What is a research paper? How to write one on education? This post reviews the structure, writing tips, and a list of topics.
Start with an Impressive Introduction
Begin your journey with an introduction. To catch someone’s attention, you should involve an attention-grabber. You may choose one of the following ideas for a research paper introduction:
- Provocative question
- Interesting fact or stat
- Joke
- Quotation
One of the ways to start an intro is a shocking fact to stress the significance of the problem and make the audience want to read the full text. An example of a fact could be, “In 2014, 61 million children of primary school age were not enrolled in school.” You should add the reference to the source where these statistics first appeared. If it is not a printed source and the author is not specified, you may simply provide a link.
You don’t have to sound boring, but you should stay formal. After a bang, share the background info, list the objectives of your study (e.g., define the reasons for the low literacy rates), and select a research method. The last sentence of an introduction is a thesis statement. Don’t make it longer than one or two sentence(s). The example of a thesis for a research paper on education could be, “Literacy rate in the US is still higher among boys as fewer girls attend higher educational institutions and graduate.” The rest of the text is the place for you to support your statement.
Come up with a Compelling Body
The primary struggle is to structure the info well. To do so, students should prepare an outline before starting to work on the paper’s body. An outline is not an obligatory part, but you may earn extra credits if you create one. Not to get lost, keep on recalling the thesis statement and your claim. Here is what to consider:
- Claims versus the thesis statement;
- Claims versus each other (detect similarities and order);
- Every sentence versus the claim.
Mind those parts that talk about the same ideas – the goal is to present the same point from different aspects. It is necessary to come up with smooth transitions between various parts of the research paper about education to show how they are all interconnected.
Leave out any points that have nothing to do with the main ideas (arguments). You should keep in mind the so-called rule of three. Discover supporting points for every idea; introduce a powerful idea first, and then include even more powerful statements, and end with the primary point.
On the whole, a body must include methodology when it comes to research papers on teaching. Emphasize the importance of your study results. Based on those outcomes, recommend some actions or solutions or offer ideas for further study on the topic.
Finish with a Conclusion
The concluding part is developed to create a sense of closure. Thus, an author should trace the vectors of their work. Focus on the general consequences of the thesis statement, stress what students can retrieve from your paper and use in the future, and make the audience realize the way that you have settled the problems.
Wrap up all the claims stated throughout your paper. If you decide to conclude with a restated thesis, which is the most popular way to finish, still provide a summary of everything said above without making it too long. One or two paragraph(s) should be enough. Take a moment to interpret the main ideas and show how they support the thesis. Does the subject matter bear further study? That is how to conclude a research paper for education.
Revise the final draft
Do not hurry to submit your project. Proofread and check the text for grammar, spelling, punctuation errors, and revise the structure. Add transitions where they are missing. You do not necessarily have to do it all manually – many online applications can check your text within minutes. You may want to try Strunk, Copywritely, or Grammarly.
Also, do not forget to insert your text into the plagiarism checking tool, like Copyscape, to find out how original it is. Teachers expect to see no less than a 95% uniqueness level for research papers on education (without counting direct citations). Not to skip the important stage of revision, start working on your assignment ASAP – do not postpone everything to the last minute. It would be a pity to receive a bad grade only because of several mistakes. Here is what you must check:
- Incomplete ideas
- Illogical flow of thoughts
- Dangling modifiers
- Spelling mistakes
- Apostrophes for possessives and plurals
- Comma use
- Unnecessary contractions
- Odd phrases
- Formatting
As for the last one, download the latest writing style manual that you need to use. For instance, if you have to format your research paper about education in MLA, obey the guidelines provided by the eighth edition, which is the most recent one.
Excellent Ideas for Your Research Paper about Education
We should go through some topics for a research paper about education. Before choosing one of them, investigate the Internet and other sources to make sure you find enough relevant information. We recommend focusing on one topic at a time. Otherwise, you risk falling off the main idea and get lost in the flow of points. Also, we recommend talking to your tutor regarding the selected topic for a research paper about education. Here is the list of possible ideas:
- Study on education for deaf people and real-world applications.
- The outcomes of Brexit for UK values.
- Is public education in the US a less popular trend now?
- Methods to develop an effective inclusive educational institution.
- The principles of the inclusive school.
- The reasons for including sports clubs as compulsory subjects.
- The role of every college board member.
- Should teachers command A students to work with and support F students in order to improve the performance of the latter?
- What are the origins and usage of the least limited environment in special education?
- Are high school teachers sufficiently equipped to mentor and educate young adolescents?
- What should tutors and family members keep in mind when teaching disabled students?
- Should educational institutions emphasize language and mathematics classes less than environmental protection and other relevant issues?
- Which tools do Montessori-trained teachers use? How effective are their approaches?
- Fighting school bullying: the responsibilities of all sides.
- Is tutoring a job or career option, and why?
- Segregation in schools. Is it still happening?
Those are the topics for your research papers on teaching that you can use whenever you have to prepare this assignment.