I'm writing a research paper and the required length is 14-16 pages. I chose to write mine on the Red Orchestra (the class is Germany: Hitler and the Nazi dictatorship). I've done some research already but I'm not sure how to piece it together or how to start it really. Any expert research paper writers? I haven't written one since high school and certainly not this length.

My usual tactic of comparing the subject to fascists really doesn't seem like it would work out that well for your paper...

Find the Wikipedia page for your subject, scroll to the bottom, and open up every source that is referenced there. Done.

And thus play an important role in http://xkcd.com/978/

It's actually not that bad of a way to get research, though.

Anyway, on a more serious note, have you found out some little cool fact about them not well known? Things like that to engage the reader can be good ways to start.

No, no it doesn't.


Well the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Orchestra_%28espionage%29 seems to be lacking references. I have 3 books and a few articles so sources are not a problem.


I'm liking that. I just have to find that fact.

Get as many book and article references that you can.
read them, or skim.
list your topic and sub topic headings.
Then highlight these somehow from the readings. Indexes in books are great for locating these.

Now you can write it by topics. Lastly, put in your introduction and conclusion.

First of all: what format is the research paper? also, the idea of taking the Wikipedia sources is a pretty dang good idea. It still will not take the place of real research though. I remember I did an MLA essay, got it completed and triple-checked, and the teacher took 5 points off for missing a comma in the MLA format. I was mad.

What I usually do on any paper is to write down my ideas as individual paragraphs. Find snippets in the books and write them down in your own words and extrapolate on any ideas you have about those snippets, then write down the book and page you got it from. Do this enough, and you'll start to notice a good line of thought to follow throughout the paper. Then you can take those individual paragraphs and ideas, then edit them to tie them all together with central themes and ideas. Basically, make a bunch of dots of ideas, then string them together to finish it up.

I'm a pretty good research paper writer. I just finished up two 30 page, single spaced papers within the last month.

Is it double or single spaced? If double, you really don't have that much work.

Since this is a historical event, your format should go somewhat like this:
1.Introduction, which you write last after fully exploring the subject matter and making connections.
2. Thesis statement within the intro, which you should write first. It should be a concise statement about the facts and significance of the red orchestra on past, present, and future German history, or if that is too broad for the class, then just the impact of the red orchestra on the Nazi regime (was it good, bad, ugly; did it make anything better or worse; was it a victory or fail for Germany---these are kinds of questions to ask when determining significance). If you want, you can pm me your thesis statement once written and I'll look it over, since it is the most important piece of the paper. Every section of the paper should come back to this and reiterate it somehow in the context of the section.
3. From here, organization of research papers is easiest when divided into sections. I would imagine a section to be between 1 and 3 pages depending on how depth you want to explore that facet of the orchestra. It would start with a section on the events leading up to the event, on the trigger that caused it, on the proceedings, on the aftermath, on the implications for the nazi regime, on Hitler's involvement in the event, and perhaps on the implications to German history as a whole. A brief conclusion would then be in order, restating your points and perhaps inserting an interesting tidbit of information that didn't fit anywhere else but that you find to be important.

So basically, you are saying what the red orchestra was, how it came to be, how it unfolded, who had a hand in it and who didn't, and how it impacted other historical events through time.

As for the research itself, your university should have an online, searchable database accessible through your school library website. Sometimes such websites have downloadable clients that allow you to surf the database as if you were connected through a school computer. When browsing documents, skim through, note important pieces and the page numbers/citations you found them on and definitely check out the sources, because that's how you start to discover really obscure information that would have been difficult to search for alone. I don't recommend wikipedia for information, but do check out the sources. Try to stay away from websites and focus on journal articles, they are the most focused and helpful.

Some pointers: MS word has a function for inserting sources and footnotes without having to do it manually, so by the time you finish your paper the works cited page is already complete; you simply have to click on insert bibliography, and then convert it to static text if you need to smooth out formatting. Definitely include headings to your sections, as this most easily resolves issues with coherency and flow. Finally, while you're researching keep of rough outline of your headings and the research you want to use under each one. This makes the writing much easier.

Hope that helped, and I welcome any more further questions.

Wow, that is extremely helpful. Yes it's double-spaced

Pretty much this if I had to say anything really been quite some time since I've written a paper. The only thing I would say is stay the hell away from wikipedia since professors are going to automatically trash your work if you use a reference from wiki. However as mentioned the references that wikipedia uses on articles are quite thorough and those could "plausibly" be used.

Hardest thing I would have to say is make an outline first then expand upon the outline finally going indepth within that outline on each topic. Biggest thing to do is to make sure you don't ramble on about the subject which would make the paper sound droll.

A couple good pieces of advice are already up.

I'll just add that writing it is usually a balance for me between 1) writing whatever the heck I want to on the subject and 2) going straight from notes.

In other words, I find it fairly easy to either outline or write what the heck I want to say based upon my knowledge or light research. Then I do some deep research to find the notes and references that support my ideas. It's a bit of gamble in that you might come up with an idea that's disproved by the literature, but this method hasn't failed me yet. It was passed to my by one of my professors after I realized that I had no clue about writing large papers.

Regarding the mechanics of writing it, I use Word or OneNote to jot down notes and quotes (with a brief citation) from the literature to later cut/paste and expand upon in the paper. I can reorder them an use them as my outline..more or less like old fashoned notecards....if people remember using those to write a paper OneNote works well since I can copy from the journal article and it will paste with the webiste url. Also, it allows each entry to be moved around like an individual notecard on a table.

Also, beware of databases' auto-generated reference entries for your reference list. They can be really close, but they can systematiclly miss a comma in one spot for 15 entries...

Yea, that is why journal articles are so good. Often you can simply summarize points they made in a similar progression they made them in and mix it up with your other sources for each section. Then just add a sentence or two anolyzing what it means and done.

Oh and, cite, cite, and finally, cite. Even if it's a fact you already knew, unless it is very vague, you must cite. When I'm writing, if I find that I just wrote a sentence and it definitely sounds like it came out of a book or something and is not my own anolysis, I just click 'insert footnote' and either add the citation there or keep the footnote as a placeholder until I find a source if I don't know how I knew it. Is this MLA by the way? I despise MLA and much prefer footnotes in my papers. But same goes for MLA, you just have to make sure the MLA format is chosen under references for your citations.

What I always do is just write until I have the 14 to 16 (or whatever length) and piece together the good information, and cut out the bad information. Once you have cut out all the bad information, look at the good information and try to expand on it a bit more. It really helps me, and I have been able to sit down and write a 10 to 11 page essay in about 2 and a half hours or so using this tactic. I usually get A's or higher end B's on my papers.

Pay someone to write it for you.

Personally, I find the sources(usually from JSTOR or some such database), take notes on the important points and the possible uses the source might have in my paper; then I just put it all together and write, course-correcting along the way so that I end up with a coherent essay. Yeah....my strategy isn't particularly detailed. But I pretty much always get A's, so I guess it works.


Also, thanks for encouraging my procrastination! I've got a small research paper due Wednesday that I haven't even started on yet. Gonna be a couple of long nights. :read:

This is the simplified version of what I recommended. :thumbsup:

Formatting is very important as well; it lets the professor know that you put in effort, even if you didn't, if your paper is polished.

Just a tip I learnt as a history student - it always helps to find one paper/journal/historian who has written a book that's easy to discredit. Always gives you a lot to talk about and helps you to emphasise why your point of view might be right - certainly useful if you're arguing a case (which you should be).

Always be careful not to fall into simple narrative. Everyone knows what happened; your job is to explain the why rather than the how.

Anyone have any insight on writing a policy paper? I don't really understand the format, so I think I'm just going to wing it.

What kind of policy? Like a legal thing? I can help with that.

In addition to the very helpful hints already posted, don't be afraid to delve into the historiography a bit. Profs love that sort of thing, but it is to compliment your reasearch and arguements -not replace them- so don't overdo it!

I've written multiple 20 or so page papers, a 30+ pager, and a 60+ pager. Once you get the hang of it writing a research paper is fun, as long as the topic is one that interests you.

You should start with the secondary material (what other scholars have written about the topic). See what they have to say. They can offer some insights. Just as importantly, look at their footnotes/endnotes and their bibliographies. That should give you some ideas on where to find other secondary sources, and more importantly, primary sources.

Also, many colleges and university libraries have excellent online resources. See what type of primary source databases they have (historical newspapers, old photographs, government and military reports, private letters, etc). Also, if your library has a referene librarian, see if they can help. Their job is to help researchers find sources.

As for the writing itself, make a detailed outline. I used to ignore all the people who told me to outline my papers. And then I started getting assigned long papers, and I wised up. If you're having trouble with a particular section, outline it in detail on the fly. Even if you don't follow your outline to the letter, it is always good to organize your thoughts before you begin writing.

Also, think about why what you have to say matters. What are you adding to the discussion on this topic? Even if it is not knew information, it can be a new interpretation of what is known.

*Poke*
I PM'd you.

I don't think this is a very good strategy...you'd be better off reading books.

Find a few good sources and look for foundation quotes. All one really has to do in research papers is sew together in a flowing way the research of others. Are there any definitive books on the subject? (And the answer to that is, of course, yes; every aspect of Germany 1918-1945 has been investigated and explained over and over). Get a few of these books and try to extract main ideas and quotes. Then decide how you're going to structure it, whether topically or chronologically or however. I suggest chronologically, but that's just a personal preference.

Not sure how relevant this will be (I mostly write liberal arts type research, not historical), but I'll pitch in anyway:

I like to have printed out sources with notes and highlights on them, even before I nail down my exact topic. I'll highlight important parts or quotes that I think sound nice and...quotable. I usually don't end up using many of the sources, but they're there in the background feeding into things.

Then, I sit down and write a really rough draft. I don't formally outline, but generally know what topics I want to cover, points I want to make, etc. This draft takes the form of separate, unconnected paragraphs. Since I treat my papers like literature, and typically this draft includes a ton of stylistic flair rather than direct quotations or arguments. If I remember a quotation, I'll write something like "[insert that one Spivak quote about positioning yourself relative to the work]" rather than going out and finding the quote. In other words, it's stream of consciousness writing. I've been doing this by hand lately, in part because I don't always have access to the computer and in part to keep myself focused.

Next is the proper first draft. I type things up, arrange them, decide what I'm actually trying to say. Add in transitions, elaborate, cut parts, add quotes. Because I'm typing things from a hand-written pre-alpha draft, I do an editing pass as well. Usually I'll see points that I hit on but didn't go into, and will add paragraphs about them. I also try to bring it possible criticism, opposition, or problems with my opinion in the essay and counter it. This is where the topic of my paper really gets nailed down ("I'm writing about the importance of Red Orchestra in undermining the Nazi regime through internally-distributed propaganda" rather than "I'm writing about the Red Orchestra").

From there it's just re-reading and editing.

Breaks are also important. If you sit down and write it all in one go it will probably end up being crap. Take breaks, even if it's just 10 minutes to grab some tea. I like to have at least one sleep cycle in the course of writing, so I'll usually finish the paper at night and re-read, do a final edit, and print in the morning.