Organizing and Writing Research Arguments

A helpful strategy for writing an essay is to create an outline for it. Due to the usage of subheads and transitions, an outline can help organize and develop an essay’s argument. An outline should organize sections for the thesis, arguments, and sources. Also, it should be formatted with subheads and argumentative subheads as a way of transitioning the ideas in the essay fluidly. Transitions are essential to any research paper and needs to be given special attention by the author. Each idea should build upon the next idea to allow smooth transitions. In any research paper, sources are necessary and through a process of integrating sources. In this process, summary, paraphrasing, and direct quotations are ways of using sources in a paper. A summary is a brief overview of the topic of discussion. Paraphrasing is the restating of a specific point in your research. Another important part of a research paper is including direct quotations. An author would use quotations as evidence for their argument and also as a form of validity because it is coming directly from an expert on the subject. However, quotes should never be merely inserted into a paper, but instead, integrated naturally into it. All of these steps are effective ways of preparing a successful research paper.