How to….

WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER

The Thesis

• Not just data, but ARGUMENTS

• Form a conclusion or historical argument and try to support it.

Developing your topic

• Pose yourself a question about subjects that interest you– Ex: What was behind lynching: was it

economic or psychological?– How did African Americans feel about

participating in WWII?– How successful was non-violence as a

strategy during the Civil Rights movement?

Sources

• Secondary sources: textbook, biographies, movies, etc

• Primary sources: pictures, journals, newspapers, autobiographies, etc.

• Maps, graphs, charts, etc.

• Internet—NOT WIKIPEDIA

The Steps1.Develop a problem.

2.Find primary sources.

3.Research

4.Analyze notes.

5.Prepare outline/develop hypothesis.

6.Write first draft.

7.Write final draft.

Finding sources

• Library of Congress

• KY Virtual Library

• Your local libraries (school/city)

• Your textbook

• Ask me for help.

Take notes

• Resource information for bibliography

• Upper left hand corner of a note card, category or topic/subtopic to which note refers.

• Upper right hand corner, the name of the source

• Pages numbers

• Paraphrase or quote your source

Citations

• Turabian style (Chicago style) is required

• Examples: – Book (footnote, bibliography)

John Hope Franklin, George Washington Williams: A Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 54.

Franklin, John Hope. George Washington Williams: A Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Citations

• Article in a scholarly journal (footnote, bibliography)

Richard Jackson, “Running Down the Up-Escalator: Regional Inequality in Papua New Guinea,” Australian Geographer 14 (May 1979): 174-85.

Jackson, Richard. “Running Down the Up-Escalator: Regional Inequality in Papua New Guinea.” Australian Geographer 14 (May 1979): 174-85.

Citations

• Article in a newspaper (footnote, bibliography)William Lloyd Garrison, “Guilt of New England,”

The Liberator (Boston), January 7, 1832.

Garrison, William Lloyd. “Guilt of New England.” The Liberator (Boston), January 7, 1832.

Revising the Draft

• Does the paper’s organization offer the most effective arrangement of your ideas and evidence to support the theme?

• Does the topic sentence of each paragraph make your point and does the information in the paragraph support the topic sentence?

• Is the introduction interesting and does it present the focus of your argument?

• Does the conclusion make a lasting impression on your audience? Does it summarize your conclusions?

• Are there any spelling errors, grammatical errors, format errors?

• Is there a bibliography with correctly cited sources?

• Are there footnotes and endnotes?• Is there a title page with title, name, teacher’s

name, date, and subject/course.• TNR, 12 point font, double-spaced, page #s