Research PaperPart One

For this paper you will need to obtain two packs of 3X5

index cards.

Take Cornell Notes, Do not expect to receive any

project hand outs! Ask questions about how things are to

be done in your notes.

You must be engaged! If you disengage, you will become lost and receive a poor grade on the paper.This is a research paper- not an essay,

it requires RESEARCH !!!!!!!!

“Write something new, something the reader cares about."

That automatically makes your paper significant and interesting

both for you to write and the reader to study.

Prime Directive

Think and plan about the writing, don’t just write

Rather than writing a paragraph as it occurs to you, take time to list the techniques that you could use to build paragraphs. A paragraph plan reads like this:

I’m going to list the Tennessee battles of General Ulysses Grant to show his progressive fulfillment of a major plan. The paragraph will help defend the topic sentence about Grant as both a patient and determined commander.

Planning the Paper• What is the purpose of the

paper?• (Beyond getting a grade or pleasing the

teacher.)

• Who is your audience?• What is your role as a

research writer?• What is your thesis

sentence?

Formatting

MLA Format General Guidelines

• Double-space the text of your paper, and use 10-12 point Bookman Old Style font.

• Leave two spaces after end of sentence punctuation.

• Set the margins to one inch on all sides. • Indent the first line of a paragraph one half-inch.• Create a header that numbers all pages

consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin.

• Underline titles of outside works, use them only when absolutely necessary.

Creating a title page for your paper - Write the title in Title Case

List your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date.

Underline other works in your title, just as you would in your text, e.g., Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play

Formatting the First Page

Research proposal

Graded Element

Writing the Research Proposal?

The writer’s responsibility is to develop a thesis or purpose statement and layout the approach to the paper. Since the topic is a controversial, the purpose statement identifies both sides and suggests possible middle grounds. This requires the writer to do some basic research before developing a statement that clearly states a purpose and focus.

In the proposal, the writer identifies, their role, the purpose of the paper, the paper’s thesis, and the audience of this paper.

one student writer’s research proposal:

It saddens me to see people, even children throwing away their lives on cocaine addiction. My role is to explain to my schoolmates the effects of cocaine on various organs of the body. I will defend this thesis: Cocaine will not make you anything except dead, or almost dead.

This writer identifies herself as a protester (role) against the use of cocaine (purpose). She will argue her idea (thesis) to her schoolmates (audience)

The Thesis• A good thesis statement

serves as the heart of the paper and any other parts of your report will not be able to function without it. Decide on the thesis before beginning to write. This all-important statement of purpose is essentially a declaration of what you believe about the topic and intend to prove by the conclusion.

The thesis statement is a single sentence which summarizes the argument the paper seeks to prove. It should be located in the introductory paragraph.

STATE YOUR THESISA thesis takes a position on an issue. It announces, in addition to the topic, the argument the writer wants to prove. This is the reason and motivation for the writing. A thesis is specific and tailored to reflect the scope of the paper. It is not possible, for instance, to write about the history of English literature in a five page paper. Narrowing a thesis narrows the scope of the entire paper.

Sample Thesis Statements

BAD THESIS: Hate speech can cause emotional pain and suffering in victims just as intense as physical battery.

BETTER THESIS:

The government has the right to limit free speech in cases of overtly racist or sexist language because our failure to address such abuses would effectively suggest that our society condones such ignorant and hateful views..

THESIS CHECKLIST

Do I have a working thesis statement that leads to research and ultimately a thesis statement that is concise and clear?

Does my Thesis statement guide my research and help build an outline?

A writer must condense their topics into something manageable. A topic that is too wide is worse than a topic too narrow. Writing a research paper is like whittling a mountain into a small hill. Begin with an ocean of notes, then weed them down into a focused structure. A concise thesis statement controls a writer’s tendency to expand rather than compress and the direction of the paper.

Focus on a narrowing topic

ResearchFor general or background information,

check out useful URLs, general information online, almanacs or

encyclopedias online such as Britannica, or Encarta, etc. Use Search Engines and

other search tools as a starting point.

Start, don’t end, with Wikipedia This is a great place to start your research. Take notes, especially of any good sources they recommend. The goal here is to get a good overview of the subject, By the time you get ready to write, though, you should have much better sources at your command than Wikipedia, so avoid citing it in your paper.

Wikipedia

Accuracy and Objectivity

• Is the information reliable and error free?

• Does the information show a minimum of bias?

• http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters6ce

• Is the page designed to sway opinion?• Furshame.com

• Is there any advertising on the page?• www.advice-hgh.com/hgh.html

Evaluation of Web Sites

Two sources giving more details about how to evaluate whether a website ‘s is trustworthy.

www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/#e

Authority of Web site Authors

Who is the author? What are his or her academic credentials? What else has this author written? Sometimes information about the author is listed somewhere in the article. Other times, you may need to consult another resource to get background information on the author. Sometimes it helps to search the author's name in a general web search engine like Google.

DocumentationA bibliography, along with footnotes, indicate that the author has consulted other sources and serves to authenticate the information that he or she is presenting. In websites, expect links or footnotes documenting sources, and referring to additional resources and other viewpoints.

4X10 Facts and

Quotes Requirement

Thirty Facts• The research paper writer is to

compile thirty facts about their topics.• The research paper writer is to

determine if the facts are objective facts or biased facts.

• A objective fact is a fact that – A: favors neither side of the issue– B: facts that both sides agree with– C: facts from reliable objective sources

Thirty Facts• The research paper writer is to

compile at least ten facts about their topics that the Pro side uses to support their position.

• The research paper writer is to compile at least ten facts about their topics that the Con side uses to support their position.

Ten QuotationsResearch paper writers are to find at least ten quotations that support their thesis statement and can be used in their research project. Indicate whether the quote is objective, pro or con to the issue.

These quotations are to be put on 3X5 cards, one side the quote, the opposite side the source of the quotation.

4X10 Samples Consider the following slides as 3X5 index cards, front and back.

Fact: Objective

840,000 years ago a species of ancient man lived in Indonesia.

The Species: Homo floresiensis

Source:National Geographic Magazine

April 2005Pages 6 - 12

Authors: Mike Morwood, Thomas Sutikna, Richard

Roberts

Quotation – Objective

“I am encouraged to see that the administration has prioritized border security”

U.S. Congressman– Bennie Thompson (D Miss)• Chairman of the House Committee on

Homeland security

Quotation Source

Los Angeles Times

Bush seeks 19% boost in border spending

Friday February 1, 2008Page A23