BASICS

OF
RESEARCH PAPER

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Research Writing

What is a Research Paper?

A research paper is like a report.
Before you write it, you use books,
articles, the internet, and other sources
to gather information about your topic.
You GATHER information from these
sources and use that information in
your paper to tell your readers about
your topic.
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 A research paper is actually a WRITTEN piece of

WORK IN YOUR OWN WORDS that fully
discusses a topic that you have spent time learning
about. It is to be in depth and intelligent, with
support from credible sources. This paper will be
YOUR work, but you have based your knowledge on
the credible work of others.
Sounds difficult? Its not really so bad, actually, it
gets pretty easy.

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Magazine
or
Newspaper
Articles

Journals

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Books

Internet
Web

Choosing a Topic
Pick a topic
You will identify a list of topics you may choose from.
These are simply ideas to start with. You may add
your own topic if you would like
Choose something you are interested in.

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Things to consider when choosing a topic

Choose a subject that interests you.
Choose a subject for which a wide range of source
material is readily available.
You need to be able to find sources on your topic
Choose a subject of some significance. A subject of
lasting interest will be challenging and gratifying
to pursue. You will be spending a great deal of
time and effort on this so make sure it's of value.
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Things to consider when choosing a topic

After you have chosen a general topic,

you must narrow it so that it becomes
more specific and easier to research.

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Things to consider when NARROWING a

topic
Do some general reading on your topic so that
you become familiar with various aspects of
it.
Establish the purpose of your paper. What
will you be informing the reader about? Be
sure your topic can be handled within the
assigned length.
Focus on a particular aspect of your topic
that will lend itself to the sources available.
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GENERAL TOPIC:

NARROWED TOPIC:
1. Causes of Alcoholism

1. Alcoholism
2. Scientists/Mathematicians 2. Albert Einstein's Impact
on the 20th Century
3. Drugs

3. Effects of Drug Use Teens

4. Elizabethan England
4. Health Concerns in
Shakespeare's England

5. Tennis
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5. The Rise in11Popularity of

Women's Tennis

After we Narrow our topics, then what?

We will then narrow our topics even further

into sub-topics. Consider your sub-topics the
same thing as your reasons in the body
paragraphs of your persuasive essay. This will
not take place for a while.

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Example: How to Narrow Topic to Sub-Topics

GENERAL TOPIC: Eating Disorders

BROAD TOPIC: Anorexia Nervosa
SPECIFIC TOPIC: Physical Effects of Anorexia Nervosa

Sub-Topic 1: Depletion of Vitamins and Minerals in the body

Sub-Topic 2: Negative side effects on internal organs
Sub-Topic
3: Heart
issues
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ASSIGNMENT: This is to done by the individual to identify

what were interested in writing about.

There will be no thorough research (like reading books or

looking up magazine or newspaper articles) until we have
chosen a topic we are interested in writing about.
Choose two or three topics and conduct research on
both/all topics. Try to identify which topic you are the
most interested in researching.

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When I start researching, how do I know

if a site is CREDIBLE?
You should know that only a few select sites can be credible.
Follow this checklist to ensure that you can actually use the
source.
1. Know the name of the AUTHOR of the site, and their credentials
(Dr., Researcher, Journalist, etc)
2. Know what company or organization this site affiliated with.
3. Know WHERE this site exists. (Usually AngleFire, MySpace or
blogger pages and their like ARE NOT credible).
4. Know what type of information is being conveyed.
5. There must be useful information you can gather for your study.
6. Know when the site was updated last.
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Good Site:

Examples:

http://www.HoughtonMifflin.com/historical/vampire/ht
ml
Borne From Gaves and Charnel Houses.
by: Dr. Julian Smithee PHD of Supernatural Lit,
Cambridge College.
Following the strange trails of the vampire
through history leads down any number of false dark
alleys and real dark corridors. However they are
regarded, stalker or carrion rogue, the vampire seems to
permeate every society in the world in one form or
another. Yet where do these creatures originate from?
Why do they differ in appearance and behavior from
country to country? And above all, why are such
murderous creatures so terrifying yet so attractive to us
at the same time?
To explore the true birth place of the
vampire, we must look at two of the greatest empires in
the world and their sub-cultures. The Greeks and the
Egyptians were simultaneously the most powerful and
populace empires in the known world. Thus, it is only
fitting that from such great societies come the worlds
most renowned fiends. Somewhere around eighty years
before the birth of Christ, we find the first written
evidence of vampiric happenings in Greek grave yards
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and Egyptian
tombs.
pg. 1

Bad Site:

http://www.geocities.com/MorganLF/vampires.html
Vampires are undoubtedly the coolest creatures out
there. In comparison to werewolves or ghosts,
neither is more real or more powerful than the
vampire.
I myself am a vampire, and so it is with pride I tell
you about myself to scare you a little morepeople
taste better when theyre scared.
I, like all vampires, originate from Los Angeles.
Some people think vampires are from other places,
but the true vampires are seen only in LA clubs. Ive
been to N.Y. clubs, and theyre just posers.
Despite popular belief, vampires have been around
as long as humanslonger, actually. We began as
angels, fallen like the demons, but we made our way
from Hell to earth where our lesser forms developed
into humanity. Real vampires do not develop, we
feed and continue.
pg. 1
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 From the good site you could clearly see WHO wrote the article,
WHY they were a credible source, and INFORMATION that
would actually help you with your research. Furthermore, look at
the WEB ADDRESS, (Houghton Mifflin is a school textbook
company, thus a trustworthy source).
The bad site is quite opposite. It is based on opinion, I am a
vampire. Has irrelevant quotes as to helping you, and has no
credible author or company to back them up. Furthermore, look at
the address. Any time it is from Geocities, Angelfire, Tripod, a
personal blog, or any other company that allows any and all
individuals to make personal web pages, it is usually NOT a
credible or accepted source.
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Once I start researching my topic, what do

I do with the information?
STEP 1:
Print the information OUT. Be sure to print out the information from
the website.
I encourage you NOT to copy and paste it into Microsoft Word because
you will lose valuable information, including who wrote it, when it was
published, etc. You will need this information when we create our
bibliography.
REMEMBER: The first step is to just get familiar with your topic. You
are simply using any search engine to research your topic to see if you
are interested in writing about it.
More serious evaluation and gathering of information from credible
sources will take place next week in the library.

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Once I start researching my topic, what do

I do with the information?
STEP 2:
YOU MUST READ your information.
After you have printed out a valuable piece of
information about your topic, highlight important
information.
Decide if this is the topic you want to write your paper
on. Dont be surprised if your opinion changes.
We will begin a thorough evaluation of sources in the
library next week.

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How will we write this paper once weve finished

researching and gathering our sources?

INTRODUCTION:
HOOK Your Attention Grabber
Brief discussion/explanation of topic
Thesis Statement clearly stating opinion
or point of view on topic
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How will we write this paper once weve finished

researching and gathering our sources?

BODY PARAGRAPHS
(each sub-topic will be 2 paragraphs):

Explanation of Sub-Topic # 1
Supporting Evidence (supporting evidence may require the
use of more than one paragraph to explain a sub-topic)
Explanation of Sub-Topic # 2
Supporting Evidence (supporting evidence may require the
use of more than one paragraph to explain a sub-topic)
Explanation of Sub-Topic # 3
Supporting Evidence (supporting evidence may require the
use
of more than one
paragraph
to explain 21a sub-topic)
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How will we write this paper once weve finished

researching and gathering our sources?

CONCLUSION
Rephrased Thesis Statement
Briefly discuss main points (sub-topics) again
Think Big Picture Attention Grabbing
Statement. Leave the reader with a thoughtprovoking sentence or question for closure.
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How will we write this paper once weve finished

researching and gathering our sources?

MLA BIBLIOGRAPHY
This will be done in the library.
MLA stands for Modern Language
Association. It is a specific format we will
follow. This will all be explained to you in
class.
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Steps in Research Paper

Step 1:
Choose a topic:
Take the time to do a little independent
research on your topic utilizing google.com,
bing.com, yahoo.com, or any other search
engine.
Familiarize yourself with the topic and begin to
narrow your topic to something more specific.
This is just intended to get your feet wet.
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Step 2 in Research Paper

Confirm your topic:
After you have taken the time to get your feet
wet and familiarize yourself with several
topics you must confirm your topic with your
guide.

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Step 3 in Research Paper

Begin Gathering Sources in Library:

Working with the librarian (online and offline), we will learn how
to utilize an database to help us find magazine, journal, and
newspaper articles that connect to our topic.

Sources:
1 book source
2 magazine or newspaper articles
2 web sources comes from the Internet
As you research, you will begin to brainstorm sub-topics

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Step 4 in Research Paper

Read and highlight sources:
You will be required to read through each source
and highlight information that you think will be
beneficial to use in your research paper.
Not all the information is connected to YOUR specific
topic.

As you read, confirm sub-topics that narrow down

your specific topic even more.
DO NOT HIGHLIGHT everything!
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Step 5 in Research Paper

Create source cards
Each source card will contain information
about each source (1 book, two magazine/newspaper
articles and 2 web sources).

This will contain information about the

author, publisher, etc.
DO NOT throw out your source cards at any
point in the process!
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Step 6 in Research Paper

Begin to develop note cards from your
sources:
Discuss the process of creating note cards.
Note cards help you narrow your information
even further and help us practice paraphrasing
information in our own words rather than simply
copying from a source.
Note cards will be organized according to subtopics.
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Step 7 in Research Paper

Develop THESIS statement
Remember, a THESIS statement tells the reader specifically
what will be covered in the written paper.
THOROUGHLY discuss the thesis statement, and how we
can write a thesis statement, once we reach this point.
From this point forward, after we have gathered our research
and prepared all of our note cards, we will need to ensure
everything connects to our thesis statement.
Ultimately, everything that you write should connect to your
THESIS statement.
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Step 8 in Research Paper

Develop OUTLINE
Once all note cards are completed, we will then organize our
note cards into three piles:
Sub-topic 1
Sub-topic 2
Sub-topic 3
Then organize our information into an OUTLINE.
The outline is a precursor to writing the research paper. The
paper will follow the EXACT order of your outline.

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Step 9 in Research Paper

Develop Bibliography
We will then return to the library and type our
bibliography.
The bibliography will be based off of our source
cards.
The bibliography will follow the MLA format.

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Step 10 in Research Paper

Learn how to include Parenthetical Citations:

Parenthetical citations give credit to the author or source you
retrieved your information from.
You must understand that a research paper focuses on the
information you have retrieved from other sources, NOT your own
information, therefore the researched information needs to cited.
Its very simple: Whenever you provide a specific quote or
evidence that is not your own, you will put the authors last name
and page number of where you retrieved your information.
SAMPLE:
In a recent study by the FDA, researchers found that over 70% of
high school students have thought about taking steroids in order to
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enhance
their performance
(Livingston 56).

Parenthetical Citation

Step 11 in Research Paper

WRITE THE PAPER!!!

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Pride.
Every step in the research
paper process is graded and
will contribute to the final
product. If you choose to
become lazy at any point in
the process, it will affect the
final product and frustrate
you in the end.
Take PRIDE in your work
and REMEMBER: it reflects
your work ethic and
commitment to excellence.
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Choose a topic
you would be
interested in
reading. And,
above all,
create
something you
are proud of
altogether.
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Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when you take someone elses works, ideas or words and
use them as your own. Whether it is a sentence, a part of a sentence or
an entire paper, it will ruin your grade.
It is an academic crime and an ethical offense. Plagiarism is stealing
someones intellectual property.
If you plagiarize in ANY college class, you are usually expelled from
the college, cannot reapply EVER, and the infraction is placed on
your permanent record.
Why is it an academic crime? It is an academic crime because you are
stealing another persons ideas. It is illegal and immoral.
If you are thinking about it, dont chance it.
If you ever need to help summarizing, properly quoting or
paraphrasing, see me! Its better to ask for extra help than take the
sneaky route and copy someone elses writing. I will have more respect
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you if you ask for help.
We will discuss how to avoid
this much more
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in class.

Thats All Folks

Thank You