Write a good research paper with ONLYOFFICE

A short guideline for students

It’s no secret that students are occupied with tons of research papers. Writing a good research paper can be a challenge if you have never done it before. ONLYOFFICE is here to help you!

This post is a story told by an ex-student who wants to share his experience and walk you through the most important aspects of writing an impactful paper. Let’s find out what it takes to be good at writing research papers and how ONLYOFFICE can make it much easier.

Tip 1. Choose a topic for your research paper

Choosing a topic that could interest you and meet the criteria of your assignment is never easy. There are several ways to come up with an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming to talking to a fellow student or professor. You can also gain inspiration from other research, world events or news which can give you a lot of food for thought.

In my experience, a controversial topic can be ideal in most cases. I really love to objectively explain differing positions and even defend one of them if I think it’s right.

I also recommend choosing a topic that is possible to research. Once I didn’t manage to find any relevant information sources for my research and failed my assignment. Don’t make my mistake.

Tip 2. Immerse yourself into the research process

Once you understand what you’re going to write about in your research paper, it’s time to gather resource materials and review them. Here are a few good information sources:

• encyclopedias and databases;
• books and journals;
• newspapers.

Although most of these sources are available online, you will have to go to the library sometimes. Try to find as many relevant information sources as possible.

When working with a huge amount of information, I recommend keeping track of all your reference materials so you can cite them and create your bibliography later. ONLYOFFICE is a great option for that. I kept all my files in my ONLYOFFICE cloud and connected my Google Drive account so I could manage, edit and share my docs when necessary. Most importantly, ONLYOFFICE allowed me to access my files online anywhere and anytime from my smartphone. Even in the university library.

Tip 3. Develop a problem statement

Most research papers begin with a problem statement in the introductory paragraph. A problem statement establishes the purpose of your research paper.

To help you develop a problem statement, I can advise you to answer the question that I have always asked myself before starting to write a paper: what is your research paper about?

Your problem statement should be concise and coherent. That means it should briefly summarize the main idea of your research in a sentence or two.

Be ready to revise and refine the problem statement as you do more research. That happened to me quite often, and there is nothing to worry about.

Tip 4. Create a draft of your research paper

My experience tells me that the first draft of your research paper won’t be perfect. Just use this step to turn your ideas into arguments and add details to those arguments.

Usually, a research paper consists of three main parts:

• Introduction. Here you should present the background for your paper and explain its purpose.
• Body. Here you should develop supporting arguments for the problem statement of your paper.
• Conclusion. Here you should briefly summarize the main points you have made in your research.

As for the practical tools that I used to write papers, ONLYOFFICE did most of the work. I have tried a lot of office suites, and all of them were good. However, I mostly used ONLYOFFICE because it has all the required formatting and styling tools. With ONLYOFFICE, I could even create bibliographies using the built-in plugins (for example, EasyBib).

Tip 6. Edit your research paper

Once your research paper is ready, don’t think you have done everything. Think again about the structure, wording and length of your research paper. Make changes if needed.

Grammar is what student often forget about. I recommend using use the built-in spellchecker in your editor to avoid spelling mistakes and asking someone to check your paper for grammar mistakes.

ONLYOFFICE can easily help you identify spelling mistakes while typing, and the built-in Thesaurus allows you to find synonyms and antonyms of words to improve your writing. You can also share your paper with your fellow students or friends in real time, and they can leave comments for you in the text or even make changes to it if they are granted with the full access rights.

Tip 7. Revise your research paper

The revision process is inevitable if you want to get a decent quality paper. I recommend checking your paper again for logical organization and flow of paragraphs. Checking the paragraphs against the introduction and problem statement is also a good idea.

Here I can give you one more tip: share your paper with someone familiar with the topic, whether it be a fellow student or professor. I often used ONLYOFFICE to share my works with other students giving them revision access rights, and that worked really well.

Tip 8. Re-read and submit your research paper

After finishing the previous stages, you need to take a break. Give your paper some time and give it a final read-through. In my experience, one day or two is usually enough.

Read your paper carefully after the break. You might notice mistakes or formatting issues that your eyes missed before.

After you make sure everything in your research paper is all right, you are ready to submit it. If you don’t have to print your paper and submit a hard copy, you can easily share it with your teacher online by generating an external link in ONLYOFFICE.

I hope you find all these tips useful. Pay attention to the content of your research paper, and ONLYOFFICE will help you do the remaining work.