Narrow your topic down by writing out the six basic questions: who, what, when, where, why and how, after you have chosen a topic that is acceptable to both you and your teacher. Based on your questions and how you answer them, you can identify a way to narrow and focus your topic.
Write a thesis statement or question. At this point, your ideas may not be very clear, so you shouldn't try to get your thesis perfect; simply write down your main point (thesis statement) or the main question you want to address in your research paper (thesis question).
Begin your research. Ask your teacher or librarian to help you if you are not sure how to use the research databases available to you. Use your skimming and scanning skills to choose three to five articles that you think support your thesis. Print your articles.
Read your articles more thoroughly than you did in your original skimming, but not so carefully that you have to struggle over each unfamiliar vocabulary word you encounter. Highlight key words and phrases in each article that you think are most important as you read.
Pick out which of your articles you want to use in your research paper. Look at the bibliography in each of your articles and look through those sources to find more articles.
Repeat Steps 3 through 5 until you have enough sources to write your paper.
Adapt your thesis statement or question, if necessary, to the information you want to use.
Organize your ideas by writing an outline or drawing a mind map.
Write three to five paragraphs for each of your ideas. Use direct quotes from your sources if you want to, but be sure you do not plagiarize. Either put quotation marks around each of the direct quotes you take from your sources or identify the source and then summarize the idea. Write this on the computer and save it on a flash drive if you have one.
Write your introduction and conclusion. Be sure you save the document.
Read through your whole research paper and edit for grammar, cohesion and completeness. At this point, you can expand any of your ideas using more information from your sources. You should also refine your thesis statement or question at this point. Be sure to save your document before you close it.
Ask a native English speaker to read your research paper and give you feedback.
Edit your paper again after the native English speaker has written comments or corrections on it. Make sure you save your document before you close it.
Write your references according to the citation guidelines required by your teacher. Save your document.
Check all in-text citations to be sure you give credit for all ideas that are not your own and that all direct quotes are correctly cited. Save your work again.