Writing an academic research paper requires students to think, not just to go on a treasure hunt for good quotations. They need to explore an idea in a systematic way, to intert what they read, to form a thesis, and to support that thesis with valid and well-documented evidence. A clearly defined thesis is essential to a good research paper. The thesis is a general statement that announces the major conclusions you reached through a thoughtful analysis of all your sources. This statement appears at the beginning of your paper; the main body will explain, illustrate, argue for, or support the thesis. To reach the thesis of your paper, you need to start with the subject, the topic and the hypothesis. First, a subject is an area of interest that can be narrowed down to a suitable topic; it should not be too broad or too loosely defined such as the following: adolescent behavior, Shakespeare’s comedies, or historic animals; computer assisted education, green house effect, or heart attack vention. Secondly, a topic is a reasonably narrow, clearly defined area of interest that could be thoroughly investigated within the limits set for a given research assignment, such as the following: the relationship between young women and their fathers in several Shakespearean tragedies, the green house effect on the recent deterioration of forests and lakes in the Northeast, the role of emotions in the vention of heart attacks, or the effectiveness of computer programs in correcting writing problems. Thirdly, a hypothesis is your diction, made sometime before reading the sources, so to what your research will reveal about the topic; that is, what answers you expect to find for the major questions raised by your topic. This diction helps you to find exactly the information you need, as quickly and effectively as possible, by keeping your attention focused on a limited number of specific aspects of the topic.

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