Hello!Ā As finals season (aka 5-research-papers-due-in-a-week season) dawns on many of you, I thought I would share the process I used to write papers in college. This made writing long research papers much less daunting (but can also work on shorter papers). I really hope this helps some of you who feel stuck.Ā Especially during these ridiculous times, when youāre stuck at home and might have other uncontrollable factors affecting your mental health, a clear framework of what to do could be helpful. Good luck, my friends! You got this.
I graduated college in 2018 with degrees in Political Science + International Studies and will be starting law school this fall. I wrote nearly 20 15 to 25-page papers, never earning below an A. I loved researching about my topics but hated writing. Itās tedious, takes so much time, and everything I write sounds bad at first. Plus, I was a terrible procrastinator so most of these essays were written in under a week. Talk about stress.
Over time I found a process that worked for me, one that made churning out a paper seem straightforward, like going through a factory line rather than this terrifying concept of writing 10,000 words. It kept me sane without decreasing the quality of my work (or more importantly, how much I learned!)Ā
Iām thinking about making a short video to show this in actionā¦ let me know if that could be helpful!
How you organize your research is a key step in keeping you sane. Usually Iāll have a pile of 20 books in my dorm along with dozens of JSTOR tabs open on my laptop, and that can get overwhelming very fast. Right now just focus on collecting ideas, not developing an argument or even an outline! As with most research papers, you could be starting with little to no background information on the topic, so it is still too early to be thinking about an argument.
Put all your research in one document
Open up a new doc: this will be the heart of everything. For a 15-page paper I usually end up with around 14-18 pages of typed research, 10 pt font, single spaced, tiny margins. This seems like a lot, but essentially all I do is type up anything I read that seems relevant to my topic, so luckily this step does not require that much brain power. Just type type type!
Use the table of contents
Find the chapter(s) that are actually relevant instead of skimming through the whole book. Time is of the essence here!
Use Zotero, cite right away
You can also use easybib or whatever youāre used to, but keep track of your sources. I like Zotero because I can keep a log of all of my sources and copy the footnote or bibliography version whenever needed. Before you even begin reading, cite the source and copy it into your research doc. This will save you so much time later when you have to put in your citations in the actual paper.Ā
Here is an example of what my research doc looks like:
Full citation is my heading for each source just so itās crystal clear
I ignore all typos (I donāt think there are any in this part though, go me!) because my head is buried in the book just trying to get all the info down
I always start with the page number so I know what to cite when I go back
While typing up research, you might think of something that the author didnāt talk about that youāll want to write in your paper. Or perhaps a few sentences already start to form. Put them all in one place, with your research, so you know what source youāll have to cite to then lead into your idea. I type ā!@#ā before anything that is strictly my own idea so Iām never confused. Itās fast and stands out.
This is an example: the two bullet points above are evidence from my source, which made me think of this argument I could make, which I noted with ā!@#ā
Step 2: Read Your Research
Now that you have all your information, go back and read through it all. Every time you read about a new theme/person/event, write it down somewhere. You may come up with a list of 20+ different ideas in your research. No matter how small, as long as there is somethingĀ about it, write it down. Each of these mini themes is going to end up being a paragraph in your paper or combined with another mini theme.Ā
Once youāve made your list, look for larger overarching themes. In the paper Iāve shown you, I had mini categories likeĀ āpolitical party xāĀ āreligionāĀ ālabor groupsāĀ ālittle organizationā and āhierarchy.ā When I looked back I though, hey these are all groups and how groups are working together, so they each became their own mini paragraph under the subsection ofĀ āAlliances.ā
As with most research paper structures, I try to find threeĀ general themes/subsections (like an extended version of that 5-paragraph essay we wrote in middle school). It makes the paper less messy and also makes sure Iām not covering things that are beyond a reasonable scope.
During this step, you are also searching for your thesis. It wonāt be your final version.Ā As you fill in your outline in the next step you may make slight changes. But this is definitely when you start thinking about it.
Weāre ready to outline! Once Iāve collected all my different themes and organized all my subsections and paragraphs, itās time to fill in that outline. I start a new doc just for the outline and take advantage of google docās headings function to make a clear document outline.
Here comes the fun part, I read through my research one more time, this time copy and pasting all my research into each section of the outline. The document outline in google docs makes this easy because I can just click on each subheading to get me there (super helpful when youāre dealing with 15+ pages of research).
Here is what it looks like:
Letās say I need to add something to my outline about labor groups. Boom, labor groups. Also, the typos are really abound here haha
Okay, I get it, easier said than done. BUT! You already have everything set up. Your outline is essentially just a list of your paragraphs and all you have to do is paraphrase, cite, and create a topic sentence. And thatās how you should think about this: youāre essentially transforming bullet points into sentences and adding footnotes.Ā
In high school my English teacher introduced us to Sh*tty First DraftsĀ for creative writing, but honestly the same applies to research papers. Sometimes Iāll even have phrases likeĀ āwait no thatās not what I meant but basicallyā¦ā and when I go back to edit, I realize that what came afterĀ ābut basicallyā¦ā is fine! And I keep it. So just start typing.
How do you cite while you write? Because weāre trying to get a constant stream of writing going, inserting proper footnotes after each sentence you type is too bothersome. I usually split screen with my outline and my paper so I just copy and paste a few words from my bullet point into my footnote, like so:
(This is from a different paper about cluster munitions.)
I work best when I print out my first draft and make all edits in red pen. I feel more productive and can visually see where I want to move sentences and what I need to change. The more red there is the better I can feel the paper getting. (Whether or not thatās true doesnāt matter. Weāre trying to stay motivated here!) When itās all digital I donāt really see the progress. Plus, once I finish all the red, I get another moment of passive brain work, where all Iām doing is transferring edits rather than thinking. And at this point in the process, that kind of relief is much welcomed.Ā
The good thing about this process is thereās not usually a need to cut entire paragraphs or pages because the paper you end up with is just a formalized version of your outline. Because you started with such a detailed outline, the cutting and editing now is just to refine your word choices and get rid of theĀ ābut basicallyās. Youāre almost there!
Step 6: Replace your citations
Now itās time to go back and replace your footnotes with actual citations. Zotero makes this easy because in Word you can just insert and add the page number, and itāll automatically doĀ āIbid.ā for you when needed. Ctrl+f in the original research doc to quickly find the source.
Step 7: One More Read-Through and Submit!
Congratulations!! Youāve got a fully-researched and well-backed paper! Of course, even though the process is straightforward, itās still a lot of work. In ideal situations I would start researching two weeks before the deadline, but if need be, I believe Iāve done this all in three miserable panic-filled days as well.Ā
Please message me if you have any questions at all! I really hope some of you find this helpful! Good luck!
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