How to Write a Research Paper Using Wordvice AI

How can AI tools help you with academic writing?

While AI tools might already be replacing certain jobs, especially those that involve repetitive and routine tasks, what it cannot do is write your research papers on its own (not to mention that it would be considered fraud and/or plagiarism and that universities and publishers have already put new rules and regulations in place to prevent such practices). AI still needs your human expertise, critical thinking, and analytical skills to create a meaningful piece of writing—but it can certainly be your assistant, help you generate content, and polish your text.

Wordvice offers you a suite of editing tools, based on cutting-edge machine learning technology that comprehends your text and offers suggestions for improving grammar, style, and content. The AI Proofreader and AI Paraphraser enhance your writing and help you add originality to your text, while the Summarizing Tool can help you work out the main points of sources or paragraphs and be more succinct and to-the-point.

This article will walk you through the process of drafting and writing a research paper and show you how Wordvice AI’s writing assistant software can help you with every step along the way.

Develop a thesis statement for your research paper

A thesis statement summarizes the main idea of your academic research paper. Whether you are reviewing literature or running experiments to answer a question, you need to first let the reader know what your topic is, what evidence and examples you are planning to provide, and (optionally) what arguments and claims you will make later in the paper.

A good thesis statement can provoke thought, and it definitely needs to arouse interest—otherwise, nobody will want to read what you have to say. You therefore need to make sure your statement is specific and clearly states the main idea you want to get across, but does so in an interesting way. Read on to find out how our free AI text editor can help you come up with the perfect research statement.

How the Wordvice AI Paraphraser can help develop your thesis/research statement

Follow this simple process and let the Wordvice free AI Paraphraser do the rest:

1. Select a topic. Not too general--narrow it down to something specific you can cover in a paper.

Example: Social media (too common as a topic on its own) and its effects on the mental health of teenagers.

2. Ask yourself a question about your topic that you think is relevant. Go for an idea that is a bit controversial or daring to make your paper interesting:

Should teenagers be allowed to use social media?

3. Sort through the material you are planning to present to the reader and come up with arguments.

Yes: Social media helps teenagers to connect with peers, especially during times when social activities are restricted such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also stimulates creativity and offers knowledge.

No: Research shows that social media use correlates with mental health issues in teenagers, especially girls, and that unhealthy trends can quickly be shared not just among friends but a huge community.

4. Make up your mind:

I think teenagers should not have access to social media at all.

Now we need to transform these fragments into a clear and coherent statement that piques the readers’ interest. This is where the free AI paraphrase tool can help you with its magic:

Open it, select Academic Document Type, copy-paste the information you prepared as simple bullet points into the left-hand box, and click Paraphrase.

If you are writing up an experimental study instead, then the statement of your research problem/question needs to define the gap in existing knowledge, explain an issue that needs a solution, or describe how earlier findings point to the need for further investigation. Let’s see how the Wordvice AI online writing assistant can help you with these steps:

1. Provide a context: What background information do your readers need?

Schools and universities have moved online since Covid started. There are still problems with online studying and teaching (Ref_1). The main problem is that some students have access to technology and equipment and others don’t (Ref_2). But some studies claim that online learning offers more opportunities because location and distance don’t matter (Ref_3).

2. Why is it relevant to solve this problem?

We cannot wait for things to go back to normal. We need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the measures that were implemented during the pandemic and how they impacted students and their progress. Then improvements can be made and left-out demographics can receive support.

3. Briefly introduce the design/methods and clearly state your goal.

We surveyed and interviewed teachers and students at ten institutions of higher education in four major cities. We analyzed responses with a focus on different student demographics to figure out how they have been affected differently. Our findings can help improve learning/teaching strategies and impact policies.

The Wordvice AI Paraphraser can help you turn this into a research statement in the same way it helped us above with an interesting thesis statement: Copy-paste these points into the left-hand box of the tool and click Paraphrase to let it transform your rather dry list of information into something more intriguing:

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, educational institutions have transitioned to online platforms for teaching and learning. However, despite the passage of time, there are still challenges associated with online education (Ref_1). One of the primary issues is the unequal access to technology and equipment among students (Ref_2). Nevertheless, some studies argue that online learning presents opportunities by eliminating the constraints of location and distance (Ref_3).

Given the urgency of the situation, it is imperative for educators and students to not simply wait for a return to normalcy. Instead, it is crucial to comprehensively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the measures implemented during the past years and their impact on students and their academic progress. By doing so, necessary improvements can be made, and support can be provided to demographics that have been marginalized.

To gain insights into the effects of online education, we conducted surveys and interviews with teachers and students from ten higher education institutions located in four major cities. Our analysis focused on different student demographics to ascertain the varying impacts experienced by these groups. Our findings have the potential to inform the development of more effective learning and teaching strategies and influence educational policies.

Write a draft of your research paper

Now that you have a clear thesis statement or research question that holds your paper together and gives you a logical outline you can follow, it’s time to draft the first version of your text. Don’t worry about perfection, you can polish your sentences later. First, focus on the following points:

• Organize your ideas into paragraphs and your paragraphs into sections.
• Each paragraph should focus on one idea or one aspect of an argument.
• Keep track of the logical flow and consistency between all sections.
• Express your ideas clearly—do you still understand what you wanted to say after a break?
• Create an outline or just start with the section that feels most natural to you.
• Collect all your citations now to avoid plagiarism later (when you can’t remember where you found a piece of information)—no need to think about different formats at this point, the free Wordvice citation generators can help you create citations in the correct style later!

Now let’s see how Wordvice AI’s writing assistant software can help you with writing the different parts of your paper or manuscript (have a look at our article on Writing an Effective Research Paper for general tips on structure and organization, and at our list of Best AI Tools for Researchers if you need help with your literature search or workflow).

Write the Body of your paper/the Methods and Results sections

It is usually easiest to start with explaining what you did, listing all the methods you used, and describing your results. The main point of this part of your paper or article is to be clear and concise. Luckily, the Wordvice AI free Proofreading Tool can help you with this: Whenever you have finished a paragraph (remember: one paragraph = point/argument!), paste it into the online tool, select the Academic Document Type and the Concise mode, and click Proofread Now. The Wordvice AI will analyze your text and suggest that you omit certain words to avoid redundancy, simplify your text where necessary, and replace convoluted passages with clearer language.

To check the logical connections between paragraphs and the overall logical flow, the Wordvice free AI Text Summarizer can come in handy: If you paste a section of your text into the left-hand box and click Summarize, it presents you with a bullet list of only the main points. If you do this for every paragraph or series of paragraphs (you can paste up to 5000 words into the box), you can easily keep track of the logical order of your arguments without getting lost in the details every time you re-read your text.

Write the Discussion/Conclusion section

The goal of your Discussion section is to answer the questions you raised (or will raise, as we haven’t written it yet) in your Introduction by summarizing the results you collected or the arguments you developed in the main body of your paper.

• Remind the reader why they should be interested in your paper/research.
• Answer each of the questions you asked in your Introduction.
• Describe limitations or controversies related to your work/arguments.
• Explain what (if any) conclusions you draw or what implications your work contains.

Make sure you do not suddenly introduce new data, findings, or arguments, and make sure you don’t forget to mention any of your findings or arguments—this section needs to bring it all together. As demonstrated above, the Wordvice AI Proofreader can help you get rid of repetitive wording and simplify or clarify your text where necessary.

If you are writing a manuscript based on your own research and need to put your findings in context, the Wordvice free AI Translator could be a very useful tool for you, too: While the majority of articles published in scientific journals are written in English, there are still authors who publish in their own language—this can be especially relevant when you work on a not-so-popular topic or when preliminary findings or null results did not make it into an international journal but can be found on websites or in local conference proceedings. Simply paste text passages into the left-hand box of the tool and check that you are not missing some relevant literature!

Write the Introduction section

Now that you know where you are going to guide your readers, you should prepare them, in your Introduction section, based on the thesis statement you already perfected (see above). If the content of your paper and your statement are still in alignment (if not, update one or the other!), then you can simply expand the statement, by including more background information, defining the relevant key terms and concepts, and emphasizing what is new about your approach to the problem you are discussing or what new insights you are going to offer. The reader should know what to expect but, even more importantly, they should want to keep reading. As we illustrated above for other parts of your paper, the Wordvice AI free paraphrasing tool will make sure your Introduction flows well and is intriguing, and the Wordvice AI Text Summarizer can help you keep track of the logical order of information.

Revise your first research paper draft

Revising is not just proofreading, it means checking for logical organization and flow (of sentences, paragraphs, and passages), checking the content of paragraphs and sections against other parts of the paper, and making sure that your text contains only relevant information.

In this step, the Wordvice AI tools can help you with sentence structure, grammatical errors, and formatting of citations and references. Make sure you use the correct transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas, check for typos, and omit unnecessary words.

If you want a professional to be your second pair of eyes and make sure your paper is impeccable before you hand it in, you can always use Wordvice’s Paper Editing Services.

Use AI research paper tools from Wordvice

As you see, Wordvice AI can help you with all the different steps involved in writing a research paper or a manuscript for submission to a journal. From the AI Proofreading Tool that checks your grammar and word choice, the AI Paraphrasing Tool that improves the tone and flow of your text, and the free AI Summarizer that helps you keep track of the logical order of information, each of our tools helps you write and allows you to hand your work in with more confidence. And of course, you can always rely on our Wordvice’s Editing and Proofreading Services to make things perfect.