When writing a research paper you should have a slightly official tone in most cases, your reader will just be your teacher, but write your paper as cleanly and professionally as if you were presenting it to all of academia.
Determining the audience is helpful because it sets the tone for your paper, which is essentially a dialog between you and your reader.
You want to speak to your reader in a manner that is appropriate for your material. If you were to speak with a group of professors in your field of research,
you wouldn’t address them as you would your close friends. Similarly, you wouldn’t write your academic paper like you would a text message or email.
Every teacher has specific pet peeves about writing. You’ll want to learn about the pet peeves of your teacher. If he or she doesn’t tell you what they are, ask for a sample research paper. Here are some general ground rules: don't use contraction, keep the same tense, Never use emoticons, texting abbreviations, all caps, or multiple exclamation points.
