A research paper is a comprehensive essay that reflects a student’s understanding and analysis of a course related topic.  This article assumes that a topic has already been assigned to you by your professor. Mentioned below are 10 steps to writing a research paper.

1. Conduct the preliminary research on the topic. This will help you get accustomed and familiar with the topic allowing you to preview all its aspects. The focus here is to just learn about the topic to figure out all its facets.
2. From this preliminary research, the next step is to select a niche or sub division of the topic. It is important to fine tune your area of interest. Pick a niche that is both interesting and relevant to your topic.
3. Once you have selected a niche, formulate a thesis statement in related to the topic. This is a concise statement that depicts your opinion on the topic you have chosen.
4. Now that you have developed a these statement, it is necessary to fine-tune your research to gather relevant and reliable information that will help satisfy your thesis statement. This will set boundaries so that you don’t waste time researching irrelevant areas. Browse through the internet, visit libraries, refer to text books and magazines, and conduct short interviews to gather information that you can use for your research paper.
5. Before you start penning your thoughts, make a rough outline of your entire research paper. Think about what you want to include and how you want to expand each point, sub point and paragraph. This will serve as a necessary canvas which you can refer to from time to time to stay on track.
6. It is time to prepare your first formal piece of writing, which is the introduction. Here you must display your thesis statement and brief the readers about why you have chosen this topic and its significance. This is one of the most important of the 10 steps to writing a research paper.
7. Develop the main body which holds all the research material and analysis. Each paragraph should have its own unique point and evidence to support it. Formulate accurate topic sentences to set the readers pace as soon as he or she begins reading.  To simplify the readers’ understanding, present examples and illustrations to help enforce your thesis statement.
8. Prepare a solid, convincing conclusion. A persuasive tone is preferred. The conclusions reflects your analysis in light of the thesis statement.
9. Provide a list of references to keep your research paper free from plagiarism suspicion.
10. Proof read your work before submission

Hopefully you will come across these 10 steps to writing a research paper before your next assignment.