How Do Students in the Fifth Grade Write a Research Report?

Writing a Fifth Grade Research Report

Choose an Interesting Topic

Sometimes, teachers will give you a list of topics to choose from or they'll let you choose any topic that you want (school appropriate, of course). Either way, you'll want to choose a topic that you find interesting and would like to learn more about. If you choose a topic that doesn't interests you, you'll find it hard to do the work because of boredom. Being bored with your topic may cause you to be lazy with it, which may lead to a bad research report. So, choose your topic wisely.

Research for Information and Pictures

To write your paper effectively, you'll need to do research. Researching your topic helps you obtain information to write a good and detailed report. The more research you have, the more you'll have to write about your topic. Furthermore, it's usually better to have more information than you need than not having enough. It's also a good idea to look for pictures that relate to your topic. You may or may not be able to use pictures in your actual report, but either way, seeing the visual images connected to your topic will help you have a better understanding of it.

Create an Outline

Before you even begin to think about writing a final copy of your report, you'll want to come up with an outline of the information. You'll need to decide what your report's title will be, what headings and sections you'll need and what facts should be put in or left out of the report. Outlining will help you focus your writing and give you a blueprint to follow. When you have that, you'll usually find that the actual writing process is much easier.

Start Writing

Of course, you'll need to start writing eventually. When you start writing, it's a good idea to keep going to the end of the paper without stopping. Armed with your outline, you should be able to keep writing until you're finished. The reason you want to do this is to keep your creative juices flowing. When you write nonstop, you tend to come up with some of your best material and ways of conveying the information. Stopping to edit and make corrections stops this creative flow, and in the end, you'll typically take longer to finish as well.

Get Feedback, Edit and Rewrite

When you do finish, you'll want to get feedback from a trusted person, like an older sibling or your parents. Have your reader give you information about how the report sounds and how interesting it was. Then, edit and make all of your corrections at that time. After editing, you'll need to rewrite. In fact, it is not uncommon to rewrite more than once. It can be a little challenging and frustrating at times, but taking the time to do it will usually ensure you turn in your best work.