How to write a good research paper?
I am a masters student. I would like to publish the work done for my masters project. How do I develop my scientific writing skills to write a good research paper?
Congratulations on the successful completion of your project. It is good to know that you have done publication worthy work for your masters degree.
In order to develop your science writing skills the first thing that you need to do is to read several papers in your field of research. You may have definitely read them before as part of your literature review for your work. However, this time you need to read them with the aim of observing the writing style, structure, things that need to be mentioned etc. This will help you get accustomed to the kind of language, information etc. is usually mentioned in scientific journals.
You could also go through the instruction for authors specified by your selected journal for publication to get a list of guidelines that you need to keep in mind while drafting your manuscript.
Additionally, you also have several e-learning platforms that have specialized courses to help early career researchers like you to publish your work. Enago Learn is once such e-learning platform that offers a comprehensive program on academic writing and publication concepts. Courses that could help you develop your scientific writing skills include How to Write an Effective Research Paper and Structure of an Original Article: Title to Conclusion (IMRAD).
Additionally, Enago also offers English editing and proofreading services that will help you to improvise on your manuscripts and increase your chances of publication.
Also, these are a few tips that you could use to write your first research paper:
- Before you start writing, have a clear idea of what you want to convey to your readers. This will help you develop an ordered and clear structure for your paper.
- Tailor your content to your targeted audience. Give them the content they would be interested in.
- Make short and simple sentences that are easily understandable. Avoid unnecessary scientific jargon.
- Follow the guidelines specified by your target journal.
- Try to visually represent your data in the form of graphs, pie charts etc. or in a tabular format if possible. Do not repeat the same information twice. If data is mentioned in a visual or tabular format, there is no need to include it into the text and vice versa.
- Always ensure that your final paper is thoroughly proofread.
