A research paper is not a simple description of the facts and phenomena of history, much less a repetition of the text chapters of a textbook or monograph. Working on the research paper, the student must show how he/she can critically analyze the collected historical material, think independently, and present his/her understanding and his/her interpretation of the studied issue in an argumentative way.
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Stages of writing a biography paper
Preparatory Stage
- Search for materials on a certain topic;
- Selection of literature in a particular library;
- Determination of the range of reference materials for further work on the topic.
Performing Stage
- Reading books (other sources);
- Taking notes on what you have read (scanning);
- Selection of materials;
- Drawing up a research paper plan.
Final Stage
- Processing the available materials and writing the research paper
- Compilation of the list of used literature.
A research paper in any form is connected with the search for information. Only an in-depth study of the literature on the topic will provide information about the current state of the problem under study.
For this purpose, there are libraries and thematic catalogs in the reference and bibliographic departments of libraries. Information about the literature can also be drawn from publications devoted to the chosen topic.
New computer technologies allow the modern researcher to work with a large volume of information. Today one can find digitized works of national and foreign historians, electronic copies of archival documents, thousands of scanned historical sources, materials from archaeological and ethnographic expeditions, and collections of photos, maps, and diagrams in the global network.
The material from the literature and sources usually exceeds the required number of pages of a research paper. Subsequently, it will be necessary to concentrate on the selected problems, weed out the unnecessary ones, and write the final version of the research paper from the received material.
Once the materials needed for the paper have been selected, a research sequence should be outlined to better define the approximate content and appropriate structure of the research paper. When working with sources and literature, it is recommended to write down the main points, examples, and conclusions of the studied works on separate cards or in a special notebook, accurately indicating their authors, titles, and pages. It should be noted that if there are doubts about the authorship of the research paper, the teacher has the right to demand the originals of these preparatory materials.
The outline is the content of the research paper, which contains all the headings of the research paper. It should be remembered that all content headings should exactly repeat the headings in the text. A properly written research paper outline serves as an organizational start to work, helps systematize the material, and ensures consistency in its presentation. Usually, it is compiled according to the chronological or problem principle. The first assumes consideration of the phenomenon in its historical development (from the past to the present), and the second – consideration of several phenomena (problems) and connections between them. It is possible to combine both approaches using the problematic and chronological principles.
Writing an introduction for a biography research paper is a very responsible part of the work. The introduction justifies the relevance of the chosen topic and why it has attracted attention. The reasons why it is of scientific interest and why it attracted the attention of the researcher are given. It is also important to indicate how the topic is viewed by various schools of thought or by individual historians. The introduction should contain a brief description of historical sources and scholarly literature, as well as a historical and graphic overview of the problem. Then determine the purpose and content of the task of the paper.
The main part of the research paper should consist of two or three chapters. The content of the chapters of the main part of the paper must correspond exactly to the topic of the work and fully disclose it. The research methodology and technique are discussed in detail here, and the results are summarized.
Writing a conclusion for a biography paper sums up the whole study, the conclusion gives a consistent, coherent, and logical presentation of research results, their connection with the overall purpose, and the specific tasks set out and formulated in the introduction. The conclusion as a whole also implies a generalized final assessment of the work done. The conclusion consists of approximately two to three pages.
The conclusion is followed by a list of sources and references. Each source is listed strictly by its name in alphabetical order and numbered. Some authors from the general list of literature allocate reference and encyclopedic editions in a separate list. If the paper contains references to memoirs, diaries, letters, newspaper materials, and other sources, this section should be titled “List of references.”
Various auxiliary or supplementary materials are placed in an appendix. These can be copies of original documents, illustrations, photographs, maps, plans, and protocols, or they can be tables, graphs, drawings, maps, and texts in their form.
The paper must ensure the following:
- Semantic completeness, integrity, and coherence;
- consistency in the presentation of similar problems, the use of terms and concepts, conventions and abbreviations of words, deployment of reasoning, language, and conclusions;
- the objectivity of the presentation;
- clarity and accessibility of the presentation of the material;
- compliance with literary norms.