How to Write Research Paper

Recommended Tips for Writing Research Paper

By Rana Sohail Saleem, MIT, MSCS

1.      Select your topic from 45 lectures of the concerned subject so that you should not get away from the mainstream of discussion. OR

2.      Try to select your topic from 23 – 45 lectures, it will reduce the study load after midterm paper as the selected topic always cover 4 to 5 lectures. After midterm papers, these lectures don’t require any preparation.

3.      After selecting a topic, search at Google Scholar or ACM Digital Library for good about 15 to 20 articles. “Guidelines - How to Download Research Papers/ Articles from Google Scholar” is uploaded separately.

4.      Do not download the articles but read out the abstract and if you find some relevant material then download.

5.      After getting the articles, again go through the abstracts so that you can make your article's abstract.

6.      Prepare the topic & abstract and send it to the concerned instructor for approval (Recommended but not mandatory).

7.      Save all the articles with serial numbers so that you can give their references at the appropriate places and at the end of the article.

8.      After approval of the topic from the concerned instructor, start reading the articles in detail and start writing the introduction of your article.

9.      Prepare an outline plan on a paper in which you have to divide your article into sections.

10.  Get the IEEE format and fill up the word file with headings and sub-headings which you have chalked out at step 9.

11.  Now keep on searching/ exploring the articles and keep on filling up the body of sections.

12.  If during the process you need to download more articles then don't be hesitant to do so.

13.  It would be quite cumbersome till your 2nd last section because you are reading some material and producing it in your own words.

14.  Your input is required at the 2^nd last section where you have to give conclusions or recommendations or suggestions. Any new ideas (maybe wild enough) should not be missed out. Remember it is a practice that is preparing you for Thesis Writing.  

15.  You may fill up your last section at any stage because that is the "Conclusion" of your article which would not be requiring any research work. You are concluding the article and not giving conclusions or deductions.

Special Note:            1. Calculate timings backward from the date of submission.

2. Make Timelines and Deadlines.

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