Pitching it right

Writing a research paper that effectively communicates one’s findings is an art. How do you go about it?

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Writing a research paper is an integral process while pursuing a PhD programme. Writing and publishing quality research papers in reputed peer reviewed journals plays an important role in defining the success of your programme. Its purpose is to effectively communicate one’s research findings, ideas and insights to the scientific community.

While sitting at the study table surrounded by mindboggling wealth of data and notes to write a research paper, the mind tends to freeze at the first thought. I have realised that one way to shut off a mental block is to first shift the approach. One needs to gather one’s thoughts in peace and set the mind to think of ways to get started.

Focus and mental discipline are essential for organising the thoughts. Clarity and confidence follow. Preparing a rough general outline of the gathered information in a logical manner is the next step. If you are comfortable with writing, put down your thoughts on paper. If you are comfortable with working on a computer, you can type it out. The editing tools would make it easier.

Thorough research, reading various published papers from primary and secondary sources, visiting libraries for journals, books and encyclopaedias and online Google search for authentic websites help. This helps in understanding the structure of a research paper and getting familiar with academic writing.

A scientific research paper has a prescribed format. The elements of the paper comprise title, abstract, introduction, materials and methodology, results, discussion, bibliography and acknowledgement. Keep the title short, simple and crisp enough to spark curiosity in the mind of the reader. Focus on the purpose of the work and define the objectives of the experiment in the abstract section. The introduction should include the review of literature related to your work. The materials and methodology section consists of sampling, techniques and experimental procedures, instrumentation and case studies.

The results section should reveal your data and findings from the experimental analysis and include appropriate graphs, tables, and facts and figures. The discussion section should explain comparative analysis with other published work of researchers and emphasise significant implications and the scope of your findings for further research. Limitations in the study, if any, can also be mentioned here. Bibliography contains accurate and verified references used for citation to avoid plagiarism. Gratitude for technical and financial support is mentioned in the acknowledgement section.

Once the structure of the paper is ready, proof read and edit the draft. Do a final in-depth revision to check for English grammar and sentence structure, logical sequence and overall flow.

I managed to finish writing three research papers in a month with the encouragement I received from my research supervisor and eventually got them published in peer-reviewed science pharmacognosy journals. This boosted my confidence and motivated me to write my PhD thesis chapters in an organised manner. With writing practice, hard work, confidence, patience and perseverance you are sure to improve your writing skills! Happy writing!

The writer is PhD research scholar, department of botany, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.