Transcript Building the Research Essay

Building the Research Essay
Taking Notes and Processing
Information
Revising (and Re-Revising) the Thesis
Revised Working
Thesis
Research/Evidence
Working Thesis
Your Knowledge
and Experience
Taking Notes
• Two approaches:
– Print out the source and write all over it.
– Take notes on a separate sheet of paper or
document.
• Include citation information for each source.
• Label notes with page numbers.
• Both approaches should be conversational.
WarzauWynn. Conversation with a White Russian. 2008. Flickr. 28 Feb. 2012.
Taking Notes (cont’d)
• With either approach . . .
– Underline, highlight, or write/type important
passages.
– Respond to those passages
• Responses can be emotional and automatic – e.g. “That’s so
weird!,” “I don’t really believe this,” “Really horrible,” “A very
cool fact,” etc.
• You can translate emotion into analysis in your essay.
– Jot down any questions or ideas that you think of as
you read.
– Write down ideas about things to look up later
What do you do with the notes?
• Move them around. Experiment.
– Find relationships between your notes
• Use labels to group the notes
• Use different colors to mark certain topics or sources
• Print out notes and cut them up, rearrange them on the
floor
– Start thinking about the order of the essay
• See next slide for suggestions.
Finding a Useful Order
• Beginning of the Essay
– Background/context that the reader needs to
know.
– Dramatic, convincing, or strong evidence.
• You want to make your reader believe that you are an
authority.
• Middle of Essay
– Evidence that complicates or deepens the thesis.
Writing the Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography = 8 sources
– At least 4 from a library database
– At least 1 peer reviewed source
– One multimedia source (See Easy Writer 216 for
Examples)
– Interview (recommended, but not required)
Writing the Annotated Bibliography
• Citation: Find the correct citation in Easy Writer
(Directory on 214-216)
• Summary:
– What is the author’s project or goal?
– Include paraphrases or quotations that you might use
in the essay.
• Cite them!
• Evaluation
– What kind of source is this?
– Use the ABCD evaluation as a guideline
– How useful will it be for your essay? Why?