Research Papers: Types of Research Papers

Research Papers: Types of Research Papers

Writing a Research Paper

---

Genre

The two main types: to analyze or to argue? That is the question.

Regardless of the type of research paper you're writing, we hope the previous discussion of what a research paper is has established that your finished paper should be a presentation of your own thinking backed up by the ideas or information of others in the field. However, whether your paper is ANALYTICAL (uses evidence to analyze facets of an issue) or ARGUMENTATIVE (uses evidence to attempt to convince the reader of your particular stance on a debatable topic), is definitely going to have a bearing on your strategy from here on in. In fact, it will determine your paper's purpose. So here's a more thorough discussion of the difference between the two types, followed by a concrete example that directly compares the two.

---

1) Analytical Papers

As the staff at the SUNY Empire State College Writer's Complex so aptly explains it: "To analyze means to break a topic or concept down into its parts in order to inspect and understand it, and to restructure those parts in a way that makes sense to you. In an analytical research paper, you do research to become an expert on a topic so that you can restructure and present the parts of the topic from your own perspective." 1

In this brand of research paper, therefore, you go into the researching stage with a specific topic about which you have not made any kind of conclusions. Often you will hear this called your research question. Your task is to survey the information and views already out there--both before and once you become familiar with the topic. That will require critical thinking and reading, plus evaluation of the resources you handle. By the end of the paper you will be able to contribute your own thoughts to the academic discussion by drawing some conclusions about the topic you have just analyzed.

---

Your task is to survey the information and views already out there--both before and once you become familiar with the topic. That will require critical thinking and reading, plus evaluation of the resources.

---

What exactly does critical thinking mean though?

A term thrown around at the post-secondary level, "critical thinking" is a broad concept that encompasses a lot about college or university academic expectations. But for our purposes it's enough to say that in a research or reading context it means not considering any view as "truth" simply because a source has been published or seems to be an expert. It requires you to maintain some objectivity and ask questions to yourself as you read (or watch or listen). This slight air of initial skepticism urges the resource to convince you of its authority. In short, a critical eye teaches you to regard anything-- especially if it's published or in other media-- as if you're doing a peer edit or with the attitude your own professor will be adopting while marking your paper. No matter what your knowledge level, as a student with fresh eyes and unique experiences, you always have inquisitiveness as a skill; this is how students enter a research community with some authority of their own.

For more guidelines about what critical thinking and reading actually are, visit:

Thinking Critically from the University of Victoria Learning Skills Program page

Critical Reading from the University of Saskatchewan's "U-Study" Library Instruction Guide

---

2) Argumentative (or Persuasive) Papers

In addition to the concept of critical thinking (which any paper at the university level will demand of you), another widely-used term at the college level which you may or may not be familiar with in its academic context, is the term argument. This is the basis of the persuasive kind of research paper.

The Student Services staff at Charles Sturt University in Australia defines an argument as "a series of generalizations or propositions, supported by evidence or reasoning and connected in a logical manner, that lead to a justified conclusion. You must sustain your argument by giving evidence and reasons."

In direct contrast to the analytical paper, your approach here is to take a stand on an issue and use evidence to back-up your stance, not to explore or flesh out an unresolved topic. We have included an entire step just on this aspect of the research paper writing process, but it's probably worth your while now to know that this stance, this debatable statement or interpretation is known as your thesis.

---

In direct contrast to the analytical paper, your approach here is to take a stand on an issue and use evidence to back-up your stance, not to explore or flesh out an unresolved topic.

---

Argumentative or persuasive papers, as these names suggest, are attempts--after all, essay does come from the French word essai, or "attempt"--to convince the reader of a debatable or controversial point of view.

That point of view--your thesis--and not some research question, is the core of this breed of paper.

Convention has it that theses are generally found in the introductory paragraph(s), which makes sense considering your reader will get frustrated if your persuading point isn't stated early on. This is why guides to true ANALYTICAL papers--even our short description above--avoid using the word "thesis" altogether and describe you as "drawing conclusions." They recognize that your critical evaluations, insights, and discoveries are going to be located toward the end of the paper and so are not theses in the true sense of the word.

Note: While it would be really useful to call them thesis papers from here on in (since a proper argumentative paper should always have a thesis statement), we can't use that name. Technically, a real "thesis paper" is the name given to the research projects pursued at levels of university beyond a Bachelor's Degree. Since you're probably still an undergraduate, refrain from calling argumentative papers "thesis papers" and you'll avoid confusion.

---

In true research paper fashion, we have just laid out the difference between analytical and argumentative papers in a more abstract form. To drive the point home, here is the concrete example we promised earlier:

Example

For an ANALYTICAL research paper, let's say you have decided to explore "the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies." You don't have an answer in mind to turn that into a sentence (that wouldn't be following the purpose of your paper!) so you do some research to locate instances of insanity in various plays.

The body of the paper would analyze or break down the topic into three or four "parts" which will later become the main paragraphs of your draft. Perhaps your research helps you discover several purposes to madness in these tragedies, with your paper devoting a paragraph to considering each. Or perhaps there's debate among scholars as to the main purpose of madness, so you decide to present some of these varying opinions. However you choose to explore the topic, in the body of your paper you'd be using evidence from the plays themselves (a.k.a. primary sources) and expert opinions on the plays (a.k.a. secondary sources).

Your concluding paragraph(s) would finally incorporate some of your critical interpretations of both the plays and the experts' essays. Here, you'd include a critical evaluation and discussion of your overall findings as well as some conclusions based on the patterns you've researched or detected yourself to make some final comments about the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies.

Now, an ARGUMENTATIVE paper would lay out exactly what you consider to be the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies in a declarative sentence right in the introduction--the thesis statement. Thus, the template would change accordingly to "the purpose of madness in Renaissance tragedies is ______ (for comic relief? to provide a reflection of moral chaos? and so on and so forth)." See, it ceases to be just a topic (notice above that our topic for the analytical paper is not a sentence!) and has become instead an interpretation. The course of the paper will develop why you believe--and importantly, why the reader should believe--what you do.

This time, you'll select only that evidence (still examples from plays and opinions from experts) which directly supports your thesis. The body of your paper turns into a site for laying out the proof you've collected rather than a canvas for delineating a topic. And considering that scholars still debate the psychological state of Prince Hamlet (close to 400 years after the play was written!), there is no right or wrong answer. You will not get a bad mark if your professor happens to completely disagree with your thesis. That's not the point. Solid back-up and convincing arguments, not safe thesis statements, are what make for happy profs.

Because your insights, which are what your professors are most interested in, are the very fulcrum on which an argumentative paper balances rather than just interspersed or tacked on the end of analytical papers, argumentative papers are probably the most popular type of research paper. Of course, your experiences may vary depending on the courses and teachers you have.

---

Analysis in Research Papers, by the SUNY Empire State College Writer's Complex crew, gives a different example of what an analytical paper might look like.

Types of Essays is the 1st of many sections of the superb UVic Writer's Guide and outlines six types of essays. The unique titles given to each, but with the same topic, provide another good comparison of the differences between the types.