Transcript Learning to Love the Research Paper

Research Papers Aren’t
THAT Scary!
Only the teachers are!
A few steps…
http://cfsd.chipfalls.k12.wi.us/fa
culty/bowewj/pumpkins.cfm
1. Find a topic
2. The Importance
of a First Draft
3. Doing Research
4. Bringing
Research Into
Your Paper
• Quoting,
Paraphrasing,
Summarizing
• Avoiding
Plagiarism
5. MLA-Style
Documentation
6. APA-Style
Documentation
7. Proofreading
Strategies
Finding a Topic
Write about what you
know.
Whenever possible,
seek out a research
topic that interests you
and that you care
about.
If the topic is
assigned, try to develop
an angle that will
interest you, then run
the idea by your
instructor.
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Develop a Research Question
The best research
papers begin with a
question because
questions help you to
find direction and
narrow your scope.
Turn the
question into a
thesis statement!
http://www.ebsqart.com/Art/Pocket-Monster-Mini-Dolls/woolfelt/201357/650/650/Pocket-Monster-IC-Yu-Man-o-Mystery.jpg
Too Broad:
---- What is a Heart
Attack?
More Focused:
---- Will a healthy diet help
to prevent a heart attack?
To Help with
Research…
Go to the college’s library or
your public library. Librarians
can show you how to—
search for journal and
magazine articles;
use reference materials;
access electronic data
bases, such as EbscoHost
and Infotrac, using key
word searches
evaluate web sites.
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 While the Internet may provide you with some good
information, your teacher will require you to have
journals and books.
Bringing Research Into Your Paper
What Are Sources?
 What Are
Citations?
 Quoting
 Paraphrasing
 Summarizing
 Avoiding Plagiarism
 Writing a research paper is like writing any
other academic paper, except you are
including the words of other people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/feb/23/new-orleans-mardi-gras-bars
What Are Sources?
A source is where you get your
information.
A source can include any of the following:
a book
a magazine or newspaper article
a scholarly journal article
a film, television show, or radio program
a web site
a personal interview
They generally fall under print sources,
non-print sources, and electronic sources.
Print Sources
 A print source can be
a periodical or a
book.
 A periodical is a
publication that is issued
periodically, such as any
of the following:
 a newspaper (The Sun
Herald);
 a magazine (Time);
 a journal (Journal of
Literary Style).
Non-Print Sources
A non-print source
can include, but is
not limited to, any
of the following:
 A television or radio
program
 a film
 a personal interview
 a class lecture
 a recording
http://www.cityonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/poltergeist.jpg
Electronic Sources
An electronic source can refer to a
source found on the Internet.
There are some electronic sources
that originally appeared in print
form. These include articles found
on databases such as EbscoHost
and Infotrac and articles in
newspapers and magazines that
publish on the web and in print.
What is a Citation?
When you bring research (quotations,
paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your paper,
you must give credit to the source and its
author(s).
Giving credit to a source is also called citing a
source.
You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations.
They are called parenthetical citations because
the bibliographic information goes inside
parentheses.
What to Cite
Quotations—Someone else’s exact words,
enclosed in quotation marks.
The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone
else—even if you restate them in your own
words in a paraphrase or summary.
Facts and statistics—unless they are common
knowledge and are accessible in many sources.
Common Knowledge
is information that can
be found in many
sources and that no one
can claim owning. It is
information that
“belongs” to everyone.
The Empire State Building is
1,454 feet tall.
The Civil War ended in
1865.
 Adolph Hitler was the leader
of Germany during WWII.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhitler.htm
Quoting
When you quote, you borrow an author’s
exact words.
Use a quotation when…
the wording is so memorable or expresses a
point so well that you cannot improve or shorten
it without weakening it;
when the author is a respected authority whose
opinion supports your own ideas;
when an author challenges or disagrees
profoundly with others in the field.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is putting material (an
idea, the results of a study, or a
passage ) into your own words and
sentence structure.
A paraphrase is often the same
length as the original, but it is in
your own words.
Paraphrasing must also be cited! .
Example of a
Paraphrase
 Original Text (from James C. Stalker, “Official English or English Only”)
“ We cannot legislate the language of the home, the
street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set
up a cadre of language police who will ticket and
arrest us if we speak something other than English”
(21).
 Paraphrase
Stalker points out that in a democracy like the United
States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use
of a language and it certainly would not be possible to
make police enforce such laws in homes and public
places (21).
 Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writers by Ann Raimes
Summarizing
 Summaries are often less detailed than
paraphrases.
 Summaries give readers basic information
and are always in your own words.
 When you include a summary in your paper,
introduce the author’s name and/or the
work.
What is Plagiarism?
It is fine to bring the words and ideas of
other writers into your paper.
However, when you do so, you must
acknowledge your debt to the writers of
these sources.
If
not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a
serious academic offense.
The most blatant
form of plagiarism
is putting your
name as the author
of a paper you did
not write.
The Internet has
certainly made it
easier for students
to find papers on
any number of
topics.
The Scream (The Cry) by
Edvard Munch
 Other types of plagiarism are more
subtle and include any of the following:
 failure to cite quotations and
borrowed ideas;
 failure to enclose borrowed language
in quotation marks;
Most students who plagiarize are simply
unaware of the proper way to document
sources in academic writing.
Avoiding Plagiarism
 In order to avoid plagiarism, be
sure that you not only give credit
where credit is due, but that you
follow the appropriate formats, often
either MLA (Modern Languages
Association) or APA (American
Psychological Association) styles of
documentation.
What is MLA?

If you are writing a research paper
in English, History, or other
humanities classes, use MLA-style
documentation.

MLA stands for the Modern
Language Association.

The MLA publishes the MLA
Handbook for Writing Research
Papers.
About MLA-Style Documentation

The body of your paper and the “Works
Cited” page are double-spaced.
 Use In-text Citation
 Include a “Works Cited” Page
 Use in-text citations in the body of your paper
when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use
other borrowed material. Citations should be as
concise as possible, while still giving readers
enough information to find the full
bibliographic information on the “Works Cited”
page.
 The ”Works Cited” page is a separate page and
carries the heading “Works Cited” (or “Work
Cited” if you are using only one source). This
is where you list all of your sources, giving the
reader full bibliographic information.
Integrating Research
There are only two pieces of information
that need to go inside the parentheses of
an in-text citation:
the author’s last name (or first word of a title
if there is no author)
the page number
This information refers readers to the full
bibliographic information on the “Works
Cited” page.
• An in-text citation looks like this:
• (Smith 165)
• If there are two authors, give both last
names:
• (Jones and Nichols 18)
• If there is no author, give the first word
of the title:
• (“Recent” 23)
• If there is no page number, give the
paragraph number:
• (McKnight par. 10)
Examples
• Many young women, from all races and
classes, have taken on the idea of the
American Dream, however difficult it might
be for them to achieve it (Sidel 19-20).
• The adult mountain lion population in
California is now estimated at four to six
thousand (Reyes and Messina 166).
More Examples
• In California, fish and game officials
estimate that since 1972 lion numbers
have increased from 2,400 to at least 6,000
(“Lion” 21).
• An article that appeared in Research
Quarterly states that, “Their recovery
process parallels the steps taken by those
recovering from other afflictions” (Russo
par. 3).
Signal Phrases
• Signal phrases help you to transition from
your words and ideas to the words and
ideas of others.
• With practice, you will learn how to
integrate research smoothly into your
paper.
• In most cases, it is preferable to include
the author’s name in a signal phrase that
precedes the quote, fact, statistic, etc.
Because the author is already named, you
need only list the page or paragraph
number in the parentheses.
Examples
• The sociologist Ruth Sidel’s interviews
with young woman provide examples of
what Sidel sees as the “impossible dream”
(19).
• Michelle Russo’s article from Research
Quarterly states that “Their recovery
process parallels the steps taken by those
recovering from other afflictions” (par. 3).
• The following signal phrases are good
examples of ways you can introduce the
findings of your research in your paper:
• According to…
• In the words of…
• In a recent study by…
• Current research proves that…
• Avoid overusing the verb “said” in your
paper. Here is a list of strong, active verbs
that you can use in your signal phrases.
• You can write that someone…
• acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees
• argues, asserts, claims, or comments
• confirms, believes, declares, or implies
• insists, notes, observes, or points out,
• reports, states, theorizes, or writes
• Often in your research you will encounter
quotes, facts, statistics, etc. that are
written by someone other than the author
of the piece you are reading. Use the
following format:
• We generate words unconsciously, without
thinking about them; they appear, as James
Britton says, “at the point of utterance” (qtd.
in Smith 108).
• NOTE: On the “Works Cited” page give the
bibliographic information for the source you
read, not the source quoted from—since you
haven’t read that.
Creating a “Works Cited”
Page
• A “Works Cited” page contains the full
bibliographic information to which you
have been referring in the body of your
paper.
• The “Work Cited” page is…
• the last page of your paper
• double-spaced
• alphabetized
Works Cited Page
• On the “Works Cited” page, sources are always listed
alphabetically by the author’s last name.
• If your source has no author, go by the first word
of the title to alphabetize.
• When listing sources, indent every line after the first line
five spaces or one-half inch or use a hanging indent.
• Italicize book titles and web sites.
• Use quotation marks around articles, stories, poems, and
essays.
There are many
different ways to cite
sources on your “Works
Cited” page, depending
on whether your source
is a book, an article, a
web page, etc.
You are not expected to
memorize each way; you
are expected to know
how to find the format
you need for your
particular source.
http://www.supercoloring.com/wp-content/main/2009_01/spider23-coloring-page.gif
Works Cited
Article on a
Website
Sahadi, Jeanne. “The Ideal Budget.” CNN/Money. n.d. Web
Cassady, Jerrell C., and Ronald E. Johnson. “Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic
Journal Article
Performance.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 27.2 (2002): 270-295.
Print.
Magazine Article
book two
authors
Clark, Jane B. “As Seen on TV.” Kiplinger’s July 2002: 98-105. Print.
Halfacre, R. Gordon, and Anne Shawcroft. Landscape Plants of the Southeast.
Raleigh: Sparks, 1997. Print.
Works Cited
For more examples see page 284-291 in
your book
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resourc
e/747/01
http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?req
styleid=1&mode=form&rsid=1&reqsr
cid=MLABook&more=yes&nameCnt
=1
What is APA?
• If you are writing a paper
for the sciences, social
sciences, or education,
follow APA-style
documentation.
• APA stands for the
American Psychological
Association. This
organization publishes the
The Publication Manual
of the American
Psychological
Association.
http://www.writeonnewjersey.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/06/Mad-Scientist.jpg
•
Points
to
Remember
All written material (the body of your paper
and the (About
list of references)
is doubleAPA-Style
spaced.
Documentation)
• APA-style requires parenthetical or in-text
citations in the body of your paper when
you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use
other borrowed material.
• The reference page is a separate page and
carries the heading “References.” This is
where you list your sources, alphabetically.
• When listing sources, indent every line
after the first line five spaces or one-half
inch (hanging indent).
Integrating Research
• With APA, there are generally two pieces
of information that need to go inside the
parentheses of an in-text citation:
• the author’s last name
• the year the article, book, research, etc. was
published
• The information in the parentheses refers
readers to the full bibliographic
information on the “References” page.
Proofreading or How to
Make a Perfect Paper
Time
Diligence
Gumption
☻TDG
☻TDG
☻TDG
http://matineeatthebijou.blogspot.com/2010/08/kick-ass-funny-francis-talking-mule.html
Time
There is no way around
it. Once you have begun
to finalize your paper, you
need to give yourself
ample time to read it over
(and over, and over) again.
Reading your paper one
time through is NOT
adequate proofreading.
 Decide on the areas
that you should pay
attention to or have
trouble with. For
instance…
 Punctuation
 Spelling
 Unclear
sentence
structure
Go back to the computer after several
readings and make corrections on the
screen.
Print out another clean copy.
Ask a friend, relative, or tutor to be a
second set of eyes.
This is not cheating; it is common sense.
Even great writers get help.
Read aloud.
Read the paper backwards,
sentence by sentence.
Sounds crazy?
It works.
Diligence
Diligence means careful and
persistent work or effort. Sound like
a lot of work?
It is.
The more you write the better writer
you will become. You will make less
mistakes and get better at catching
the inevitable ones.
Gumption
• Writing (even a research paper) is a
craft.
• Mastering the craft requires practice
and hard work.
• Those students who take the time
are able to produce polished final
drafts that reflect intelligence,
thoughtfulness, care, and hard
work—qualities professors and
future employers value.
Writing is
easy: All you do is
sit staring at a
blank sheet of
paper until drops
of blood form on
your forehead.
Gene Fowler
http://awasteofawaist.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/sweatingblood-dying-then-returning-to-life-as-a-fitter-suzie-myexperience-at-crossfit-part-1-of-4/
Works Cited
Mount Wachusett Community College. “How to Love a
Research Paper.” n.d. Web. Aug. 2011