Report Writing for Students
Help on How to Write a Research Paper for Elementary School Students
Step 9: Putting It All Together
You’re just about done with your draft! In this step, you will take all of your notes and write them as sentences and paragraphs.
1) To begin to write, use each stack’s topic sentence as each paragraph's opening sentence.
2) Next take the first note in the diet stack and use it to write a sentence:
Hornets eat many large insects like grasshoppers and bees.
Remember those “why” questions you answered on so many notes? Now is the time to use them. For example, the note...they eat fruit and sap because they are attracted to sugary foods?... can become this sentence:
Hornets are also attracted to sugary plant foods like fruit and sap.
3) Next, write a concluding statement or paragraph that sums up your subject. Because you’re researching pests, consider making a pitch for how to avoid attracting pests in the first place. For example,
European Hornets can be fierce hunters and have painful stings. But if we think about it, it’s not too hard to know how to avoid attracting them. We know they like sugary foods like honeydew and fruit. Therefore, people should not leave out cans of soda or other sugary drinks that could attract them.
4) Now, put your draft away for a day or so. Don’t even look at it. Why? Because you might figure out a better way to write something after you take a rest. This might even be the most important task you do during the entire process.
5) Time to get back to it. Take out your draft and read through it. Does everything still make sense to you? Are there any changes you could make to strengthen your paper?
6) After you make any changes, give it to a friend to read it over. Find out if there are any changes he or she would suggest you make. Maybe there’s a sentence that doesn’t make sense or a word that that needs some explanation.
7) Revise your draft, making any changes you think are necessary.
8) Ask two to three other friends to read your paper and then to take a little quiz, to be sure your audience will learn the important information:
- What does this pest eat?
- Describe the pest’s habitat. Where does it like to live?
- How should you prevent the pest from invading your space?
9) Were your friends able to give you the correct answers? Make any final changes so that your paper’s information is crystal-clear.
