DEVELOPING AND EXPANDING A TOPICRESEARCHING AND ORGANIZING INFORMATIONLesson 8 in our information unit

WHY RESEARCH?

Writers perform research to grow in their knowledge about they chose for their piece of writing.Here, we sort our prior knowledge from the information we learn through research by organizing, categorizing and cleaning up the details, facts and examples.We will do this through categories and sub categories.

HOW DO WE ORGANIZE OUR RESEARCH?

IT ALL STARTS WITH SOURCES It is essential for you to keep track of your sources. Right now, in your ELA notebook, please make a source page

for your non-fiction research. Here, you will keep track of the sources you find as you

research your topic.

THEN IT IS TIME TO ORGANIZE YOUR INFORMATION

As you are doing your research, you are going to need to document that somehow, right?

Jotting the notes you take from these sources down, is a great start. Just make sure you keep track of what facts come from what source.

Then you can categorize that research into different categories. For us we can use the categories of effect and cause.

What sources have information that fits into the effect category?

What sources have information that fit into the cause category?

SUB CATEGORIES

Once we have information organized into categories, we can then dive even deeper and look for sub categories that we can continue to categorize our information into.

What sub categories will your research have in it?

TIME TO RESEARCH

So now it is time to research. Today, you are going to look for 3 sources that you could used

to help you with research on your topic. Here is your to-do list

1 Find 3 sources that you want to use in the research for your

topic and write them down in your ELA notebook. This should include the name of your source and the URL for that

source.

In your ELA notebook, make a T-Chart On one side write the category “Effect”

On the other side write the category “Cause”

2

Looking at the sources you found, organize them into one of these categories. Which sources fit under the “effect” category? This means that the information in these sources support the “EFFECT” that you are going to write about in your informational essay.

Then look at which sources fit under the “Cause” Category? This means that the information in these sources support the “CAUSE” that you are going to write about in your informational essay?

3

TIME TO SHARE

In our class discussion board today, please share 2 of the sources you found for your informational essay and share what category you believe these sources fall into; cause or effect.