The secret of success in writing an academic paper is clarity of thought and orderly organisation. In this blog post, I will share some of my experiences and tips on how to construct a scientifically sound academic paper. The tips covered in this article are applicable to all disciplines and will benefit you no matter what stage of dissertation writing you are at.
1. Determine the structure of the main body of the paper before completing the abstract and introduction.
It is a common misconception that you can start with the abstract and then progress to the chapters. However, this is a waste of time and tends to compromise the logic of the paper. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you start by summarising and defining the structure of the main sections of your paper, and then move on to the abstract and introduction.
2. Read and analyse the relevant literature in detail.
Studying the relevant literature in depth is one of the most important parts of writing a thesis. In the process of reading, especially those closely related to your field of study, make sure to think carefully about the mode of thinking and the way of connection between the parts. At the same time, you can make excerpts of the excellent ideas, theories and paragraphs to inspire your own thinking and explore the potential application value.
3. Develop an overall framework model for the dissertation.
Although not every tutor will ask students to submit a complete outline of the essay, we should still attach great importance to this step. With a framework to guide the writing process, the writing process will flow more smoothly and the structure will be clearer, thus avoiding deviation from the topic.
4. Write a well-written introduction.
The introduction should contain the background of the study, the purpose of the study and the research methodology. These elements have already been elaborated in the opening report. Now we only need to supplement and improve them according to the collected literature. The background of the study can be developed from both theoretical and practical perspectives to reveal the necessity of the study; the purpose of the study should clearly state what you want to explore and what you expect to achieve; and the research methodology can be described in the relevant literature if you encounter any difficulties.
5. Enrich the rest of the main content.
Through in-depth analysis and summarisation of the special environment of the research object in the real society and the problems it is facing, elaboration of personal unique theoretical perspectives, combined with empirical data, deduction of the thesis conclusions or targeted countermeasures, so as to highlight the substantive contribution of the research.
6. Improve the abstract.
The abstract is intended to summarise the core content of the whole paper. Here, you need to briefly introduce the background, introduce the key issues to be studied, describe the methods and approaches adopted in the study, summarise the results obtained from the study, and finally, sublimate and draw conclusions. The length of the abstract is about 300 words.
These are the academic paper writing tips shared in this article. We hope they will be beneficial to you and help you complete your dissertation successfully.
