Tuesday 17 April 2012

Asked to Write an Essay? Don't Submit a Research Paper!

By Kate Holland


Do you know the greatest difference between an essay and a research paper? Except for the word count - research papers are often way longer than essays - most students haven't a clue the correct way to distinguish the essay from the research paper. Both kinds of writing often fall under the umbrella category of academic writing, although not all essays are thought to be fit for the academe.

Making a Case for vs. Educating

When you compose an essay, you provide your own ideas and viewpoints about a certain topic. You are , naturally, encouraged to do research to widen your background knowledge on the subject of the issue, but you are not required to approach your subject in the most objective manner. You are writing an essay to dig more deeply into a problem that interests you. You don't have to to present systematic information, but to examine something that you and your readers are nervous about.

Freedom vs. Responsibility

The prerogative to explore and inspect is inherent in one who writes an essay. You are free to weigh numerous options and present those which you suspect to be the best to you. You are asked to justify your statements but an easy clear explanation will do. With a research paper, the sole compelling evidence of that there's at least a remnant of truth in what you're saying is by citing an expert author.

Naturalness versus. Formalities

Both the essay and research paper usually certain structures to allow the writer to present a coherent point. However , you can wander from this prescribed structure if you're writing an essay and think that you would make your point clearer if you defied the structure. With a research paper, there isn't any way for you to do that. Academic institutions have a strict set of formatting and language rules that are supposed to be followed for research papers.

Personal versus. Objective

The focus of an essay is evidently the writer's thoughts and concepts. You are not only allowed to share your opinion in an essay. That is what it is fundamentally about. Research paper writing, on the other hand, is all about presenting the cold, hard facts. There are no I's or you's in a research paper, only third-person references that are separate both writer and reader.




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