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How to Write a Research Paper
Writing a research paper is a bit more difficult that a standard high school essay. You need to site sources, use academic data and show scientific examples. Before beginning, you’ll need guidelines for how to write a research paper.
Start the Research Process
Before you begin writing the research paper, you must do your research. It is important that you understand the subject matter, formulate the ideas of your paper, create your thesis statement and learn how to speak about your given topic in an authoritative manner. You’ll be looking through online databases, encyclopedias, almanacs, periodicals, books, newspapers, government publications, reports, guides and scholarly resources. Take notes as you discover new information about your given topic. Also keep track of the references you use so you can build your bibliography later and cite your resources.
Develop Your Thesis Statement
When organizing your research paper, the thesis statement is where you explain to your readers what they can expect, present your claims, answer any questions that you were asked or explain your interpretation of the subject matter you’re researching. Therefore, the thesis statement must be strong and easy to understand. Your thesis statement must also be precise. It should answer the question you were assigned, and there should be an opportunity for your position to be opposed or disputed. The body of your manuscript should support your thesis, and it should be more than a generic fact.
Create an Outline
Many professors require outlines during the research paper writing process. You’ll find that they want outlines set up with a title page, abstract, introduction, research paper body and reference section. The title page is typically made up of the student’s name, the name of the college, the name of the class and the date of the paper. The abstract is a summary of the paper. An introduction typically consists of one or two pages and comments on the subject matter of the research paper. In the body of the research paper, you’ll be breaking it down into materials and methods, results and discussions. Your references are in your bibliography. Use a research paper example to help you with your outline if necessary.
Organize Your Notes
When writing your first draft, you’re going to have to work on organizing your notes first. During this process, you’ll be deciding which references you’ll be putting in your bibliography and which will work best as in-text citations. You’ll be working on this more as you develop your working drafts and look at more white paper examples to help guide you through the process.
Write Your Final Draft
After you’ve written a first and second draft and received corrections from your professor, it’s time to write your final copy. By now, you should have seen an example of a research paper layout and know how to put your paper together. You’ll have your title page, abstract, introduction, thesis statement, in-text citations, footnotes and bibliography complete. Be sure to check with your professor to ensure if you’re writing in APA style, or if you’re using another style guide.
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Linking Research to Action: A Simple Guide to Writing an Action Research Report
What Is Action Research, and Why Do We Do It?
Action research is any research into practice undertaken by those involved in that practice, with the primary goal of encouraging continued reflection and making improvement. It can be done in any professional field, including medicine, nursing, social work, psychology, and education. Action research is particularly popular in the field of education. When it comes to teaching, practitioners may be interested in trying out different teaching methods in the classroom, but are unsure of their effectiveness. Action research provides an opportunity to explore the effectiveness of a particular teaching practice, the development of a curriculum, or your students’ learning, hence making continual improvement possible. In other words, the use of an interactive action-and-research process enables practitioners to get an idea of what they and their learners really do inside of the classroom, not merely what they think they can do. By doing this, it is hoped that both the teaching and the learning occurring in the classroom can be better tailored to fit the learners’ needs.
You may be wondering how action research differs from traditional research. The term itself already suggests that it is concerned with both “action” and “research,” as well as the association between the two. Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), a famous psychologist who coined this term, believed that there was “no action without research; no research without action” (Marrow, 1969, p.163). It is certainly possible, and perhaps commonplace, for people to try to have one without the other, but the unique combination of the two is what distinguishes action research from most other forms of enquiry. Traditional research emphasizes the review of prior research, rigorous control of the research design, and generalizable and preferably statistically significant results, all of which help examine the theoretical significance of the issue. Action research, with its emphasis on the insider’s perspective and the practical significance of a current issue, may instead allow less representative sampling, looser procedures, and the presentation of raw data and statistically insignificant results.
What Should We Include in an Action Research Report?
The components put into an action research report largely coincide with the steps used in the action research process. This process usually starts with a question or an observation about a current problem. After identifying the problem area and narrowing it down to make it more manageable for research, the development process continues as you devise an action plan to investigate your question. This will involve gathering data and evidence to support your solution. Common data collection methods include observation of individual or group behavior, taking audio or video recordings, distributing questionnaires or surveys, conducting interviews, asking for peer observations and comments, taking field notes, writing journals, and studying the work samples of your own and your target participants. You may choose to use more than one of these data collection methods. After you have selected your method and are analyzing the data you have collected, you will also reflect upon your entire process of action research. You may have a better solution to your question now, due to the increase of your available evidence. You may also think about the steps you will try next, or decide that the practice needs to be observed again with modifications. If so, the whole action research process starts all over again.
In brief, action research is more like a cyclical process, with the reflection upon your action and research findings affecting changes in your practice, which may lead to extended questions and further action. This brings us back to the essential steps of action research: identifying the problem, devising an action plan, implementing the plan, and finally, observing and reflecting upon the process. Your action research report should comprise all of these essential steps. Feldman and Weiss (n.d.) summarized them as five structural elements, which do not have to be written in a particular order. Your report should:
- Describe the context where the action research takes place. This could be, for example, the school in which you teach. Both features of the school and the population associated with it (e.g., students and parents) would be illustrated as well.
- Contain a statement of your research focus. This would explain where your research questions come from, the problem you intend to investigate, and the goals you want to achieve. You may also mention prior research studies you have read that are related to your action research study.
- Detail the method(s) used. This part includes the procedures you used to collect data, types of data in your report, and justification of your used strategies.
- Highlight the research findings. This is the part in which you observe and reflect upon your practice. By analyzing the evidence you have gathered, you will come to understand whether the initial problem has been solved or not, and what research you have yet to accomplish.
- Suggest implications. You may discuss how the findings of your research will affect your future practice, or explain any new research plans you have that have been inspired by this report’s action research.
The overall structure of your paper will actually look more or less the same as what we commonly see in traditional research papers.
What Else Do We Need to Pay Attention to?
We discussed the major differences between action research and traditional research in the beginning of this article. Due to the difference in the focus of an action research report, the language style used may not be the same as what we normally see or use in a standard research report. Although both kinds of research, both action and traditional, can be published in academic journals, action research may also be published and delivered in brief reports or on websites for a broader, non-academic audience. Instead of using the formal style of scientific research, you may find it more suitable to write in the first person and use a narrative style while documenting your details of the research process.
However, this does not forbid using an academic writing style, which undeniably enhances the credibility of a report. According to Johnson (2002), even though personal thoughts and observations are valued and recorded along the way, an action research report should not be written in a highly subjective manner. A personal, reflective writing style does not necessarily mean that descriptions are unfair or dishonest, but statements with value judgments, highly charged language, and emotional buzzwords are best avoided.
Furthermore, documenting every detail used in the process of research does not necessitate writing a lengthy report. The purpose of giving sufficient details is to let other practitioners trace your train of thought, learn from your examples, and possibly be able to duplicate your steps of research. This is why writing a clear report that does not bore or confuse your readers is essential.
Lastly, You May Ask, Why Do We Bother to Even Write an Action Research Report?
It sounds paradoxical that while practitioners tend to have a great deal of knowledge at their disposal, often they do not communicate their insights to others. Take education as an example: It is both regrettable and regressive if every teacher, no matter how professional he or she might be, only teaches in the way they were taught and fails to understand what their peer teachers know about their practice. Writing an action research report provides you with the chance to reflect upon your own practice, make substantiated claims linking research to action, and document action and ideas as they take place. The results can then be kept, both for the sake of your own future reference, and to also make the most of your insights through the act of sharing with your professional peers.
Feldman, A., & Weiss, T. (n.d.). Suggestions for writing the action research report . Retrieved from http://people.umass.edu/~afeldman/ARreadingmaterials/WritingARReport.html
Johnson, A. P. (2002). A short guide to action research . Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Marrow, A. J. (1969). The practical theorist: The life and work of Kurt Lewin . New York, NY: Basic Books.
Tiffany Ip is a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University. She gained a PhD in neurolinguistics after completing her Bachelor’s degree in psychology and linguistics. She strives to utilize her knowledge to translate brain research findings into practical classroom instruction.
Suggestions for Writing the Action Research Report *
Allan Feldman and Tarin Weiss
University of Massachusetts Amherst
There are five structural elements for an action research report. Although these elements will be described in a particular order, they need not be that way in your report. In fact, they do not even need to be separated from one another.
The context
The first element of the action research report is a description of the context within which the action research took place. Depending on the project that you do, the locus of the context can be your classroom, your school, or your school district. It is possible that the context of the project includes aspects of more than one of these. It is important to remember that the physical description of the setting is important, but that there are other aspects that are important depending on the project. For example, if your project focuses on working with parents or students, a description of these populations should be included. If the project relates to an entire district, salient features of the geographical and political area, as well as important features of the schools are part of the relevant context.
Statement and Origin of your Research Focus
The statement of your research focus should answer one or more of the following questions:
Ä What did you investigate?
Ä What have you accomplished or attempted to accomplish in this study?
Ä What have been your goals?
This element of the report should also address the way in which your starting point developed. That is
How did the idea originate?
How and why did it change through the year?
What impact did your research notebook group have on the development of your starting point?
In addition, this section should include what you learned from reading the research literature that informed your study.
Methods This element of the report focuses on the way in which you investigated your practice situation.
Ä Describe what you did and why.
Ä What sort of data did you collect?
Ä How did you collect the data?
Ä What successes or difficulties did you have in carrying out this action research?
The Findings The fourth element of the report states what it was that you accomplished and/or found out. Remember that all action research projects involve actions so therefore there are effects of those actions. And, every action research project results in the teacher coming to a new understanding of his or her own educational situation. Therefore each report should contain some description of what it was that you learned. Make sure to include any events, circumstances or data that contradict what you had hoped to do or find out.
Implications Although this element is labeled implications , it is not necessary that each project have far reaching effects. These implications could be a statement of how participation in this research has affected the ways in which you look at your teaching, your students, or your school. In other words, do you see the educational world differently now, and how will that affect what it is that you will do next?
Finally, include a paragraph describing the next step of this research. Is it complete? Is there another scenario you wish to research? Explain how you would continue action research following up on this study or developing a new idea. Consider possible supports (without an action research course) and impediments to your efforts.
Overall, this structure is not dissimilar to what you may be familiar with -- the standard research report. There is a general introduction that places the research within the field, a statement of the problem or hypothesis, the method used, findings of the research, and finally, implications. But it can be significantly different because you may feel free to write in the first person and to use a narrative style -- to tell a validated story. You may also feel free to write in the formal style of scientific research. The choice is yours.
* Based on suggestions made by Peter Posch.
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Neag School of Education
Educational Research Basics by Del Siegle
Action research.
An Introduction to Action Research Jeanne H. Purcell, Ph.D.
Your Options
- Review Related Literature
- Examine the Impact of an Experimental Treatment
- Monitor Change
- Identify Present Practices
- Describe Beliefs and Attitudes
Action Research Is…
- Action research is a three-step spiral process of (1) planning which involves fact-finding, (2) taking action, and (3) fact-finding about the results of the action. (Lewin, 1947)
- Action research is a process by which practitioners attempt to study their problems scientifically in order to guide, correct, and evaluate their decisions and action. (Corey, 1953).
- Action research in education is study conducted by colleagues in a school setting of the results of their activities to improve instruction. (Glickman, 1990)
- Action research is a fancy way of saying Let’s study what s happening at our school and decide how to make it a better place. (Calhoun,1994)
Conditions That Support Action Research
- A faculty where a majority of teachers wish to improve some aspect (s) of education in their school.
- Common agreement about how collective decisions will be made and implemented.
- A team that is willing to lead the initiative.
- Study groups that meet regularly.
- A basic knowledge of the action research cycle and the rationale for its use.
- Someone to provide technical assistance and/or support.
The Action Research Cycle
- Identify an area of interest/problem.
- Identify data to be collected, the format for the results, and a timeline.
- Collect and organize the data.
- Analyze and interpret the data.
- Decide upon the action to be taken.
- Evaluate the success of the action.
Collecting Data: Sources
Existing Sources
- Attendance at PTO meetings
- + and – parent communications
- Office referrals
- Special program enrollment
- Standardized scores
Inventive Sources
- Interviews with parents
- Library use, by grade, class
- Minutes of meetings
- Nature and amount of in-school assistance related to the innovation
- Number of books read
- Observation journals
- Record of peer observations
- Student journals
- Teacher journals
- Videotapes of students: whole class instruction
- Videotapes of students: Differentiated instruction
- Writing samples
Collecting Data: From Whom?
- From everyone when we are concerned about each student’s performance.
- From a sample when we need to increase our understanding while limiting our expenditure of time and energy; more in-depth interviews or observations may follow.
Collecting Data: How Often?
- At regular intervals
- At critical points
Collecting Data: Guidelines
- Use both existing and inventive data sources.
- Use multiple data sources.
- Collect data regularly.
- Seek help, if necessary.
Organizing Data
- Keep it simple.
- Disaggregate numbers from interviews and other qualitative types of data.
- Plan plenty of time to look over and organize the data.
- Seek technical assistance if needed.
Analyzing Data
- What important points do they data reveal?
- What patterns/trends do you note? What might be some possible explanations?
- Do the data vary by sources? Why might the variations exist?
- Are there any results that are different from what you expected? What might be some hypotheses to explain the difference (s)?
- What actions appear to be indicated?
Taking Action
- Do the data warrant action?
- What might se some short-term actions?
- What might be some long-term actions?
- How will we know if our actions have been effective?
- What benchmarks might we expect to see along the way to effectiveness ?
Action Plans
- Target date
- Responsibility
- Evidence of Effectiveness
Action Research Handout
Bibliography
Brubacher, J. W., Case, C. W., & Reagan, T. G. (1994). Becoming a reflective educator . Thousand Oaks: CA: Corwin Press.
Burnaford, G., Fischer, J., & Hobson, D. (1996). Teachers doing research . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Calhoun, Emily (1994). How to use action research in the self-renewing school . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Corey, S. M. (1953). Action research to improve school practices . New York: Teachers College Press.
Glickman, C. D. (1990). Supervision of instruction: A developmental approach . Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Hubbard, R. S. & Power, B. M. (1993). The art of classroom inquiry . Portsmouth, NH: Heineman.
Lewin, K. (1947). Group decisions and social change. In Readings in social psychology . (Eds. T M. Newcomb and E. L. Hartley). New York: Henry Holt.
Action Research Tutorials-CCAR
Creating and understanding change, tutorial 11: writing your report, tutorial 11: resources for writing, your action research report.
A. Learning From Others
Reading Examples of Action Research Reports from university programs will help you think about the many ways in which people have organized their writing about their action research. It is an effective way to get past writer's block. You have done the work; now you need to share your story in the most compelling way you can. Read a few examples from different universities and see what style seems right for your audience.
Center for Collaborative Action Research The Center has collected Action Research Portfolios that serve as useful models. The model portfolios are categorized into four groups:
Classroom Action Research
Youth Action Research
Professional Development Action Research
Community Participatory Action Research
Organizational Action Research
Center for Practitioner Research at National Louis University Their online journal features original practitioner research studies, theoretical articles about practitioner research, descriptions of practitioner research centers, and book reviews.- Inquiry in Education Journal
Educational Journal of Living Theories Many - Action Research Projects and a range of studies published in the journal
Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA Many examples of - Moravian Action Research Projects some of which focus on the improvement in the arts
Social Publishers Foundation is a non-profit organization and supports the publishing of action research reports.
Washington State University, Vancouver Wisdom of Practice: An online journal of (freely accessed)
B. Using Templates and Rubrics to Guide the Writing
In the activities, we have provided a template to help you write your action research report. There are many other templates to help you use a particular style to write your report. Journals or magazines will also have advice as to how they want submissions to their publications to be formatted. If your school or editor suggests that you use the American Psychological Association (APA) style, you will find that Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) will have the best information. Here is their template annotated so you can understand the conventions they suggest. Reading through a writing rubric can help you think through the process of writing. Writing one as a group will help you think through the process of doing action research and can be a great exercise before you engage in writing. We include some rubrics here to provide ideas but it is best if you develop your own as a group. We have developed this web portfolio rubric to evaluate the action research e-portfolios and/or papers. We use a shorter scoring rubric for evaluating the e-portfolio and a presentation. You are welcome to use this to develop your own document. If you are working in a group, it is great to have each of you use the scoring sheet to give feedback to your peers on their e-portfolios and their practice presentations.
C. Developing an Online Portfolio of Action Research
Some of you will choose to share your ideas and work over the internet in e-portfolios. Your work might be linked to the university, school, district, state, or global networks. To publish your work in this way you will need to make use of color, design, and multimedia material. There are many online journals for publishing action research. You might want to consider publishing your work on the Social Publishing Foundation .
For developing your website, here are some considerations:
1) Opening "splash" or home page: This page should present the major topic or problem of your action research and yourself as the action researcher. "My Action Research Project" is not a very descriptive title and something like "Seeing Below the Surface: Using video and peer feedback to improve coaching" is more informative. Your name and links to more information about you are important to include on the page. The page should be graphically clear with images that clearly communicate the nature of the problem you are exploring. The use of an appropriate metaphor (pieces of a puzzle, seasonal changes, transportation, lenses, magnification) can often help communicate your ideas in an engaging way. A video of you giving a short overview of your project (the elevator pitch) might invite your readers to continue exploring. 2) The site should have a very clear navigation bar that helps the reader find the different parts of your work. These should be clear on every page so that the reader does not get lost in exploring your work. Suggested tabs and pull-down menus might look like this:
3) Pay attention to color and design. You don't want to use so many vibrant colors and images that you lose the sense of your work. On the other hand, you do not want to waste the potential of the web by only posting text.
Technology application: web journals (blogs) and project portfolios and wikis (quick websites).
This website was created using the Wix editor
Blogs ( Blogger.com , Typepad , LiveJournal , http://wordpress.com ), phone blogs (moblogs at blogger)
b2evolution http://www.b2evolution.net/
wiki.com (not a blogging platform but good for web creation for e-portfolios with feedback)
Good sites for website creation and blogging weebly.com -
Google Sites for wiki-web sites that can integrate all of the many google suites of applications
Site builder is another website editor that many find useful.
Choosing a color scheme
http://kuler.adobe.com (quick access to popular color schemes based on topics)
http://colorschemedesigner.com/ (create a color scheme and see it in action)
http://www.pictaculous.com/ (use your logo to get the right color scheme)
When you finish your website, please consider submitting it to the Center for Collaborative Action Research -- we will review it and give you feedback which hopefully leads to having your site published.
D. Developing your Conference Presentation
Some of you might chose the conference format for sharing your action research with peers. In this format you will be given an amount of time and you will need to carefully consider what you can include in the time frame. You will want to make sure you give enough time for each part of your talk. You don't want to spend all your time telling stories about what happened and not get to your analysis of data or reflections on change.
Here is a guide for the amount of time on each of the elements.
If you have a 10 minute talk, then 10% would be 1 minute.
10% - Opening-- Introducing the problem and why you care about it.
20% - Setting the Background (what you learned from reading and from what you know about the setting)
10% - Your Action Research Approach and plan
40% - Reporting on your Iterative Process (cycles of research)
20% - Overall Reflections on learning
You can find examples of scoring sheets for presentations in the Google Drive / Dropbox template folders. Example of a short but effective presentation:
E. Publishing Articles on Action Research
If you plan to submit your writing to a journal you will need to match your work to their format. If you are writing a report to share with colleagues, you have more flexibility in the way you describe your work. We include a listing of journals that accept action research reports.
Listing of Journals for publishing accounts of Action Research
F. Exhibitions of Teacher (and student) Learning
Watch an example of an exhibition of action research: 5th Annual Action Research with Technology Conference which was held on June 18 & 19 2013. The session has been video streamed. You will see keynote discussions and the presentations of four learning circles. This is posted to provide a model for organizing a university conference.
Making Learning Visible provides resources and tools to support learning in groups in the classroom and schools. The tools are mostly intended for teachers, professional development designers and coaches, and administrators. Almost all of the tools emphasize greater intentionality combined with careful looking and listening. The site includes five kinds of tools and resources:
Supporting Learning in Groups in the Classroom includes practical tools with suggestions for creating learning groups at the beginning of the school year, forming study groups in classrooms, and promoting a culture of dialogue. provides tools for forming adult study groups, hands-on activities for adults to explore learning groups and documentation for themselves, and conversation structures for discussing and reflecting on student learning.
Supporting Learning in Groups in the Staffroom provides tools for forming adult study groups, hands-on activities for adults to explore learning groups and documentation for themselves, and conversation structures for discussing and reflecting on student learning.
Documenting Individual and Group Learning includes resources for understanding, creating, and sharing documentation with students and colleagues. Some tools will help you think through the purpose of your documentation; others provide guidelines for gathering or sharing documentation via video, computer, photographs, or powerpoint.
Engaging Families in Supporting Student Learning offers resources to inform families about visible learning, involve families in supporting their children’s learning, and communicate with families about learning. Tools range from a refrigerator reminder to guidelines for parents interested in forming their own study group.
Making Learning Visible beyond the Classroom provides tools and templates for creating bulletin boards, documentation panels, visual essays, and school-wide exhibitions that make learning and learners visible, with examples from preschool-high school.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
An action research paper documents a “cycle of inquiry,” in which the writer evaluates a problem and develops a strategy of reform. Educators and educational administrators typically use this writing format to foster continual improvement i...
Writing a research paper is a bit more difficult that a standard high school essay. You need to site sources, use academic data and show scientific examples. Before beginning, you’ll need guidelines for how to write a research paper.
A discussion paper presents and discusses in depth the issues that surround a specific topic. When writing a discussion paper, you must include thorough discussion of both sides of the topic being debated, reliable research and evidence reg...
Linking Research to Action: A Simple Guide to Writing an Action Research Report · Describe the context where the action research takes place. This could be, for
What is the specific context in which the study was conducted (e.g. school population, the classroom environment, curriculum, etc.)?
... The action research was conducted through a systematic procedure as proposed by Kurt Lewin's action research model in 1946 (Goh, 2012) . It
To be able to write an effective action research report, you first need to understand the process that is followed when conducting action
Action Research Made Easy - Writing Introduction for Research. Watch later. Share. Copy link. Info. Shopping. Tap to unmute.
The first element of the action research report is a description of the context within which the action research took place. Depending on the project that you
Contact EMU writing center to review paper and make editing suggestions.
An action research project report (5,000 words – to assess learning outcomes 1,2 & 3). A critical reflection on the participant's own learning and development (
Action Research · Identify an area of interest/problem. · Identify data to be collected, the format for the results, and a timeline. · Collect and organize the
1) Opening "splash" or home page: This page should present the major topic or problem of your action research and yourself as the action researcher. · 2) The
It is important to communicate to the reader a clear picture of the overall context of your AR project. The way you write the beginning of your paper lays the