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Major Parts of Your Academic Research Paper

Dear Seniors,

For your final research, make sure you follow the steps and guidelines below perfectly.  Missing any of the steps below is a weakness that you do not need to have in your final research.  For any enquiries about any of the points below, feel free to communicate with your teacher. 

1. Cover page (provided by the teacher)
2. Table of Contents (on a separate page)
3. Abstract (a summary of the whole research [around 100 words on a separate page])
4. Introduction: start with general background about the topic, followed by specific information about the issue/problem.  End your introduction with one or two research questions that your research paper is going to answer. See the example research questions below:

This leads to two major questions: (1.) How important is emotional intelligence in daily social life? (2.) Can emotional intelligence eliminate conflicts at work?  

• Literature Review showing current knowledge of this issue/problem before your research. This must be the opinions of six or more experts (from academic sources). Those experts’ opinions must be presented in depth.  After all of them are presented, they are put together and compared.  See the small literature review example below:

According to Dr. John Steinbeck from Delton University, people with high emotional intelligence are more alert to ……, ……, ……, which makes them highly successful social figures (Steinbeck, 2019).  Dr. Steinbeck adds that if a person lacks this type of intelligence, this person may …., …., and ……. While this makes socialization least important for this person, he or she may still be able to socialize with others if …., …., …. (Steinbeck, 2019).  Maltock Teen, a psychologist in Heynan Research Center, argues that people with low emotional intelligence are at risk of losing their closest friends due to …., ….., ….. (Lint, 2018).  Many people, adds Teen, complain that they have fewer friends as they grow old, and they wonder why this is happening to them in particular.  They feel upset that they are left out or neglected by others, and this feeling may lead them to …., according to Teen (Lint, 2018). 

Both Dr. Steinbeck and Teen stress the significance of emotional intelligence in people’s social life, and Teen goes further to highlight negative reactions among those with low rates at this type of intelligence.  Professor Orwell, however, gives hope to such people that they can avoid loss of friends by following the guidelines in his list.  

• Methodology showing you collected data from secondary and primary sources.  Explain what methods you used, and why you chose these methods, and how they are the right methods for your research.  More into details, you conducted a survey for a number of people.  Which groups of people did you choose? Any specific age groups? Any field of work? etc. Explain why you believe that this specific group of people is the right choice for your survey.  Explain why you think the type of questions you included (multiple-choice, open-ended, etc.) is the right type of questions for your survey, etc.  Also, you conducted an interview with an expert.  Explain why you chose an expert of a certain specialization.  Explain how this expert is the right choice for your research topic, etc.  Finally, you referred to a number of academic sources.  Explain what kind of sources you depended on and why you think they are the right choice for your research.  Explain why you think that they are trusted.  See the example below:

The survey was given to people aged 18 – 60 because they are most likely to be …… and ……, so they can provide accurate replies to my questions.  Seven of the questions are all multiple-choice questions in which the respondents need show how far they agree or disagree with each suggestion or claim (See Appendix A).  Their responses show the …. and …. among people in general.  As for the interview, I met an instructor from XYZ University, and we conducted the interview via Zoom due to COVID 19 precautions.  This instructor is an expert in the field of …., so he can provide valuable feedback about ….  In the interview, I tried to focus the discussion on …. because it …… (See Appendix B).                          While searching for academic sources, I looked only for …… produced by …… because those sources are …….  I also chose sources dated 1990 and above because there was too little awareness of the issue of …. before that year, so any sources published earlier to 1990 would be of little value to my research.      

• Results: show what you discovered through the primary sources you used (by conducting the survey and interview).  These results are unique as they contain data that cannot be found online.  Only you have such data, and you are sharing your findings through your paper.  See the example below:

By analyzing the survey results, I realized that more people today are aware of the significance of social intelligence in social life and at work.  For the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, 53% of the respondents strongly agree that understanding each other’s emotions at work helps employees avoid misunderstanding and conflicts (See Appendix A).  Only 18% of respondents think that this intelligence does not help reduce conflicts at work (See Appendix A).  This shows that the majority of employees believe that when others’ emotions are understood and respected at work, work becomes smooth and …. etc.    

• Argument: combine the findings of the secondary sources and your own findings, compare these findings, and explain what you discover.  This is called triangulation of data.  This means that you are going to show how the data from the survey, the interview, and secondary sources meet and/or differ.  Their similarities and differences should help you come up with your own discovery.  See the example below:

Dr. Steinbeck and Teen note that the more emotionally intelligent a person is, the better social life he or she is likely to have (Steinbeck, 2019) and (Lint, 2018).  Carol’s notion that people with low score in this intelligence my still have strong bonds with …. indicates that lack of this intelligence does not mean failure at socialization (Yale, 1999).  This agrees well with many people’s opinions that a person who is rejected by most may still have unusually strong life-long bonds with a few people (See Appendix A).  This leads to the fact that an emotionally unintelligent person is not all a social failure.  This person still has …… etc. 

• Conclusion: restate your findings and express your opinion and recommendations based on your discovery. 
• References (at least 20 authentic sources). Note that Wikis, forums, blogs, and social media are not authentic sources and are not accepted in academic research. 
• Appendixes (Appendix A for the survey questions and results; B for the interview transcript)

Reasons for rejection of research (I hope you do none of the below):

1. Your research contains plagiarism, even if only one sentence is plagiarized.
2. The English in your research is not yours. 
3. There is no in-text citation with every idea you took from secondary sources.
4. Your research does not include a list of references (bibliography) after the conclusion.
5. Your research is submitted too late (after the deadline). 
6. Your research does not follow the format listed and detailed above (like making your own format). 
7. Your research does not include a survey and an interview (both of them).
8. Your research is off topic. 
9. The topic of your research was not approved by your teacher. 
10. Your research is too short (below the word count). 

Finally, your teacher wishes you successful and useful research work and consequently high scores. 

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