THE 5WS AND H OF WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS

Introduction to Research Papers

WHY on earth would I ever research?

How would you go about finding a car?How do you plan to look for a job?What is your hobby? How do you know so

much about it?What are you thinking of doing after high

school? Job? College?

WHAT is a research paper?

Its basic purpose is to INFORM.It explores a topic and explains it using

research gathered about that topic.It takes everything you learned from your

research and reports it.

WHY write a research paper?

To learn more about a topic Develop a better understanding

To inform others of what you’ve learnedTo explore your world

Video game research Fashion research

WHERE can I find the info for a research paper?

Library: books, magazines, journalsOnline: valid web sites, online journals

For our purposes, web sites must end in .edu, .org, or .gov

VideosSpeechesPublic recordsPractically ANYWHERE

WHO would want to read my research paper?

Audience: others interested in your topicConsider audience carefully

Give them more than what they know

WHEN should I begin my paper?

Only after you have gathered ample information for explaining your topic, and AFTER you: Make note cards of important info Prewrite or Brainstorm Outline Write a thesis using your information

HOW on earth do I write one of these papers?

Not to worry—I’ll show you. Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing Publishing

What about all that MLA business?

MLA is a way of acknowledging the information that we use from someone else’s work

We’ll refer to someone else’s work both in our text and on our Works Cited page Without BOTH of these, we are plagiarizingText:

Maintaining student engagement is a daily challenge teachers face, and cooperating with peers can be a “powerful motivator for young adolescents” (Irvin 57).

Works CitedIrvin, Judith L. Reading and the Middle School Student:

Strategies to Enhance Literacy. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998. Print.

Topics

“The Devil and Tom Walker” Hypocrisy, archetypes, symbolism

“Young Goodman Brown” Hypocrisy, archetypes, symbolism

“The Raven” Sound devices, imagery, symbolism, melancholy

“The Pit and the Pendulum” Terror/suspense, light/darkness, sensory details, time

Moby Dick Symbolism, nature, madness, color