Form and Style for Research Papers, Reports, and Theses

Form and Style for Research Papers, Reports, and Theses

Principles of Organization

The organization of a paper often develops naturally in the course of research and during the writing of early drafts. Nevertheless, it is often instructive to try out various principles or patterns of organization with your material. Experimentation can help you to find the pattern most appropriate to your material or can lead you to new insights. Among the most useful principles for structuring a research paper are chronology, comparison and contrast, spatial pattern, cause and effect, and analysis. These patterns of development are often used in combination, and they can be applied to individual paragraphs as well as to an entire paper.

CHRONOLOGY The chronological pattern explains each of the steps in a sequentially ordered process. The basic plan of this chapter, for instance, is chronological: the suggestions for writing a research paper begin with selecting a topic and progress step by step to proofreading the final copy. The chronological pattern is often appropriate for a paper describing a series of historical, political, or sociological processes or events.

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST The pattern of comparison and contrast presents the similarities and/or differences between two or more persons, places, or things. A logical development by comparison and contrast entails discussion of the same qualities of both subjects. For example, the statement that one politician was a poor public speaker and another has a good understanding of the legislative system does not provide a basis for comparison and contrast. The speaking ability of both politicians, as well as their understanding of political institutions, should be discussed. Comparison and contrast are appropriate when a subject can best be understood by distinguishing it from others in its class.

SPATIAL PATTERN The spatial pattern develops the physical layout or geographical dimensions of a topic. It can guide the reader through a topic that includes several locations, such as the seasonal habitats of various animals, the movement of troops in the Vietnam War, or the concentration of heavy industry in the United States.

CAUSE AND EFFECT A cause-and-effect paper presents the events or forces that produced certain results, speculates about how things might have turned out if conditions had been different, or reports controlled experimentation to determine the factors important to a particular outcome. Cause and effect are difficult to determine, particularly in the social sciences, and valid work in this area should either control or take into account as many factors as possible. Topics such as possible explanations for the decline in students’ reading scores in the United States in the past decade or reasons for population shifts away from inner cities lend themselves to development by cause and effect.

ANALYSIS Some subjects can best be understood by an examination of their component parts. Analysis is the process of dividing a subject into its parts and classifying them. A research paper on the responsibilities of a hospital administrator might proceed by grouping the duties by types and discussing each type.

Major Divisions of a Paper

Your paper will develop naturally from the principle of organization you select. A paper involving comparison and contrast and cause and effect, for example, will usually have two major divisions. A paper organized chronologically, spatially, or analytically may have a number of major divisions. After you have identified the large segments of the paper, you can fill in the points to be made in each part.

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This page last updated on 2/27/03.