Professional Skills — 2025
Chapter 6 — Research Writing
K.H.I.U. De Silva • SA23656710 • Undergraduate Software Engineering
What is Research?
Research is the process of finding out new information or learning more about something by studying and investigating it carefully.
Components of a Research Paper
- Introduction — gives background and states the research problem.
- Literature Review — short review/summary of relevant prior work.
- Materials & Methods (Methodology) — what methods and procedures you will execute.
- Results & Discussion — what you found and what those findings mean.
- Conclusion — what you learned from the study or experiment.
- References & Bibliography — properly cited sources.
Four C’s of an abstract: Complete, Concise, Clear, Cohesive.
Abstract (Short Summary)
An abstract is a brief summary of a research paper. Share only the most important points and focus on the main idea.
Structure of an Abstract
- Background
- Purpose / Objective
- Methods
- Results
- Conclusion
What I Learned
I learned how to do research and how to write a clear abstract—focusing on only the essential points, avoiding unnecessary details, and presenting the main idea in simple language.