NAME___________________ PD___ B. DAVIS ENGLISH 11 RESEARCH PAPER PACKET Vestavia Hills High School
WARNING:
NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
Always save your work in two different places (on your computer and on a disk/flash drive) & email your work to yourself before you turn off your computer. If you habitually do this, college will be much easier. Never wait until the last minute. If your printer or computer breaks down at 1 a.m. on the morning before a portion of this research project is due, you will become mildly irritated. The last thing that I want is a mildly irritated student. IF you are absent on the day an assignment is due, email it to me by 8 A.M. with the following 3 things in the subject line: 1. your name Subject: Martha Davis, 4th , Rough Draft 2. your period 3. what you are sending
Ömy email address is davisbg@vestavia.k12.al.us
OR you can have a parent drop it in my box by 8 A.M. Requirements: ¨ Topic Selection/ Approval
10 pts
Due:______________________
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Bibliography Cards
15 pts
Due:______________________
¨ ¨
Note Cards (____Total) Thesis Statement
20 pts 15 pts
Due:______________________ Due:______________________
¨ ¨ ¨
Outline Annotated Bibliography Website Evaluation
35 pts 35 pts 20 pts
Due:______________________ Due:______________________ Due:______________________
¨ ¨ ¨
Rough Draft Self Evaluation Peer Evaluation
50 pts 15 pts 15 pts
Due:______________________ Due:______________________ Due:______________________
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**Final Paper (3-5 pages)
200 pts
Due:______________________
8 Steps to a Successful Research Paper 1. Choose topic. 2. Find and document your sources using the MLA format. (Bibliography Cards) 3. Analyze your sources to ensure that you have chosen the most reliable ones available. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
(Annotated Bibliography and Website Evaluation) Collect information about your topic from the sources you have found. (Note Cards) Decide what you want to accomplish in your paper. (Thesis Statement) Write your paper. (Rough Draft) Edit and correct your paper. (Self-evaluation and Peer Evaluation) Make corrections, re-write, and type the paper. (Final Paper)
Ö Fine Print 1. 2. 3. 4.
You must turn in all of the aforementioned elements of this project with the final paper! Use MLA format! See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th edition, 2003). Bring money to print from the internet and/or make copies. Bring materials to class EVERYDAY!!!
I’m finished!
Plagiarism One of the purposes of using bibliography and note cards is to help you to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of intentionally or unintentionally treating work done by someone else as though it were your own. In most schools, plagiarism is considered a serious offense and can result in severe penalties such as failing grade, loss of course credit, or even expulsion. To help you avoid plagiarism, here are some questions that will help you determine whether something is plagiarized: Is this information, idea, or statement common knowledge? Did this information, idea, or statement come from an external source, my own experience, or as a result of my own creative activity? If the information is not common knowledge, and if it came from an outside source, then you must credit that source. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism. If you do not know, cite it anyway. Plagiarism can occur in several ways: 1. Quoting a source without quotation marks. U.R. Notes 2. Paraphrasing or summarizing a source without giving credit with (make useful and parenthetical documentation. relative notes ) 3. Borrowing information and giving no credit at all. _________________ REMEMBER YOUR THREE METHODS FOR TAKING NOTES: QUOTE WORD FOR WORD: This is when you use the EXACT WORDS from a source. When you use a direct quote, you should enclose the words in quotation marks. PARAPHRASE: A paraphrase is a reworking of the original source. You do not use the author’s exact words and do not need to enclose the paraphrase in quotation marks. A paraphrase restates the author’s idea in your own words. DO NOT just substitute words for words already in the sentence. SUMMARIZE: A summary is like a paraphrase because it is a reworking of the original source. However, a summary takes the information and shortens it to the most important points.
Step 1—Choosing a Topic As you begin your exploration, you should consider the following three steps: 1. Make a List: Make a list of individuals that have had a significant impact on society. It will be helpful to you if you consider areas of interest (politics, religious, scientific, cultural, etc.). 2. Analyze these Individuals: Analyze these individuals to extract the essence of what made/makes them significant. Some questions you may want to consider: Did they impact change my life? How many people did they impact? Did they discover something? Did they put an end to something? Did they start a revolution in their field or culture? How did they use their influence (positively or negatively)? Note: Feel free to add questions to this list as you see fit. 3. Pick the Best Candidate: Pick the best candidate for your research paper based on your analysis. You may want to consider the prevalence of materials on the individual, the nature of his/her influence, and/or the impact of his/her influence on society.
_________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ ÖHave your
topic approved _________________ by _________________ ___/___/________ _________________ 10 Points _________________ _________________ _________________
Step 2—Bibliography Cards and the Works Cited Page A bibliography card is where all of the information is kept about each source. It will be helpful in the event that you misplace your source. All you will have to do is take your bibliography card to the nearest library to check for the same source. Also, the formatting on your bibliography card is the same as that of your works cited page. You should have a bibliography card for each source you find/use (5 sources). Use 3x5 lined index cards. Number your bibliography cards after you have put them in alphabetical order. Ö This numbering should NOT be done until you have finished your research! U.R. Notes Fill up the first line of the card completely! If you need to use another line, skip a line and indent (five spaces) before continuing. Your name should _____________________ be written in the lower left hand corner of the card in case it gets lost. Follow _____________________ the same steps for any type of bibliography entry. _____________________ The bibliography cards will be used to compose your Works Cited page. Any source that you end up NOT using in the paper should NOT be included on _____________________ this page; it is only for those sources that were actually cited. _____________________ SAMPLE BIB CARD FOR A BOOK: _____________________
SOURCE REQUIREMENTS: 5 Sources are required Ö One must be a book Ö One must be a website Ö One must be from a magazine
1
_____________________
Glosecki, Stephen O. Shamanism and Old English Poetry. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1989.
_____________________
Your Name
_____________________
The other two are up to you.
Step3—Taking Notes and Note Cards Once you have searched for sources with good information about your topic and have written bibliography cards for each of them, it is time to collect the information needed for your paper. Go back to the sources and find the information you need. If you do not find any useful information in a particular source, you may discard the bibliography card and go to the next source. When you find pertinent information, it is time to take notes on note cards. Use 4x6 index cards to record your notes.
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________
You may have many different note cars for one source. Each ____________________ note card has a different area of information. When you change subjects, you begin a new note card. Changing note cards with each new topic but with the same source is useful later when organizing you information into groups according to your outline. Do not write on the back of your note cards. When you find information that you think will be useful, take notes on that information. There are three ways of making notes (see page 2). Careful note-taking will help you avoid the problem of plagiarism: the act of using another person’s ideas or expressing an idea in your writing without acknowledging the source or giving proper credit.
For each Note Card: 1. Give your note card a topic heading in the upper left hand corner. 2. Include basic bibliographic information on the card. Usually, this would be the author, but it is always whatever comes first on your bibliography card for that source. Also, you always need to include the page # in the upper right hand corner of your card, indicating the pagination of the information on the card. This step is essential to proper documentation of your source when you begin writing your paper. It is a rather demoralizing experience when you have to go back and read half of a book to find the page number for a snippet of information. Be sure that you write down the page number each U.R. Notes time. _____________________ 3. Fill the note card with as many notes as possible. As you paraphrase _____________________ (p), summarize (s), or use a direct quote (dq) the information you are _____________________ writing on your note card, write the letter that corresponds wit the note-taking method you are using. Do this in the bottom right _____________________ hand corner of each note card. _____________________ 4. Just as with bibliography cards, put your name on every note card at _____________________ the bottom right hand corner. _____________________
Sample Note Cards: Fetches in Scandinavian Tradition
_____________________ Glosecki 183
“There are also hints that animals could be integral to the nature of the social person during life, and were thus particularly important at the time of death. Horses and other dome4stic animals could have been regarded as guardians, external souls of individuals and shaman’s familiars. The term fylgia found in Scandinavian tradition relates the concept that animals could be fetches or ‘souls’ of individuals, equivalent to animal guardians.”
_____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________
Your Name
DQ
_____________________ _____________________
How do I know which note taking method to use?
____________________
The whole point of paraphrasing is to express the source’s ideas in your own words to give your paper a greater continuity. Thus, the practice of substituting the sources words for synonyms is utterly ridiculous and should never be considered. Instead, read the source, understand the point it is making, turn the source’s page and express the ideas in your own words. Then double-check to make sure you haven’t subconsciously used the source’s own words. If you find yourself using the source’s words more than once, evidently they are expressed in a memorable way, and you should give up on paraphrasing and use a direct quote instead. However, you may only use one or two direct quotes per paragraph. Most of your paper should consist of paraphrases.
You may find that it makes the most sense to reveal the work of a source by combining a quotation with a paraphrase and/or a summary. That is fine. But be sure to use parenthetical documentation immediately after the end quotation marks, even if you need to repeat the exact same page number in your parenthetical documentation after adding a paraphrase or summary of just a few words. Your reader deserves to know immediately the source of a quote without any confusion. On the other hand, if you begin with a paraphrase or summary, you do not need parenthetical documentation between the paraphrase or summary and the quote.
Step 4—The Thesis Statement After gathering sources and previewing some of the information, you should have a better idea about the focus of your topic. Now it is time to develop that controlling idea into a single focused sentence, the thesis statement. What is a thesis statement? A thesis is a single sentence that formulates both your topic and your point of view. It is the answer to the central or problem you have raised. Two factors are important to the shaping of a thesis statement. 1. What purpose will you try to achieve in the paper? 2. What audience are you writing for? All ideas developed in you paper stem from and/or lead back to your thesis statement. The thesis statement should express your position in a full, declarative sentence, which is NOT a question, NOT a statement of purpose, and NOT merely a topic. The thesis must be supported with research. Example Thesis Statements: THREE TOPIC THESIS People who wish to become teachers must first understand the proper motivations for choosing teaching, the steps involved in becoming a teacher, the types of rewards available, and the opportunities for employment before making the decision to embark upon such a challenging career. GENERAL TOPIC THESIS The unquenchable aggressiveness projected by Donald Trump has changed the world of corporate real estate and the view of high-risk investing.
Step 5—The Outline The purpose of an outline is to help organize ideas into a logical, fluent, and effective paper. Points to remember when composing an outline:
U.R. Notes _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________
____________________ 1. Avoid using the vague terms “introduction,” “body,” and/or “conclusion” in the outline. The introduction will come with the thesis (before Roman numeral I) and the conclusion will follow your last Roman numeral. 2. List the thesis statement above the outline. 3. Items of equal importance should be equated equally. 4. The research paper should follow the outline on proper order. 5. The outline should be parallel in form. Every heading should be a noun/noun phrase, a gerund/gerund phrase, or an infinitive/infinitive phrase. 6. Try to have five roman numerals with at least two subheadings under each.
To prepare your formal outline, read over your note cards carefully and group them into piles, one pile for each important aspect of your topic. If any of your cards do not seem to fit into your topics, set them aside. Do not force unnecessary information into your paper.
Step 6—The Rough Draft 1. Find the note cards that correspond wit the Roman numerals on your outline. 2. Use the information from the note cards and the format of the outline to write each paragraph. 3. The first and last statements of each paragraph must be your own thoughts. You must introduce your paragraph’s topic (this is called your ‘topic sentence’) and you must conclude or summarize what this paragraph has said in your final sentence. 4. Also, the last sentence should lead into your next paragraph’s topic (this is called a “transition”). Some common transitions: To emphasize a point Again In fact Surprisingly
For this reason On the positive side With this in mind
Indeed Truly To repeat
Another key point To emphasize
Frequently To point out
Transitions to compare items Accordingly Also Likewise
In the same way Similarly To point out
Like In conjunction with
In the same manner To emphasize
Transitions to contrast items Although Even so Conversely
As opposed to Nevertheless On the contrary
But Still On the other hand
However Yet In spite of this
Even though Otherwise
Transitions to clarify For example Simply stated
For instance Stated differently
In other words To illustrate this point
Put another way Seems clear from this
Transitions to add information Additionally For instance Equally important In addition to
Another Moreover Next Together with
For example Along with Also
Again Besides Furthermore
As well Further Finally
Consequently As a result of Lastly
Due to In closing To conclude
Transitions to conclude or summarize Accordingly Finally Thus
All in all In summary In the last analysis
As a result Therefore In conclusion
5. Be certain you cite all of your sources!
HELPFUL HINTS Numbering the Pages: You MUST have a header that includes your last name and the page number for every page after the first. You do NOT need a page number on the first page of your paper. How to set up the header option in Microsoft Word: In Microsoft World, click “view” on the top task bar ÖClick on “header and footer” ÖA “header box” will appear on the screen. Press “ctrl” and “r.” Then, type your last name in the box. Tap the space bar three times. ÖThen, on the header box task bar, click the # icon. This will tell the computer to automatically number each page of your research paper and place your name at the top right of each page.
Heading on Page 1 It is a bit different from the rest of your paper. Your heading on page one is in the upper left of the first page, and you have to type it yourself: John Doe (Your name) Mr. Davis English 11 Day Month Year (due date)
Works Cited Page This page is now called the “Works Cited” page. On this page, you will list the sources you used in alphabetical order. If you have discarded some of the articles that you originally thought you would use, DO NOT include those on this list. I should be able to find ANY source listed on this page parenthetically documented somewhere within the body of your paper. Remember to double space between your entries and within your entries Use one inch margins on all sides Be sure to number this page as next in line numerically after the last page of the paper’s body. Sample from a Works Cited Page: Doe
6
Works Cited Blake, James. Russian Life in the 1890s: Savage Raids Crush Jewish Families. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000. Gordon, John, and Jane Smith. “Changes in Russia.” Time 3 March 2001: 16-20.