WRITING AND REVISING YOUR RESEARCH PAPERS

AGENDA AND ANNOUNCEMENTS (12/2) The fourth Annual Undergraduate scholars forum. You can present your 202 research projects!www.iup.edu/undergradscholars This will provide you with an excellent opportunity for scholarly development by presenting

your original research and scholarly activities. It’s a great way of networking and building your resumes.

Ellen will introduce the NOOG system: www.nogg.com

Social and final– Tuesday, December 9th from 12:30-2:00Bring some snacks!

Return two copies of final on Tuesday Dec 9th –Electronic copies are NOT accepted.

Review of Research Writing (see ch. 19)—a few tips/reminders emerging from student conferences.

Final Blog Assignment: Telling your research stories

INTRODUCTION

Remember to include your thesis statement and/or research questions.

Indicate the significance of this study. What are YOU adding to the larger conversation?

Tell your readers what the purpose of your research study is .

Open your paragraph with an attention grabber.

In your introduction, you can also include some of your literature. Whom do you agree/disagree with?

LITERATURE REVIEW Include at least five sources (at least 3 of them

should be scholarly articles) Be sure that your sources are relevant to your

topic. Ch. 17 Good Reasons Evaluate your sources well. Wikipedia is a good

start, but do not stay there. Wikipedia will only provide you one surface level of knowledge. As a researcher, you need to move beyond Wikipedia!

Use in-text citations. Never ever leave your citations alone. Orphan

citations do not make sense unless you incorporate them into your writing and show the readers how it is relevant to your main argument.

Be consistent with your documentation style. Either use MLA or APA. Do not mix these two styles.

QUOTING SOURCES Good research build on the work of others, but you

need to be careful how you summarize others’ voices.

Quote sources without plagiarizing Indicate the words of others by placing them inside

quotation marks. Limit the use of long quotations. Try not to have

two very long quotations in one paragraph. If the ideas are more important than the original

wording of the quote, simply summarize /paraphrase the quotation.

Make sure that your quotation is attributed(e.g., According to Brown, Brown argues that, Brown

states that, Brows uses the idea of, In Brown’s words)

For more information, see Good Reasons Ch 19 p. 274-277

METHODOLOGY

What are the data sources that you are using to investigate your research questions? Are you interviewing someone, analyzing primary sources, doing observations or using your field notes?

Simply report your data collection procedures. See the example research papers that we discussed.

Indicate what methods of inquiry you are using for this study (e.g., qualitative : ethnography, narratives, life history; or quantitative methods: statistical analysis, survey, quantifying your data)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

What are your findings? Share your results. Give examples.

What did you find from the data that you collected? Start your claims and list your evidence.

What major themes and topic emerged from your research?

CONCLUSION Develop Closure. Answer the question "So What?“---Show your

readers why this paper was important. Show them that your paper was meaningful and useful to your field of investigation!

Include a brief summary of the paper's main points. That is, remind the readers the issues that you have raised in your research

Ask a provocative question. Suggest results or consequences.

Give your reader something to think about. You could include some suggestions to use your paper in the "real" world.

You can end with a powerful quotation or an anecdote.

SHORT PRESENTATION OF YOUR WORK (12/4)

You will have 2-3 minutes to talk about your work in front of the class.

Tell us about your research questions, your methodology, your data (and how you collected it), the importance of your research and the findings.

ASSIGNMENTS

Work on your research papers. Remember to visit the writing center. Post a reflective entry to the class blog (see

the next slide for details).

TELL YOUR RESEARCH STORY

In the class blog, please comment on the followings:

Why did you choose your research topic? How did you expand your research topic?

What helped you most in this class to know and understand more about your research writing? (what were the most helpful resources, tips etc. for you?)

How did you improve as a writer by the end of this course? Think about all the book reviews, blog postings, and drafts of research papers you’ve written in this course. And, tell us about a few rich learning moments.