Research Papers Aren’t THAT Scary!Only the teachers are!

A few steps…A few steps…

1. Find a topic2. The Importance of a

First Draft3. Doing Research4. Bringing Research Into

Your Paper•Quoting,

Paraphrasing, Summarizing

•Avoiding Plagiarism5. MLA-Style

Documentation6. APA-Style

Documentation7. Proofreading Strategies

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Finding a Topic Write about what you

know. Whenever possible,

seek out a research topic that interests you and that you care about.

If the topic is assigned, try to develop an angle that will interest you, then run the idea by your instructor.

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Develop a Research Question

The best research papers begin with a question because questions help you to find direction and narrow your scope.

Turn the question into a thesis statement!

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Too Broad:---- What is a Heart

Attack?

More Focused:---- Will a healthy diet

help to prevent a heart attack?

To Help with Research…

Go to the college’s library or your public library. Librarians can show you how to—

search for journal and magazine articles;

use reference materials; access electronic data bases,

such as EbscoHost and Infotrac, using key word searches

evaluate web sites.

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While the Internet may provide you with some good information, your teacher will require you to have journals and books.

Bringing Research Into Your PaperBringing Research Into Your Paper

What Are Sources? What Are Citations? Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing Avoiding Plagiarism

Writing a research paper is like writing any other academic paper, except you are including the words of other people.

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What Are Sources? A source is where you get your

information.

A source can include any of the following: a book a magazine or newspaper article a scholarly journal article a film, television show, or radio program a web site a personal interview

They generally fall under print sources, non-print sources, and electronic sources.

Print Sources A print source can be

a periodical or a book.

A periodical is a publication that is issued periodically, such as any of the following:

a newspaper (The Sun Herald);

a magazine (Time); a journal (Journal of

Literary Style).

Non-Print Sources

A non-print source can include, but is not limited to, any of the following:

A television or radio program

a film a personal interview a class lecture a recording

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Electronic Sources

An electronic source can refer to a source found on the Internet.

There are some electronic sources that originally appeared in print form. These include articles found on databases such as EbscoHost and Infotrac and articles in newspapers and magazines that publish on the web and in print.

What is a Citation?

When you bring research (quotations, paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your paper, you must give credit to the source and its author(s).

Giving credit to a source is also called citing a source.

You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations. They are called parenthetical citations because the bibliographic information goes inside parentheses.

What to Cite

Quotations—Someone else’s exact words, enclosed in quotation marks.

The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone else—even if you restate them in your own words in a paraphrase or summary.

Facts and statistics—unless they are common knowledge and are accessible in many sources.

Common Knowledge is information that can be found in many sources and that no one can claim owning. It is information that “belongs” to everyone.

The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.

The Civil War ended in 1865. Adolph Hitler was the leader of

Germany during WWII.

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Quoting When you quote, you borrow an author’s

exact words.

Use a quotation when…

the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so well that you cannot improve or shorten it without weakening it;

when the author is a respected authority whose opinion supports your own ideas;

when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with others in the field.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is putting material (an idea, the results of a study, or a passage ) into your own words and sentence structure.

A paraphrase is often the same length as the original, but it is in your own words.

Paraphrasing must also be cited! .

Example of a Paraphrase

Original Text (from James C. Stalker, “Official English or English Only”)

“ We cannot legislate the language of the home, the street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set up a cadre of language police who will ticket and arrest us if we speak something other than English” (21).

ParaphraseStalker points out that in a democracy like the United

States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use of a language and it certainly would not be possible to make police enforce such laws in homes and public places (21).

Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writers by Ann Raimes

Summarizing

Summaries are often less detailed than paraphrases.

Summaries give readers basic information and are always in your own words.

When you include a summary in your paper, introduce the author’s name and/or the work.

What is Plagiarism?

It is fine to bring the words and ideas of other writers into your paper.

However, when you do so, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of these sources.

If not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a

serious academic offense.

The most blatant form of plagiarism is putting your name as the author of a paper you did not write.

The Internet has certainly made it easier for students to find papers on any number of topics.

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Other types of plagiarism are more subtle and include any of the following:

failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;

failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks;

Most students who plagiarize are simply unaware of the proper way to document sources in academic writing.

Avoiding Plagiarism

In order to avoid plagiarism, be sure that you not only give credit where credit is due, but that you follow the appropriate formats, often either MLA (Modern Languages Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) styles of documentation.

What is MLA?

If you are writing a research paper in English, History, or other humanities classes, use MLA-style documentation.

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association.

The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for Writing Research Papers.

About MLA-Style Documentation

The body of your paper and the “Works Cited” page are double-spaced.

Use In-text Citation Include a “Works Cited” Page

Use in-text citations in the body of your paper when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other borrowed material. Citations should be as concise as possible, while still giving readers enough information to find the full bibliographic information on the “Works Cited” page.

The ”Works Cited” page is a separate page and carries the heading “Works Cited” (or “Work Cited” if you are using only one source). This is where you list all of your sources, giving the reader full bibliographic information.

Integrating Research

There are only two pieces of information that need to go inside the parentheses of an in-text citation:

the author’s last name (or first word of a title if there is no author)

the page number

This information refers readers to the full bibliographic information on the “Works Cited” page.

• An in-text citation looks like this:• (Smith 165)

• If there are two authors, give both last names:

• (Jones and Nichols 18)

• If there is no author, give the first word of the title:

• (“Recent” 23)

• If there is no page number, give the paragraph number:

• (McKnight par. 10)

Examples

• Many young women, from all races and classes, have taken on the idea of the American Dream, however difficult it might be for them to achieve it (Sidel 19-20).

• The adult mountain lion population in California is now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and Messina 166).

More Examples

• In California, fish and game officials estimate that since 1972 lion numbers have increased from 2,400 to at least 6,000 (“Lion” 21).

• An article that appeared in Research Quarterly states that, “Their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (Russo par. 3).

Signal Phrases• Signal phrases help you to transition from

your words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.

• With practice, you will learn how to integrate research smoothly into your paper.

• In most cases, it is preferable to include the author’s name in a signal phrase that precedes the quote, fact, statistic, etc. Because the author is already named, you need only list the page or paragraph number in the parentheses.

Examples

• The sociologist Ruth Sidel’s interviews with young woman provide examples of what Sidel sees as the “impossible dream” (19).

• Michelle Russo’s article from Research Quarterly states that “Their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (par. 3).

• The following signal phrases are good examples of ways you can introduce the findings of your research in your paper:

• According to…

• In the words of…

• In a recent study by…

• Current research proves that…

• Avoid overusing the verb “said” in your paper. Here is a list of strong, active verbs that you can use in your signal phrases.

• You can write that someone…

• acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees

• argues, asserts, claims, or comments

• confirms, believes, declares, or implies

• insists, notes, observes, or points out,

• reports, states, theorizes, or writes

• Often in your research you will encounter quotes, facts, statistics, etc. that are written by someone other than the author of the piece you are reading. Use the following format:

• We generate words unconsciously, without thinking about them; they appear, as James Britton says, “at the point of utterance” (qtd. in Smith 108).

• NOTE: On the “Works Cited” page give the bibliographic information for the source you read, not the source quoted from—since you haven’t read that.

Creating a “Works Cited” Page• A “Works Cited” page contains the full

bibliographic information to which you have been referring in the body of your paper.

• The “Work Cited” page is…

• the last page of your paper

• double-spaced

• alphabetized

• On the “Works Cited” page, sources are always listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.

• If your source has no author, go by the first word of the title to alphabetize.

• When listing sources, indent every line after the first line five spaces or one-half inch or use a hanging indent.

• Italicize book titles and web sites.  • Use quotation marks around articles, stories, poems, and

essays.

Works Cited Page

There are many different ways to cite sources on your “Works Cited” page, depending on whether your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.

You are not expected to memorize each way; you are expected to know how to find the format you need for your particular source.

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Works Cited

 

Sahadi, Jeanne. “The Ideal Budget.” CNN/Money. n.d. Web

Cassady, Jerrell C., and Ronald E. Johnson. “Cognitive Test Anxiety and

Academic Performance.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 27.2

(2002): 270-295. Print.

Clark, Jane B. “As Seen on TV.” Kiplinger’s July 2002: 98-105. Print.

Halfacre, R. Gordon, and Anne Shawcroft. Landscape Plants of the Southeast.

Raleigh: Sparks, 1997. Print.

Article on a Website

Journal Article

Magazine Article

book two

authors

Works Cited 

For more examples see page 284-291 in your book

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What is APA?• If you are writing a paper for

the sciences, social sciences, or education, follow APA-style documentation.

• APA stands for the American Psychological Association. This organization publishes the The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

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Points to Remember(About APA-Style

Documentation)

• All written material (the body of your paper and the list of references) is double-spaced.

• APA-style requires parenthetical or in-text citations in the body of your paper when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other borrowed material.

• The reference page is a separate page and carries the heading “References.” This is where you list your sources, alphabetically.

• When listing sources, indent every line after the first line five spaces or one-half inch (hanging indent).

Integrating Research

• With APA, there are generally two pieces of information that need to go inside the parentheses of an in-text citation:

• the author’s last name • the year the article, book, research, etc.

was published

• The information in the parentheses refers readers to the full bibliographic information on the “References” page.

Proofreading or How to Make a Perfect Paper

Time Diligence Gumption

☻TDG☻TDG☻TDG

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Time There is no way around it.

Once you have begun to finalize your paper, you need to give yourself ample time to read it over (and over, and over) again.

Reading your paper one time through is NOT adequate proofreading.

Decide on the areas that you should pay attention to or have trouble with. For instance…

Punctuation

Spelling

Unclear sentence structure

Go back to the computer after several readings and make corrections on the screen.

Print out another clean copy.

Ask a friend, relative, or tutor to be a second set of eyes.

This is not cheating; it is common sense.

Even great writers get help.

Read aloud.

Read the paper backwards, sentence by sentence.

Sounds crazy?

It works.

Diligence Diligence means careful and

persistent work or effort. Sound like a lot of work?

It is.

The more you write the better writer you will become. You will make less mistakes and get better at catching the inevitable ones.

Gumption• Writing (even a research paper) is a

craft.

• Mastering the craft requires practice and hard work.

• Those students who take the time are able to produce polished final drafts that reflect intelligence, thoughtfulness, care, and hard work—qualities professors and future employers value.

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. Gene Fowler

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Works Cited

Mount Wachusett Community College. “How to Love a Research Paper.” n.d. Web. Aug. 2011