Facebook Pixel Online Writing Lab | Western Kentucky University

Online Writing Lab


The Writing Process

Essays v. Research Papers: What's the difference?

Simply put, essays focus on helping you develop writing skills through personal narratives and informative descriptions, while research papers give you practice presenting arguments and demonstrating a thorough understanding of a specific topic.

Essays and research papers also have a lot in common. Both require the following:

  • Critical Thinking Skills: Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate a topic on multiple levels, using skills such as analysis, reflection and comparison, as well as the ability to synthesize material and draw conclusions. In a personal essay, you might use critical thinking to determine how a particular experience helped you mature or change. In a research paper, you might bring different authors' perspectives into your discussion as support for your major points.
  • Source Material: Both types of papers require source material. In a narrative essay, for example, your source would be the personal experience you're focusing on, while an expository essay would require you to bring in outside information from a website or article to teach. For a research paper, you typically spend a significant amount of time learning about the different perspectives on a topic before you begin writing. Research papers allow you to establish credibility and include in-text citations and a works cited page.
  • Solid Structure: Both essays and research papers must be organized well and have a solid structure. The typical organization of a paper includes: introduction, body and conclusion. The introductory paragraph is often the most challenging to write, because it is essentially the paragraph that grabs the readers’ attention and shows them why they should care about the topic. The organization of the paragraphs that follow is also important. They should be organized in such a way that like-ideas are grouped together. The final paper should flow smoothly with transitions between paragraphs
  • Thesis Statement: The thesis statement is used to summarize the paper’s central point. A research paper's thesis almost always appears at the end of the first or second paragraph and clearly states what you intend to prove and the main points you'll use to do so. Thesis statements in essays normally appear earlier.

Some of the links on this page may require additional software to view.

 Last Modified 3/23/18