Research Paper
Research-paper writing is a process of defining a question or claim, finding and evaluating relevant sources, organizing evidence, drafting, and revising. General advice must remain subordinate to the assignment and disciplinary conventions.
A research paper uses research sources to develop an argument, interpretation, or answer appropriate to an assignment and discipline. There is no universal research-paper template or required source count: the prompt, genre, audience, field, and evidence determine the structure.
Key details
Important caveats
Boundary
Do not impose one section order, paragraph count, or source count across disciplines.
Further guidance
Evidence Workflow
Find, evaluate, synthesize, and cite sources for the role they play in the argument rather than accumulating a target number without purpose.
Planning
Start from the assignment and research question; decide what claim or interpretation the paper must support before choosing an outline.
Worked Example
A history paper may organize evidence around a chronological claim, while a laboratory-course paper may follow a discipline-specific report structure required by the instructor.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Common Writing Terms and Concepts Defined (opens in a new tab)George Mason University Writing Center · George Mason defines a research paper as an essay that analyzes multiple sources within a field to create an argument or interpretation.
- Where do I Begin? (opens in a new tab)Purdue Online Writing Lab · Purdue states that research papers have no single template and that genre, topic, audience, assignment, research, outlining, drafting, and revising shape the paper.