Chapter 12 The Research Process: Critical Essays and Research Papers

Chapter 12

The Research Process: Critical

Essays and Research Papers

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 12 | 2

Chapter overview

• Looks at two of the most common writing assignments: critical essays and research projects

• Examines the genres

• Overviews the research process

• Follows one student as she does a project for her history class


Critical essays

• Sample critical essays are generally short papers, ranging from 3 to 7 pages, focusing on a question or issue.

• Student must use sources to “make sense of how authorities in a field define key issues and present interpretations.”


Research projects

• Research projects are bigger undertakings than critical essays.

• The page length for research projects tends to range from eight to 20 pages or more; students use more sources and will probably spend more time on the project.


What are faculty looking for?

Whether writing a critical essay or research project, faculty expect you to do the following things, page 391:

• To work with your sources

• To create your own research space

• To identify the central discussion, debate, and controversies


Sample critical essay, MLA

• Pages 392-397, “The Dilemma of Empire”

• Context: written for a course in international relations

• Assignment: analyze a set of readings and explain key differences

• The text looks at her essay and analyzes how she handled the assignment.


Two strategies

• First, she establishes the context of issues to be discussed in the first three paragraphs.

• Second, she introduces two key terms starting in paragraph four. She then explains the purpose of her essay and explains how those terms will be used.


Sample research project, MLA

• Chapter next presents a research project, also done in MLA style. This paper (pages 398-408) was written for a first-year writing course.


Analysis of sample research paper

• An analysis follows that examines his strategies in the paper.

• It extends past research by applying it to new cases.

• It identifies a gap in the existing research.


Checklist – MLA and APA style

• See the shaded box, page 410.

It points out four features common to MLA and APA.

• Double-space manuscript

• Use a one-inch margin all around

• Indent paragraphs five spaces

• Number pages consecutively, including Works Cited or References pages


Checklist – MLA style

• Unless instructed, don’t include a separate title page; see page 410 for more details on how to format the paper.

• Insert page numbers in upper right corner.

• Begin bibliography (Works Cited) on a separate page.


Checklist — APA style

• Unless instructed, use a cover page. See page 410 for specific details on formatting thecover page.

• Include an abstract on the next page; this is a brief summary of no more than 120 words.

• Begin the text on the third page.

• Use headers for the various sections.

• Begin references section on a separate page.


Sample research paper, APA style

• See pages 411-418 for the sample essay.

• Notice that the paper begins with an abstract, a one-paragraph summary of the paper.

• The essay uses headers and APA in-text citations, and ends with the References section.


Analysis of the sample APA essay

• An analysis follows, page 419.

• Early on she identifies the central issues of her paper by discussing a controversial book.

• In doing so, she establishes a sense of credibility, creates a space for her research project, and sets up a framework to organize her paper and use her sources.


Overview of the research process

Pages 419-426 begin with five tasks:

• Defining a research question

• Finding sources

• Evaluating sources

• Making an argument

• Planning and drafting


Analyzing the assignment

Researchers position themselves five ways:

• To provide an overview of the current thinking of experts

• To review the arguments in a controversy

• To pose and answer an important question or solve a problem

• To position your own interpretation in relation to what others have said

• To take a stand on a controversy


Doing preliminary research

• The author suggests five places to start doing research: the Web, encyclopedias, recent books, recent articles, and people (classmates, librarians, teaching assistants, and faculty members).

• She gives her first reactions to the assignment and then after doing some research, her reflections on what she’s learned so far.

• She presents guidelines to develop a research question.


Other key tasks

• Developing a research question, pp. 423-425

• See the list of four questions; each is followed by an explanation of its significance.

• Writing a research proposal, pp. 425-426

• Defines purpose of research and research plan.

• Does three things: identifies the topic or problem, presents a specific issue and question, and briefly sketches the research plan for how the question will be addressed.


Working bibliography

A working bibliography is explained on pages 428. It lists the sources you plan to use in your research project. There are two advantages:

• It helps you keep track of the sources you’ve located.

• It makes it easier to prepare your Works Cited or References page later on.


More on finding sources

• Lists information needed for each type of source: books, articles, electronic information.

• Looks at library databases, pages 428-433.

• Shows an entry from an online catalog; it’s annotated to show what some of the fields mean. Notice that you are looking at the full citation for the source.


Two ways to analyze sources

• See page 434 for a list of four questions you should keep in mind.

• See Chapter 2, “Reading Strategies of Academic Purposes,” and Chapter 3, “Persuasion and Responsibility: Analyzing Arguments” for more “tools to examine the rhetorical situation and the arguments writers make” (434).


Making an argument

• See page 435 for a list of four questions “to help you determine the arguments you want to make.”

• Amira writes a Statement of Purpose to help her follow her research path.


Planning and drafting

• Amira makes an outline, pages 436-437.

• Notice that it includes enough detail to be useful, but does not use roman numerals.

• She does indent some entries to show a hierarchy of main ideas and supporting details.


Looking ahead

• Amira now has analyzed her assignment, gathered research, and created an outline.

• Now she’s ready to start writing the paper.

• The next chapter will look at ways to incorporate sources into essays and research projects.


Companion Student Website

• Go to the student side of the Web site for exercises, chapter overviews, and links to writing resources for this chapter:

http://college.hmco.com/pic/trimbur4e

Documents

Chapter 12 The Research Process: Critical Essays and Research Papers