how to write a research paper for 5th grade

Research Writing (Grades 4-6)

Our Research Writing lesson plan for grades 4-6 teaches students how to write a thoroughly researched and factually accurate five paragraph essay. Students write an essay based on research they conduct in order to practice this type of writing.

Description

Additional information.

Our Research Writing Lesson Plan for grades 4-6 teaches students about the importance of researching and reporting findings accurately and effectively. Being able to clearly and accurately inform and communicate findings through writing is a valuable skill that students will need in many areas of their lives. Gathering and summarizing key information will also be a powerful tool for academic reading and writing throughout upper grades and higher education. In this lesson, students are asked to use the information they have learned to research and write a research paper from start to finish, including brainstorming and outlining.

At the end of the lesson, students will have written an essay based on a topic of their choosing with sources cited.

Thank you for submitting a review!

Your input is very much appreciated. Share it with your friends so they can enjoy it too!

Great Resource

Awesome! I was encouraged to find this as I develop my own writing curriculum for my homeschooled middle schoolers.

Nice resource

I haven't used this resource yet, but at first glance it looks helpful!

Research Writing

I have not started this with my child yet, but I have looked over the information. I am really looking forward to using this. Very informative.

I absolutely love the blended

I absolutely love the blended lesson plan structure that accommodates for all types of learners. you all ROCK!!!

Excellent curriculum

Lots of subjects and ways to teach kids. Love the packets

Related products

Sports: Ice Hockey

Fun US Geography

Make Your Life Easier With Our Lesson Plans

Stay up-to-date with new lessons.

• Lesson Plans
• For Teachers

© 2024 Learn Bright. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Policy.

• Sign Up for Free

Writing a Research Report (Gr. 5)

Scott Foresman, an imprint of Pearson

Featured 5th grade resources.

Related Resources

Join my VIP teacher email club!

5th grade writing doesn’t have to be a struggle! This blog post will provide all of my best tips and ideas for teaching your fifth graders to succeed as writers.

I’ve had classes where writing was a struggle allll yearrrr longggg. I’ve also had classes where I’d swear my students were one step away from writing professionally.

Your groups will never be the same and that’s ok. Just roll with it!

Take heart in the fact that when students leave your class at the end of the year, they will be MUCH better writers than when they entered in the fall.

No matter how good (or bad) my students are at writing when 5th grade begins, we always start at the very beginning and work on writing strong sentences.

This post will give you a step-by-step breakdown of how I help my students move from dull to dazzling sentences: How to Help Your Students Write Better Sentences

Once they’ve got the hang of writing an excellent sentence, then we move on. Your class may move slowly or quickly but be sure to watch their writing closely for clues that you may need to slow down.

You need to know where you’re going to know how you should plan the journey. So, the next section lays out my end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers. Everything I do all year leads to the completion of these goals.

My end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers….

By the time my students walk out of my classroom for the last time…

1. I want them to be able to efficiently organize their ideas and plan/write a five paragraph essay.

2. I want my students to be able to construct narrative, informative, and opinion essays.

3. I want my students to be able to choose appropriate sources and write a simple research report. 

4. I want my students to be able to closely read two paired passages and write an essay in response to a prompt. 

If you’re looking for a hyperlinked pdf version of my pacing and sequence for 5th grade writing, click the link below to have it sent to your email address. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

Obtain a Writing Sample!  

Give students a simple prompt and ask for a response in a paragraph or two. Emphasize to students that you are not grading writing samples for grammar, spelling, or structure. You are interested in the quality of their ideas. 

This writing sample will be valuable as the year goes on. Your students will improve so much that their first samples will (hopefully) be pathetic compared to their new, improved writing pieces.

I usually whip out their first samples after we’ve written a few five paragraph essays. Students feel inspired to keep growing their writing skills when they see how far they’ve come in just a few months. 

Example Writing Sample Prompts: 

• Describe a talent or characteristic that makes you unique and different.
• Tell about a time when you set a goal for yourself and reached that goal.
• Pretend you live in a society where children are required to choose their future career paths in the 5th grade. What path would you choose? Explain.

Create Writing Reference Notebooks with students! 

I’ll admit it – I’m a little obsessed with writing reference notebooks. We use composition notebooks to create these amazing sources of knowledge and we use them all year long. 

So, where do we start with creating writing reference notebooks?

The beginning section of students’ notebooks hold reference materials. I want students to have plenty of resources at their fingertips to improve their sentence writing, including alternatives for overused words and my specialty, sparkle words. Sparkle words are words that are just a little bit special and make my students’ writing shine, like scandalous, embrace, and intriguing.

Other ways that my students use their writing reference notebooks:

• Writing journal entries
• Creating a personal thesaurus
• Writing topics & ideas list
• Taking notes on writing skills lessons
• Writing first drafts of longer assignments

This resource will give you an idea of the printable pages that I use for students’ notebooks: Writing Interactive Notebook – Reference Pages

Do I take grades on students’ writing reference notebooks? Not really. I want these notebooks to be a safe space for students to jot ideas and take risks with their first drafts. I do sometimes take a participation grade on their notebooks. This encourages students to keep their notebooks organized and up to date.

Start with sentences!  

When teaching 5th grade, you can expect students to start the year writing complete sentences, right?! No, sorry. Whether it’s the long break or maybe your students’ 4th grade teachers never required a lick of writing, your 5th graders will often begin the year with less-than-stellar sentences. 

So, I just plan to start with sentences first every year. We work on building and expanding sentences for about two weeks. Yes, two weeks probably seems like a really long time, but spectacular sentences are the foundation for creating great writers.

To improve my students’ sentences, I take the basic, simple sentences that students write and we work on adding more specific details and interest. First, I give students a list of five nouns and ask them to write one sentence using each noun.

I usually get sentences similar to these:

• Pie is my favorite dessert.
• My dad’s car is red.
• I wear my jacket when it is cold.
• This school is a nice place to learn.
• The tree is tall.

This is where I want students to get in their sentence-writing before moving on:

• Pecan, cherry, apple, or pumpkin… any type of pie is delicious!
• My dad spends his Saturdays washing and shining up his candy apple red Jeep.
• A puffy, hooded jacket is the first thing I reach for on chilly mornings.
• My school, North Hills Elementary, has the best teachers and students.
• The tall Redwood tree in my front yard is a welcome sight to visitors and makes my house look spectacular.

My students write every single day!  

I vividly remember being in 5th grade myself and writing long papers on the most boring topics ever, like “The Science of Light” and “The History of Mapmaking.” Snooze fest! I vowed to never do that to my students. Instead, I took a different route.

Students absolutely need to learn to write full reports and five paragraph essays, but they don’t need to do this every week. They do, however, need to continually practice writing. I find that if I make writing assignments engaging, my students don’t complain and actually seem to enjoy writing.

I assign Weekly Writing Choice Boards . This writing has made all the difference in my classroom! Students are now excited about writing class. They see writing as a treat and a fun way to express their thoughts and opinions.

I hand out a new choice board every week and students must complete three assignments from the board. I don’t grade these on perfect grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead I look for ideas and effort. Even imperfect writing practice will improve your students’ writing skills tremendously!

Enter your first name and email address below for a free set of 6 Weekly Writing Choice Boards! The pdf file will be sent directly to your inbox. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

If you teach social studies in addition to writing, this blog post will give you a bunch of engaging social studies journal entries that will help you tie social studies into your writing instruction.

Train students in proofreading and editing!  

Student need to practice proofreading and editing their writing (and the writing of other students) near the beginning of the school year.

Repeatedly practicing the steps of the proofreading/editing process will help your students to internalize this procedure. You’ll find that they will start to catch their mistakes earlier and more independently.

I find it valuable to establish and consistently use a common “proofreading language” in my classroom. It takes a little time up front to teach students the markings and their meanings but having a common system for proofreading will save loads of time throughout the school year.

This resource will give you an idea of the proofreading marks and practice that I use in my classroom: Proofreading and Editing Activity Pack

Asking your students to proofread and edit their own writing is a must but it’s also a good thing to have students pair up and look over a partner’s writing also. Your students will receive valuable feedback on their writing, editing ideas, and they’ll get to see some writing styles that are a little different from their own.

Teach five paragraph essays one piece at a time! 

Simple Paragraphs

Once my students are stellar sentence writers, we move to simple paragraphs. The simple paragraphs that I use with students consist of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

Starting with simple paragraphs is much less threatening than jumping straight into five paragraph essays, so I find that spending some time helping students write excellent simple paragraphs is the perfect bridge into essays.

Additionally, we color-code our simple paragraphs. This allows students to think critically about what sentence types they have written and provides a visual for students (and for me) to see that all required parts of the paragraph are included.

The color-code I use with students:

• Topic sentence – green
• 3 detail sentences – yellow
• Closing sentence – red

Planning and Writing Body Paragraphs

Once students are able to write great simple paragraphs, we dive into the planning and writing of body paragraphs.

This isn’t too much of a jump for students because the body paragraphs are structured similarly to the simple paragraphs that we have practiced over and over. The only difference is that they are using one prompt to write three body paragraphs.

Many teachers think they have to start with the first paragraph of the essay, the introduction paragraph. This isn’t what I recommend. Starting by teaching students to write the three body paragraphs helps to steer the rest of the essay.

Adding an Introduction Paragraph

Now that students are able to write their three body paragraphs, it’s time to add the introduction paragraph.

The introduction paragraph contains a hook, commentary, and a thesis sentence.

The hook is a sentence (or two) that “hooks” readers and builds interest in the upcoming essay. I teach my students several types of hooks, including quotes, questions, bold statements, or sharing a memory.

After the hook, I ask students to write a sentence or two of commentary on the hook or on the prompt in general. This helps to “bulk up” their introduction paragraph a bit and make it more interesting.

The final part of the introduction paragraph is the thesis sentence. Because students already learned to write the body paragraphs, crafting a thesis sentence is so much easier.

The formula for writing a thesis sentence: Restate the prompt briefly + detail 1 + detail 2 + detail 3.

Additionally, I teach transition teams at this point. Students need to use a transition word or phrase at the beginning of each body paragraph, so that’s where transition teams come in. Transition teams are sets of three transition words or phrases that work well together.

Examples of transition teams:

• First, Second, Finally
• To begin, To continue, To end
• One reason, Another reason, A final reason

Adding a Conclusion Paragraph

When conclusion paragraph day finally arrives, my students are so excited because they can finally write an entire five paragraph essay.

In my opinion, conclusion paragraphs are super easy to teach because they only have two parts. Here’s the conclusion paragraph formula: Write the thesis sentence in a different way + add a closing thought.

I allow students to be creative with their closing thoughts. I tell them that this is the final thought that your readers will take with them, so it needs to relate well to your entire essay while being engaging and thought-provoking for readers. Some examples of closing thoughts are calls to action, quotes, personal opinions, and brief personal experiences.

Teach, Discuss, & Practice with Rubrics

I inform my students that from this point on in their school journey, they will be graded with rubrics fairly often, so this is a good time to learn about rubrics and become familiar with them.

I create or find five paragraph essay samples that are good, bad, and in-between. We read and examine the samples as a class and circle the applicable parts of the rubric. If students are able to grade a few assignments using a rubric, it’s not this unknown, scary thing anymore. 

Are you grading every single word and making a million corrections on students’ essays? I give you permission to stop doing that! 🙂

You are going to burn yourself out and get to where you hate grading and teaching writing. To be honest, your students will not become better writers when their papers are marked all over with suggestions in the margins.

Help! I need more support…

Please visit the following blog post for in-depth explanations and examples of my five paragraph essay teaching and grading process: 

Tips for Teaching and Grading Five Paragraph Essays

This resource will provide you with a full, scaffolded unit that will help you to teach the five paragraph essay process to students! Five Paragraph Essay Instructional Unit

Narrative, Informative, and Opinion Essays

As much as we’d like to just have our students write simple, straightforward five paragraph essays all year, that’s just not feasible.

But I promise, once your students can crank out those five paragraph essays on simple topics, moving to other modes of writing is no sweat! 

In my classroom, we spend time learning to write opinion essays, narrative essays, and informative essays. 

I start with opinion writing because my students have a lot of opinions, haha! We channel those opinions into five paragraph essay format. 🙂

Research Reports

The skills involved in writing a research report are valuable for 5th graders. They need to be able to judge the reliability of a source and cite their sources properly. 

Research reports also teach students to organize their ideas, take notes, make an outline, write a draft, and create a final report. 

I’d like to point you to the following blog post where I detailed my entire process for teaching research reports.

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Paired Passages

5th graders are too young to compare two passages and write a response. Right?! 

No, this is not true at all. I think that reading paired passages and using them to craft a written response is a valuable skill for 5th graders. 

Steps to analyzing paired passages and writing an essay to answer a prompt:

First, dissect the prompt.

Second, closely read the paired texts.

Third, organize thoughts using the prompt.

The following blog post explains my paired passage writing steps in detail. Take a moment to check it out. You’ll be glad you did! 

How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

My Sequence & Pacing for Teaching 5th Grade Writing

Don’t stress! This sequence and pacing guide is hyperlinked and ready to be sent to your email address. Go to the bottom of this blog post to request the guide.

1st Month of School

We start school in the middle of the month, so I only have two weeks to teach during the first month of school.

This is the rundown for the remainder of the month:

Month 1, Week 3

The first week of the school year is all about teaching and practicing procedures. Teach it right or teach it all year! 🙂

Classroom Procedures – I recommend you check out this blog post:  5 Tips for Establishing Procedures in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Welcome Activities –  Welcome to 5th Grade: First Week of School Activities

Blog Post – Back to School Writing Prompts for 5th Graders

Month 1, Week 4

During this week, I review and continue practicing procedures with students but we do go ahead and start working on writing.

I establish my expectations and procedures for my students’ Weekly Writing Choice Boards.

We set up writing notebooks together, including the table of contents, cover page, and an  About the Author  page. 

Obtain a writing sample

We start working on improving sentences.

2nd Month of School

Month 2, Week 1

We continue working on improving sentences.

Start proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2 , Week 2

Review the process for writing excellent sentences.

Finish proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2, Weeks 3-4

Writing simple paragraphs (include color-code)

3rd Month of School

Month 3, Weeks 1-2

Planning & writing body paragraphs (include color-code)

Month 3, Weeks 3-4

Teach introduction paragraphs

Writing introduction plus body paragraphs (include color code)

Transition teams

4th Month of School

Month 4, Weeks 1-2

Teach students how to write conclusion paragraphs.

Students will write their first full five paragraph essays this week.

Month 4, Weeks 3-4

Write 5 paragraph essays with a variety of basic prompts.

Have students proofread/edit other students’ essays.

Provide mini-lessons on grammar structure or other issues you are noticing in students’ writing.

5th Month of School

This is where our winter break falls, so I only have two weeks to teach this month.

This is a great time to review what we’ve been working on all year and assign some fun journal prompts.

Also, writing mini-lessons are good fillers for this time.

This Winter Writing Project is a student favorite right before winter break!

6th Month of School

Month 6, Week 1

When we come back from winter break, I like to teach the research report process. I spend a week teaching the process and giving students time to research while I’m there to help.

Month 6, Week 2

Student complete their research reports, including outlines, citing sources, and etc.

I ask my students to do super quick presentations on their research topics. It’s 1-2 minutes max. I don’t want them to read their reports aloud because that’s boring. Instead, I want them to quickly highlight what they learned about their topics and what was fascinating to them.

Month 6, Week 3

We review the five paragraph essay process and write/proofread/edit an essay with a simple prompt.

Month 6, Week 4

I start opinion writing this week. You’ll find that students will slide into opinion writing easily because they already know five paragraph essay structure.

7th Month of School

Month 7, Week 1

Continue working on opinion writing. By the end of this week, students should be able to write an opinion essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Weeks 2-3

We spend two weeks on narrative writing. By the end of the second week, students should be able to write a narrative essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Week 4

This week, I teach the process of writing an informative essay.

8th Month of School

Month 8, Week 1

Continue working on informative essays. Students should be able to write an informative essay using a prompt by the end of this week.

Month 8, Weeks 2-3

Teach students how to write an essay using paired passages.

For more information on how I teach the steps above, visit this blog post: How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Month 8, Week 4

Now that students know the process of using paired passages, I provide a set of paired passages and ask students to answer prompts in a variety of genres, like opinion, narrative, informative, poetry, and etc.

This resource makes it easy:

Paired Passages with Writing Prompts and Activities Bundle

9th Month of School

Month 9, Week 1

Continue working on using paired passages to write in a variety of genres.

Talk about last minute standardized testing tips to help students with their writing tests.

The rest of the month is taken up with standardized testing, so I do a lot of review activities, free writing, and etc.

I do have a set of suspense stories that my students love to write during this month. Check them out here: Suspense Stories Bundle

10th Month of School

During this month, we are wrapping up the year. Students participate in multiple activities and field trips, so there’s not much teaching time.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, don’t dismay. Instructing young, inexperienced writers is a challenge. Just work on one step at a time to avoid overwhelming yourself and your students. Once you’ve taught writing for a year or two, you’ll feel like an old pro. Promise! 

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher Pinterest board!

Are you that teacher saying, “oh my goodness, please just give me the print ‘n go pages so that i can start teaching writing tomorrow” it’s all here for you:.

I’m not a teacher, perhaps in my heart I am. I am an older Mom who adopted late in life as God gave us our newborn in our 50’s! By His grace, we are healthy, fit, youngish 50’s LOL! I love your stuff and have always supplemented Fi’s education., for I find the California standards quite low. Now that I have her in a college-prep school (5th Grade) I find she is much more prepared because of your wisdom! Thank you. Sophia Joy is someone who has always had to work hard at school, but it is paying off! Thank you and God bless you richly for being so generous with your wisdom,it will all come back to you 100-fold! Sincerely, Susan, Sophia Joy’s Mom

Thank you so much, Susan! You certainly have a heartwarming story with your precious girl 🙂

Hello When you do the back to school journal prompts, where do you have students complete these? On single paper, google classroom?

Hi Sarah! Usually, I have students complete the prompts in their social studies interactive notebooks. This year, however, we were virtual at the beginning of the year, so I had students type their entries onto Google Docs.

Hi! I am a new 5th grade teacher, and I’m wondering if your school uses a particular writing curriculum? Your website has been so helpful – thank you!!

Hi Jenny! We don’t use a particular writing curriculum at my school. I use my own resources to teach writing. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if I can help or answer any questions for you 🙂

Do you have any resources in Spanish?

Hi Danielle! The only resources I have in Spanish are my Parent’s Guide to Reading resources, grades K-5.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

You may also enjoy...

Real Talk for New Upper Elementary Teachers

How to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 5th Grade

How to Teach American Revolution Spies in 5th Grade

How to Use Google Resources in Upper Elementary – A Growing Post

5 Resume Tips for Teachers – Ditch That Boring, Outdated Resume!

Teaching About Plimoth (Plymouth) Plantation

What can i help you teach, find it here, let's connect, i'd love to connect with you.

Enter your first name and email address to join my exclusive VIP email club.

Copyright © 2020  | Thrive in Grade Five | All Rights Reserved

Quick Links

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

Can you help me with a full paper template for this Abstract:

Background: Energy and sports drinks have gained popularity among diverse demographic groups, including adolescents, athletes, workers, and college students. While often used interchangeably, these beverages serve distinct purposes, with energy drinks aiming to boost energy and cognitive performance, and sports drinks designed to prevent dehydration and replenish electrolytes and carbohydrates lost during physical exertion.

Objective: To assess the nutritional quality of energy and sports drinks in Egypt.

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study assessed the nutrient contents, including energy, sugar, electrolytes, vitamins, and caffeine, of sports and energy drinks available in major supermarkets in Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza, Egypt. Data collection involved photographing all relevant product labels and recording nutritional information. Descriptive statistics and appropriate statistical tests were employed to analyze and compare the nutritional values of energy and sports drinks.

Results: The study analyzed 38 sports drinks and 42 energy drinks. Sports drinks were significantly more expensive than energy drinks, with higher net content and elevated magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C. Energy drinks contained higher concentrations of caffeine, sugars, and vitamins B2, B3, and B6.

Conclusion: Significant nutritional differences exist between sports and energy drinks, reflecting their intended uses. However, these beverages’ high sugar content and calorie loads raise health concerns. Proper labeling, public awareness, and responsible marketing are essential to guide safe consumption practices in Egypt.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Steps to Writing a Research Paper

Visualize the steps to writing a research paper with this essential guide! You'll fill in the illustrated ladder with each important step needed to complete an A+ paper. When you're done, you'll have a handy reminder for your next research assignment.

View aligned standards

Related guided lesson.

Letter Writing 1

Browse Topics

Keyboard shortcuts.

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids

This video series teaches elementary students how to write a research paper or report. Each video leads children through a step of the writing process. Some of the steps covered include brainstorming, planning, researching, writing, and editing.

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids: Brainstorming (Episode 1)

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids: Planning (Episode 2)

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids: Researching (Episode 3)

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids: Writing (Episode 4)

How to Write a Research Paper for Kids: Revising (Episode 5)

Funding provided by the Department of Education

Administered by the National Association of the Deaf

Writing Research Papers

This research writing unit of study is designed to guide your students through the research writing process. 

This is a free writing unit of study from the curriculum corner..

This research writing collection includes mini lessons, anchor charts and more.

Mention the words “research writing” in an intermediate classroom and you might be met with moans & groans or perhaps even see fear in the eyes of some students. 

In all seriousness though, writing can be intimidating for many children in our classrooms.

Guided and focused your mini-lessons can be helpful for students. Also, the more examples you can get students to interact with, the more they will understand the expectations. Finally, the more modeling that you do for them, the more they can view writing as less overwhelming.

Download the free resources to accompany this unit of study at the bottom of this post.

Lesson Ideas for Writing Research Papers:

Lesson 1: Noticings

• Begin by getting your students familiar with what research writing looks like.
• Have them work in pairs or small groups to read pieces of research writing. They will record their “noticings” about the writing.
• Then, come together in a community circle to discuss and create a class anchor chart.
• You will find a blank anchor chart and one with noticings already recorded.
• Here is a link we found that contains some student-created examples of research writing: Student Writing Models .  Simply scroll through the grade levels for different samples.

Lesson 2: Opinion vs. Facts

• Begin with a brief review of opinions vs. facts.
• Use the six paragraphs we share in our resources to give your students some practice differentiating between the two.
• Each of the paragraphs contains both opinions and facts.
• Students will read the paragraphs and record the facts and opinions from their paragraph onto the recording page.

Lesson 3: Choosing a Topic

• We know that providing choice will allow for greater engagement and success.  We want to help students to narrow their choices by giving them some guidance.
• Gather students and begin a discussion about choosing a research topic.
• Ask them to think of topics they already know a little about, have interest in or is important/relevant to their lives.
• You might pose the question “Why is that important in research writing?” and discuss their thoughts.
• For this lesson we have provided a page where students can individually brainstorm topics. You can circulate the room during this process to help students to narrow their topic.
• If you feel your class may need help to narrow their choices, think about giving them a broad topic, such as animals, and then have them choose a sub-topics from the bigger umbrella topic.
• If you feel like your students need an added level of support you might think about creating an anchor chart from a class brainstorming session about possible appropriate topics and then display this in your room.

Lesson 4: Where to Find Accurate Information about a Topic

• Help students to begin to understand where they might find accurate information about their topics.
• Where are the places you can begin to look for information about your topic?  
• Why would the copyright date on a book be important in doing research?  
• Is everything on the internet true?
• Why is it important for your research to contain accurate information?  
• Where do you begin to look for information that will accurate
• One way to help students think through appropriate sites on the internet is to pass out the ten cards provided in our resources.
• Have students read the cards and discuss what kind of a website it is.
• Talk about whether they know or have heard of the sites. Would they consider the sites “trusted” enough to gain knowledge about their topics.  Then have them talk about why or why not these sites would be trusted.

Lesson 5: Double Check Your Facts

• We want our students to get into the habit of double checking their facts. This will help ensure what they are learning is correct.
• To do this, you might want them to practice this skill.  In this lesson use the page provided to have each student find and record a fact about a topic of their choice on the internet.
• The page then has students write where they found the fact, and also has them list a corresponding fact from a different source.
• Finally they determine if the facts are the same or different. You may have to further the lesson by discussing approximations.  For example one site might say that an animal can weigh up to 1,500 pounds, while another might state that the animal weighs between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds.
• You will need to talk about how those facts might both be accurate even though they are stated differently. If they seem to check out, then help students generalize the information for a research paper.

Lesson 6: Taking Notes

• Sometimes giving students resources and a blank sheet of notebook paper can be too overwhelming. You have students who simply copy everything from the text or you have others who have no idea where to start.
• We need to guide them to read to pull out facts & relevant information.
• For this lesson we have provided various templates for note-taking. Whatever method or template you choose for helping your students learn to take notes, model it several times in front of the class Demonstrating for them how to write the notes as they read about a topic will be helpful.
• After initial teaching, you may find that you need to pull small groups for extra practice. Some might need a one-on-one conference.

Lesson 7: Paraphrasing vs. Plagiarism

• Students will need to learn how to paraphrase their research. This will help them avoid plagiarizing words from their resources.
• Discuss why plagiarizing is something that they shouldn’t do in their writing because it is “stealing” another’s words.
•  Tell the students that there is a way to use another author’s ideas in an appropriate way without copying their words. First, they need to paraphrase and then they need to cite the source where they found the information.
• Display the anchor chart “What is Paraphrasing” and discuss the definition.
• Next, pass out copies of “My Own Words” to pairs of students. Explain that their task will be to find a paragraph or passage in a nonfiction book. They will paraphrase the author’s words, keeping the same ideas.
• Finally, gather students together to share their paraphrasing efforts. Each pair of students can read the paragraph/passage from the book and then the paraphrasing that they wrote.  Discuss the words and decisions the students made in their paraphrasing.

Lesson 8: Word Choice in Research Writing

• To help students think about making their writing more interesting, have them brainstorm words that could add voice to their writing.
• After working independently on the word choice page provided, have them meet with partners. They can talk about nouns, verbs and adjectives that relate to their topic.

Lesson 9: Writing Sketch

• This graphic organizer can be used for students to plan their writing.
• If your writers are more advanced you might choose to skip this step, It could be a big help for students who have taken notes and have too many facts.  
• Be sure to model how to write the facts & ideas from your notes onto your planner. Students will see first hand how to make sure to only add what is relevant and important to their writing.
• Some questions you can pose: What will be the focus of each paragraph in your research writing?  What do you want to include from your notes?  Why is it important to the research?  What facts don’t quite fit into the paragraphs you’ve decided upon? Should you change some of the paragraphs so that they better support the research and what you want your readers to learn?
• Once the planner is finished, they can use it as a guide to help their writing stay focused.

Lesson 10: Writing Introductions to Research

• Teach students how to think about their introduction as a way to grab their readers’ attention.
• Our anchor chart has some ideas to get writers started. You might also extend the anchor chart to include ideas from your students. (We have included some blank anchor charts at the very bottom of the download.)
• Discuss the parts that need to be included in the introductory paragraph first. Then, move on to some of the ways that might engage readers. As always be sure to model how you would go about writing an introductory paragraph using your Writing Sketch.

Lesson 11: Developing Your Paragraphs

• Next, help students stay focused and develop complete paragraphs.The next graphic organizer will get them to think through the specifics of each paragraph.
• Again, this may not be needed for all of the students in your classroom, but it might be something to think about using with all of them for at least their very first attempts at writing research papers.
•  Model how to use the Writing Sketch planner to develop their paragraphs more fully on this organizer.

Lesson 12: Writing a Conclusion to Research 

Providing a solid concluding paragraph is also something that needs modeled for your students.

Use the anchor chart with ideas to get you started with the modeling of this as well.

***If you would like for your students to write their first drafts on something that continues to support organization for them, you will find guided lined paper.

Lesson 13: Research Rendezvous Celebration

We love ending a unit of study with a celebration.

For this particular celebration, you might invite students to bring in a visual to help illustrate their topic.  

Invite parents and other special adults from your building to the celebration and think about providing a snack.  

You can also print out our “Congrats Author!” certificates to give to each student during the celebration.

All the research writing resources described above can be found in one download here:

Writing a Research Paper Resources

As with all of our resources, The Curriculum Corner creates these for free classroom use. Our products may not be sold. You may print and copy for your personal classroom use. These are also great for home school families!

You may not modify and resell in any form. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Dulce Hernandez

Thursday 8th of April 2021

Thank you so much. I tutor non-English speakers from K-9th grade. These resources are a God send!!

Monday 25th of May 2020

I cant download it, where do you download it?

Jill & Cathy

Wednesday 2nd of September 2020

Here is the link: https://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/wp-content/pdf/writing/research/researchwriting.pdf

Graphic Organizer for Research Papers - The Curriculum Corner 4-5-6

Tuesday 19th of November 2019

[…] You might also like our unit of study for writing research papers:How to Write a Research Paper […]

Planning a Dynamic Writing Workshop - The Curriculum Corner 123

Thursday 14th of November 2019

[…] Writing Research Papers […]

Language Arts in the Middle School and High School Years

Thursday 11th of May 2017

[…] The middle school years can also be a good time to introduce writing a short research paper if your student is ready.  Introduce how to do research, how to make an outline, and how to write a short research paper, including how to cite sources. Here’s a website that has a free introduction to writing research papers: https://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/writing-research-papers/. […]

• Share on Facebook
• Tweet This Resource
• Pin This Resource

Citing Sources

This citing sources lesson plan also includes:.

• Join to access all included materials

Fifth graders demonstrate how to cite sources when writing a research paper. In this research writing lesson, 5th graders view a demonstration on how to cite sources using an included graphic organizer. Students practice citing sources and use note cards to record information.

Start Your Free Trial

Save time and discover engaging curriculum for your classroom. Reviewed and rated by trusted, credentialed teachers.

• Collection Types
• Activities & Projects
• Assessments
• Graphics & Images
• Handouts & References
• Interactives
• Lab Resources
• Learning Games
• Lesson Plans
• Presentations
• Primary Sources
• Printables & Templates
• Professional Documents
• Study Guides
• Instructional Videos
• Performance Tasks
• Graphic Organizers
• Writing Prompts
• Constructed Response Items
• AP Test Preps
• Lesson Planet Articles
• Online Courses
• Interactive Whiteboards
• Home Letters
• Unknown Types
• Stock Footages
• All Resource Types

See similar resources:

Creative writing workshop, opinion argument writing packet, phrases to outlaw in students' writing, varied beginnings: research process / narrative writing techniques, using primary sources in the classroom, writing a report, beacon learning center: if you've seen one source, you've seen them all. right, discovering japan through cooperative research, leading into good writing, thomas jefferson and monticello: an introduction to writing historical fiction.

How to Do a 5th Grade Research Paper

Christy scannell.

Fifth grade is a turning point for many students because it is the school year when academic demands increase. By fifth grade, it becomes clear which students exhibit gifts or challenges in certain areas, such as writing. Although most students will have written research papers in fourth grade or earlier, a fifth grade objective is to write a research paper of more than four pages that is in-depth and better sourced. Writing a fifth-grade research paper may seem daunting, but it just involves selecting a topic, researching it and writing the paper.

Explore this article

• Think about what interests you
• Once you select your topic
• Visit the library
• Read your sources and take notes
• Once you have gathered all your sources
• Organize your ideas using an outline
• Write your first draft
• Has several paragraphs
• Write the bibliography
• Proofread your paper

1 Think about what interests you

Think about what interests you. If something strikes your curiosity, such as how airplanes stay in the air, that might be a good topic for you. Animals, travel and sports are other areas to mine for topics, although the choices are endless.

2 Once you select your topic

Once you select your topic, be sure it isn't too general. For example, Lions of Africa would cover too much ground, but "Hunting and Diet Habits of African Lions" would allow you to focus more tightly.

3 Visit the library

Visit the library to find periodicals and books that contain information on your topic. Ask a librarian to help you if you are unfamiliar with how a library is organized. Also, surf the web for information. As you use a source, jot down the name of the publication or website, the author, the publisher and the date of publication.

4 Read your sources and take notes

Read your sources and take notes. Some people like to use three-by-five index cards, writing one idea and its source on each card to stay organized. If you copy something from a source, be sure to put quote marks around it so you remember that it is a quote to avoid plagiarizing (illegally copying) another writer.

5 Once you have gathered all your sources

Once you have gathered all your sources, shuffle your cards into subtopics.

6 Organize your ideas using an outline

Organize your ideas using an outline. Jot down all of your main ideas, then under each one, write some of the ideas that support it. For example, a main idea might be that lions hunt for their food, while supporting ideas might be what animals are their prey. Avoid repeating ideas.

7 Write your first draft

Write your first draft. The paper should include an introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction identifies the topic, tells the reader your opinion on the topic and why the reader should be interested in it.

8 Has several paragraphs

The body has several paragraphs that develop your ideas in more detail. Each paragraph should have no more than one idea, although you can use more than one paragraph per idea. The conclusion is a summary that repeats your main idea.

9 Write the bibliography

Write the bibliography, which is the list of reference works used in the paper.

10 Proofread your paper

Proofread your paper. Read it aloud to yourself to find errors. Have a parent read it to check for anything confusing or incorrect. Make any corrections required.

• Be careful to follow your teacher's rules in writing your report. Some teachers might want you to format your paper in a certain way, for example, or include photos or other graphics. These are all good learning opportunities that will affect your grade.
• Use the spell-check function on your computer to catch any spelling and/or grammar mistakes in your paper before you submit it.
• 1 Scholastic: Preparing for 5th Grade

About the Author

Christy Scannell has been writing professionally since 1985 with work in many publications, including the "San Diego Union-Tribune," "Outreach" magazine and "Marriage Partnership" magazine. She has also written a three-novel series, “Secrets from Lulu’s Café,” for Simon & Schuster. Christy has a Master of Arts in communication from San Diego State University and a Bachelor of Arts in mass communication from Anderson University.

Related Articles

How to Write & Reference an Essay

How to Write a Thesis Statement in High School Essays

How to Choose a Title for Your Research Paper

How to Write Outlines for 9th Grade

Step-by-Step Explanation of How to Write a Research...

How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Informative...

How to Start an Informative Paper

How to Make Note Cards

How to Write an Essay Proposal

How Do I Check My Paper for Plagiarism?

Purpose of Writing an Essay

How to Write a 1000-Word Essay

How to Install a Pinterest Bookmarklet

How to Write a 3rd Grade Report

Questions to Ask While Writing a Research Paper

How to Do a Book Report Without Reading the Book

How to Write Book Reports for Kids

How to Write a Research Question for Research Papers

How to Make Source Cards in MLA

How to Use Lead-Ins for In-Text Citations in MLA

Regardless of how old we are, we never stop learning. Classroom is the educational resource for people of all ages. Whether you’re studying times tables or applying to college, Classroom has the answers.

• Accessibility
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Policy
• Manage Preferences

© 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Based on the Word Net lexical database for the English Language. See disclaimer .

• Introduction writing: pieces of advice
• Selecting a project writing agency
• Purchasing papers from scratch
• Finding a writer at affordable price
• Choosing writing service
• Buying papers for cheap
• Philosophy project writing
• MLA paper writing hints
• 6th edition APA paper tips
• Writing a paper on smart material
• Analytical term paper samples
• Research project's building blocks
• Term paper: how to write quickly
• High school project writing
• 10-page project templates
• Key parts of your paper
• Grade 6 Science projects
• Creating a year 5 paper
• Essential parts of research projects
• Ordering term papers from scratch
• Buying papers via the Internet
• Searching for a good company
• Outsourcing paper writing effectively
• The purchase of term projects
• Crafting an MLA research paper
• WWII papers: basic elements
• Sample MLA projects
• Global warming paper tips
• Hiring term paper writers
• School bullying project writing
• Searching for qualified writers
• Editing company selection
• Purchasing papers without effort
• In quest of projects from scratch
• Managerial Accounting topic ideas
• Topics on History
• Six-page paper topic selection
• History of the USA: project ideas
• Nursing research paper topics
• Firm term project writing ideas
• Fail-safe research paper questions
• Child abuse: inventing paper ideas
• Unique topic suggestions
• Finding sample topic ideas
• Topics for a Psychology project
• Drugs: finding paper topics
• Ideas for a project on Culture
• College term project ideas
• Great term paper topic traits
• Paper ideas: bullying laws
• Chemistry research project questions
• Ideas for a Sports research paper
• Fresh topics in psychology
• Counseling psychology ideas
• Topic questions on German history
• Literature writing ideas
• Ideas for a paper on Down Syndrome
• Topic selection in astronomy
• Early American history topics
• Writing ideas for college
• Good topics about video games
• First steps

mkf research

Writing guides.

• First-class sample paper proposals
• Template documented papers
• Analyzing the paper structure
• An introduction to paper writing
• Outlining a research project
• High school research paper tips
• Formatting a term project outline
• Tips on college project crafting
• Getting example research projects
• Paper structure: chapter one

Need help with research paper? Order custom research papers from MyPaperDone writing service.

Excellent paper is not a dream with this website . They are writing essays, term papers and more.

It is easy to write my papers when I'm reading guides from educational resources.

Tips For Writing A Strong 5th Grade Research Paper

One of the most challenging assignments that you will have to do when it comes to your 5th grade assignments is to write a research paper. It is a larger paper than what you are used to writing. The idea is to create a research question about a topic that you are interested in and then work to answer it. The conclusion that you make on the subject will become your thesis statement and should be backed up with evidence. You will be able to write a strong paper for your class and edit it properly if you follow these important steps provided by Mypaperwriter.com experts.

Developing a strong topic

The first step to writing is to develop a topic to write about. When it comes to choosing a topic for a research paper, it is very important to make sure that you choose a topic that has enough information on it to write enough to reach your required page count and not so much that it will be hard to think of one thing to prove. If your topic is too broad or too narrow, you can either choose a sub topic or choose a topic that is more general. It should also be interesting for you because you will have to read a lot about it to conduct your research. If it is on a topic that you enjoy, the reading will be easier and more enjoyable.

Collecting evidence

Conduct some research on your topic by reading everything that you can find about your subject and taking notes. You will want to make sure that you identify where you got the information from so keep good track of it.

The next step is to plan out your paper. This will help you to decide on a focus and that focus will be the heart of your paper. An outline is a great way of finding out the best way to present your evidence.

Once you have written your paper, it is so important to make sure that you edit it as well. Even if you were very careful not to make any mistakes, it is possible that you made some small errors and there is no reason to lose points just because of these tiny issues. Read your paper out loud to get the best results when editing your paper. It will be a lot easier when you can hear how it sounds to find grammatical errors.

08-17-2024 © MKFresearch.com. All rights reserved. | Research & Writing For College Students

Research Report Instructional Unit for 5th Grade and 6th Grade

• Easel Activity Frequently assigned

What educators are saying

Also included in.

Description

This instructional unit will guide students step-by-step through the research process, including locating reliable sources, taking notes, creating an outline, writing a report, and making a Works Cited page.

I assign multiple research projects throughout the school year because it is crucial that students learn to discriminate between unreliable and reliable sources, take notes, write an organized report, and proofread/edit.

This research report instructional unit teaches students to write four paragraph research reports.

Please read this blog post to find out how I use this resource in my classroom. Also, I've included a screencast video to explain each step of the research process. The free videos are linked at the end of the blog post!

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Contents of this Instructional Unit:

Teacher Notes

Student Reference Page

Possible Research Topics

Step 1: Choose a Topic and Cite Sources

Example Page

Student Work Page

Step 2: Take Notes

Step 3: Make an Outline

Step 4: Write a Draft

Step 5: Final Draft

Lined Final Draft Pages

Rubric - one with 1.0-4.0 ratings and one with A-D grades

Remember to follow my store! You'll receive product updates and sales alerts. Just click the "Follow Me" star!

Visit my blog for upper elementary teachers:

Thrive in Grade Five

©2018 Jenifer Bazzit. All rights reserved.

Before I became a teacher-author, I wasn’t familiar with copyright law. You may not have the first clue about copyright and that’s ok! To simplify things, please understand that you have purchased ONE license to use this product in your classroom. This product belongs to me and is copyrighted under my name, so you may not share it freely, email it to coworkers, or upload it to any website, including your school website, district website, blog, or an educational-sharing site. I appreciate your consideration!

Questions & Answers

Jenifer bazzit - thrive in grade five.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

Properly Citing Sources

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due​

Students write an essay expressing their opinion, wherein they choose an influential person and explain why this person should be included within a list of the most influential people of all time. Students are asked to include information obtained from at least three credible sources. In order to ensure that students are respecting the rights of others, they will use an online tool for generating citations to cite sources within a bibliography.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Be able to properly cite sources using an online citation generator.

Vocabulary Words:

Citation : A citation is a quotation from or reference to a source of information.

Sources : Sources are documents, videos, or any place from which information came.

Bibliography : A bibliography is a list of sources used to provide information, within a given piece of writing.

Plagiarism : Plagiarism is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own ideas. (not giving the creator formal credit when using his/her work)

Pre-planning

To prepare for this lesson:

• The teacher will familiarize him/herself with an online tool for generating citations. (e.g.  EasyBib , Cite This For Me , Citation Machine , Zoterobib )
• Please See 21Things4Students Be Legal or Fair for examples. 
• Here is a video  tutorial  showcasing how to use  Zoterobib .

Accommodations

See the  Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students website in the Teacher Resources. 

Directions for this activity:

• Students will be assigned a report or presentation 
• Students will do research to find content for their project. 
• Students will keep track of all online resources used to obtain information for their project. 
• Students will use an online citation tool to create individual citations.
• Students will compile all citations within a bibliography.

Possible Extensions : Students may explore various styles of citations.

Assessment Options

Different options for assessing the students:

• Observations
• Check for understanding
• Teachers will assess the bibliography to ensure that all sources used are included and that the format of all citations remains consistent.

MITECS COMPETENCIES & ISTE STANDARDS

MITECS : Michigan adopted the " ISTE Standards for Students " called MITECS (Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students) in 2018.

Digital Citizen 2c. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Devices and Resources

Device: PC, Chromebook, Mac, iPad 

Browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, ALL

App, Extension, or Add-on : Cite this For Me EasyBib

Websites : Cite This For Me Citation Machine EasyBib Zoterobib Zoterobib video tutorial

CONTENT AREA RESOURCES

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.

Integrated Arts

As students find and use images, information, and/or videos encourage them to always cite their sources.

Students when doing research on mathematicians and/or formulas cite all sources. 

As students conduct research, encourage them to create a bibliography of any and all resources used.

Social Studies

Report a bad link, inappropriate content or out-of-date content . 

Credits This task card was created by Jean Smith, Van Buren Public Schools, January 2018. Updated October 2023. 

Print this page

Teaching 5th Graders How to Write a Thesis Statement

Our 5th-grade students write a 5 paragraph research paper about their choice of topics related to Ancient Egypt.  Some of my students are writing about Egyptian pyramids, Egyptian Gods, and one has undertaken the task of writing about the role of Egyptian women in religion.  All students are required to write “thin questions,” or questions that can be answered easily and with a fact, to get their minds going and then use their new knowledge to write a “thick question,” or overarching research question from which their thesis will be derived.

I can’t stress enough the importance of modeling how to write a thesis statement.   Model, model, model.   Bring in past students’ work, write your own thesis in front of them, do the thesis statement sheet (available below) with them a few times.  Go slowly for each step.   The idea isn’t getting your students to finish the thesis statement quickly, the idea is for them to learn how to craft their own argument and write it clearly.  

In order to help them through the process of getting from thin question to thick question to thesis I used several sources to develop my own version of “Write a Thesis Statement in 5 Steps.”  I was able to conference with students in small groups to help them look at their thick questions and their notes to develop a “because statement” for each of their papers.  Once they had a “because statement,” students had to prove it using three facts from their notes.  The next step and hardest step was synthesizing the question, the because statement, and the facts to write the thesis that will ultimately drive their body paragraphs and conclusion.

If you would like to use the “Write a Thesis Statement in 5 Steps” sheet, thesis statement in 5 steps .  It is free, but if you do use it please tell me how it went!

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

CherylAnne Amendola

How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Related and recent

Comments are disabled due to your privacy settings. To re-enable, please adjust your cookie preferences.

APA Style Monthly

Subscribe to the APA Style Monthly newsletter to get tips, updates, and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

Welcome! Thank you for subscribing.

APA Style Guidelines

Browse APA Style writing guidelines by category

• Abbreviations
• Bias-Free Language
• Capitalization
• In-Text Citations
• Italics and Quotation Marks
• Paper Format
• Punctuation
• Research and Publication
• Spelling and Hyphenation
• Tables and Figures

Full index of topics