Conduct a literature review. This doesn't mean literature like novels, but books and articles relevant to your topic. College and university libraries grant students access to multiple databases that store peer-reviewed journal articles. You can search by key terms or years, and scan article abstracts for your topic. This is like a treasure hunt, so set aside time to look through several databases and search the library shelves for books.
Organize the literature you find in a coherent way. For example, you can outline the literature chronologically, by author, by subtopic, or in any way that makes the most sense for your paper. Usually a literature review will help you narrow down your topic into specific research questions or hypotheses that you want to study. If you plan to analyze an existing data set, in which the research has already been conducted, then the literature review can help you compare previous research, contradictory findings or replicated studies.
Determine your theoretical framework. After reading the literature, what theory do you think is most applicable to the research? This part depends largely on the field of study you're in and the nature of the research. It's a good idea to gather information on the origins of the theory, and a few studies in which it's been used successfully.
Determine the methodology. Was the research conducted quantitatively, qualitatively or using mixed methods? Quantitative data means elegant statistics. Do you have a set of numbers that describe a phenomenon? Qualitative research includes ethnography, biography, phenomenology and grounded theory. These methods include in-depth interviews, focus groups and field studies. Mixed methods is a blend of the two. This section includes sampling, sampling frames and units of measurement, which you can determine from previous studies.
Write the report. Start with an introduction section that outlines what's going to be in your paper. This should be a very broad overview of your topic and research. Next write the literature review section, which includes the information you found relevant to your topic. Compare and contrast similar research, and discuss how previous studies can be applied to yours. Include the theoretical framework section at the end of the literature review. Write the methods section. Here you need to talk about how the data was gathered or how the research was conducted.
Write the discussion section. This is where you critically analyze the research. You can talk about your own thoughts and ideas, and how they compared to what you learned from the literature review. Were your questions answered in the way you expected or did the research surprise you? This section also depends on your field and the kind of research you conduct.
Write the limitations section. It seems strange to tell people the limitations of your study, but it's expected in academic writing. Explain why your results may have been skewed or your approach didn't include a particular section. Be honest, even if it's painful.