The Research Paper

1
The Research Paper

• Following the MLA Guidelines
• Many thanks to Diana Hacker, The Purdue Online
  Writing Lab, and Stacey Miller! Your work has
  contributed greatly to this culmination of
  research writing instruction and support.

2
Focus

• For this essay you should be answering a bigger
  question, not just reporting on a topic
• Why should your person be considered a National
  Treasure?
• Avoid simply reporting information
• You need analysis, too lots of analysis!

3
MLA

• You must follow the MLA formatting guidelines for
  this assignment
• Here are two useful websites for help with all
  things MLA
• OWL MLA
• Diana Hacker MLA

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Plagiarism

• Your research paper is a collaboration between
  you and your sources. To be fair and ethical,
  you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of
  these sources. If you dont, you are guilty of
  plagiarism, a serious academic offense.
• Three different acts are considered plagiarism
• Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation
  marks
• Failing to cite quotations and/or specific facts
  and ideas
• Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your
  own words, with your own style and structure.
• Heres a useful website for help with avoiding
  plagiarism
• OWL plagiarism
• Penalties for plagiarism for this class include
  the following a zero on the assignment, no
  option to redo assignment, and a referral.

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Paraphrasing

• To paraphrase, you restate an authors ideas in
  your own words and style.
• When you paraphrase, remember the following
  points
• You must alter the style and wording of the
  original material. You cant just insert a few
  synonyms.
• You should not alter the meaning of the original
  material in any way.
• Heres a useful website for help with
  paraphrasing
• OWL paraphrasing

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Quoting

• Integrate quotations smoothly enough for readers
  to move from your words to the words of a source
  without feeling a jolt. Avoid dropping
  quotations into the text without warning
  instead, provide clear signal phrases, sometimes
  including the author's name to prepare readers
  for the quotation.
• Dropped Quotation (bad)
• Although the bald eagle is still listed as an
  endangered species, its ever-increasing
  population is very encouraging. "The bald eagle
  seems to have stabilized its population, at the
  very least, almost everywhere" (Sheppard 96).
• Quotation with Signal Phrase (good)
• Although the bald eagle is still listed as an
  endangered species, its ever-increasing
  population is very encouraging. According to
  ornithologist Jay Sheppard, "The bald eagle seems
  to have stabilized its population, at the very
  least, almost everywhere" (96).
• notice you do not use last name in citation
  you've already informed readers who the quote is
  coming from, so there's no need to include that
  in the citation

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Splicing quotes

• It is not always necessary to quote full
  sentences from a source. At times you may wish
  to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a
  source's sentence into your own sentence
  structure
• Brian Millsap claims that the banning of DDT in
  1972 was "the major turning point" leading to the
  eagles' comeback (2).
• The ultrasonography machine takes approximately
  250 views of each wing, step by step. Mary
  Spletter likens the process to "examining an
  entire loaf of bread, one slice at a time" (40).

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Modifying quotes

• Brackets (square parentheses) allow you to insert
  words of your own into quoted material. You can
  insert words in brackets to explain a confusing
  reference or to keep a sentence grammatical in
  your context.
• Example
• Robert Seyfarth reports that "Premarck a
  scientist at the University of Pennsylvania
  taught a seven-year-old chimpanzee, Sarah, that
  the word for 'apple' was a small, plastic
  triangle" (15).

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Block Quotes

• When you quote more than four typed lines (which
  you should rarely do), set off the quotation by
  indenting it ten spaces from the left margin.
  Use the normal right margin and do not
  single-space. Long quotations should be
  introduced by an informative sentence, usually
  followed by a colon. Quotation marks are
  unnecessary, because the indented format tells
  readers that the words are taken directly from
  the source.
• Example

Desmond describes how Washoe tried signing to the
other apes when the zookeepers returned her to an
ape colony in Oklahoma On one particularly
memorable day, a snake spread terror through
the castaways on the ape island, and all but one
fled in panic. This male sat absorbed, staring
intently at the serpent. He seemed completely
fixated on the curious sight, and hadnt
noticed the other apes running away. Eventually
he looked up and noticed that he was the only
remaining ape in the area which didnt appear to
concern him. Then Washoe was seen running over
signing to him. (42)
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Citing Sources

• In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your
  sources by making brief parenthetical citations
  in your text. These are called in-text citations
  or parenthetical references
• Your in-text citations correspond with an
  alphabetical list of works that appears at the
  end of the paper. This list is called a Works
  Cited

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In-Text Citations

• Every time you quote or state a specific fact or
  idea that is not common knowledge, you must cite
  your source. This happens on a sentence-by-sentenc
  e basis.
• In-text citations are made with a combination of
  signal phrases and parenthetical references.
• A signal phrase indicates that something taken
  from a source (a quotation, summary, paraphrase,
  or fact) is about to be used usually the signal
  phrase includes the author's name or perhaps the
  title of the source.
• The parenthetical reference, which comes after
  the cited material at the end of the sentence,
  usually includes the authors last name (and a
  page number, if you know the page), or if you
  dont know the author, then you should use the
  title of the article/section, or name of the
  sponsoring organization.
• What you include in the parenthetical reference
  will depend on what you include in your signal
  phrase and your source.
• Through your signal phrase or parenthetical
  reference, you must direct the reader to the
  source listed on your works cited page and you do
  so by providing the first part of the entry.
• If you have to use the sources title because you
  dont know the author, you can write a shortened
  form of the title in your parenthetical reference.

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In-Text Citation help

• Here are some useful websites for help with your
  in-text citations (there are good samples here
  too)
• OWL In-Text Citations (basic)
• Diana Hacker In-Text Citations

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A few more things about in-text citations

• Everything that you cite in the body of your
  essay must correspond to your list of sources
  (Works Cited) at the end of the paper
• You need to cite your source after every sentence
  of quoted or paraphrased material with specific
  facts/ideas.
• There are two exceptions to the sentence-by
  sentence citation rule
• 1. block quotes
• 2. what I call the sandwich method.
• The sandwich method???? As long as you mention
  the author or the title of the source in your
  signal phrase first, then you can write two
  sentences of quoted or paraphrased material and
  end with the parenthetical reference.
• Heres what it looks like
• According to Judy Stagnaro, only twenty two
  percent of students know how to use MLA format
  properly. That number is significantly lower in
  Sophomore classes (42).

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Works Cited

• This is the list of works that you actually cited
  in your essay
• If it wasnt cited in your essay, it doesnt
  belong on this page!
• The Format
• Begin the list of works cited on a new page at
  the end of the paper.
• Continue to use your header and maintain your one
  inch margins.
• Center the title Works Cited about one inch from
  the top of the page.
• Double-space throughout.
• Alphabetize the list by the last names of the
  authors (or editors) if a work has no author or
  editor, alphabetize by the first word of the
  title other than A, An, or The. If you dont know
  the title, use the name of the sponsoring
  organization.
• Do not indent the first line of each works cited
  entry, but indent any additional lines one-half
  inch (or five spaces). This technique highlights
  the names of the authors, making it easy for
  readers to scan the alphabetized list. I call
  this reverse indentation.
• I do not require that you include the URLs, so
  dont worry about them.

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Sample Works Cited Page

• Here is a website with an excellent example of a
  Works Cited page
• OWL sample WC

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What is included on the Works Cited Page?

• Because every source is different, its difficult
  to know exactly what information or data is
  required for each entry.
• For online sources, this is the sequence of what
  you need
• Author. (last name, first name)
• Title of article or short work. (notice the
  quotes)
• Title of Site. (notice the italics)
• Publisher or Sponsor,
• Date created or updated.
• Medium. (this means web)
• Date you accessed the site.
• If you dont have a piece of information (because
  it wasnt provided), you simply cant include it.
  
• The most recent version of MLA asks you to write
  n.p. for no publisher and n.d. for no date.

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Works Cited Help

• Here are some websites to help you with your
  Works Cited entries
• OWL WC Basic
• Diana Hacker WC Entries
• Easy Bib

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More helpful stuff

• Diana Hacker
• OWL
• These are among the most helpful websites when it
  comes to MLA format and the research paper, and
  Ive included links to specific pages by topic
  throughout this PowerPoint.
• I highly recommend that you refer to these sites
  in their entirety as you work on your research
  paper and encounter your own individual
  challenges.

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MLA Essay Samples

• Here are some examples of properly formatted
  essays
• Diana Hacker Sample
• OWL Sample

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turnitin.com

• One of your last steps is to submit your paper to
  turnitin.com
• Once you have electronically submitted your
  paper, youll need to note the paper id number
  (its like a receipt number) and write it on your
  grading rubric.
• Without completing this step, I will not accept
  your essay!