Transcript Learning to Love the Research Paper

Learning to Love
the Research Paper
Or… at least learning to do it well!
MLA and APA Made Easy
Thank you to The Academic Support Center of Mount Wachusett
Community College for use of this presentation.
Table of Contents
1. Getting Started
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
Getting Started

Finding a Topic

Developing an Effective
Research Question
Finding a Topic
◦ Write about what you know.
 Whenever possible, seek out a research topic that
interests you and that you care about.
 Aim to build on knowledge that you already have.
 If the topic is assigned, try to develop an angle that will
interest you, then run the idea by your instructor.

Why should you write about what you know?

Starting with your own views and opinions will
motivate you.

Writing about a topic familiar to you will help you to
ask the right questions.

If you care about the topic, you will care about your
paper.
Developing an Effective
Research Question
◦ The best research papers begin with a question
because…
 Questions help you to find direction.
 Questions help you to narrow your scope.
◦ Be careful of questions that are too broad.
 Make sure that your question is relevant to the length
of your paper.
 Most students use research questions that are not
focused enough.
Too Broad:
---- What is Attention Deficit Disorder?
More Focused:
---- Is diet an effective treatment for
Attention Deficit Disorder?
The Importance of a First Draft

Techniques to Help You Start Writing
◦
◦
◦
◦
Brainstorming
Freewriting
Clustering
Using Drafts
Brainstorming

Before you begin doing any research, take some
time to brainstorm.

When you brainstorm, list everything that
comes to mind about your topic, all of your
thoughts and ideas, in the order in which they
occur to you.

Let your mind free associate and make
connections.

Write down everything—even those things
which appear silly and unimportant at first.
Freewriting

Freewriting is nonstop writing. Set aside ten or
fifteen minutes, and write whatever comes to you
without thinking of word choice, spelling,
organization, etc.

Don’t stop. Don’t get in your own way—you will be
surprised what gets down on paper.

Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, in that you
write what comes to you in the order it comes to
you. However, rather than a list of your ideas, you
develop your thoughts by having more of a
conversation with yourself.
Clustering

While brainstorming and freewriting are ways to
get information down on paper, clustering allows
you to begin to see relationships among ideas.

To cluster, put the main idea in the center of the
page, circle it, and list other sub-topics around it,
connecting ideas that belong together with lines.

The result looks a lot like a spider’s web and will
do wonders when you being to organize your
paper.
Using Drafts

Most writers cannot sit down and, in one setting,
produce quality work. Most writers write in steps
or stages.

The first step is a rough draft. It is the “get down”
draft—where you get down your ideas onto paper.
You do not need to worry yet about spelling,
grammar, punctuation, etc.

This first draft is also called the discovery or
exploratory draft. Why? Because it is where you
explore your topic and discover what you want to
say about it.

“But,” I hear you say to yourself…
 “I don’t know anything about my topic—what can I write
about before I do research?”

Think about this:
 A good research paper comes from wanting to know
more about something.
 A good research paper contains facts and quotes and
statistics—yes, but these have been integrated with and
filtered through the writer’s own ideas and experiences.
 A good research paper is not a fact-finding mission; it is a
synthesis of what you already know and what you learn
in the process of your research.
 Most instructors assign topics that ask you to examine a
topic more deeply than a fifteen week course can allow.
Use class notes, lectures, and textbooks as starting
points for your early drafts.

Brainstorming, Freewriting, Clustering, and
Using Drafts…
 These strategies help you to explore your topic before
you begin researching it.
 They give you the opportunity to get your thoughts
down on paper without worrying about organization,
grammar, spelling, etc. (There will be plenty of time to
worry about these things when you revise your later
drafts.)
 You can use all of these techniques or only one of
them.

Whatever the technique you use, the goal is to
try to get all of your thoughts down on paper:






what you already know about your topic
what you want to know more about
why you’ve chosen the topic
questions you have
how you plan to answer those questions
You will be surprised how helpful this first draft
will be when you start to gather your research.
Doing Research

For this presentation, we do not have time to
discuss how to search for information on your
topic.

There is, however, one piece of advice that is worth
gold:
 GO TO THE LIBRARY WHEN YOU ARE WRITING
A RESEARCH PAPER!

Go to the college’s library, go to your local public
library, go to any library.

Librarians are great people who are there to help
you.

They can show you how to…
search for books on your topics;
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.





Speaking of web sites… Even if you have Internet
access on your home computer, you should still
visit a library. Let’s play “True or False.”
 The Internet has been called an information highway.
TRUE.





It is free.
It is vast.
It is democratic.
It is accessible 24 hours a day.
Anyone can post anything.
 You can believe everything you read on the Internet .
FALSE.
 The information highway known as the Internet has
potholes.
 Anyone can post anything on the Internet.
 There are no editors or experts reviewing the
material.
 Yes, you can access legitimate sites like the American
Cancer Society or university research centers, but you
can also access pornography, incorrect or misleading
information, biased opinions, and prejudiced
information.

While the Internet may provide you with some
good information, your paper will be stronger for
having searched many different kinds of sources.
Bringing Research Into Your
Paper







Points to Remember
What Are Sources?
What Are Citations?
Quoting
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Avoiding Plagiarism
Points to Remember
(About Writing a Research Paper)

Writing a research paper is like writing any other
academic paper, with the difference that you are
bringing into your essay the words, ideas, and
theories of others, often experts in that field of
study.

In the process of writing your research paper, you
will learn a new set of vocabulary words and
concepts.

What follows is a list of these words/concepts and
their definitions. Becoming familiar with them will
help you in the research process.
What Are Sources?

A source is what you turn to for information about
your topic.

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 nonperiodical.
 A periodical is a publication that is issued periodically,
such as any of the following:
 a newspaper (The Boston Globe);
 a magazine (Newsweek);
 a journal (Journal of Naturopathic Medicine).
 A non-periodical most often refers to a book.
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
Electronic Sources

An electronic source can refer to a source found
on the Internet, such as a personal or
professional web site.

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. Often, it is the stuff of encyclopedias.
Examples:
 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust.
 The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.
 The Civil War ended in 1865.

You may not have known this before you started
your research, but it is still common knowledge.
Often, you will encounter knowledge that is
common in your field of study, even if the general
population may not know it.
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 (including major
and minor points) into your own words and
sentence structure.

You can paraphrase a theory, an idea, the results of
a study, or a passage in an original source, as long
as you use your own words to describe it.

A paraphrase is often the same length as the
original, but it is in your own words.
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.

In a summary, you provide your reader with the
gist of the most important sources you find in your
own words.

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 Egregious Form

The most blatant and egregious 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.

However, professors also know how to use the
Internet and are quite adept at searching the same
sites that students use.
The Subtle Forms

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;
◦ failure to put summaries and paraphrases into your own
words.

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.

There are also several good publications available
with which students should be familiar. They will
be mentioned later in this presentation.
MLA Style Documentation
What is MLA?
 How To Integrate Research Into the
Body of Your Paper
 How to Create a “Works Cited” Page

What is MLA?

If you are writing a research paper in English,
foreign languages, 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. This book contains all of
the rules that govern MLA-style documentation.
Points to Remember
(About MLA-Style Documentation)

All written material (the body of your paper and
the “Works Cited” page) is double-spaced.

MLA-style has two main elements:
 In-text Citations
 “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.

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.

Underline book titles and web sites.

Use quotation marks around articles, stories,
poems, and essays.
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
 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 1920).

The adult mountain lion population in California is
now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and
Messina B1).
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” A21).

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).
 “We only used seven signs in his presence,” says Fouts.
“All of his signs were learned from the other chimps at
the laboratory” (qtd. in Toner).
 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

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.

Once you find the format, follow it to the letter.
Do not add information not in the example.

The following is an example of a “Works Cited”
page. (On the left is the name of the kind of
source; this is only to help you in the presentation
and does not appear on your “Works Cited”
page.)
Works Cited
work from
an anthology
with a
translator
Allende, Isabel. “An Act of Vengeance.” Trans. E.D. Carter, Jr.
Literature and Its Writers. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel
Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 66-71.
on-line
professional
site
Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Laura E. Hunt
and William Barek. May 1998. U of Toronto. 11 May 1999
<http://citd.scar/index.html>.
anon. article in a
magazine
article in a journal
that pages issues
separately
book two
authors
“The Decade of the Spy.” Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.
Hallin, Daniel C. “Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections,
1968-1988.” Journal of Communication 49.2 (1992): 5-24.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:
U of Chicago P, 1980.
Works Cited
article in a
newspaper
Navarro, Mireya. “Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building.” New
York Times 13 July 2001: A1+.
Russo, Michelle Cash. “Recovering from Bibliographic Instruction
journal article
with continuous
pagination (from
a database)
Blahs.” RQ: Research Quarterly 32 (1992): 178-83. Infotrac:
Magazine Index Plus. CD-Rom. Information Access. Dec.
1993.
book one
author
Sidel, Ruth. On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the
American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990.
on-line
professional
site with author
interview
Spanoudis, Steve. Poet’s Corner. 2 Feb. 1998. 4 Feb. 1998
<http://www. geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems>.
Zacharias, Peter. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2001.

While this presentation attempts to give a brief
introduction to MLA, it cannot cover all aspects of
it.

If you still have questions, it is best to consult the
MLA Handbook for Writers.

You can also visit MLA’s web site at
http://www.mla.org/. Click on MLA-Style.
APA-Style Documentation
What is APA?
 How To Integrate Research Into the
Body of Your Paper
 How to Create a “References” Page

What is APA?

If you are writing a paper for the sciences or social
sciences, follow APA-style documentation.

APA stands for the American Psychological
Association. This organization publishes the The
Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association, which offers complete guidelines for
manuscript style and citation in APA.

Many of the English handbooks mentioned earlier
in this presentation also carry information about
APA.

This presentation condenses the most important
elements of APA and illustrates how to document
commonly used sources.

If you still have questions after this presentation,
consult the APA manual or check out their web
site at http://www.apastyle.org/.
Points to Remember
(About APA-Style Documentation)

All written material (the body of your paper and
the list of references) is double-spaced.

APA-style requires parenthetical or in-text
citations in the body of your paper when you
quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other
borrowed material.

These parenthetical citations correspond to the
full bibliographic entries on the reference page at
the end of your paper.

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, as shown in
the upcoming examples.

Capitalize only the first word of an article title and
of the subtitle (if any) and all proper names.

On the references page, do not underline the title
of an article or place quotation marks around it.

Capitalize significant words in the title of a
journal.

Underline or italicize journal titles and volume
numbers.

Capitalize only the first significant word and only
proper names within book titles.

Capitalize the first significant word of the subtitle
(if any) of a book.

Underline book titles.
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
◦ If giving a direct quote, include also the page number.

The information in the parentheses refers readers
to the full bibliographic information on the
“References” page.

Why give the year of publication in the
parenthetical citations for APA?
◦ In the sciences and social sciences, current research is
valued highly; therefore, the year that the research was
conducted is important to note in the body of your paper.
◦ In the humanities, which follows MLA-style
documentation, current research is certainly valued;
however, criticism of a piece of literature, for example an
essay by T.S. Eliot on Hamlet (written nearly a century
ago), can still be of value to a researcher.
◦ A basic in-text citation of a direct quotation
looks like this:
 (Davis, 1978, p. 26)
◦ If there is no page number, give the paragraph
number:
 (McKnight, 2000, para. 10)
◦ For a paraphrase or summary, follow this (note
that there is no page number given):
 (Davis, 1978)
◦ If there are two authors when paraphrasing, give
both last names:
 (Jones & Ellis, 1996)
◦ If there are three to five authors, list all authors:
 (Levy, Bertrand, Muller,Viking, & Majors, 1997)
◦ Note: For the first reference to a study with more
more than two authors, list all authors. For all
subsequent references, include only the surname of
the first author, followed by “et al.”
 (Levy, et al., 1997)
◦ If there is no author, give the first word of the
title:
 (“Strange Encounter,” 1997)
Examples

“If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling for
linguists, it was also startling news for animal
behaviorists” (Davis, 1978, p. 26).

As Davis (1978) reported, “If the existence of a
signing ape was unsettling for linguists, it was also
startling news for animal behaviorists” (p. 26).

According to Davis (1978), when they learned of an
ape’s ability to use sign language, both linguists and
animal behaviorists were taken by surprise.
Important to Note

In the first example on the previous page, the
author’s name was included in the parentheses
because it was not mentioned when introducing
the quotation.

In the second example, the author was mentioned
when introducing the quotation; therefore, only
the page number needed to be given in the
parentheses.

The third example was a paraphrase of the
original quotation. (No page number was needed
in the parentheses.)
More Examples

Patterson and Linden (1981) agreed that the
gorilla Koko acquired language more slowly than a
normal speaking child.

Researchers found a marked improvement in the
computer skills of students who took part in the
program (Levy, Bertrand, Muller,Viking, & Majors,
1997).

Several studies provide support for the idea that
spanking is not an effective method of disciplining
preschool aged children (Kames, 1983; Miller, 1977;
Smith, 1993; Tower, 1988).
Signal Phrases

As with MLA-style documentation, it is helpful to
the reader if you introduce a quotation or other
piece of research with a signal phrase.

Signal phrases help you to transition from your
words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.

The same signal phrases and active verbs
mentioned earlier in this presentation work well
for both MLA and APA styles.

Often in your research you will encounter the
quotes, facts, statistics, etc. of someone other than
the author of the piece you read. Give the name
of the author(s) of the work when you introduce
the information, and give the secondary source in
the parenthetical citation:
 Seidenberg and McClelland’s study (as cited in
Coltheart, Curtis, & Haller, 1993) indicates that…
 NOTE: On the “References” page, you will include the
bibliographic information of the source you read, not the
original source—since you didn’t read the original.
Creating a “References” Page

A “References” page contains the full bibliographic
information to which you have been referring in
the body of your paper.

The “References” page is…
 the last page of your paper
 double-spaced
 alphabetized

There are many different ways to cite sources on
your “References” 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 sources.

Once you find the format, follow it to the letter.
Do not add information not in the example.

The following is an example of a “References”
page. (On the left is the name of the kind of
source; this is only to help you in the presentation
and does not appear on your “References” page.)
Reference
journal article
one author
Bekerian, D. A. (1993). In search of the typical eyewitness. American
Psychologist, 48, 674-576.
Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L.
journal article
five authors
from a
database
A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449.
Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.
book with
editors
Fox, R. W., & Lears, T. J. J. (Eds.). (1993). The power of culture:
Critical essays in American history. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
online document
private
organization
no date
Greater New Milford (Ct) Area Healthy Community 2000. Task Force
on Teen and Adolescent Issues. (n.d.) Who has time for a family
meal? You do! Retrieved October 5, 2000, from http//:www.family
mealtime.org
References
corporate
author
National Head Start Association. (1990). Head Start: The nation's
pride, a nation's challenge. Report of the Silver Ribbon Panel.
Alexandria, VA: Author.
report from
gov’t printing
office
National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training in
serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No. ADM 90-1679).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
daily newspaper article,
no author
journal article
two authors
New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart failure.
(1993, July 15). The Washington Post, p. A12.
Odom, S. L., & McEvoy, M. A. (1990). Mainstreaming at the
preschool level: Potential barriers and tasks for the
field. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 10 (2), 4861.
References
magazine
article
Posner, M.I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science, 262,
673-674.
book, one
author
Shaller, G.B. (1993). The last panda. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
online
newspaper
article
Sleek, S. (1996, January). Psychologists build a culture if
peace. APA Monitor, pp. 1, 33 [Newspaper, selected
stories on line]. Retrieved January 25, 1996, from the
World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/monitor/peace.html
unknown
author, book
The Times Atlas of the World (9th ed). (1992). New York:
Times Books.
Proofreading Strategies

How to Make Your Paper Perfect (or at least your
best work)
 Time
 Patience
 Will
 Time
 Patience
 Will
 Time
 Patience
 Will
Time

Proofreading takes 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) again.
 Proofreading is another kind of writing. It is not as
creative, perhaps, as brainstorming or developing your
ideas, but it is still a part of the writing process.
 Reading your paper one time through is not adequate
proofreading.
 Here are some tips.

Don’t wait until the night before a paper is due to
proofread it; you won’t be allowing yourself enough
time to correct it.

Always correct a hard (paper) copy of your essay;
you will catch things on paper that you can’t on
screen.

Read through your paper—not for meaning but for
clarity and presentation.
 You’ve already developed meaning in earlier drafts—
proofreading is about making sure that your meaning is
clear.

Decide on the areas that you should pay attention
to. For instance…
 Punctuation
 Spelling
 In-text citations

For each of these areas, read through your paper
at least once, paying attention to only one area at
a time.

Go back to the computer after several readings
and make corrections on the screen.

Print out another clean copy.

Ask a friend, parent, or tutor, to be a second set of
eyes.
 This is not cheating; it is common sense.
 Even great writers get help.

Read the paper backwards, sentence by sentence.
 Sounds crazy?
 It works.
 Out of context, sentences with problems stand out in
ways they don’t when you are reading along for
meaning.
Patience

Does this method sound like a lot of work?

It is.

Have patience with yourself. The more you write
the better writer you will become. You will make
less mistakes and get better at catching the
inevitable ones.

Hey, we’re human; we all make mistakes
occasionally. However, skillful proofreading
eliminates many of the most common mistakes.
Will

Writing (even a research paper) is a craft.

Mastering the craft requires practice and hard
work.

Most of the mistakes that students make are made
out of carelessness. Once the mistake is pointed
out, they know hot to fix it and why it’s wrong.

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.
Confucius says…
“I hear, and I forget.
I see, and I remember.
I do, and I understand.”
The more you write—the more research
papers you write—the easier writing will be
and the better writer you will become.
This is the truth!
Good luck!