In The Dreaded Research Paper, retired university professor Larry Patriquin draws on decades of teaching experience to bring to light the process of writing and structuring academic papers, from the title to the bibliography â and everything in between. With a focus on undergraduate students, Patriquin explains how to conduct research, read critically, avoid plagiarism, and employ formatting; how to develop a title, an introduction, an argument, and a conclusion, while citing accurately; and how to form paragraphs, compose clear sentences, punctuate properly, and quote effectively. He also draws attention to words you need to watch (such as then vs. than), ending with dozens of writing dos and donâts.
Intended especially for those with little time to spare, The Dreaded Research Paper is a wellspring of practical advice and concrete examples, crammed into a small space. This slim volume will give you the skills and the confidence you need to complete works of the highest quality. And while itâs directed at students, this humorous, engaging book offers valuable tips for anyone who writes argumentative nonfiction for a living, be they scholars, journalists, or bloggers.
In The Dreaded Research Paper, retired university professor Larry Patriquin draws on decades of teaching experience to bring to light the process of writing and structuring academic papers, from the title to the bibliography â and everything in between. With a focus on undergraduate students, Patriquin explains how to conduct research, read critically, avoid plagiarism, and employ formatting; how to develop a title, an introduction, an argument, and a conclusion, while citing accurately; and how to form paragraphs, compose clear sentences, punctuate properly, and quote effectively. He also draws attention to words you need to watch (such as then vs. than), ending with dozens of writing dos and donâts.
Intended especially for those with little time to spare, The Dreaded Research Paper is a wellspring of practical advice and concrete examples, crammed into a small space. This slim volume will give you the skills and the confidence you need to complete works of the highest quality. And while itâs directed at students, this humorous, engaging book offers valuable tips for anyone who writes argumentative nonfiction for a living, be they scholars, journalists, or bloggers.
I wish I had owned a copy of a book like this one when, many decades ago, I entered university as a first-generation student. I had performed exceedingly well in high school but then found my transition to postsecondary education quite daunting. I quickly discovered that the strategies I had relied on for success, such as memorization, were no longer useful. This marked the beginning of a painful year or two of self-learning, but I eventually figured out how to read critically and write academic papers that most instructors would characterize as âsolid.â By third year, my grades had improved to the point where I could think about applying to grad school. Looking back, I am sure that this transition would have been much easier if only Iâd had, close at hand, the guidance that fills the pages of this book.
About a decade after graduating with a bachelorâs degree, I went on to earn a PhD. I then taught for twenty-five years at a small, mainly undergraduate university in northern Ontario, Canada. Like me, most of my students were âfirst gen,â struggling to settle into their new surroundings. To help them out, I designed assignments that asked each of them to make an argument, usually along a continuum from entirely in favour of some perspective to entirely against it. As I marked and graded their assignments, I took notes on the mistakes I encountered repeatedly, with the goal of providing collective feedback in the form of class handouts. For this book, my own experience as a student and the knowledge I gained as an instructor are supplemented with research on the topic of writing, the best of which you can find in the bibliography (see part 4).
Like many students, you probably dread having to write a research paper, an argumentative essay that defends a thesis, because you are not sure how to begin. A research paper must be a sophisticated work that makes effective use of the scholarly literature while demonstrating a thorough understanding of the topic under investigation, a work that is occasionally descriptive but primarily analytical, explaining some phenomenon or other. It is a challenge to complete one of these beasts, because you must take pieces of information from various sources and meld them together, synthesize them, into a coherent whole while saying something that is worth saying. You must engage in a public conversation, weaving the ideas of other people with your own thoughts while packaging it all in lucid prose. Thinking through an issue makes this type of writing process much more of a challenge than, say, drafting a letter to your grandmother or explaining âwhat I did on my summer vacation.â Itâs also more difficult than other writing tasks you will frequently undertake, such as a post in a discussion forum, a summary of a journal article, or an email to an instructor. Composing a first-rate poem is the only type of writing I can think of thatâs more of a workout for your brain.
Research papers can also be onerous because you must write them over a short period, perhaps just a few weeks, while other pressing assignments are bearing down on you. Still, this is the hothouse within which your writing will improve. And you should accept now that this learning process will be a lifelong battle. There are no shortcuts to mastering a skill which involves expressing yourself in series after series of connected words. Just do the best you can. Not all papers can be exceptional. Not all sentences can be diamonds.
Writing, then, can make you miserable. But it can also serve as a source of delight for your mind. For that joy to come through, however, you need to feel comfortable approaching the task at hand. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you can focus on taking your writing to a higher level, where readers will be interested not just in what you have to say but in how you say it. You are transforming from someone who has been mostly a reporter or summarizer of other peopleâs ideas into a postsecondary student who will become an independent thinker, at the same time that you are cultivating an authorial voice, a voice previously unheard by the world.
This book highlights the hundreds of mistakes you must avoid if you want to produce quality research papers. In your courses, you might be assigned a specific question or accorded great leeway on the topics you can choose from. You might be given the research materials (typically online) in the form of articles, case studies, and so on, or you may have to find these materials on your own. For any type of research assignment, this book will give you a foundation of information, crammed into a small space, on how to structure and complete competent works that should get your grades comfortably into the B range and perhaps see them rolling across the line into the A range. An âAâ paper is a polished paper, thoroughly grounded in research with a convincing argument, well organized and beautifully written from beginning to end. An âA+â paper is almost publishable; the student who can write one of these should head straight into graduate studies after they finish their undergraduate degree.
Unfortunately, there isnât room here to tell you everything you need to know to become a writer of superb research papers. To go even further, to take your prose from readable to exquisite, review the works I recommend at the end of most of the chapters under âFurther Reading.â This will be necessary if you want the assessment of your papers to move from âsolidâ to âexcellent.â In short, unlike the authors of most writing guides aimed at students, I do not pretend to have all the answers. But I have a good idea where you can find them. My recommendations provide you with what is basically a program of self-study, carefully selected and curated from the more than one hundred books I read as part of my research for this project (only about one-third of which I considered sufficiently worthy to include in my bibliography).
While this book is aimed specifically at what you need to do to complete a research paper, much of my advice, for instance on how to write unified paragraphs and coherent sentences, can be employed in any type of assignment. This includes a journal or diary entry, an essay that reflects on experiential learning, a field report from a community placement, an interpretation of a poem or a novel, a critique of a film, a dialogue between two interlocutors, a case study of a business, a âone-minute paperâ written in class, or a take-home exam. This is especially so because most of these assignments ask you to develop an argument in your head and then transfer it into an elegant stream of words.
In the last few years, though, some students have come to believe that because of the magic of artificial intelligence (AI), they should avoid exercising their minds while outsourcing the completion of their papers. This is a tragic mistake, however. For one, a work produced by AI is apt to read as if it were written by a machine â probably because it was. Furthermore, that machine will not always be accurate, it will employ a fair bit of guesswork, and its summaries and arguments will almost surely be pedestrian. AI has even been known to provide citations to âsourcesâ that donât exist (that is, it just makes stuff up). And if many students in your class are making use of this machine, your paper will sound like dozens of others, something guaranteed to irritate your instructor (or, more likely, put them to sleep).
AI tools are bound to become more sophisticated, and in some cases rather swiftly, so if your instructor permits you to use them for a particular assignment, they have some benefits. For example, if you suffer from writerâs block, AI can help you develop an outline, reminding you of some key issues you need to discuss, which you might otherwise overlook. Even in these instances, though, you need to be critical. Ask yourself: Will the paper produced from this outline be far too long or much too brief? Do the proposed headings come in the proper order or do I need to rearrange them? Are there sections I should cut, perhaps for lack of space? And does my research suggest some key topics that were missed by the AI-generated outline?
Still, you need to be aware that writing is mastered over a lifetime of practice. If you donât write first drafts, for example, then you wonât learn how to think about, plan out, and structure your work. You will choose not to struggle. You will sell yourself short. Even worse, a machine will tell you what it thinks. Meanwhile, the world is waiting to hear what you think. Itâs in the process of facing and overcoming obstacles that you discern how to deal with complexity and how to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the argument you are sketching out, how to generate the words that will help you express your thoughts â your thoughts! â ever so eloquently. You might be able to get AI to compose a paper for you, one that receives a passing grade or possibly a decent one. But from deep inside yourself, a disturbing question will soon rise to the surface: Is this my work, a product of my brain, my hands, my soul? You never want the answer to that question to be no. In sum, you have only four years of postsecondary education to learn how to write well and think critically. If all your work is just output disgorged from an AI database, you might get a degree, but how useful will that degree be? If you donât learn advanced reading and writing skills at university, I guarantee you will never find the time to do so over a career that will likely last for four decades (or more).
Finally, you should know that I will have little to say about grammar. In my view, there isnât much point in studying it unless you want to become a grammarian. For most of us, the rules of writing can be acquired through processes of assimilation, and these processes begin from the moment we are born. Think of the last time you saw a toddler reading a book on grammar. You never have? Thatâs because no one has! And yet, these little humans catch on fairly quickly to the basic tenets of their language, such as the different verb tenses for past, present, and future. They flounder every once and awhile â and make some cute mistakes â but they have a strong understanding of the basics by the time they arrive at school. They then keep this method of assimilation going their entire lives. The best way to learn grammar and style, then, is to become a voracious reader and, especially if English is not your first language, a voracious listener (for listening, I recommend concentrating on ânonfictionâ: news, sports, documentaries, and podcasts). In short, you donât have to stuff the rules of grammar into your head. Instead, you need to absorb the sounds you hear when you are listening to a speaker or to the whispering voice that talks to you when youâre reading. There is simply no other way to become a refined and articulate writer. You will supplement that learning when you write â or struggle to write. You will unconsciously imitate the styles of the authors you have read, which helps to facilitate the growth of your singular voice. And donât worry about imitating others. You canât write exactly like someone else because you are not someone else. You are, for better or for worse, uniquely you.
Thank you for picking up a copy of this book. I hope you find it helpful. And I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
A Bit of Housekeeping Before We Begin
1.1. The people who stand at the front of college and university classrooms hold various job titles, including professor, instructor, lecturer, teaching assistant, tutor, and seminar leader. In almost all postsecondary institutions, these individuals have some responsibility for grading papers and marking them (that is, providing comments and other feedback to each paperâs author). In this book, I use the generic instructor to refer to all these people.
1.2. Your instructors may give you grading criteria for your courses or even for your whole program. This book can serve as an addendum to these criteria and help you satisfy them. If there is a conflict between the advice given in this book and the advice from your instructors, then the answer to the question of how to proceed is simple â follow your instructors.
1.3. Note that examples in this book are italicized to separate them from the text, which makes for ease of reading. As a result, words that would be italicized in your paper, such as book titles, appear here in normal (âromanâ) font and vice-versa. So, an example in this book will look like the following:
This argument was developed by Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents.
If you wrote this sentence in a paper, it would look like this:
This argument was developed by Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents.
1.4. In some of my examples, I will, rather arbitrarily, employ Chicago, MLA, or APA citation styles. These styles will be covered in chapter 10 (âCitationsâ).
1.5. I am not an âinfluencerâ and I am not involved in âaffiliate marketing.â I receive no income should you purchase any of the texts I recommend under the Further Reading headings. My recommendations are based solely on the quality of the works.
1.6. Throughout my writing career, I have likely (inadvertently) broken many of the rules I recommend here â and you might find some instances of my carelessness in this book. Iâve tried to learn from my studentsâ mistakes as well as my own. In my defence, I will give you the same advice I give to myself: Do your best.
Further Reading
You should purchase the following reference books. They are perfectly sized for students (and I dare say most faculty); they are neither bulky tomes nor thin, condensed works. They also have pleasing layouts with font styles that are easy on the eyes. For a dictionary, go with the Paperback Oxford English Dictionary (864 pages). For a thesaurus, note that there are a large number of them on the market, including many that use the Rogetâs name, so be careful to buy the one I recommend: The New American Rogetâs College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form (902 pages). Get the third edition published in 2002 (with the red cover). You might want to supplement the Oxford and Rogetâs volumes with The American Heritage Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus (847 pages), a two-in-one volume that has âdictionary entries with corresponding thesaurus entries on every page.â You should also consult Brysonâs Dictionary for Writers and Editors (398 pages), by Bill Bryson. It presents, in alphabetical order, commonly misused cases of âspelling, capitalization, plurals, hyphens, abbreviations, and foreign names and phrases.
For grammar, check the first half or so of chapter 5 (âGrammar and Usage,â by Bryan A. Garner) in The Chicago Manual of Style, pp. 233â318, where he surveys nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and syntax. Beyond that, I have not perused the thousands of grammar books available, so I canât say which is best, but if you want one thatâs a bit more basic than Garnerâs survey (and you probably do), I suggest Grant Barrettâs Perfect English Grammar. It is small and well-organized with an appealing design. If, like me, you get flummoxed by non-intuitive grammar terms and need help understanding them, then his book is likely as good as it gets. For a kinder and gentler introduction, see Patricia T. OâConnerâs Woe Is I. It is an informative and entertaining guide through the minefields of grammar, with chapter titles such as âYours Truly: The Possessives and the Possessedâ and âThe Living Dead: Let Bygone Rules Be Gone.â
The book you are now reading covers what you need to know to write a brief, undergraduate research paper. For information that will help you structure and compose larger works, see my chapter âHow to Complete a Doctoral Dissertation in This Lifetime: Some Marbles of Wisdom,â a typescript of which can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Larry-Patriquin. While that chapter is aimed at students working on a PhD, its advice should also prove helpful to those writing a masterâs thesis (or major research paper) or even a fourth-year honours essay.
Finally, Iâd like to give a shout out to Helen Swordâs Stylish Academic Writing. Its target readership is the professoriate, yet every academic writer, including students, will find her suggestions helpful. I concur with her conclusion that âthere is a massive gap between what most readers consider to be good writing and what academics typically produce and publish.â Swordâs book is rooted in the belief that âelegant ideas deserve elegant expression,â and she provides many pointers on how to approach this ideal.
In an age of AI-writing tools, widespread susceptibility to misinformation, and an evident deficit in many young writersâ confidence with their writing abilities, Larry Patriquinâs The Dreaded Research Paper: A Writing Guide for Busy Students arrives as a welcome glimmer of hope for those of us who care deeply about writing and the writing process. Here is a book by a seasoned academic whose insights into scholarly writing demonstrate, at every turn, what careful attention to research, mechanics, style, and grammar can achieve. Patriquin has assembled a book that convinces us to be courageous. Writing a research paper need not be a scary thing. And caring boldly, deeply about the craft of constructing an argument produces meaningful results for writer and reader alike.
While all of Patriquinâs recommendations are brilliantly articulated, his writing in âPart III: Mechanics of Writingâ is particularly sharp. Here, the author does a deep dive into the dos and donâts of sentence and paragraph-building. As a writing instructor and tutor myself, I have observed a curious and concerning shift in student-writersâ competence and confidence with arranging the essential units of a piece of prose. Patriquinâs segments carefully illustrate how to shape an essay using the very building blocks of ideas. He shows the reader how to be an intelligent architect of their paper.
Patriquin, in good scholarly fashion, situates his topics and suggestions in conversation with existing writing guides and craft books. Titles and authors are referenced frequently and paired with the invitation to read further and more widely as the reader endeavors to hone their craft. This move is especially useful in any text on the subject of writing. By revealing the network of existing writing guides and style books, Patriquin reminds us that the conversations around writing are themselves an ongoing process. Many voices are out there to help guide writers through specific elements of their work.
Patriquinâs book has only one possible shortcoming: the navigability of the many numbered pieces of advice throughout each section. The book could have benefitted from a slightly different approach to the inclusion of subheadings, conceivably even markers that more intentionally prioritized the student reader hunting for bits of advice in a given section. Perhaps, for example, sections subtitled as questions (âHow Do IâŚ?â) would more efficiently guide the frantic eye to the necessary information.
The Dreaded Research Paper: A Writing Guide for Busy Students is a book that I wish I had as a student. Itâs a text that will undoubtedly be of use to student-writers and educators today. In a world that needs writers who are committed to producing original, well-researched, and human ideas, Patriquin has done us a great service by translating his experiences with scholarly writing into the advice in this book.