The first paragraph should provide a statement of your problem. You should outline what you''re going to discuss in your literature review. In the body of the review, you want to use the research you''ve read to support your argument. What you don''t want to do is a book report on all of the studies you''ve read. That would read something like this: In a study by Devine (1989), it was found that racial stereotypes exist for most people. In another study, Gaertner showed white students are biased too. They have faster reaction times... Instead of letting the research guide you, you make the statement and use the research to support your thesis. The research paper should be on passive voice. Also notice that authors don''t express their opinions in an outright manner. The writers of the sample paper most likely have some interest in racial stereotypes because they put a lot of time into writing the paper. They don''t express their opinion in an overt matter; everything they say is backed up by research. They exert choice over what kind of information is included and what''s excluded, which is a way to express an opinion but it''s very subtle. In the Discussion section, there''s a bit more latitude but we''ll get to that later on. In the last paragraph of the literature review, you want to present the hypothesis you will be testing. I like to do it in the first paragraph as well but it''s not done that way in the sample paper. How to Write a Methods Section The Methods section is fairly straight forward. It consists of three subsections: subjects/participants, materials/apparatus, and procedure. The goal for this section is to describe how the research was conducted in such minute detail that if someone wanted to replicate your research, s/he would be able to. Subjects/participants: The subjects subsection should describe every relevant detail about the research participants. What is relevant will vary from study to study. Materials/apparatus: Materials are consumable goods that generally don''t last forever. This would include toys or food used as rewards, office supplies that get used up such as pens and pencils, and so forth. Apparatus is heavy-duty equipment that loses value over time such as a computer. Most of you will probably use "materials". If you used a survey, instead of describing it in detail, you could summarize (a 12-question survey instrument was used to gather data about subjects'' sleep habits) and append your survey to the end of your paper as "Appendix I". You should describe every relevant detail of your materials/apparatus so that if someone wants to replicate your study, they will come as close a possible to using the same materials/apparatus. Procedure: In this section, you should describe how the research was carried out in as much detail as possible so that if someone wants to replicate your research, s/he can adhere as closely as possible to your procedure. The word "Methods" is centered at the top of the page. The three subsection headings are placed against the left margin. How to Write a Results Section I''m not expecting anything terribly fancy for statistics -- descriptions (mean, median, mode, range) are fine. If you want to give an inferential test a shot, be my guest. If at all possible, you should make a graph. You want to graph something that''s remarkable. If there''s no difference between two groups, there''s nothing to show. However, a large difference is generally worth an illustration. You don''t have to include a graph (or two) -- especially if it''s not right for your design -- but a graph (or two) fancies things up a bit. Make sure you explain in prose -- in your Results section - everything on your graph. You can refer the reader to your graph but don''t count on the graph to write your Results section for you. In general, you chart the different conditions on the X-axis and the results/dependent variable on the Y-axis. You could also do a pie chart. Tables are good too. Writing the Discussion Section In this section, you interpret your results and offer possible explanations. While you don''t explicitly express an opinion, you can shade your writing with phrases like: "it is suggested...", "it is possible...", " there seems to be evidence/a trend toward...", etc. Additionally, in suggesting a direction for further research, you''re putting in a plug for what you think might be an important effect. Writing an Abstract The abstract should be written last. It is a summary of your research. The abstract should be 125-150 words. When your paper is finished, go through it and summarize each section in one or two sentences. Voila!! That''s your abstract. I attached a sample from playground research. The Reference Page Your text has a great reference section as part of the sample paper. Finishing Up Please do a running head and a title page.