Research is an imperative process when writing an essay. Unfortunately there are common pitfalls that students fall into often making research mistakes that can compromise the entire essay. Familiarising yourself with these traps before you start doing your own research will enable you to avoid them and produce a well-researched paper that satisfies the research topic’s needs without leaving gaps. Here are ten of the most common mistakes students make when researching their topics.
- A weak thesis statement
When you fail to perform some advance research into a certain subjectcreates a weak thesisstatement as you are unable to formulate clearly the issues in that subjects that would benefit from your research. The thesis statement should be genuine and express an idea that warrants further discussion.
- Failure to understand the problem statement
Understanding the problem or tasks upon which you are to base your research is imperative for the success of your research. Hence, if you haven’t understood the problem statement, ask questions about it as early in the research process as possible as this is your foundation.
- Using the wrong research sources
While using a wide variety of sources in the research process helps you glean a lot of information regarding your problem,the quality of your sources is more important than the quantity. You can ensure the quality of your sources by choosing sources that are not likely to be easily edited by the public and cross referencing to verify the facts reported. If you are getting your research from the field instead of databases and papers, then also ensure that you use the right tools to gather this research.
- Lack of resource preparation
Conducting research means using resources such as previous research, data, and people among others. You should get the most out of each resource and hence, using intelligent targeted questions will ensure that you get the best results out of your resources.
- Poor result documentation
This is a damaging pitfall that deals a huge blow on your entire research. The research results are the most important section that makes your research and hence, they should be properly documented for easy understanding and analysis.
- Failure to connect supporting statements with the thesis statement
The body of your research should connect to the thesis statement to keep the stimulating discussion into the topic going on and lend even further credibility to your research topic.
- Ineffective conclusion
If the results are the backbone of your research then conclusions are the mic-drop of it all. Poor structuring of your conclusions will be ineffective in supporting your research and convincing readers to make a certain decision.
- Lack of relevant data
When formulating your research body, always back your supporting statements with relevant data to substantiate your point of view. This data should be verified and properly cited. Citing should be according to the relevant referencing style you want to use for your research. Engaging the services of a paper writing servicewill save you the hassle of dealing with the research paper to help you have a first look at the various subtleties and nuances that are involved in the research.
- Lack of follow-up
Just because you have achieved certain result does not mean that there are no gaps or inconsistencies and hence, identifying them and giving them some thought will show the audience that you exhausted the subject matter and have carried out an in-depth research process.
- Poor timeplan
A timeline helps you keep track and be on schedule for your deadline. However if you plan your timeline poorly, you can end up running out of time especially if you do not account for unforeseen circumstances that can mess up the entire schedule.
