Research backtracks. Experiments move in unanticipated directions, irregular data crops up and threatens to derail what you planned for your research paper, new ideas and second thoughts emerge, you suspect your hypothesis, and always have a fear of getting back to the drawing board. These issues are common to gnaw at any PhD scholar, but you can keep yourself from this annoyance if you start writing right from the beginning. If you write while you research, you can make consistent progress (and note it down as well), have a clear thought process and probably not wander around.
Here are some well-researched ways that can guide you in writing research papers:
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Organise your work notes
Whenever you hold an experiment or conduct research, try to take notice of results and your observations in a digital diary. There are many software designed for this purpose specifically, so pick the one that is easy to operate and able to organise your observations by date. Moreover, it should be able to insert images and texts for empirical results which prove quite effective in research papers. Even while you screen through literature sources for your research paper, make notes marking research gaps, limitations, etc.
Tip: Try using the "Add Sticky Note" option under ‘Comments’ (under ‘documents’)in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader for pdf file formats.
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Summarizing empirical techniques and materials
Once you have assembled your experiment, jot down the sources of materials that you will use to complete your data collection. During conducting interviews or surveys, you must note down the account of investigation step by step. Record all results during observations whether full, partial and incomplete. Phd thesis writers are often witnessed to make detailed notes for referring at the time of developing a research paper. Recording summary of what you observed through demonstrations in the lab or on the field, is also quite helpful.
Tip: Note all challenges, questions and changes that you face during the process.
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Noting References simultaneously
Note to mention the importance and use of references. You never know where you can get relevant information - you can find relevant information in an article, come across a useful statement/comment on the internet, get news from a seminar or webinar, or find information in a book. Make a note in the reference column of your digital diary. Using different softwares while writing research papers for managing references makes the task simpler. You can quickly search and spot references. At the time of listing bibliographies, software can list down all references in a bibliographic format and sort them in the order that matches the citations in your paper. Equipped with bibliography feature, software can enable you to attach notes, files and images too.
Tip: Mendeley and Endnote are two useful referencing tools.
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Begin a draft
Your research diary is an ongoing project unless you finish your data collection and compilation. You should start writing step by step before you complete your observation. It will help you have firm control over your study. You will be writing even though you have finished your lab examination, and then you will edit your document. You will find flaws in your work. You cannot escape from this. You will also realise missing information and more accurate way of showing results. If it happens, do not panic; go back to your lab and tie up all loose ends.
Writing research papers is challenging; it demands compliance with academic guidelines, formatting requirements, grammar rules and regulations, etc. Expert PhD thesis writers holding advanced research degrees claim spending sufficient time on writing throughout your PhD journey as a major contributing factor to a flawless research paper.