Research Paper Part One

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Research PaperPart One
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For this paper you will need to obtain two packs
of 3X5 index cards.
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Take Cornell Notes, Do not expect to receive any
project hand outs!

• Ask questions about how things are to be done in
  your notes.
• You must be engaged!
• If you disengage, you will become lost and
  receive a poor grade on the paper.
• This is a research paper- not an essay, it
  requires RESEARCH !!!!!!!!

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Write something new, something the reader cares
about." That automatically makes your paper
significant and interesting both for you to write
and the reader to study.

• Prime Directive

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Think and plan about the writing, dont just write

• Rather than writing a paragraph as it occurs to
  you, take time to list the techniques that you
  could use to build paragraphs. A paragraph plan
  reads like this

• Im going to list the Tennessee battles of
  General Ulysses Grant to show his progressive
  fulfillment of a major plan. The paragraph will
  help defend the topic sentence about Grant as
  both a patient and determined commander.

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Planning the Paper

• What is the purpose of the paper?
• (Beyond getting a grade or pleasing the
  teacher.)
• Who is your audience?
• What is your role as a research writer?
• What is your thesis sentence?

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Formatting
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MLA Format General Guidelines

• Double-space the text of your paper, and use
  10-12 point Bookman Old Style font.
• Leave two spaces after end of sentence
  punctuation.
• Set the margins to one inch on all sides.
• Indent the first line of a paragraph one
  half-inch.
• Create a header that numbers all pages
  consecutively in the upper right-hand corner,
  one-half inch from the top and flush with the
  right margin.
• Underline titles of outside works, use them only
  when absolutely necessary.

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Creating a title page for your paper - Write the
title in Title Case List your name, your
instructor's name, the course, and the date.
Underline other works in your title, just as
you would in your text, e.g., Fear and Loathing
in Las Vegas as Morality Play

• Formatting
• the First Page

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Research proposalGraded Element
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Writing the Research Proposal?

• The writers responsibility is to develop a
  thesis or purpose statement and layout the
  approach to the paper. Since the topic is a
  controversial, the purpose statement identifies
  both sides and suggests possible middle grounds.
  This requires the writer to do some basic
  research before developing a statement that
  clearly states a purpose and focus.
• In the proposal, the writer identifies, their
  role, the purpose of the paper, the papers
  thesis, and the audience of this paper.

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one student writers research proposal

• It saddens me to see people, even children
  throwing away their lives on cocaine addiction.
  My role is to explain to my schoolmates the
  effects of cocaine on various organs of the body.
  I will defend this thesis Cocaine will not
  make you anything except dead, or almost dead.

• This writer identifies herself as a protester
  (role) against the use of cocaine (purpose). She
  will argue her idea (thesis) to her schoolmates
  (audience)

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The Thesis

• A good thesis statement serves as the heart of
  the paper and any other parts of your report will
  not be able to function without it. Decide on the
  thesis before beginning to write. This
  all-important statement of purpose is essentially
  a declaration of what you believe about the topic
  and intend to prove by the conclusion.

• The thesis statement is a single sentence which
  summarizes the argument the paper seeks to prove.
  It should be located in the introductory
  paragraph.

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STATE YOUR THESISA thesis takes a position on
an issue. It announces, in addition to the topic,
the argument the writer wants to prove. This is
the reason and motivation for the writing. A
thesis is specific and tailored to reflect the
scope of the paper. It is not possible, for
instance, to write about the history of English
literature in a five page paper. Narrowing a
thesis narrows the scope of the entire paper.
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Sample Thesis Statements

• Bad Thesis
• Hate speech can cause emotional pain and
  suffering in victims just as intense as physical
  battery.

• Better Thesis
• The government has the right to limit free speech
  in cases of overtly racist or sexist language
  because our failure to address such abuses would
  effectively suggest that our society condones
  such ignorant and hateful views..

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Thesis Checklist

• Do I have a working thesis statement that leads
  to research and ultimately a thesis statement
  that is concise and clear?
• Does my Thesis statement guide my research and
  help build an outline?

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A writer must condense their topics into
something manageable. A topic that is too wide
is worse than a topic too narrow. Writing a
research paper is like whittling a mountain into
a small hill. Begin with an ocean of notes, then
weed them down into a focused structure. A
concise thesis statement controls a writers
tendency to expand rather than compress and the
direction of the paper.

• Focus on a narrowing topic

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Research

• For general or background information, check out
  useful URLs, general information online, almanacs
  or encyclopedias online such as Britannica, or
  Encarta, etc. Use Search Engines and other search
  tools as a starting point.

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Start, dont end, with Wikipedia This is a great
place to start your research. Take notes,
especially of any good sources they recommend.
The goal here is to get a good overview of the
subject, By the time you get ready to write,
though, you should have much better sources at
your command than Wikipedia, so avoid citing it
in your paper.

• Wikipedia

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Accuracy and Objectivity

• Is the information reliable and error free?
• Does the information show a minimum of bias?
• http//www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagenameiic
  _immigrationissuecenters6ce
• Is the page designed to sway opinion?
• Furshame.com
• Is there any advertising on the page?
• www.advice-hgh.com/hgh.html

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Evaluation of Web Sites

• Two sources giving more details about how to
  evaluate whether a website s is trustworthy.
• www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/
• Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
• www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluatin
  g/e

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Authority of Web site Authors

• Who is the author? What are his or her academic
  credentials? What else has this author written?
  Sometimes information about the author is listed
  somewhere in the article. Other times, you may
  need to consult another resource to get
  background information on the author. Sometimes
  it helps to search the author's name in a general
  web search engine like Google.

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Documentation

• A bibliography, along with footnotes, indicate
  that the author has consulted other sources and
  serves to authenticate the information that he or
  she is presenting. In websites, expect links or
  footnotes documenting sources, and referring to
  additional resources and other viewpoints.

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4X10 Facts and Quotes Requirement
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Thirty Facts

• The research paper writer is to compile thirty
  facts about their topics.
• The research paper writer is to determine if the
  facts are objective facts or biased facts.
• A objective fact is a fact that
• A favors neither side of the issue
• B facts that both sides agree with
• C facts from reliable objective sources

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Thirty Facts

• The research paper writer is to compile at least
  ten facts about their topics that the Pro side
  uses to support their position.
• The research paper writer is to compile at least
  ten facts about their topics that the Con side
  uses to support their position.

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Ten Quotations

• Research paper writers are to find at least ten
  quotations that support their thesis statement
  and can be used in their research project.
  Indicate whether the quote is objective, pro or
  con to the issue.
• These quotations are to be put on 3X5 cards, one
  side the quote, the opposite side the source of
  the quotation.

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4X10 Samples

• Consider the following slides as 3X5 index cards,
  front and back.

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Fact Objective840,000 years ago a species of
ancient man lived in Indonesia.The Species
Homo floresiensis
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SourceNational Geographic MagazineApril
2005Pages 6 - 12Authors Mike Morwood, Thomas
Sutikna, Richard Roberts
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• Quotation Objective
• I am encouraged to see that the administration
  has prioritized border security
• U.S. Congressman
• Bennie Thompson (D Miss)
• Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland
  security

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Quotation SourceLos Angeles TimesBush seeks
19 boost in border spendingFriday February 1,
2008Page A23
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