Having Trouble Writing an Academic Paper Or Research Report? - A Book Review

Let's face it, if you have a school assignment, or you are writing a research paper for your industry, it is imperative that you get it right. And to do so, a lot of what you write and its credibility will be based on how you write the paper, not what it says. That may sound unfortunate to a good many people, but that's the way it is. Your paper has to be flawless, with no mistakes including spelling and punctuation. In any case, if you want to write the perfect research paper there is a very good book I'd like to recommend to you;

"A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations - Chicago Style for Students and Researchers" by Kathy L. Turabian, 2007.

This is probably one of the best books I have read for writing the Chicago style research papers. The author gives lots of tips on how to prepare and plan your work, even suggesting that you spend more time organizing, outlining, and setting up your work then you do actually writing it. The author also makes a very good point that it's best to write the title of your paper last, because once you're all done, you may have slightly modified what the paper is about, and the title will make any sense.

The author also suggests that you may need to rewrite the abstract once you are completed so that it matches what you've researched and written. Kathy also suggest that you keep your references as you go and that you "topic the questions" to your hypothesis. I'd recommend this book to researchers and students alike, and I especially loved her explanation of the need for detail and the recommendation that you spend most of your time doing the editing because "editing is the key."

Academic Papers
Online Papers