There is no doubt that writing a research summary with no regard to discipline, subject, topic or field of expertise, is always challenging. These are custom written papers that are a part of academic curricula all over the world. In such type of work, you need to give a brief but at the same time a thorough review and provide a description of the detailed piece of writing. The main goal of the assignment is to inform others about the existence of this work of literature and help the world acknowledge this work as the one worth reading and paying attention to.
It is understandable from the name of this type of work that a key element of the assignment is research. Truly, before writing even the first sentence, you need to conduct research on the subject of the writing. Research paper executive summary is often associated with abstracts and has a similar, if not the same, purpose. If you look closer at these two types of academic assignments, you will see a striking resemblance between them. Mainly, some of the professors tend to mix and not distinguish summaries and abstracts with each other. That is why students often fail their academic papers at the stage of writing summaries or abstracts when professors want to see an abstract, and students submit a summary and vice versa, and as a result, both of them stay unsatisfied. Very often, such assignments are required to be included in a research paper or a summary, and in this case, must be written before the main chapters of the work.
RESEARCH ARTICLE SUMMARY TYPES AND FORMATS
There are many types of research papers and summaries. Most of them are required to be completed in schools, colleges or universities. Mostly, there are three main types of summaries:
- Descriptive/Main Point Summary (Gives general information about the subject of writing);
- Informative/Key Point Summary (Gives a more detailed information on the subject of writing);
- Evaluative/Outline Summary (Gives a detailed and personalized overview of the subject of writing);
Knowing all these types, students will be more successful at understanding what should or should not be included in summaries, and which parts of the work need more focus and attention than others.
Apart from types of summaries, it is also important to know main formats applicable to the assignment. In the majority of cases, professors give task instructions that are supposed to serve as a guide at the writing stage. However, to be on the safe side, it is quite normal to ask a professor for a summary example to have a clear illustration of how this or that particular paper should be structured and formatted and lots more.
GUIDE TO WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER SUMMARY
To tailor a winning summary, you need to follow several tips and hints that may serve you well in the future.
- Read a text or work of literature that you need to summarize or, on the contrary, read your notes, which you supposed to make while conducting this study.
- Usually, to write summary research paper perfectly, you need to stick to a fixed structure and format. Be sure to understand which of the main formatting styles you need to use for the task: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, or any other. That is why it is also immensely important to read through them as well to ensure getting an excellent grade.
- All summaries have one thing in common: there, students must remember to stick to the main point of the original text and the idea of the author. Hence, while making notes, be sure not to corrupt the text’s idea and message to represent facts correctly. A failure may well result in a lower grade or else.
- If you stick to the main point of writing, you should understand its purpose as well. These two points are interdependent: one thing does not exist without another and vice versa.
- It is always better to start the summary with a compelling opening sentence or sentences. You need to catch readers' attention and keep it throughout the text. Try to be creative, but remember to stay within the permitted limits of creativity.
- Once you have finished writing summary of research paper and you are sure to follow the available instructions, it is high time to check the assignment for possible grammar, spelling and stylistic mistakes in the text. Your group- or classmates and even family or relatives can check it and tell their opinion.
HOW TO ORGANIZE A WRITING PROCESS?
Most of the students find paper writing so intimidating and overwhelming that they would rather pay someone to write research paper than spend days or months working on it on their own. They hate this assignment with all of their hearts and try to postpone its completion as much as possible. “I wish there was someone to write my research paper for me” is the constant thought on their minds, and there is hardly anything that can make them want to work on the task they are given. However, such papers are assigned very often, and you have to face the fact that you will need to learn to write them anyway. A thesis writing process is actually not as hard and terrible as it may seem at first. You only need to understand how to organize it rightly.
The first milestone you need to pass is a topic choice. Usually, students spend too much time thinking up a topic they would like to work on. Most of the tips they find say they have to brainstorm and write down all of the ideas that came to their heads in the process. However, you can spend hours or days on it getting no results, unless you understand what you want to work with tentatively. If you do not want to waste time, it is better to start looking for new findings or problems in the subject. Reading articles and looking through the news in your field, you can actually spot something that will be relevant to your course and interesting for you to study. It is recommended to consult your teacher whether the topic is actual and feasible before you start researching. This way you will be sure that you have made a right choice, and the teacher will definitely approve your work.
After you have overcome thoughts like “Can someone write my research paper for me?” and made a final decision on the topic, you need to create a statement of purpose and a thesis. It is important to write down what you are planning to do in your work, what your position regarding the certain problem is, and what you are expecting to find. Without making these points clear, you will get lost in literature and will not know what kind of information you need to look for. Hence, it is better to create guidance for yourself and think these statements through.
The next step of the preparation is one of the most important ones, and it is, obviously, the research. You need to devote at least half of the time you are given to it so that you can have a solid basis to produce a good work later. It is better to forget about Google and go to the library to look through sources that are actually credible. Put down the information about the books, articles, and studies you review, especially if they include data you are planning to use. This will later help you make a proper list of references faster. You can use colorful sticky notes or create a few word documents to write down the quotes that support the claims you make, and any other relevant information to access it easily later while writing.
It is also crucial to analyze and evaluate every source you read carefully. Even the best professors and researchers can get wrong results, use unreliable data, or include assumptions that cannot be considered facts. Always check the table of contents or an abstract before reading to understand if the source has anything to do with your study.
You should also come up with inclusion and exclusion criteria to go through the books and articles faster. There is no need to dig too deep reviewing the literature. Most of the teachers ask their students to use sources that have been produced during the last 10 or, sometimes, 20 years. This rule does not apply only to the fundamental texts that include unquestionable verities or basic facts.
When you are done reviewing the literature, it is important to create an outline. It has to be very detailed and include multiple topics and subtopics. A nice structure will show you what kind of sources from the ones you have chosen, will actually make it to the paper. Do not hesitate to delete the literature that is not relevant to your thesis. Even though you may end up not having enough information, it is better to look for more sources than to include ones that will make the whole study seem illogical.
After all of these steps are completed, you can finally get to writing. If you were asked to conduct primary research, you should have already done it by this time and received original results. Therefore, you have all of the information you need to create a good dissertation. However, it is crucial to remember that the data you have gathered is not the most significant thing in your research. What is more important is your own opinion, a unique point of view that has to shine through the paper. If you do not include your thoughts and logical conclusions, the whole research project becomes merely a literature review.
The last part of a research paper preparation process is proofreading. Many students underestimate and neglect it, which later results in poor grades, even if the research itself is great. Therefore, it is vital to spend a few hours proofreading and editing the work carefully, trying to spot even the tiniest mistakes. It is better to ask a professional or, at least, someone who is conversant with the topic to review your research paper. This person can find the errors you have missed and tell you whether your work is written well. If you do not know anyone who can be helpful, Pro-Papers can acquaint you with a credible specialist, who will gladly polish your paper and give you a few valuable pieces of advice. Therefore, if you need a cheap and qualitative editorial service, our customer service research paper writing company is always here to help you. Whether you have troubles editing your work or writing any part of it, we will be glad to assist. Buy research papers online from Pro-Papers, and let us prepare a flawless piece of academic work for you.
