This is a description of how to write a research paper.

1. Sections of a researchpaper María Guadalupe García

2. Abstract Theabstractisactuallythefirstsection of a report, comingafterthetitle and beforetheintroduction. Theabstractprovidesthereaderwith a briefpreview of yourstudybasedoninformationfromtheothersections of thereport. Itisoftenthelastpart of thereporttobewritten.

3. Order of typicalelementsincluded in anabstract Somebackgroundinformation. The principal activity (orpurpose)of thestudy and itsscope. Someinformationaboutthemethodologyused in thestudy. Themostrelevantresults of thestudy. A statement of conclusionorrecommendation.

4. Introduction Itserves as anorientationforreaders of thereport,givingthemtheperspectivetheyneedtounderstandthedetailedinformationcoming in thelatersections. It can bedividedinto 5 parts: Stage I Thewriterestablishes a context, orframe of reference, tohelpreadersunderstandhow

5. theresearchfitsinto a widerfield of study.Inthisstageyouestablish a settingforyourresearchtopic. In stage II youestablish a settingforyourresearchtopic. Thisiswhy, sometimesitiscalledthereview of literature. Itisessentiallyanorganizedcollection of references, orcitationstootherworkswhich are listed in a separatesection at theend of yourreport.

6. Thereview of literatureservesthreeimportantfunctions. First, itcontinuestheprocessstarted in Stage I of givingyourreadersbackgroundinformationneededtounderstandyourstudy. Second, itassuresyourreadersthatyou are familiar withtheimportantresearchthat has beencarriedout in yourarea.

7. Third, itestablishesyourstudy as one link in a chain of researchthatisdeveloping and enlargingknowledege in yourfield. Afteryouhavepresented contextual setting and discussedthepreviouswork of otherresearchers, you use the final part of theintroductiontofocustheattention of thereaderonthespecificresearchproblemyouwillbedealingwith in thebody of yourreport.

8. workis done in threeadditionalstages, whichwedesignate as III,IV, and V. Stage III indicatesanareathatisnottreated in thepreviousliterature, butthatisimportantfromthepoint of view of yourwork; Stage IV formallyannouncesthepurpose of yourresearch; and Stage V indicatepossiblebenefitsorapplications of yourwork.

9. Method It describes thestepsyoufollowed in conductingyourstudy and thematerialsyouused at eachstep. Themethodsectionisusefultoreaderswhowanttoknowhowthwmethodology of yourstudymayhaveinfluencedyourresults, orwho are interested in replicatingorextendingyourstudy.

10. Results In thispart, youpresentthefindings of yourstudy and brieflycommentthem. Somewriterscallthissection “ results and discussion”, thusindicating more extensivecommentsonthefindings of thestudy. However, in thischapterwefollowedtheconvention of includingonlybriefcommentsfocusedonthestatisticalanalysis .

11. Discussion Itisthelastmajorsection of thereport, followedbythelist of references. Sometimes ,thissectioniscalled “conclusions” instead of “discussion”.Thissectionmovesthereader back fromthesecificinformationreported in themethods and resultsto a more general view of howthefindingsshouldbeinterpreted.