Introduction
Are you a student pursuing higher education at a university or college? If yes, you must know that getting a higher education is not easy. Your teacher may throw an assignment, thesis, and research paper. You need to be prepared all the time for this type of writing exercise. Also, you must know what different types of research papers are. Knowing this is important so that when you are assigned to write a paper, you know what you have to do. Many students do not know about the types of research papers and fail badly in their higher studies. Keeping this in view, today’s article is all about discussing different types. There will also be a mention of the mistakes you have to avoid. So, let’s start today’s discussion with the question given below.
What are the types of research papers?
Do you know what the different types of research papers are? Ohh, it is sad that you do not know about them. You must know the its types before your teacher throws one at you. More than 19.3% of students in the UK fail their papers due to this reason. This huge number makes it a must for every student who knows what mistakes he has to avoid when assigned to write a research paper. Some of the types of research papers are mentioned as follows:
- Analytical research paper
- Argumentative research paper
- Cause and Effect research paper
- Experimental research paper
- Problem solution research paper
- Report paper
- Survey research paper
What are the mistakes to avoid in different research paper types?
Making mistakes in research is a normal thing. Students make such mistakes and then correct them. But it would help if you tried to avoid them as much as possible because sometimes they can remain in the paper even after proofreading. To prevent your paper from the mistakes, you must first know what different mistakes you have to avoid. In this section of today’s article, I will discuss the mistakes to avoid associated with each type of research paper. Thus, let’s start with the analytical research paper.
Mistakes to avoid in an analytical research paper
In an analytical research paper, the researcher thinks about things critically. He draws the conclusion after careful evaluation and analysis of facts and figures. So, the mistakes he has to avoid in his research paper are as follows:
- Sampling bias. This is the most common mistake that researchers make in this research paper. They take samples that are not representative of the whole population. Sometimes, they select the samples based on no criteria.
- Cherry-picking. The mistake that you have to avoid is cherry-picking. Cherry-picking is choosing the data that gives the most beneficial results. This practise is unethical, but the results drawn from this type of sampling can have severe implications for your research.
- Overfitting. This problem happens when you try to overfit the model with your research findings. Someone may have a model that gives values best for his population or data. The model fails when you insert your data into that. Therefore, you must avoid this mistake of trying to overfit the models of others.
Mistakes to avoid in an argumentative research paper
An argumentative paper is one of the types of research papers in which you argue about an idea or thought. You present your views and thoughts about the idea. Indeed, there is a specific way to present your ideas, and students make mistakes in this. Therefore, the mistakes you need to avoid while writing this paper are as follows:
- Do not be stubborn. Although it is a paper in which you present your ideas. This does not mean that you should be stubborn about them. It would help if you looked relaxed and objective while writing this research paper.
- Lack of original ideas. As you know that this writing revolves around ideas. Therefore, you must bring some original ideas to the table. Such ideas strengthen your point. You should be clear and backing your information with facts and figures.
- Long sentences. Making long sentences do not make you a good writer. In an argumentative research paper, you must use short sentences. Such sentences allow the reader to grab the idea more conveniently.
Mistakes to avoid in an experimental research paper
An experimental research paper is a paper where you perform experiments and then answer the research question. The common mistakes that you need to avoid in this paper are listed below:
- Choosing the right method. Many researchers make a mistake in choosing the research method. They choose methods that are irrelevant to their problem. Choosing such methods does not yield the results they want, so they must avoid this.
- Poor presentation. An experimental research paper is all about research findings and their presentation. You should present your results well to get good grades. Poor presentation of results does not attract readership, and you must avoid it.
- Avoid shortcuts. Students sometimes take shortcuts while performing the research. Make sure to give proper time to tests and do not take shortcuts.
Mistakes to avoid in a cause and effect research paper
In a cause and effect research paper, you present the causes and effects of a phenomenon. The most common mistakes that students make in this research paper are as follows:
- Link building. Sometimes the researcher forgets to show the connection between causes and effects. So, he should not forget this.
- Avoid broad topics. Students try to cover broad topics and fail to present all their causes. This failure leads to an unfinished research paper. Therefore they must avoid this.
- Changing the tone. Students often change their tone when writing this research paper. Mostly, they make it more persuasive, which is very wrong.
Conclusion
Different types of research papers have different approaches to completing them. As a researcher, you must know what to include and what to not in your paper. This knowledge of the things to avoid reduces a lot of your problems. Therefore, you must pay attention to the things mentioned above.
Robert Fawl is a professional Content Writer based in London, UK.