Writing an academic research paper

During your time in high school, you will write in a wide variety of forms: Short stories, speeches, poems, and, of course, essays. Even within essay writing you will be asked to use adapt your writing style for your intended audience.

This geography essay is meant to both persuasive and academic. That means you are making a point, but you are doing so in a way that is formal and structured.

Here are few tips for achieving that style:

  1. Make sure everything you write relates to your thesis
  2. Everything that you write must clearly connect back to your thesis. It may be interesting or valuable information on your topic, but if it doesn’t help prove your point, be prepared to leave it out OR change your thesis to match your information.

EX: Your thesis is “Due to the serious health threats it poses, McDonald’s food should not be served to children under the age of five”. While researching, you found a fantastic resource on the number of infant fatalities in McDonald’s ball pits since 1982. Yes, it relates to McDonald’s, but it’s not within the frame of your argument.

What should you do? Leave it out or change your thesis to include this new point: “Children under the age of five should not be allowed in McDonald’s restaurants”.

  1. Support all of your points with data/research
  2. Reliable and trustworthy data must lie behind every point that you make.
  3. Use paraphrases to put key ideas into your own words

EX: In 2012 the Ball Pit Safety Association (BPSA) closed 46 ball pits in McDonald’s across the country, citing unsafe and filthy conditions (Smith 11).

  1. Use direct quotations to precisely capture the author’s thoughts

EX: In his 2012 report, John Smith, Director of the BPSA described the situation as “a national crisis that needs immediate attention” (12).

  1. Avoid generalizations or personal rambling
  2. Even if what you are saying is based in fact, it needs to be rooted in research.

EX (of what you’re NOT supposed to do): Ball pits are nasty and gross. Every kid goes into them and then they slobber all over the place. Nobody wants that. One time I almost drowned in a ball pit.

  1. Provide analysis of your research
  2. Analysis is the process of answering the questions “Why is this piece of research important?” and “What can we learn from it?”
  3. Instead of ending a point or paragraph with a quote, you should provide some reflection on the significance of what you have written.

EX:

The danger McDonald’s poses to children is not limited to its food, but extends to a seemingly harmless yet deadly corner of its restaurants – The ball pit. These pools of filth and disease have come under attack in recent years. In 2012, the Ball Pit Safety Association (BPSA) closed 46 ball pits in McDonald’s across the country, citing unsafe and filthy conditions (Smith 11). What was once thought to be a site of safe play is now recognized as the site of many transmittable diseases. In his report, John Smith, Director of the BPSA described the situation as “a national crisis that needs immediate attention” (12). The threat that McDonald’s poses to children’s health is, therefore, not limited to its food but incudes the environment of the restaurant itself. It is clear that parents need not only to keep McDonald’sout of children, but they also need to keep children out of McDonald’s.

  1. Be authoritative and formal
  2. Make statements, not personal reflections

EX: I believe ball pits are filthy and should be outlawed -> Ball pits are filthy and should be outlawed.

  1. Do not use contractions (weren’t -> were not)
  2. Don’t address your audience
  3. Don’t rely on rhetorical questions, make direct statements.