Top Ten Worst Things About Writing a Research Paper

The Top Ten
1 Coming up with a topic

Good luck with your project, NuMetalManiak! A tip for picking a topic is to think of something you read and found interesting, but only scratched the surface. Think to what extent you'd be interested to know more, and if you feel you'd enjoy it, that's your topic! Your focus on your topic question may change slightly as you progress, but that's useful information.

It is bad when your teacher only gives you one out of five topics to pick and they all are having something to do with crimes and evil doings unto others. I'm VERY happy that I'm not in college anymore...

It's even worse when the teacher doesn't even let you pick a topic and picks something you couldn't care less about.

2 Finding legit sources

In my current project, the first resources you find on Google get you nowhere. On the one hand, there's stuff you'd need to have done a lifetime of research to get, and on the other hand, stuff for complete simpletons. I had to dig much deeper than most of my peers, but it was worth it because it's an exciting project. But if there's any middle ground, it's me! Which is demanding for my work!

No Wikipedia or any of that. Plus, you have to format it so that it shows year, publication, etc.

It's so hard to tell if something from an edu or gov site is legit or just someone random wrote an article and posted it there.

3 Trying to come up with a good thesis
4 Trying not to procrastinate

Definitely the hardest thing for me.

5 Hitting the word count

It really annoys me to a great extent and is the worst thing about a research project. I like to detail my conclusion most of the time, but then keeping in mind the max word limit gets me very distracted.

I HATE word count. You have to have a minimum of 'x' words, and sometimes a maximum of 'y' words. I generally write long papers, so trying to balance it somewhere in the middle is quite annoying.

6 Finding supporting details
7 Coming up with a good conclusion
8 Citing your sources within the text

I'm currently doing a research project, and this tedious task annoys me to death! I hate how it makes every sentence sound the same.

9 Trying to make sure the paper is interesting enough

Wow, they are creeps. Who would do that? It's the teachers that are stupid.

10 Coming up with good transitions
The Contenders
11 Figuring out who your target audience is
12 Writing a bibliography

For me, this is both the easiest and hardest part, simultaneously. It's hard enough to find sources for your paper, but actually putting all the sources on a bibliography (or as we in the States have it, works cited page) is usually the first thing I get done. Don't forget the formatting. It's easily forgotten, but thankfully, Easybib.com will do this in a heartbeat as long as you know the title, site, author, etc.

13 Making sure it is understandable to the reader

Seriously, in all my years of schooling, every time I write a paper, I always do badly in it unless I check it with a tutor at the writing center, and it is my worst nightmare. It is the equivalent of writing code for computer programming classes.

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