Research Papers and Essays.

[Sandstorm]

Is there a difference between an Essay and a Research Paper? I need to write four "Research Papers", and have not heard the term before.

Any help is appreciated.

~Sandstorm

[Runescapian321]

In my high school, it seems like an essay is generally something that comes out of your own brain. It's often about a personal experience, idea, or opinion on something. A research paper is usually much longer (the only one I've written in high school this year, freshman year, was about 20 pages) than an essay (a couple pages). Usually you have to find information from all kinds of different sources and have a bibliography.

That's how my school does it, I dunno if that's how everyone does it.

Good luck writing four research papers O_O

[Sandstorm]

Lol, they're (fortunately) only 500 words long each. Only problem? They're on topics I don't give a shit about.

I'd not do them, as they're extra credit, but my moms bitching at me to get my marks up :/.

What I guess I'm asking is, are they structured the same?

I learned Essays something like this:

Tell them what you're going to tell them.

Tell them.

Tell them what you told them.

Basically what a research paper (in very short terms) is?

~Sandstorm

[Runescapian321]

What are the topics? I might be able to help more then :p

[Sandstorm]

The one I'm working on now is Volcanoes.

~Sandstorm

[Brain]

Pretty much the same, cept you need to cite sources and shit.

[Sandstorm]

Alright, that's what I was wondering.

Shit, just realized I need to cite TWO sources, instead of one -.-. Think I can get away with counting Wikipedia as two? xD.

~Sandstorm

[senrath]

No, but you can check the sources that Wikipedia cites, and possibly use one of those. Just be careful, most teachers don't want their students to cite Wikipedia.

[Brain]

Yeah, almost all teachers say no wiki, well, some of my professors say they don't care, but that's different.

Even if you do a half assed job, extra credit is still extra credit, right?
but you might as well go for the max, considering it's only 500 words :p

[Sandstorm]

I'll check that, thanks. My teacher doesn't really care much, but it's better not to have "Wikipedia" listed on all my work xD.

~Sandstorm

[Aser]

In our research papers we are required to do the Step up to Writing format. You give a topic then three supporting sentences then a conclusion. Then you base the first paragraph on the first supporting reason...the second on the second reason...

If you aren't good at writing then it is a very helpful format. 500 words could be about a 5 paragraph paper if you write long sentences.

Protip: Magma = still underground... Lava = above ground...

[tarajunky]

Here you go. Cite an article from 1828 and see what your teacher says...

http://rspl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/338.full.pdf+html?sid=2129dcfb-7f71-4fee-8141-ca9ab0dfcdff

Plenty more where that came from.

http://royalsocietypublishing.org/search?sitecode=roybiogmem&sitecode=royobits&sitecode=roybiolett&sitecode=royinterface&sitecode=roynotesrec&sitecode=royprs&sitecode=royprsa&sitecode=royprsb&sitecode=roypt&sitecode=roypta&sitecode=royptb&fulltext=volcano&format=standard&hits=80&sortspec=relevance&submit=Go