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Writing Research Papers

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    Ashlin Darius Govindasamy
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Writing Research Papers

Introduction

Research papers are a common form of academic writing. Research papers require you to locate information about a topic (that is, to conduct research). You then need to synthesize this information and present it in a written report. This report is called a research paper. Research papers are similar to academic essays, but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research. My goal in this article is to explain why i write papers, how you can get started writing papers and benefits you gain when you write papers. This article is biased towards the field of Computer Science but the principles can be applied to any field of study.

In this article, we will focus on the following aspects of writing research papers:

  • Choosing a topic
  • Building a thesis statement
  • Finding sources
  • Organizing your paper
  • Writing the paper
  • Why writing research papers is important?

Why do i write research papers?

I believe that writing papers helps contribute to the world helping others to learn from you and even potentially giving you job to build that technology you created. Writing papers also boosts your recognition around the world. The more people that knows about you the opportunities you will get is endless.

Everyday i research something new in Computer Science even in methods of Mathematics it is my fuel. I love to learn new things and i love to share what i learn with others. I believe that writing papers is a great way to share what you learn with others.

Also writing papers helps you to learn more about the topic you are writing about. You will have to do a lot of research to write a paper. This research will help you to learn more about the topic you are writing about.

The final point i'd like to make is that the more papers you write the better you become at writing papers. Writing papers is a skill that you can improve with practice. The more you write the better you become at writing papers. Your Masters and PhD will be a cake walk.

Choosing a topic

When choosing a topic, you should consider the following:

  • Is the topic interesting to you?
  • Is the topic you are interested in relevant to your field of study?
  • Is the topic general enough to be discussed in a paper?
  • What is already created about the topic?
  • Will this topic influence the world?

When i choose topics to write about i get ideas from the following sources:

  • Writing Software Solutions for the Real World.
  • Personal Projects which the world never create yet.
  • GitHub Projects Incomplete but with potential.
  • Poorly documented projects or Mathematically proven projects.

As you can see you can get ideas from anywhere. You can get ideas from your personal projects, projects you see on GitHub or even projects you see in the real world. The important thing is to get ideas from everywhere.

Once done formulating your topic you should write it down. Writing down your topic will help you to remember it. You can write your topic on a piece of paper or you can write it on your computer. I prefer writing my topics on my computer because i can easily search for it later.

Building a thesis statement

Once done writing your topic you should write a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a sentence that summarizes the main point of your paper. It is usually just one sentence long. You can write your thesis statement in the following format:

This paper will discuss the topic of <topic> and how it can be used to <purpose>

Finding sources

  • Google Scholar
  • ResearchGate
  • GitHub
  • Medium
  • StackOverflow
  • YouTube
  • Wikipedia
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Conferences
  • Kaggle

You can use these sources to help you find inspiration or help you get kick started in your research.

Organizing your paper

I like to organize my papers in the following format:

  • Cover Page
  • Abstract
  • Table of Contents
  • Introduction
  • Chapters
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter n
  • Conclusion
  • References

In my case i dont put any References in my paper because i dont publish my papers. I only publish my papers on my website/ResearchGate. It is costly to publish papers in journals and conferences. I did publish some papers the professional way but Peer Review is slow and time to publish is slow. My publication method is faster and free ultimately saving me time, money and allowing the world to read my papers faster than the traditional way.

Writing the paper

I use the following tools to write my papers:

  • LaTeX (I use LaTeX because it is free and it is the best tool to write papers)
  • Strawberry Perl (Windows users can use Strawberry Perl to compile LaTeX)
  • Visual Studio Code (Best Customizable Text Editor)
    • LaTeX Workshop (LaTeX Plugin for Visual Studio Code)

I store my papers on a GitHub Repository and i also created a public template repository with a LaTeX template for writing papers. You can use this template to get started writing your papers.

https://github.com/adgsenpai/LaTeXTemplate

Why do i use LaTeX?

  • LaTeX is free
  • LaTeX is the best tool to write papers
  • It is a programming language
  • Best for writing Math
  • Efficient for writing papers
  • Renders page numbers, table of contents, figures, tables and equations automatically

Why writing research papers is important?

Writing research papers is important because it helps you to learn more about the topic you are writing about. It also helps you to share what you learn with others. Writing papers also helps you to get a job. The more papers you write the more opportunities you will get. Writing papers also helps you to boost your recognition around the world. The more people that knows about you the more opportunities you will get.