The Research Paper Created by M. Bowles January 2005 Arlington High School Arlington, Texas

The Research Paper

Created by M. BowlesJanuary 2005Arlington High SchoolArlington, Texas

The purpose of this presentation is to help you with the process of writing your research paper. By following

these guidelines closely you will avoid

committing plagiarism.

Plagiarism occurs when a writer uses another

person’s ideas or wordswithout giving that person

credit. Plagiarism is unethical and illegal.

Moreover…

…plagiarism will cause you to fail the

research paper assignment because…

…all English teachers are equipped with highly sensitive plagiarism-sensing equipment.

So, pay careful attention to this presentation and

get ready for a successful research paper experience!

Source CitationsSource CopiesWorks Cited PageParenthetical

Documentation

We will cover the following areas:

Source Cards

Put source number here

1

Citation information goes here

What does “citation” mean?

Where you got your information and who gets credit for it:

author(s), title(s), publisher, dates,web addresses, etc.

Sample source card

2

Banks, Ann. "American Memory." 1980. Voices from the Thirties. The Library of Congress. 14 Jan. 2005 <http://lcweb 2. loc. gov/ammem/wpaintro/ exhome. html>.

Works Cited

Banks, Ann. "American Memory." 1980. Voices from the Thirties. The Library of Congress. 14 Jan. 2005 <http://lcweb 2. loc. gov/ammem/wpaintro/ exhome. html>.

…on your Works Cited page!

Let’s see that again!2Works Cited

Banks, Ann. "American Memory." 1980. Voices from the

Thirties. The Library of Congress. 14 Jan. 2005 <http://lcweb 2. loc. gov/ammem/wpaintro/ exhome. html>.

What if I have more than one

source?

Ok, let’s say you have 3

sources.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Warner Books, 1982.

1

Banks, Ann. "American Memory." 1980. Voices from the Thirties. The Library of Congress. 14 Jan. 2005 <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem /wpaintro/exhome. html>.

2

3

"A Short History of the TVA." River Systems Operations. Tennessee Valley Authority. 21 Jan. 2005 <http://www.tv a.gov/abouttva/history.htm>

They will all go on the Works Cited page.

Works Cited

"A Short History of the TVA." River Systems Operations. Tennessee Valley Authority. 21 Jan. 2005 <http://www. tva.gov/abouttva/history.htm>

Ok…but aren’t they supposed to be in alphabetical order according to the first item in each citation?

Ok, now they’re inalphabetical order, but there’s one more thing to do. You have to use

hanging indentation. It’s opposite from theway a paragraph is

indented. Watch this…

Works Cited

"A Short History of the TVA." River Systems Operations. Tennessee Valley Authority. 21 Jan. 2005<http://www. tva.gov /abouttva /history.htm>

Banks, Ann. "American Memory.“ 1980. Voicesfrom the Thirties. The Library of Congress. 14

Jan. 2005 <http://lcweb2.loc .gov/ammem/ wpaintro/exhome.html >.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia:Warner Books, 1982.

Voila!Hanging

indentation!

Let’s say you are doing your paper on

“The Scottsboro Trial” and you have found a primary source on the internet that you want

to use.

Be sure to make a source card for

the source before doing anything else.

This is the page where the information was found. Get all of the necessary citation

information from it for your source card.

web address

web page title

web site title

owner

"Scottsboro: An American Tragedy." American Experience. 2005. PBS. 31 Jan. 2005 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/>.

4

Here is the resulting

source card.

How are we supposed to know what order the

information goes in?

You must consult The MLA Handbook. You have a

short version in the back of your grammar book, and

your teacher has a complete version.

Now your source card is done, so

you’re ready to start your source

copies. Here we go!

This part looks good, so you make a photo copy and

highlight this area.

4

Important! Number your copy with the

same number as the source from which

they came!

If the source is a book be sure to put the page number at the bottom of the copy.

14

Just one more thing…If you copy the text verbatim (word for word), you must place quotation marks around it.

Are we always supposed to copy everything verbatim for a research paper?

No! In fact it’s usually best to paraphrase the information into your own words using the fewest words possible.

Here’s what the card

looked like before.

“In 1933, Roy Wright, youngest of the Scottsboro Boys, was held in Birmingham Prison while his co- defendants languished on death row in Kilby Prison in Montgomery. “

Roy Wright’s situation 4

We’ll change this…

Roy Wright’s situation

1933, Roy Wright, held in Birmingham Prison

4Roy Wright’s situation

…to this.

Each note card should only contain one piece of information so that they can all be easily

sorted into an appropriate order.

Watch this…



4Roy Wright’s Testimony

“The firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off. “

5Wright’s release

July 1937 - Roy Wright released, all charges dropped

This card would logically go at the end, since it tells about an event that happened after those on the other 2 cards.

5Wright’s release






5Wright’s release





4Roy Wright’s situationNote: These numbers have nothing to do with the order of the cards. They are the numbers of your sources that you will need to do parenthetical documentation.

Now let’s move on to

documentation(citation in

).

parenthetical

parentheses

Remember those note cards we

put in order a minute ago?

5Wright’s release





4Roy Wright’s situationTogether these 3 cards can form a paragraph, so let’s start with this first one.



Since you paraphrased this information you will need to rewrite it with elaboration in the paper.

Roy Wright was one of the boys accused in the Scottsboro incident.

Topic sentence

In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham.

This is information you did not know before you did research. Therefore, you must give credit to the source. Otherwise, you are committing plagiarism.


In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham ( ).

You have to go back to the note card and source card to figure out what goes in the parentheses for the parenthetical documentation.



Here’s your source number, so….

American Experience. 2005. PBS. 31 Jan. 2005 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ amex/scottsboro/>.

4

“Scottsboro: An American Tragedy.”

This must be the source card that

goes with it.


4

“Scottsboro: An American Tragedy.”

Use the first item in the citation for your parenthetical

documentation.


(“Scottsboro: An American Tragedy”).

Technically, when a citation is that long you only have to use the first word followed by ellipses. Watch…

(“Scottsboro…”).

In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham

Now that we’ve done one citation

correctly, let’s continue writing

the paper.

Where did weput those 3 notecards we had?...

5Wright’s release




“1933, Roy Wright, youngest of the Scottsboro Boys, was held in Birmingham Prison while his co- defendants languished on death row in Kilby Prison in Montgomery. “

Roy Wright’s situation 4

Here they are. We’ve already used the one on top, so let’s go to

the next one.


“The firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off. “We need to put a

transition in before this,

though.


(“Scottsboro…”). At his trial RoyWright denied any wrongdoing. He is quoted as having said,


Transition

firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off.”

“The


In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham (“Scottsboro…”). At his trial RoyWright denied any wrongdoing. He is quoted as having said, firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off.”

“The

This quote is from the same source we used

before.


In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham (“Scottsboro…”). At his trial RoyWright denied any wrongdoing. He is quoted as having said, firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off”

“The



Now we just have one more card to

go before this paragraph is

finished.

5Wright’s release


Here’s that third note

card.

Linder, Doug. "Chronology." The Scottsboro Boys' Trials. Famous Trials. 29 Jan. 2005 http://www.law. umkc. edu/ faculty/projects/FTrials/ scottsboro /SB_chron.html

5

And here’s the source card that goes with it.


In 1933, Roy Wright was being held in the prison in Birmingham (“Scottsboro…”). At his trial RoyWright denied any wrongdoing. He is quoted as having said, firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off”

“The


(“Scottsboro…”). Wright was eventually released when the charges against him were dropped (Linder).

Now we can finish this paragraph by adding this

information with the correct parenthetical documentation.



At his trial RoyWright denied any wrongdoing. He is quoted as having said, “The firstest I knowed anything was wrong, or knowed who else was on that train was when that crowd of white men stopped the train in Paint Rock and took us off”


(“Scottsboro…”). Wright was eventually released when the charges against him were dropped (Linder).

If your entire paper

consisted of only this

paragraph, the Works Cited page would only list these

2 sources.

Works Cited

Go back and find your source cards to get the necessary

information.

Works Cited


An American Tragedy.”“Scottsboro:


4


Works Cited



Linder, Doug. "Chronology." TheScottsboro Boys' Trials. Famous Trials. 29 Jan. 2005 http://www.law.umkc. edu/ faculty/projects/FTrials/ scottsboro /SB_chron.html

Linder, Doug. "Chronology." The Scottsboro Boys' Trials. Famous Trials. 29 Jan. 2005 http://www.law. umkc. edu/ faculty/projects/FTrials/ scottsboro /SB_chron.html

5

Works Cited




Alphabetical order, please!

Works Cited




Hanging indentation, please!

Works Cited




There are many different forms for

parenthetical documentation as well as for the

Works Cited page.These can all be found in

The MLA Handbook.

Good luck on your paper!

The End

Documents

The Research Paper Created by M. Bowles January 2005 Arlington High School Arlington, Texas