writing help: what is a research paper? - Help.com

Is it just any research or scientific research>???? for college or HS??

What’s the topic, and for what subject? An English research paper is very different from a science one.

Scientific research:
1) Ask a Question
2) Revie exiting literature - find out what has been already researched on your topic
3) Construct a Hypothesis
4) Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
5) Analysis and Conclusion
3) Communicate Your Results

Non scientific research:
1) Develop your topic
2) Find background info
3) Use catalogs to find books and media
4) Use indexes t find periodical articles (ie. google scholar)
5) Find internet resources
6) Analyze the info found
7) cite what you found using a standard formula (MLA, APA, AMA, etc)

Ideally, in a scholastic sense (as opposed to a “pursuit and publication of new information” sense for papers written by true researchers), a student independently gathers together published information on a topic, boils said info down to a concise synopsis together with his/her own cogent/analytical appraisal to demonstrate a basic level of understanding of the subject. Depending on how the assignment is framed by the instructor, students are told what is expected of them in terms of amount of personal commentary and the style/format of the paper.

Sadly, too many lazy cheaters go for a readily available short cut, and buy/copy/plagiarize research papers written by others, and the Internet has allowed the practice to grow exponentially. That destroys the whole intent of getting an education. Fortunately, many teachers now have computerized tools to scan and identify cheaters, and the students hopefully end up with a nasty black mark on their records.

I suspect this was not a real post. In case it was however, a research paper is a paper with words written on it that flow from some research you have done. Get it? Research paper. Pretty clever when you really think about it.