Some people love doing them and others hate the thought of doing one. No matter where your personal opinion lies on the love-hate spectrum, every student eventually gets an assignment to write a research paper. The Writing a Research Paper Study Brief provides expert advice and step-by-step guidance to help a new or inexperienced writer prepare, write, format and deliver an effective written research report. The Writing a Research Paper Study Brieff presents an easy-to-follow set of writing guidelines that will help you create from start to finish an effective research paper that successfully meets all the requirements and standards, Inside you will learn about types of research papers and the parts of a formal research paper, With a how-to focus, this handy resource outlines the steps for prewriting, defining, researching, outlining, drafting, revising, formatting, proofreading, editing, and publishing tasks. Other topics include: selecting and evaluating possible topics, developing a thesis statement, finding and gathering resources, note-taking, outlining, Guidelines for footnotes, endnotes, and citations, and references are provided. Helpful tips and methods to improve your usage and mechanics, including punctuation, grammar, spelling, Included is a special section on plagiarism, what it is and how to avoid it. A research paper is often one of the final assignments in a course, and in some cases, it can be the only graded assignment for the entire term and may be due on the last day in place of a final exam. Be sure you have planned ahead by checking out the Time Management Tactics (for Students) Study Brief to see how to break this task down into manageable parts and schedule the time you need to write the paper.