Topic
Throughout much of the semester, you will individually investigate a respiratory
care topic of interest to you, and then apply your knowledge by writing a research
paper. The areas of your topic may include, but not limited to, asthma, COPD,
pneumonia, CHF, sleep apnea, pulmonary fibrosis, neuromuscular diseases, GERD,
etc. You will want to explore the pathophysiology of the condition, causes, and
treatments for the specific disease. Compare and contrast the normal anatomy and
physiology to the pathophysiologic changes in the disease, and interpret the tests
and data.
Next step: Outline and draft bibliography
An outline is a good way to start your paper. Your outline supposed to have a basic
format as shown below to have a scientific journal style. The Abstract section
should be filled after finishing your paper. You can fill out other information as
much as you can for the first draft.
1. Title
Compose a concise and descriptive title
Explain what the paper is broadly about. It is your first (and probably only)
opportunity to attract the reader’s attention.
2. Abstract
One-paragraph summary of your research
The abstract tells prospective readers what you did and what the important
findings in your research were.
The abstracts must be keep as brief as possible. Just check the ‘Guide for
authors’ of the journal, but normally they have less than 250 words.
Write this section after you are done with other sections.
3. Introduction
Identify the current problems and why your research is needed.
o What is the problem to be solved?
o Are there any existing solutions?
o What do you hope to achieve?
o State the purpose of the paper
The introduction should address three questions: What, why, and how? After
finishing the introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about,
why it is worth reading, and how youll build your arguments.
o What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the
background, and define key terms or concepts.
o Why? What new material or insight are you offering? What important
issues does your essay help define or answer?
o How? Let the readers know what to expect from the rest of the paper
and what will be discussed.
4. Methods
How did you conduct your research? How the problem was studied?
What search engines were used?
What keywords were used to gather your resources?
How did you analyze the data from the resources?
Did you make your own tables or graphs to sort or compare the data?
5. Results
Your findings. What have you found?
Make your own tables or graphs by compiling and comparing the data from
your different resources.
*An important issue is that you must not include references in this section; you
are presenting your results, so you cannot refer to others here. If you refer to
others, this must be included in the Discussion section.
6. Discussion
What do the results mean?
You need to make the Discussion corresponding to the Results, but do not
reiterate the results.
What are the significances of the results?
7. Conclusion
So what?
What are the major findings of the study?
Write a clear conclusion. A common error in this section is repeating the
abstract, or just listing experimental results. Trivial statements of your
results are unacceptable in this section.
If appropriate, you can suggest future experiments and point out those that
are underway.
8. References
– You need at least 9 references (e.g., 3 textbooks, 3 journals, and 3 valid internet
sources). You can do more if you need or like. You can add more or change as you go,
but you need to do the initial research to make sure there is enough information for
your topic and paper.
*Format:
Title: Short and informative
Abstract: 1 paragraph (<250 words)
Introduction: 1.5-2 pages
Methods: 1 pages
Results: 2-4 pages
Discussion: 2-4pages
Conclusion: 1 paragraph
References: A minimum of 9 references
