This document provides instructions for drafting a research paper. It discusses including an attention-grabbing introduction with background information and a thesis statement. The body should have multiple paragraphs supporting each main idea from the outline. It concludes with wrapping up the key points. An example paper about ragtime music's impact is used to illustrate the parts of a research paper.

1. Writing Your Research Paper

2. Part IV
Drafting Your Research Paper
By Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

3. In previous presentations, you’ve learned some
important research paper skills: How to research
a topic, write a thesis, and create an outline.

4. Now you’re ready for
the next step: drafting
your research paper.

5. Before we begin, here’s an important point to
remember: Follow your instructor’s directions
exactly.
Some instructors have
special requirements
for their research
assignments.
The instructions in this
presentation will work
for most research
papers.

6. The topic we’ve chosen is ragtime, the unique
African-American music that created a sensation
from 1895 to 1915.

7. Here’s the thesis:
Ragtime changed
American history.
The keyword is
changed.
This sample paper
explores three ways
that ragtime changed
America.

8. Here’s the outline—three ways that ragtime
changed America:
Outline
Historians today point to the ragtime era (1895-1915) as a turning
point in American musical history. THESIS
 Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and traditional
European musical forms, it became the first distinctively American
musical style.
 Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American rhythms, it
brought black and white musicians together right from the
beginning.
 Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn America from a
musical follower into a world leader.

9. Notice that the most important supporting idea
comes last (in bold):
Outline
Historians today point to the ragtime era (1895-1915) as a turning
point in American musical history. THESIS
 Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and traditional
European musical forms, it became “the first distinctively American
musical style.”
 Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American rhythms, it
brought black and white musicians together right from the
beginning.
 Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn America
from a musical follower into a world leader.

10. (If you’re not sure of your outline, talk to your
instructor or a librarian. Please!)

11. Now let’s look at the parts of a research paper:
 The introduction
 The middle (supporting ideas plus examples and
details)
 The conclusion (a paragraph that wraps up the paper)
 A Works Cited page (which you’ll learn more about in
Part V)

12. Writing Your Introduction
The introduction is the first paragraph in your research
paper. It should include:
 an attention-grabber
 background information
 a quotation or statistics about the importance of your
topic
 your thesis (the main point you’ll be making)

13. Your attention-grabber can be a surprising fact, a
startling statistic, or an interesting anecdote.

14. If you have a lot of
background, you can
use two paragraphs for
your introduction.

15. Here’s the introduction to the ragtime research
paper:

16. Let’s see how it’s put together. Here’s the attention-
getter (a brief story about Scott Joplin):

17. Here’s the background (information about
ragtime):

18. Notice there’s a quotation from an expert—
Edward Berlin:

19. Here’s the thesis—the central point the paper is
making:

20. You’ll remember that the thesis is the sentence
that does the “heavy lifting” in your research
paper.

21. The rest of this research paper will consist of
ideas, examples, and details that support this
thesis.

22. The introduction includes a quotation about the
importance of ragtime:

23. The entire introduction should fit on the first page
of your research paper.

24. Now it’s time for the
supporting ideas.
We’ll do them one at a
time, and we’ll write
several paragraphs
about each one.
 First supporting idea
 Second supporting idea
 MOST IMPORTANT
supporting idea

25. Here’s the first supporting idea (in blue).

26. It explains one way that ragtime changed
America:
Thanks to ragtime’s fusion of black rhythms and traditional
European musical forms, it became “the first distinctively
American musical style” (Smithsonian 227).
- first supporting idea

27. There are several paragraphs explaining what
was distinctively American about ragtime.

28. Here’s the second supporting idea.

29. It’s another way that ragtime changed America—
by bringing the races together.
Although ragtime traces its origins to African-American
rhythms, it brought black and white musicians together right
from the beginning.
- second supporting idea

30. There are several paragraphs about black and
white ragtime musicians working together.

31. And now we come to the most important
supporting idea (in blue):

32. This is the biggest change wrought by ragtime:
Ragtime’s most important achievement was to turn
America from a musical follower into a world leader.
- most important supporting idea

33. It’s supported by several paragraphs with
examples and facts.

34. We’ll finish the paper with a conclusion.
The conclusion is a paragraph at the end that ties
up and closes down the research paper.

35. This is the time to shut down your paper.

36. Don’t put anything new in your conclusion. It’s
time to wrap up your paper.

37. A common mistake is saving the main point for
the very end. (The main point belongs on the first
page.)

38. You can read the entire ragtime paper free at
www.ragtimeresearchpaper.com.
Please take a few
minutes to do that!
You’ll see how it’s
organized and how all
the parts work
together.

39. There’s one more important point. Writing is a
messy process.

40. When you’re writing a research paper, give
yourself plenty of time to revise.

41. Although my finished research paper about ragtime
looks tidy, there were many deletions and start-overs
during the drafting process.

42. Be sure to watch all the parts in the
Writing Your Research Paper series at
www.ResearchPaperSteps.com.
I Researching Your Topic
II Focusing Your Research Paper
III Organizing Your Research Paper
IV Drafting Your Research Paper
V Documenting Your Sources

43. If you’d like to sharpen your writing skills…
…go to Amazon.com
for a free preview of
What Your English
Teacher Didn’t Tell You
by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

44. And remember to check out the free resources at
www.WritewithJean.com.