Writing a good research paper is really about two things - organization and time management. Use the following list and links to help keep yourself on track as you complete your assignment.
Step 1. Choose a Topic: try to choose a topic that interests you and your potential audience. You will expend a great deal of energy to complete a quality research assignment, and you might as well spend your valuable time reading and writing about something that you are interested in.
Informative: Informative writing does just that, IT INFORMS. Writers should be careful to cover all aspects of the topic without bias or predetermined preferences.
University of Hawaii - Maui College http://www.hawaii.edu/mauispeech/html/infotopichelp.html
California State University - Fresno http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~lcarvalho/informideas.htm
Daphne Palmer http://daphne.palomar.edu/kerbe/documents/inform_speech_topics.pdf
InformativeSpeechTopics.com http://www.informativespeechtopics.info/general-topics.html
Persuasive:
Midway College Library resource http://www.midway.edu/library/topics
MySpeechClass.com http://www.myspeechclass.com/persuasivetopics2.html
Matt Dunn's list http://naomi-rockler-gladen.suite101.com/great-persuasive-speech-topics-a12084
Mr. Donald E. Morton's list http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/writing/persuasive-essay-topics/
Demonstrative: Typically known as the How-to paper or speech, this type is writing is frequently organized in a step-by-step or chronologival order.
InformativeSpeechTopics.com http://www.informativespeechtopics.info/practical-topics.html
Step 2. Determine Key Words & Search Terms: Knowing how search engines and databases use terms and key words is important for finding the information you want. It is a good idea to do some preliminary research on Wikipedia or google search to identify the key concepts and terms for more advanced searching.
Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/
Wikipedia for Schools http://schools-wikipedia.org/