena. And, finally, a
critical text
evaluates someone else's work.
Examples of academic paper genres include:
- Book reviews
- Critique papers
- Essays
- Movie Analysis
- Reports
- Research papers
- etc.
📚 Book Review
To put it simply, a review is a critical evaluation
of a text, object, event, etc. A review is not merely
a summary, but rather a commentary with persuasive
arguments. When writing a good book review, you need
to clearly state your opinion of the work in question,
and support your statements logically and/or empirically.
Reviews are usually short and rarely exceed 1000 words
in academic journals and newspapers. The structure of
a book review often resembles that of other academic
papers, featuring typical elements like an introduction,
a thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
🤨 Critique Paper
A critique paper aims to critically read and analyze a
text, research, or performance. It can also be called
a response paper. A critique resembles a book review,
but there are important differences. A review should
contain the key points of the work in question, while
a critique focuses on the evaluation and analysis of
the text or research.
✍️ Academic Essay
An essay is a common form of academic writing. Many
different kinds of academic essays exist, but most
of them share the same goal of informing readers
about the author's position with the help of arguments
and evidence.
There is no ready-made formula for the perfect essay
structure.
Instead, it may be useful to think of the different
sections of the text as answers to different
questions that your reader might have when
encountering your research essay. For example,
“What” is probably the first question a reader might
have. Thus, the “what” or “demonstration” section of
your paper, which aims to explain the phenomenon
about which you are writing, should come early, just
after the introduction.
Next, your reader might want to know if the claims
you make are valid in all cases. “How” is the
corresponding question here. How will another
perspective, a new set of materials, or different
sources affect the claim you make? A typical academic
essay usually contains at least one “how” section.
And finally, before coming to a conclusion, your
reader might want to ask “Why” or “So what”. Why
does this matter to anyone besides you? Answering
this question helps your readers understand the text
within a broader context. By providing a clear
response to the "why" question, your essay
demonstrates its significance.
🎥 Movie Analysis
Unlike literature, a movie includes audiovisual elements.
However, literature and film do have many similarities.
Both use characters, dialogues, plots, settings,
symbolism, etc. These features can be analyzed for
their intent and effect in both cinema and literature.
Coherent arguments and convincing evidence are as
crucial for movie analysis as for other scholarly
papers. Therefore, well-developed academic writing
skills are required to write a successful film
analysis paper.
📊 Academic Report
A report is a type of academic paper that is created
for a very clear purpose and contains specific
information and evidence. Students are usually asked
to write reports for one of two reasons: 1) to
demonstrate what they have learned, or 2) to develop
an important skill. Moreover, a good report needs to
be clear, concise, and well-structured.
🔬 Research Paper
Like most other scholarly papers, an academic research
paper is not just a collection of information or a
review of the literature on a particular topic. A
research paper needs to present your own argument on
a topic, supported by others' works.
What does a research paper look like? Usually, it is
an expanded version of an essay. When working on an
essay, a student often focuses on personal thoughts
and experiences. However, to write on a research
paper, you need to find out what the experts know.
Thus, a literature review section is usually an
essential part of a research paper outline. Other
important parts include the abstract, introduction,
methods, results, discussion, and references.
How long should a research paper be? There's no
single answer to this question because the length of
a research paper depends on its topic and purpose.
However, an average paper usually fills between four
and five pages.
👣 How to Write an Academic Paper: 9 Easy Steps
The whole writing process may seem overly complex and
intimidating at first. But when you break it down
into smaller tasks, it becomes more organized and
manageable.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to write an
academic paper most efficiently. Before jumping into
it, you can add a preparation stage. Spend a little
bit of time by checking out some free essay samples
to gain some inspiration and generate ideas. It will
boost the whole process and help you reach your goal
with ease.
🔥 Step 1. Choose a Hot Topic
Selecting a topic is probably the most difficult
challenge for students who are starting their
research papers. Sometimes you are assigned a topic,
but often you need to choose one by yourself.
Choosing and defining a good topic is a crucial part
of a successful research project. However, don't
fret about coming up with the final version for the
header of your academic paper at this stage. That
decision comes much later.
❓ Step 2. Formulate Your Topic as a Research Question
A research question is the base of every scholarly
paper. You can think of your research project as a
house. The data collection forms the walls, and the
hypothesis is the foundation. Your research question,
however, is even more fundamental; it is the ground
beneath the house. It needs to be solid, specific,
and answerable.
At this stage, it is important to develop a
preliminary research question, keeping in mind that
you'll probably refine or even change it later.
🤓 Step 3. Read & Make Notes
Most likely, you'll have reviewed some sources by
this stage of topic selection, but now is the time
to dig deeper.
To get started, make a list of the sources that
you plan to use. Ideally, they should be
relevant to the topic and as current as possible.
Make sure that you understand who the top voices in
your field are and what they have to say about your
topic.
It is a good idea to take notes while reading. Later,
you'll be able to convert them into a full literature
review section.
❗ Step 4. Formulate a Thesis Statement
Once you've decided on a research question, and you
have a grasp on what other scholars have written on
the topic, it is time to make your own ideas more
concrete. At this stage, you need to formulate a
thesis statement that aims to convey the central
argument of your academic paper. Your task is to
persuade your audience that you have something
valuable to say. A good thesis statement should be
specific, debatable, and concise.
🔍 Step 5. Get Your Empirical Results
This step is not always necessary. Still, if you need
empirical evidence to prove your thesis, you'll have
to spend time collecting it. Scholars conduct their
research in different ways, so this stage is flexible
according to your specific topic. If you have any
questions about gathering empirical evidence, you can
always consult your professor.
📅 Step 6. Plan Your Paper
The work that you've already done has probably given
you tons of exciting ideas. Your task at this stage
is to organize these ideas logically in an outline
format. Think of the key points that support your
thesis and use them as subheadings for the body
paragraphs of your paper.
A typical academic paper structure includes:
- an abstract
- an introduction
- a literature review
- a methods section
- a results section
- a discussion
- a conclusion
🖊️ Step 7. Write Your Draft
At this stage, you already have an outline that gives
you a direction. All you need to do is create the
first draft of your paper by filling in the details
of each section.
The header of your academic paper is very important.
If you want to make a good impression on your
audience, take note that the title is the first
thing that they'll see. Make a list of the keywords
that pertain to the topic you chose, the methods you
used, and the results you obtained. Create a
sentence that includes as many of the keywords as
possible. Make it logical and concise, and add a
subtitle if needed.
After creating your headers, you'll find that
drafting the individual sections of your paper is
much easier.
🗒️ Step 8. Revise & Edit the Draft
Now that you've managed to finish your first draft,
take a moment to congratulate yourself! And then,
get back to work because you still have a lot to do.
Remember, the first draft is never perfect. If you
want to make a good impression on your audience,
revise and edit the content and grammar of your
paper.
🔤 Step 9. Format Your Paper
At this stage, you need to make sure that that the
format of your academic paper meets the correct
style requirements. Pay special attention to
citations.
The idea behind citations is simple. If you use the
ideas of other people in your work, you must give
them credit.
How do you cite your sources? There are many
citation styles, but the most popular are APA and
MLA.
What is APA Format?
APA (American Psychological Association) style is
often used in Social Sciences (Sociology,
Anthropology, Economics, etc.), but many other
disciplines use it too.
What is MLA Format?
MLA style was developed by the Modern Language
Association. MLA is the leading style of
documentation in the Humanities, and enables
students and researchers in the fields of Language
and Literature to format their papers in a
universal way.
