A GUIDE TO WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
A GUIDE TO WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
CONTENT I. Research Design--What question, idea, or topic are
you researching? What type of information do you need to answer
your research needs? How are you planning to organize and support
your argument? Are your data sufficient to the task? Is your
argument logical and relevant to your question? Where can you find
the information? Preparing your research question and design in
advance will save you a lot of time and agony when it becomes time
to do the actual research and writing. A common mistake is in
choosing too general a topic or idea. Keep your focus tight or you
will need a book rather than a research paper to adequately deal
with it. If you prepare a good research design, your research and
writing will be greatly simplified. II. Conduct your research,
using your research design. Be thorough, but do not be tempted to
go outside your plan unless some modification is necessary (or you
are just interested). This is a second common mistake. Many people
tend to clutter their research and writing with irrelevant details
and inconsequential asides. Stay with your current point and follow
it up in detail. Stay focused! While you should maintain your
focus, be alert for data and information that you may not have
thought of or known about in advance and that is important to your
research. Check your sources' sources for clues to important work
you may have missed. Do not ignore journal articles. (If you do not
know how to use the indexes to topics, articles, etc., ask the
librarian. It is his or her job to help you.) In fact, journal
articles can save you a lot of time since they are frequently a
distillation of a longer work or book. You should also be alert to
primary sources, original historical documents and other archival
material, foreign language newspapers, some government documents,
personal interviews, raw statistics, etc. If you are conducting
your own field work experimentation, the procedure remains the
same. However, there will almost certainly be modifications to make
in your research plan and great care must be taken in the design to
ensure that the data you are gathering are useful and will in fact
assist in answering your research question in a logical fashion.
III. Organization of your text--Always state your research question
or topic at the beginning, as well as any countervailing views or
controversies that have been generated in the literature and that
you intend to address. The body of your paper should always address
your opening, and only your opening, in a logical and supportive
manner. If you have designed a good research plan and produced the
appropriate data, your paper will essentially write itself at this
point. You need only to follow the design as a type of outline,
filling in your information in the appropriate order. (Note: It is
helpful to arrange your notes by category or topic on separate
pages so that they can be shuffled into the appropriate order. A
word of caution: make sure you have all of the necessary citation
information for all the data that you collect.) Make sure your
argument follows logically, that you have smooth transitions from
one point to the next, that you remain focused and do not include
points irrelevant to the current discussion, and that you include
sufficient information to adequately support your contention.
Beware of using information that "everybody" knows. "Everybody" is
likely to be wrong. The conclusion serves to briefly reiterate your
main point and describe how it was supported in the text.
Hopefully, you have provided a logical, solid, well-supported and
well-argued thesis. Keep in mind that the conclusion is not the
place for your unsupported opinion or flowery speeches about how
the world can or will be a better/worse place, etc. You are writing
a research paper, not an essay or opinion piece.
STYLE Begin writing as soon as possible, even before you finish
all your research. The very act of writing will help keep you
focused and aware of what you are still lacking. If you have a gap
or need more research to finish a point, leave a "flag" of some
sort in your text and continue with what you have. Avoid run-on
sentences and awkward constructions. A sentence that exceeds more
than three typed lines without punctuation will be difficult to
read and follow. A good idea is to read your work aloud to check
for length and smoothness of construction. It is also helpful to
vary your sentence length for ease and interest of reading. The
construction of your paragraphs is also important. Each paragraph
should address a single point. The first sentence tells the reader
the topic of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph provides all
of the detail necessary to clarify the topic introduced in the
first sentence. If the point requires much clarification, such as
in more than six sentences or so, then you are probably dealing
with several distinct points and should break the paragraph into
several paragraphs, each with topic sentences. Each paragraph
follows logically from the previous one in the text in order to
build a coherent argument. At times you may need a transition
paragraph to make the connections between one paragraph or point to
another. At other times the final sentence in a paragraph or the
initial sentence in the next may serve this purpose. Write simply
and directly. Avoid jargon (a professional hazard) whenever
possible and always avoid common clichs such as "last but not
least" or "in the general scheme of things." Remember that you are
not writing a literary essay and that "flowery" language adds
nothing to your argument or to your clarity. Be careful of which
adjectives, qualifiers, and intensifiers you choose and be as
precise as possible. A common mistake made by students is
inappropriate word use. Make sure you know the precise meaning of
the words you choose. If you are not sure, use a different word or
look it up in a dictionary. Do not repeat the same word
continuously. A thesaurus can be helpful in this regard. At the
same time, guard against pretentiousness in your writing by using
overly large or obscure words when a simpler one will do. Avoid the
general use of the passive tense. I encourage you to write direct
sentences and to use the word "I" when it is appropriate. When you
have finished your first draft, read through it and eliminate any
unnecessary words or phrases. Check for brevity. Check for clarity
and accuracy of your argument. Check for extraneous comments that
do not add to your argument or which are not then developed. Check
for unsupported or "opinion" statements. Editorial page comments
have no place in a research paper, unless that is your topic. Check
for smooth transitions from one point to another. Rearrange your
paragraphs, if necessary. Check your spelling and grammar. After
you finish editing your work, do it again. Be happy that you live
in the computer age. Read it aloud. Have a friend edit your work
for you. If you do this on a regular basis, both you and your
friend will benefit by learning how to pick out flaws before they
occur and by receiving better grades.
PLAGIARISM
--UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL PLAGIARISM BE TOLERATED. FAILURE
TO READ YOUR GUIDE SHEET IS NOT AN EXCUSE. Plagiarism is stealing
and passing off as one's own work the ideas or works of another and
it is a serious crime in academia. If you are summarizing the words
of anyone else, even in your own words, you must cite him or her.
For a general summary of an entire work or chapter, the name and
date is sufficient (Sahlins 1972). If you are summarizing a
specific passage, then the inclusive page number(s) must be given
(Sahlins 1972:36-38). If it is a direct quote, the specific page
number(s) must be given Sahlins 1972:36). Only your own ideas, your
own data, your own conclusions--or information that is in the realm
of general knowledge (The Amazon River is located in South
America.)--can be used without citation. Everything else must be
cited. This includes references to films, recordings, literary
references, personal communications, unpublished papers, etc.
Failure to do so will cause you to fail the assignment. Take this
as a serious warning.
FORMAT --Margins should be the standard default width of
computer word processing programs, i.e., one inch. Left
justification of type is preferable. DO NOT MANIPULATE MARGINS AND
TYPE POINT TO INCREASE PAGE NUMBERS. --Double-space your text.
--Print should be dark and crisp enough for clear reading.
--Foreign words are underlined or italicized in your text, with the
exception of foreign names and titles (el pueblo of Juan Carlos).
--Be consistent in your format. If there are multiple spellings
used in your sources for some reason, pick one spelling and
maintain it. If you choose to capitalize certain words such as "the
Catholic Church" or "Blacks and Whites," always use that form. The
worst inconsistency (because it says a lot about you) is
capitalizing one form of a category and not capitalizing
another--such as "the baptist church and the Catholic Church" or
"Blacks and whites." --Do not allow widows and orphans to occur.
This is the term used to describe leaving one line of text from a
paragraph or quotation to dangle alone at the bottom or top of a
page (at least two lines together is the rule). Word processing
programs will eliminate this problem automatically, if you program
them to do so (but double check anyway because there are certain
cases, such as headings and indented quotes, that the programs do
not recognize as such). If you are typing your paper, simply leave
a larger margin at the bottom of your page and start your
paragraph, etc. at the top of the next page. --Check your
spelling!!! --Do not include any authors or works that you have not
cited in your references or bibliography. Other scholars are not
interested in what works you may have read, they are interested in
where your specific references originated. Make sure you do include
all works that you have cited. If the citation is incomplete for
some reason, attempt to complete it. If this is not possible, make
a note in your references that the missing piece of information is
not available, such as "nd" for "no date" or "ng" for "not given."
Do not simply leave the reference out. --Avoid over-quoting. Most
students quote far too much. Use your own words as much as
possible. Use quotations for matters where: 1) the exact wording is
crucial, as in parts of some documents or letters; 2) where the
wording is unusually colorful or descriptive; or 3) where you want
to comment on the exact text. --Indent and single space direct
quotations of three or more sentences. Do not use quotation marks
to begin and end a block quotation. One-third to one-half of
humanity are said to go to bed hungry every night. In the Old Stone
Age the fraction must have been much smaller. This is the era of
hunger unprecedented. Now, in the time of the greatest technical
power, is starvation an institution. Reverse another venerable
formula: the amount of hunger increases relatively and absolutely
with the evolution of culture (Sahlins 1972:36).--If you are
deleting words from a quotation, use three dots within a sentence
and four between sentences. Marshall Sahlins (1972:36) has said,
"Now . . . is starvation an institution." --Note that the quotation
marks fall outside the entire sentence and after the period. The
only exception to this rule is in some citations that also fall at
the end of a sentence. "This is the era of hunger unprecedented.
Now, in the time of the greatest technical power, is starvation an
institution. Reverse another venerable formula: the amount of
hunger increases relatively and absolutely with the evolution of
culture" (Sahlins 1972:36). --If you add commentary in someone
else's text or need to make an editorial comment, it is placed in
brackets directly after the edition or at the end of the quote, but
before the period. "This is the era of hunger unprecedented [rather
than the distant past]. Now, in the time of the greatest technical
power, is starvation an institution" (Sahlins 1972:36). According
to Julio Cesar Chaves (1942:279), the new nation of Paraguay was
left to incubate its new nationalism for the 26 years of Francia's
rule. The isolation of Paraguay in 1823 was almost total. No
commercial relations whatsoever were maintained outside the
country, reducing commerce to the barter of a few products in Pilar
[on the Paraguay River near Argentina]. Navigation was limited to
an arrival at the port [of Pilar] of a boat because, for a rare
political exception with the exterior, the Paraguayan government
did not send representatives nor receive them. Since Nicols de
Herrera, in 1813, not one plenipotentiary arrived in Asuncin; those
sent from Artigas [Jos Gervasio, president of Uruguay] and from the
Congress of Tucumn [Argentina] have also not set foot on Guaran
soil [my translation] (quoted in Turner 1991:5).Note the use of
brackets in the text for clarification and the use of brackets at
the end to make an editorial comment. Also note that when you are
using a direct quote from a secondary source, it is necessary to
indicate that fact in the citation, i.e., "quoted in" or "cited
in." --The first time you mention an individual in your text
(excluding in text citations), the full name should be given,
thereafter use only the surname. Honorary titles (Dr., Mrs., Mr.,
etc.) are not used in scientific writing with the possible
exception of those in the religious orders (Father John, Sister
Joan). Only the last name is given for the in-text citations
(Sahlins 1972). When you cite a book or author in the text, place
the in-text citation immediately after the title or name. The
citation should include author's surname, date of publication, and
page number(s), where necessary. If you have just mentioned the
author, you only need the year and page number. You do not need to
include the title of the work, nor do you need to underline it in
the text. You must always include the date of the publication. If
the author has more than one publication in one year that you are
citing, you must indicate which you are referring to by the use of
"a" or "b" after the year. The designation of which is to be "a"
and which is to be "b" is decided alphabetically by title. This
must also be done for your reference page. (Multiple references by
the same author are first sorted by year, earliest first, and then
alphabetically by title, if necessary). In his work, Stone Age
Economics, Marshall Sahlins (1972:36) has said, "[t]his is the era
of hunger unprecedented. Now, in the time of the greatest technical
power, is starvation an institution." Sahlins (1972:38) further
states that, "...." Note the use of only the surname in its second
occurrence and that the reader will need to refer to the reference
section of your work to acquire the name of the second publication
for that year. If the article you are citing is part of a larger,
edited volume, your must cite the specific author, not the volume
editor(s). The complete information about the volume references
will be made in your references section. Similarly, if there are
more than two authors (Ruff, Trinkaus, Walker, and Lawson 1993:22),
your specific reference may be shortened (Ruff et al. 1993:22).
Remember that if you refer to these multiple authors in your actual
text, that all of their full names must be given with the first
reference. Make sure your references (or bibliography) are accurate
and complete in all respects. As you advance in your academic
career, you should also be using more primary sources for your
data, as opposed to relying wholly on someone else's interpretation
of the data or sources. Refer to the attached bibliography for the
proper formatting of your references. If you incur difficulties or
are unsure about the form, ask me for clarification before you turn
in your work. General rules for in text citation forms are:
--author(s) names (all of them); --make sure you note if it is an
edited work (a volume with chapters written by a number of authors
but collected and organized by only one or some of these) by the
use of "ed." or "eds." after the name(s), or possibly "comp." or
"comps." for compilers; --in edited volumes or journals, the
specific author and the title of his or her work is stated first,
then the information given on the volume (see Sahlins 1960, below,
for an example); --the date of the work follows the author's or
editor's name; --if a work is reprinted after a significant lapse
of time, both dates are given, 1993 [1924] (in your text as well);
--the article title is given first, then the journal or volume
title; --for this citation form, you do not need quotation marks or
underlining for titles, the order and substance alerts the reader
to which is which; --for journal articles, the journal's name
follows author, date, and article title. Next the volume number is
given, the number (if any), and the page numbers (American
Antiquity 54(2):55-89.) A similar form is used for edited volumes
(refer to references sample); --there may be additional publication
information to insert at this point. It is better to include too
much, rather than have too little; --the final bit of information
that must be included is the place of publication and the publisher
(not necessary for journals). If two or more cities are given for
the publisher, use the closest one. Oxford University Press is a
good example of this since they have houses in Oxford and New York.
If it is common knowledge where a city is located, only the city
name is given (New York: Oxford University Press), if not, the
state or country must be included as well (Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press). Other points that students sometimes don't know: --the
references are listed in alphabetical order; --references by the
same author are listed by year, earliest first; --if the references
are by the same author in the same year, they are alphabetized and
distinguished by "a" and "b" after the year (as well as in the in
text citation, Sahlins 1961b: 322); --if the author has one
reference alone and another reference with other authors, his or
her single reference goes first; --if the author has one reference
as author and another as an editor, the author references go
first.
SAMPLE REFERENCES CITED
Ruff, Cramdon, Eric Trinkaus, Amos Walker, and Christopher
Lawson 1993 Postcranial Robusticity in Homo, Temporal Trends and
Mechanical Interpretation American Journal of Physical Anthropology
91:21-53.Sahlins, Marshall D. 1958 Social Stratification in
Polynesia. Monograph of the American Ethnological Society. Seattle:
University of Washington Press. 1960 Political Power and the
Economy in Primitive Society. In, Gertrude Dole and Robert
Carneiro, eds., Essays in the Science of Culture in Honor of Leslie
White, pp. 123-56. New York: Crowell. 1961a Moala: Culture and
Nature on a Fijian Island. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
1961b The Segmentary Lineage: An Organization of Predatory
Expansion. American Anthropologist 63:322-45. 1969 Economic
Anthropology and Anthropological Economics. Social Science
Information 8(5):13-33. 1972 Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine
Publishing Company.
Sahlins, Marshall D., and Elman R. Service, eds. 1960 Evolution
and Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Turner,
Christina Bolke 1991 Language, Ethnicity, and Social Stratification
in Paraguay. Paper presented at the 1991 Annual Meeting of the
American Anthropological Association, Chicago.
SPECIAL CITATION QUESTIONS Personal communication (including
e-mail, listserv, and newsgroup messages) Should be cited in text,
with specific date, but not in references. Example: "Chris Turner
claims (letter to author, August 3, 1999) that . . ." Court case
Should be cited in text but not in references. Example: (Doe v.
U.Va., 521 F. Supplement 3322 [1997]). See Maryland 10.152 for
details. Internet document Use this format (the "URL") for
documents obtained at FTP or Telnet sites (ftp://...), WWW sites
(http://), and gopher sites (gopher://): Turner, Christina 1999
Guide to Writing a Research Paper. Electronic document.
http://saturn.vcu.edu/~cturner/guide.htm. NOTE: Every discipline
has its own style and format. Frequently there are variations
within a discipline. It would be wise to check with all your
professors throughout your academic career as to their preferences
in this regard. It would be unwise to suggest that you did it
differently in another class with another professor. Adapted from
Justus Doenecke, "A Guide to Writing Term Papers," Division of
Social Sciences, New College, Sarasota, FL.
PROCEDURE FOR WRITING A TERM PAPER
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/termpapr.html FURTHER HELP/GUIDES FOR
RESEARCH PAPER WRITING
http://www.students.vcu.edu/success/web/index.html
http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm How to Evaluate Your
Sources- http://www.library.vcu.edu/help/evaluate.html AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGY ASSOCIATION STYLE GUIDE
CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE OF THESIS STATEMENT, OUTLINE, AND
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY-- CLICK HERE TO SEE ANOTHER
