Five Steps to Research Paper Success

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Five Steps to Research Paper Success

• Introductory Workshop
• University Writing Center,
• Cal Poly Pomona

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The Harder Research Paper Process Involves . . .

• Waiting until the last minute.
• Having a topic that is too broad.
• Taking sloppy or incomplete notes.
• Not breaking down the process into manageable
  steps.

3
An Easier Research Process

• Start early.
• Narrow a broad topic to a specific question.
• Keep to a consistent writing schedule perhaps a
  little every day or a little more every two days.
• Take good notes on your reading.

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The Research Process in Five Steps

• Define and narrow your topic.
• Find your sources and evaluate their quality and
  relevance.
• Take notes on their bibliographic information and
  content.
• Organize the material.
• Incorporate the material into your paper and
  respond.

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Defining and Narrowing a Topic

• Identify a topic (e.g. Capital punishment in
  California).
• Pose questions about topic (e.g. Should capital
  punishment be abolished? Is it a state or
  Federal issue?).
• If questions do not present themselves naturally,
  begin research at the topic-level.
• If you are having trouble finding a topic,
  consider using a topic generator.

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Sample Topic Generator
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Sample Topic Generator (Continued)

• Select topic from Group Definition category (e.g.
  Sexual Orientation).
• Combine Group Definition topic with an issue
  (e.g. Sexual Orientation Marriage or Gay
  Marriage).
• Narrow further by selecting a place and time
  (e.g. Gay marriage in California in the last
  decade).

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Sample Topic Generator (Continued)

• Once you have defined a topic, pose specific
  questions about it
• - What are you trying to find out?
• - Are you interested in causes or trends?
• - What is the best policy on an issue?
• - What are the positive or negative effects of a
  particular law?
• If you are still having trouble, begin
  researching at the topic-level.

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Sample Topic Generator (Continued)
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Finding Sources

• Use the library catalog to find books and
  e-books.
• Use databases to find articles in newspapers,
  magazines, and scholarly journals.
• Choose your search terms carefully.
• Make sure they are spelled correctly!
• Use word combinations.

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Finding Sources (Continued)

• Dont take the first 10 hits on a general Google
  search and stop.
• Use books and journals for the most credible
  in-depth content.
• Use bibliographies as valuable resources for
  research leads.
• When in doubt, consult a librarian.

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Saving Source Information

• Record bibliographic information of all promising
  sources
• Nossiff, Rosemary. Before Roe Abortion Policy
  in the States. Philadelphia Temple UP, 2001.
• Save the text of clearly valuable sources to
  flash drives, in hard copy form, or online
  through self-sent emails.

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Evaluating Sources

• Ask the following questions when evaluating your
  print sources
• Is the edition of the book you are reading
  current?
• Have the journals you are using been
  peer-reviewed?
• What kind of revision and editing process might
  such print sources have undergone?

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Evaluating Sources (Continued)

• Ask the following questions when evaluating your
  online sources
• Are your online sources reliable?
• Do the websites you are using end in credible
  domain names, such as .org, .gov., or .edu?
• Or do they end in the often more subjective and
  less reliable .com or .net?
• Was the web source you are using posted by a
  professional writer, organization, or government
  agency? Or was it posted by a blogger, an
  amateur writer, or a fringe group like the Ku
  Klux Klan?

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Evaluating Sources (Continued)

• Once you determine a sources reliability,
  consider the following
• Do sources reflect the question at issue (e.g.
  Should gay couples be allowed to marry in
  California?)?
• Do sources support your position?
• Do they challenge it?
• Do they provide necessary context for the point
  you wish to raise?

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Evaluating Sources (Continued)

• A True Research Horror Story
• An actual research assignment for a Cal Poly
  business course asked students to write a
  cost/benefit analysis evaluating the Java
  programming language against C.
• One of the students in the class drew on a great
  deal of information about the difficulty of
  hiring, training, and retaining Java programmers
  and about a company that had switched to Java.
  However, she included no information about costs
  and very little about anything financial.
• Had this student evaluated her sources before
  using them, she would have avoided wasting time
  and effort on a paper that never fulfilled the
  requirements of the assignment.

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The Note Card System

• In the past, the most common method for students
  doing research was to annotate and organize
  source information on note cards.
• Bibliographic information was recorded on 3x5
  cards.
• Quotes, paraphrases, summaries, and ideas on 4x6.
• Once students had collected enough notes, they
  would
• Sort the information by topic or issue
• Arrange it in different ways
• Develop it into a paper

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The Copy-and-Paste Method

• Today most students copy information from
  articles that are either posted online or
  collected in databases. They then paste this
  information directly into their papers.
• This method allows students to gather information
  without having to re-type or copy it to note
  cards.

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The Copy-and-Paste Method (Continued)

• However, the copy-and-paste method makes sorting
  and manipulating information more difficult.
• Also, the risk of plagiarism increases when
  information is not filtered through a system that
  annotates, organizes, and breaks down material.

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A Strategy Similar to the Note Card System

• First, collect all notes (including bibliographic
  information) in a Word document.
• Next, print notes and color code them according
  to topics.
• Then, cut printed pages into smaller fragments of
  information.
• Finally, experiment with arranging notes in
  different ways.

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A Strategy Similar to the Note Card System
(Continued)
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A Strategy Similar to the Note Card System
(Continued)
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Formats for Organizing Paper

• Depending on the class, teachers either impose
  particular formats for organizing research papers
  or no format at all.
• If you are not provided with a format, you should
  check with your professor for instruction on
  organizing your paper.

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Formats for Organizing Paper (Continued)

• Sample format for a research paper in the social
  sciences
• 1)Title Page
• 2)Abstract (If appropriate)
• 3)Introduction/statement of problem
• 4)Research methodology
• 5)Findings/results
• 6)Discussion/conclusions
• 7)Notes (If appropriate)
• 8)References
• 9)Appendixes (If appropriate)
• Source Cuba, Lee. A Short Guide to Writing About
  Social Science. 4th ed. New York Longman,
  2002. 82-83.

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Formats for Organizing Paper (Continued)

• To meet the various expectations of different
  disciplines, you can organize almost any research
  paper using the following generic format
• 1)Introduction
• 2)Literature Review
• 3)Discussion
• 4)Conclusions
• 5)Works Cited

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Formats for Organizing Paper (Continued)

• Compare the two formats
• Social Sciences Generic Format
• 1) Title Page 1) ---
• 2) Abstract (If appropriate) 2) ---
• 3) Introduction/statement of problem 3)
  Introduction
• 4) Research methodology 4) Lit Review
• 5) Findings/results 5) ---
• 6) Discussion/conclusions 6) Discussion
• 7) Notes (If appropriate) 7) Conclusions
• 8) References 8) Works Cited
• 9) Appendixes (If appropriate) 9) ---

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Literature Review

• The lit review section shows that you know
  something about your topic.
• What are the main issues?
• What are the different points of view?
• What do experts generally agree about?
• What do experts disagree about?
• What is new in this field?
• Organize the lit review by issue, perspective,
  history, or in some other way. Dont just do a
  note card dump.

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Discussion

• In the discussion section, you present the
  arguments that support your point of view.
• Support your arguments with facts, ideas, and
  authorities from your research.
• Think about which experts you agree with and
  which you dont. Your lit review should be
  objective and balanced. In the discussion
  section you are generally making a case for your
  position.

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Drafting

• Consider the following questions when drafting
  your paper
• What is your thesis? Is it qualified? Does it
  include your reasoning?
• How might you use sources that counter your
  argument?
• How might you use other sources as support?
• How might you connect and transition your ideas,
  sentences, and paragraphs?

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Drafting (Continued)

• Problems writing the paper arise when students .
  . .
• -dont include enough source information.
• -include too much source information.
• -dont include enough of their own response.
• -include too much of their own response.
• -dont demonstrate an understanding of both
• sides.
• -dont clarify their own position.

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Drafting (Continued)

• Evaluate the following excerpt
• Now I come to a welfare program, housing. The
  article is called More Than Housing Lifeboats
  for Women and Children. It was written by
  Sprague, Joan F. and printed by the New York
  Times on Feb., 16 of 1991 on pg. A13. It talks
  about single mothers housing and single parent
  family housing. It also talks about St. Ann, the
  institution that president Lincoln chartered.
  How it still operates today. The author as I
  quote says that still women young or old need
  societys support to make decent lives for their
  children.

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Drafting (Continued)

• Weaknesses
• 1) Excerpt does not need to include all the
  publishing information.
• 2) It includes strictly information from a
  source and nothing of the writers own
  contribution.
• 3) The information is not organized for the
  reader.
• 4) The writer does not clarify the issue for
  the reader.

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Drafting (Continued)

• Strengths
• 1) The writer has collected a certain amount of
  information from one source in a single
  paragraph.
• 2) The writer has attempted to differentiate
  quoted material from paraphrased.
• 3) The paragraph includes some relevant
  bibliographic information.
• 4) The writer has clearly attempted not to
  plagiarize.

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Connecting Ideas

• Showing connections between ideas can help you
  develop and organize your paper at the sentence
  level.
• Such connections allow you to show the
  relationships between the words and ideas of
  others, as well as between your own and those of
  others.

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Connecting Ideas (Continued)

• Compare the following quotes
• Opinion surveys show strong support for the death
  penalty in all regions of the country and among
  virtually all population groups. A Gallup Poll
  taken in September 1994 reported that 80 percent
  of the respondents favored the death sentence for
  persons convicted of murder.
• Law enforcement officials don't consider the
  death penalty as an effective deterrent.
  According to a new national poll of 386 police
  chiefs and sheriffs, the death penalty was ranked
  as the least cost-effective way of reducing
  violent crime.
• Source Worsnop, Richard L. Will Support for
  Executions Continue to Grow? NAACP Legal Defense
  and Educational Fund. CQ Researcher. March 10,
  1995.

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Connecting Ideas (Continued)

• Rewrite each quote in your own words first.
  Before doing so, consider the following
• -What is being said?
• -What isnt being said?
• -Are absolute statements being made?
• -Are the statements qualified?
• Now write a separate sentence expressing your own
  opinion on the issue of capital punishment. Do
  you favor one view more than another? Are you
  somewhere in the middle?

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Connecting Ideas (Continued)

• Next rewrite and rearrange your sentences to show
  the connections between them.
• -Are the two statements you rewrote opposed?
• -Do you agree with one of them more than the
  other?
• -Would you use words like but or so to
  connect the ideas?
• -Would you use words like however or
  therefore?
• Finally, proofread your paragraph to make sure it
  shows the appropriate connections between the
  ideas presented.

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Workshop Preview

• Join us for the second part of this research
  workshop in the eighth week.
• We will be discussing source citation,
  documentation, works cited lists, and style.