How to write a research paper and what are its basic parts?

Once you are done with your data processing and data analysis, next and the final step is to compose a written draft of your research. Writing a research paper is the most important part as it needs more attention as compared to other seven steps of research process. While writing a research paper one must look for some basic elements of research papers that are necessary for writing.

Parts of research paper:

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Theoretical framework and literature review
• Methods or procedure
• Results of the study
• Conclusion or discussion
• Bibliography or references

Title: Title of the research paper should be simple and informative.  It should directly attack you research question and should be eligible enough to explain your domain and methodology that would be used by you.

Abstract: The abstract is actually a short summary of your whole research paper. Its standard length is between 100 to 500 words. It should include goals and objectives of your research paper, a short introduction of whatever was there in your research proposal and should be highlighting that what would be the end results or conclusion of your research paper. In final draft of research paper it’s the second element but it is always written in the end when you are done with your whole research.

Introduction: The introduction also has three main purposes. First one is that, it provides with the background and motivation for your topics. Secondly, it describes the focus and purpose of the paper you are writing. And the third one is that it gives an overview of what you research paper is composed of and what are its various sections. In short, it tells its readers about the background of study, statement of problem, objectives that were set by you to conduct this research and in last significance of this study that is done by the researcher.

Theoretical framework and literature review: It usually includes the theoretical perspective of your research study. It also involves the current reviews of literature related to your study and research topic. It can also include samples for your research study that helps you for conducting your research (only if they are in the form of literature).

Methods or procedure: This section of your research paper describes what has been done by you in your research process and what were the strategies that were used to attain aims and objectives of the proposed study? In this part sample calculations are provided to describe that how data was collected and was analyzed by the researcher. The goal of this part is to make readers able to repeat your work and gather more information about it, if desired.

Results of the study: In this part a researcher proves his study and results with the help of data that was used. In this results of the data are given in the form of graphs, charts and tables. These results are followed by a brief description of what was gained as the result of each point. It acts like a guide for your readers to understand your main point to conduct research and the purpose for using specific data and population.

Conclusion or discussion: Here you state what you have learned or proved on the basis of your research questions and statement of problem. You also introduce your accomplishments that you gained with the help of this research. You may also describe interesting observations, new questions and future plans to others with the help of your research paper’s conclusion.

Bibliography or references: It contains the list of reference works that were cited by you during your research. You must note down each and every reference and must not misguide others by providing wrong references. For bibliography and references from books, it should be chronological in order. For internet references title of topic and web link both should be provided in this section.