5.1 Planning, producing, and revising a research paper while considering audience, context, and purpose

Outline of a Research Paper

• Introduction: Opens your paper.
• Background and Context of the Research: Your literature review naturally goes over some background and context, but you may find it helpful to give even more background.
• Statement of the Research Question and/or the Project’s Goal: At some point, you’ll need to explain what you’re researching.
• Literature Review: Your Literature Review looks at previous work done in your field or on your topic. 
• Gap Identification: For AP Research specifically, you need to “logically [explain] how the topic of inquiry addresses a gap” (Source: AP Research Paper Rubric). This means you’ll need to state directly in your paper what the gap in the field is that you’re going to fill. What are you doing that nobody else has done before?
• Method, Process, or Approach: Explains what the research process was. Remember, your research process description needs to be detailed and replicable. 
• Results, Product, or Findings: Explains what the results of your research was. If you’re creating something like an artistic work, this will be a product instead of a result. 
• Discussion, Analysis, and/or Evaluation: 
• Commentary: Your results won’t make much sense unless you add reasoning to your evidence. You need to explain what your results or product mean. You also need to explain how these results connect to your original research question or goal.
• Limitations: Discusses the limitations of your research.
• Implications: Discusses the implications of your research. 
• Conclusion and Future Directions: This section is for wrapping up your paper and discussing what future work could be done based on what you found in your research. “Future Directions” of a work can count as implications of research, although I would add further implications just to be safe. 
• Bibliography: Last but not least, you have your bibliography, a list of sources formatted in a citation style such as MLA or APA.

Tips for The Writing Process

• Start with an outline when writing so you know what the rough shape of your essay is.
• In the editing process, it can be helpful to “re-outline” your paper by writing a one sentence summary of each paragraph. 
• Use frequent transition words such as however, therefore, despite, regardless…
• Keep in mind the tone you want to achieve as you write. Generally speaking, you won’t want to take a negative tone towards your research. 
• Writers express tone through their choice in words, the way their sentences are structured, and the imagery — if any — they choose to use.
• Check that your sentences have consistent tenses, modifiers, and sentence structures. 
• Be mindful of the design elements you’re using in your presentation and paper, such as headings or tables. It’s important not to overuse these elements. Ask yourself: does this design element help my audience understand my point? 
• Finally, choose a citation style and stay consistent to it.