Often, students invest time in writing a topic, only to receive negative feedback that they settled for an exhausted topic and thus presented original ideas. What are bad research topics? This article will cover the types of topics to avoid when you are writing a paper and the process of choosing a paper topic, helping you overcome the common challenges for students. 

How to choose a research paper topic

Selecting the first topic that catches your sight is an approach bound to result in issues in the latter writing stages. Proper topic selection is thus essential to ensure a smooth writing process and easy retrieval of sources to support your claims. 

When gauging topics for your paper:

1. Consider your interests

Your topic selection should begin with a brainstorming session to identify the topics that interest you and those you are conversant with. When brainstorming, jot down the topics you are conversant with and use these as inspiration for your research.

2. Conduct research

Before you fix your focus on a specific topic, conduct research to gauge the extent of information in a field and to identify the knowledge gaps that you could address. This research also expands your grasp of a given field, helping you determine the perspectives from which you could address your topic.

Also, check for emerging issues within your field to determine the topic that offers room for a fresh perspective.

3. Information gathering

After coming up with possible topics for discussion, research two of the topics to identify the one with adequate sources. Be keen to avoid a topic with few resources as this may limit your arguments deeming your paper as conjecture. 

4. Come up with research questions

After investigating your topic, formulate research questions to be tackled within the topic. These questions allow you to visualize the extent to which a topic can be handed out and also to gauge your capacity to exhaust your topic.

When coming up with a research topic, consider the methods that can be applied to your research and settle for the topic that can be examined with the resources that are at your disposal. 

5. Outline

The final check for the feasibility of a topic is developing an outline. Before you settle for a topic, prepare an outline to gauge how you can manage the topic. avoid any topic that presents a challenge as you develop the outline as this may result in an incomplete research paper. 

Topics to avoid in research papers

As mentioned earlier, poor topic selection can doom your writing efforts before you even embark on research. Here, we’ll tackle some of the topics to avoid when writing a research paper, to point you in the right direction for topic selection.

1. Popular topics

Although these topics provide a wide range of sources in support of your argument, popular topics deny you the chance to offer original insight into your topic. as such, be keen to check for existing work and identify research gaps and emerging issues that could allow you a wide range of original arguments.

2. Personal stories

Research topics should be supported by credible academic sources as opposed to emotive stories and personal opinions. As such, avoid basing a research paper on personal opinions, instead, settle for a topic where claims can be justified using scholarly evidence.

3. Complex topics

Although you may feel the urge to settle for a complex topic to wow your tutor, doing so may leave you shy of arguments, limiting your ability to meet the prescribed word count. Equivalently, avoid controversial topics for research papers as these may expose you to a myriad of uncredible sources, resulting in sub-standard arguments.

4. Narrow topics

You should select a research paper that allows you to tackle two to three research questions. This will allow you to reach your word count without resorting to superfluous details. 

Can research papers have opinions?

 Unlike opinionated papers, research papers should be based on credible resources and replicable investigations. As such, opinions in a research paper should be supported using viable resources. Alternatively, your opinions could be expressed within the conclusion as you make suggestions for future studies.

Book reports may also highlight why you chose a given novel and your thoughts on the approach taken by the author to designing a given novel. Unfortunately, book reports may prove challenging on your first try. 

Here, we’ll discuss the steps for writing a book review and highlight the book report structure and tips for starting your book report.

How to make a book report

1. Pick a book

Often, book report assignments offer you the flexibility to select any book you are comfortable handling. This allows you to find an interesting novel, ensuring that you retain your motivation throughout your writing process. 

When picking a book, check the guidelines provided in your assignment or consult your tutor for clarification of the genre of novels for your assignment.

2. Read the novel

Making a quality book report without reading the book is a surefire way to tackle erroneous ideas within your paper. It is thus great that you read the novel while jotting down the key points, themes, and scenes that bring out your desired theme. 

Doing this helps you make credible arguments for your topic, and also gives you original insights that ensure quality book report papers. 

3. Reread the book while highlighting the quotes that bring out your arguments

After the first coverage of the book, revisit the book while taking stock of quotes that you will use to support arguments within your paper. 

4. Outline 

You are bound to encounter a wide range of ideas when preparing a book report. These ideas may confuse you, making it hard for you to prepare a coherent paper. his

Before writing your paper, develop a book report outline highlighting the key points within various sections of your paper. This outline will make for easy writing allowing you to organize the ideas you intend to tackle within your paper. 

5. Writing and Editing

After developing your outline, write your paper while using relevant transitions from one idea to another for a smooth flow. After writing your paper, dedicate time to editing your work, ensuring grammatical correctness and adherence to the structure, formatting, and writing guidelines. 

Book report format

The book report is divided into three main sections including the introduction, the body, and a conclusion. the book report introduction should hook the reader into your report and highlight the elements that interested you in the book. 

This chapter should also highlight the objectives of your report, giving the reader a criterion for gauging your paper. The body expands on the ideas within your paper, using various quotes from the book as support for various claims. 

Your conclusion should express your thoughts on a book and summarize your opinion regarding how the author managed to express the theme you were investigating and the issues that compromised this goal. 

How to start a book report

Opening your book report can make or break your reader’s interest in your work. Ideally, your opening should hook the reader into your work and establish the goal of your book report. 

Some of the ways of opening your book report include:

• Echoing a quote from the book

This opening is a great way to bring your reader’s focus to your theme, without much struggle. This quote should highlight a key theme of your report, making for a smooth transition into your arguments. 

• Rhetorical questions

Another great way to open your book report is by asking rhetorical questions that highlight a theme that you intend to tackle within the report. These rhetorical questions should highlight the goals of your book report, bringing the reader’s focus to your objectives. 

Preferably, use open-ended questions to spark your reader’s curiosity, driving them to read your book review for answers. 

• Book Summary

Alternatively, you could start your report by providing a book summary and transitioning into the elements under analysis. 

Final take

We hope that this guide has helped you to clarify any issues you were facing with your book report. We also recommend that you find a simple book report template to familiarize yourself with the book report format. Feel free to reach out for expert guidance on various elements of a book report with which you could be struggling.

This article will highlight the importance of building academic writing skills, and highlight various tips for academic writing to help you prepare quality papers.

Writing skills definition

Before we address the importance of building academic writing skills, it is essential to clarify the meaning of writing skills. Put simply, writing skills refer to one’s capacity to communicate ideas clearly through various written forms. 

In academia, these skills may include research skills, critical thinking, and analytical skills. These skills allow you to approach a complex topic and resolve various problems using the materials at your disposal. 

Why is academic writing important?

Academic writing is a crucial element for study as it helps students develop their critical thinking skills and to sharpen their communication of various ideas. When writing, students also get to hone their research skills and thus improve their understanding of a topic and gain handy skills that would apply in professional research scenarios. 

Additionally, academic writing develops critical thinking within various fields, allowing students to resolve various issues within their careers. In professional settings, your writing skills can help you communicate professionalism, building authority in your field.

Skills in writing

Some of the basic skills in writing include:

1. Research

Academic writing dictates that each claim made within your paper be supported with relevant information in support of these claims. Often, you may be assigned topics you are poorly versed in and thus require to perform research to clarify the information and build a logical argument in support of your objectives.

When performing academic research, you require to familiarize yourself with various sites for credible sources to ensure the credibility of cited resources.

2. Outlining

An outline is a handy tool in your academic writing arsenal. The outline allows you to organize your ideas and gauge the completeness of your paper before you embark on the writing process. This helps you avoid conflicting ideas that could sideline you from your objective and also ensures that you sort the information within your work into the right sections. 

You can also use a reverse outline to gauge the completeness of your paper by comparing it against your initial outline.

3. Editing

Editing is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of your academic papers. Besides ensuring that your paper adheres to the guidelines for writing your paper, editing helps you to correct grammatical and structural issues that could impede your reader’s capacity to make out the main points of your essay. 

You may also consider familiarising yourself with various editing tools to enable faster editing, ensuring faster completion of your paper without compromising the quality of your work. 

4. Time management

Poor time management and procrastination rank top on the list of reasons why students score poorly on academic papers. proper time management is thus necessary to ensure that you cater to each step in your writing. 

Academic writing tips

• Always start working on your essay as soon as it is assigned to allow yourself ample time to handle each step without surpassing your deadline. 
• Learn to schedule your writing to avoid the urge to rush to complete your paper. besides ensuring productivity, a schedule serves as a way to hold yourself accountable, ensuring that you are on track with the due date.
• Check various academic writing examples and academic writing rubrics to familiarize yourself with the expectations for each assignment.
• When you are stuck on various items in your assignment, consult an expert writing service for assistance. This will allow you to stay on track with your schedule and also to identify errors in your work, helping you improve subsequent papers.

Format of literature review report

When reviewing a colleague’s manuscript, you should consider the review report structure and format as not all reviews have the same structure. When reviewing a research paper, it is what to consider as some have formal while others have informal structures.

In formal structures, you may be asked to focus on certain questions in the review using a questionnaire. Also, you may be asked to rate the manuscript in light of some qualities using a tally. But in informal structure, there are no precise criteria when reviewing a paper. Therefore, you should have in mind how the structure of other reviews looks so that you may choose the best one suitable for the review.

Guidelines on the structure you are supposed to use

• Read through the article

After receiving the article, you want to review and skim through it to get some insights into its goals and conclusions. It will also assist you in making recommendations for feedback on whiter you will review the work or not.

• Read through the requirements

Go through what to consider when reviewing a research paper. When you are reviewing a manuscript of a colleague, look at the originality of the topic, the main question focused by the research, the consistency of the conclusions, or even whether the article has illustrations such as figures and even tables.

• Seeing the major possible errors

Try to read through your review to spot the major errors as early as possible. Some errors that may occur when reviewing a paper may include making conclusions that contradict what the authors say, using the wrong method, and even using wrong information when your present data is not clear.

• Finishing the initial Reading

After you have finished reading, use the notes you wrote to sketch the beginning two paragraphs. The first paragraph should focus on the question that the research tends to tackle. Do a summary of the goals, approaches, and judgments to help the editor put the review in context and judge you. It will also help the editor know the key messages that will attract the readers’ attention.

In the second paragraph, ensure that the methods used are applicable and the data used should support the conclusions. Thereafter, you will be able to know whether the review is publishable or not.

• Reading for the second time

In the second reading, ensure that the language used is correct and arguments are well presented. Identify where there is an error, especially on the arguments, to see an invalid argument. Also, check whether the title you’ve chosen portrays what is in the review.

• The style of presentation

When presenting your review, ensure that you are polite and the work is not biased. Be objective as well as being constructive. The way you treat the author’s work should also be how you want yours to be treated. Your review should focus much on the research paper and not the person who authored it.

• Giving recommendations

After reviewing a paper, you may be required to give recommendations. If you reject the review, give the reasons why you did it, and also, if there is a place that requires improvement, then state it. When you decide to reject it, give polite criticism and focus on the research and not the author. Also, do not make critical confidential comments to the author.

Conclusion

This guide is good, especially when reviewing a manuscript of a colleague. The article gives details on what to consider when revising a research paper, the report structure, and the literature review report format.

Literature review in scientific research refers to when one conducts a thorough investigation of the existing scientific books. These scholarly works relate to a certain topic, critical analysis of the literary concept, doing summary analysis, etc. In a nutshell, a literature review enables the author to be familiar with the extent of the knowledge he/she has in the field.

How long should a literature review be for a research paper?

The answer is that literature review always differs from one field to another. Conducting a literature review in hard science, for instance, requires you to investigate facts, and its review entails only doing a summary of critical sources. But on the other hand, while literature review in soft science, one must look at the survey, which will provide an overview of various ideas and schools of thought and how these interconnects.

Why a literature review is important?

For instance, literature review in qualitative research is important, and the following reasons illustrate how it adds value when doing a literature review in scientific research.

• To begin with, literature review in qualitative research, for instance, allows the researcher to identify gaps in the field. Upon identifying the available gap, the researcher will then look for information and explore it further to generate new ideas such as theories, new facts that bring more value to the knowledge of that field.
• Also, conducting a literature review of a research article enables the researcher to interpret what has already been done and put it into a new perspective. It is crucial because the researcher will have established consistency in the field.
• Thirdly, a literature review of a research article is important because it enables the researcher to avoid plagiarizing what other people have done. It is crucial because there are consequences of plagiarism. Therefore, there is a need for the researcher to conduct a literature review so that he/she comes up with a new perspective.
• Moreover, the literature review of a research article is important because it enables validation of the study by providing the much-needed information to ensure relevancy and coherence on the knowledge that already exists, and the methodology used while doing the research.
• Furthermore, literature review in scientific research also suggests an area that requires further investigation and studies to generate new knowledge to enable continuance of knowledge. It is crucial because generating new ideas and facts should be consistent.
• Lastly, the literature review is important because it will help you identify terminologies that will greatly assist you while conducting your research. This terminology will help you understand the field you are working on hence making it easier for you to maneuver without many challenges.

Conclusion

Scientific research involves doing thorough investigations to generate new ideas. Literature review refers to conducting a thorough investigation of existing material. There is a need to always conduct a literature review while doing research. It enables you to avoid plagiarism, identify gaps that need to be filled, and so on. It is vital to conduct a literature review because we will continue to generate useful knowledge to our society and ensure that there is consistency in doing so.

The Berkeley review education is calling for seniors, scholars, those who make policies and practitioners to surrender articles that focus on educational diversity. The board is highly welcoming editorials that touch especially on our main concerns, which are:

1. Vital scholarship

The Berkeley review submission calls for papers that talk about critical scholarships-especially those that do critical analysis, assessments, and the problems brought by the power structure, and also help in imagining innovations.

2. Building communities

Berkeley review education seeks to ensure a new and existing cordial relationship with the community surrounding us. It enables us to have a peaceful coexistence with non-academy. Since it is a journal that everybody can access, our purpose is to democratize and inspire work and communicate to a bigger audience such as scholars, practitioners, etc.

3. Issues that are pressing

The Berkeley review education also seeks editorials that focus on emerging issues regarding the education system, the environment where learning takes place, etc.

Berkeley reviews submissions guidelines

In need of guideline on how to apply for peer review board UC Berkeley? The authors who will submit the Berkeley review articles are assured of their copyrights. Also, Berkeley Review education does not accept published work that has been done previously, or that has been submitted somewhere. The Berkeley Review Education policies prohibit the submission of already published work.

Those eligible should submit articles that focus on historical analysis, literary essays, and many others. Writers are discouraged from mentioning the authors and institutions while doing the Berkeley review.

The criteria to use when writing the manuscript

The manuscript that will be published will be reviewed based on the relevance to the subject, theoretical framework, the procedure used, suitability of the questions, the consistency of the methods, data collection techniques and analysis, conclusions of the research, general contribution, and clarity.

• Required format

Berkeley review submission requires electronic Microsoft word submissions. It is the acceptable mode of submission. All the text, including headings, title, citation, references tables, should be well-typed and ensure the spacing is double with 1″ all around. All files with twelfth font should be submitted as a single file with a summary with not more than five keywords.

• The length of the Berkeley review submissions

The required pages are limited to thirty but not inclusive of references and citations. If you exceed this, your work will not be published. Tables and figures should have placed at the end of the review, and the authors should make it to the minimum.

• Writing style

All the authors should number indicate the page numbers of their texts. They should also adhere to the writing style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition, 2009) to make all the reviews to be uniform.

• Editing process

The Berkeley review will undergo two types of editing. The substantive one involves major changes, and the minor one involves correcting minor errors. After this, copyediting is then done on the last confirmation of the manuscripts. The time we will accept the Berkeley review submissions will be six months, and after that, the publication is now done.

Conclusion

If you need to make publication on the Berkeley review, read through the guidelines on their website and follow their instructions. The UC Berkeley call for papers has a period for accepting publications.

Accepting a request to be a reviewer

When an editor invites you to peer-review a research paper, you should look and consider if your area of expertise matches what the editor is expecting.

Are you biased or not? Editors do not like to be involved in conflicts though hiring editors who have some relationship with any author. Editors will require a reviewer who will review the work stating the facts and not being influenced by personal relationships.

Also, when writing a review, you should have time management skills because journals require you to write new reviews consistently.

Do you have time to conduct the peer reviewing a research paper, as it always takes too long to conduct one review? Ask yourself whether you will be able to submit your work within the stipulated time?

Writing a peer review paper

Once you meet the editor’s expectations and you have now accepted to write peer reviewing paper, use the methods described below to produce a quality peer reviewing a paper to ensure that there is maximum performance.

1. Go through the entire paper to see whether it is principally publishable

This is one of the importance of peer review in writing. Going through the work will give a sense of the author’s approach and what questions the author focuses on. Reading through the work will enable all the materials that the author has used to create a story. The beginning paragraph should focus on the question that the author is addressing. Also, ensure that you include the summary of goals you want to achieve, the approach you will use, and the conclusions of writing a peer review paper. It indicates to your editor that you know what the paper talks about and read it thoroughly. The second paragraph should focus on a conceptual overview of what the paper contributes.

2. Study the paper for the second time and write the main points while writing a peer review paper

After identifying that the main thoughts of the paper can be published, draft the main points of the paper, not forgetting to check on both the negative and positive sides. Ensure your points are well organized in separate paragraphs, and they should be written logically to stand out clearly.

3. Read the paper again as you look o how its structure and finalize it

Peer reviewing a research paper entails looking at issues such as the language used, headings and subheadings, grammar, and even the structure of your review. Assess whether the review flows chronologically and identify errors that may be there.

After completing the review

after achieving it, wait for your editor’s feedback on whether the review has been accepted or rejected. If it is accepted, you should not disclose the contents of the review until it is obliged.

One word to teachers and instructors

A guide to peer-reviewing is still not clear to graduate school. Therefore, there is a need for more tying and mentorship programs to help students perform peer reviewing a paper easily. the best way to achieve this is to work together.

Conclusion

The importance of peer review in writing equips you with some skills such as time management and discipline. Therefore, there is a need for graduate schools to offer training and mentorship for students. Also, when editors invite you to a review, ensure you are not biased and manage time well.