What Is the Difference Between Research Paper and Essay

Research Paper
Whether you are a student of a high school or a middle school or toiling away from the college, one of the fundamental facets of academics is paper writing. Essays and other kinds of creative writing are the most common attributes of English studies. Other than this, you also need to know about writing informative writings like term or research papers. But knowing the difference amid the different kinds of writing ways, you will be able to know the compelling prose of draft which is accepted for all forms of assignments.

Definition Of Essay:
As told by an essay writing service, one of the highly common kinds of writing is writing essays. Initiating the later elementary level of school years and then in the middle school, you are most likely get exposed to the small essays, which are the basic starting point of making the long length essay writing as you move to the upper classes. While these essays are usually short pieces of writing (not more than 1000 words), they let teachers to judge the students on various writing, analysis and reading skills, also the art of exposition and persuasion.

Essays can take any of the forms like they can be told like a story or can be narrative; need to have an investigation or exposition, descriptive where students need to describe, creative, and lastly, persuasive, where students are expected to give argument on a particular topic or any position. Overall, essay writing usually lets for much creativity as compared to formal writings like in the case of the research paper.

Types Of Essays:
Essays have now become an important part of the formal education systems and the structure of the essay makes the fundamentals of the writing skills in students. Throughout the initial years of schooling, the students are let to know the structure of 5-paragraph essays which involve the introduction of the topic including the thesis objective, followed by the body of 3 paragraphs along with the main thesis and conclusion. The exhibition of the thoughts of writer in the essay is usually judged on the basis of logic, coherence, and factualness of the written material. There are different types of essays;
  • Academic essays
  • Descriptive essays
  • Narrative essays
  • Comparison essays
  • Philosophical essays

Research Paper Definition:
A research paper is defined as a piece of plagiarism free writing of research. Here the word ‘research’ refers to the repetitive search done in totally different directions for proving the central objective statement or question. Usually, there are 2 types of research papers, quantitative papers and qualitative papers.


The word “research paper” incur conjure anxiety among highly intellectual students. But this may not be always true. Actually, it's helpful to take research paper as the inflated type of essays. Basically, the structure of both writings is almost same, however, you may need the thesis question here (which isn’t included in most types of essay writing), deep research as well as proves for supporting the ideas. You may also need to add a few credible sources in the paper, which are listed in type of references. And most importantly, if you select the subject in which you have an interest in doing research, working on the informative paper makes your experience more rewarding.

Students are encouraged and also need some support for their findings using the facts taken from reputable references. Typical research papers range from 5 to 15 pages long. The work of students will get organized in a framework after the compilation of all the proper information taken from the various sources. The instructors usually assign these tasks to the students for teaching them how to create balance in the writing skills and encouraging the structural discipline as well as known formatting.

Difference Between Essay and Research Paper:
Essay
  • It is shorter; usually five paragraphs (starting from the 1-page essay)
  • Any types of essays deal with the writer’s personal view on the issue, and the sources are generally used to support this perspective.
  • Doesn’t usually requires the deep research of the topic
  • The main goal is to prove one’s writing abilities and capability to give an opinion
  • Different types of essays may or may not require familiarity with main sources on the subject
  • Deals with the reader’s perception as well
  • Presents the writer’s opinion
  • types of an essay: persuasive essay, argumentative essay, literature essay, narrative, academic, philosophical, etc.
  • Usually has 5 parts: introduction, the main body (3 paragraphs) and conclusion.  
  • Doesn’t require a particular methodology

Research Paper
  • It is longer and takes at least 8 pages
  • Presents other scientists’ perception of the subject as well as the opinion of the writer
  • Requires a deep analysis of the topic and proper research of various sources
  • The main goal is to provide deep information of the subject, analyze data and ability to make a conclusion based on that
  • Always requires familiarity with main sources on the subject
  • Should be logically organized and academically formulated
  • Present's research facts and perspectives in particular order and provides the writer’s conclusion
  • There are many types of research paper: argumentative, analytical, subject-based, cause and effect, etc.
  • Has more parts: title page, abstract (summary). Introduction, literature review, the main body (several sections as methodology, discussion, results), conclusion, acknowledgements, references.
  • A particular methodology should be used in order to perform results

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