SJCC READING & WRITING CENTER
RESEARCH PAPER WORKSHOP
Series 2: Evaluating & Managing Sources
Exploring
Organizing and Analyzing Information
Ready to Outline and Write the Paper
Review of the Research Paper Process:
What stage are you at?
Previewing Your Sources How relevant is the
source to your topic? How current is it? (if
applicable) Is it a valid source?
From a newspaper, article, journal, or vetted organization?
How extensive is the source? Length of the article Scope of the topic
POPULAR MAGAZINES SCHOLARLY JOURNALS
TRADE JOURNALS
Reading Your Sources
SUMMARY
Understand the author’s purpose and position in his or her article
Methods: Label each section or idea to
help you see the structure of the article
Mark or highlight common terms or concepts in your article
Write one-sentence summaries as you read.
Reading Your Sources
For more critical thinking questions, go to http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/sts-ct-teaching-students-study-learn-p3.cfm
Critique
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the author?
Evaluate the validity of facts or statistics Do they support the author’s claims
What assumptions or beliefs does the author have?
What conclusions does the author provide?
What are the implications of the author’s argument?
Organizing Your Sources Identify patterns in
what you are reading Assemble different
parts of your topic and consider how they are related.
Organize ideas you may come across into broad topics
Key issues/facts Controversies Solutions Terms/phrases
Organizing Your Sources Keep their (your
sources) information separate from your own ideas.
This will be very important when you start to write your paper.
Organizing Your Sources Note card methodAuthor – Title of work – page # Key Words
•Summarize the source
•Use a direct quotation
•Your own response to the source and any thoughts or questions that come to you about your topic.
Library Call #
Organizing Your Sources
Gabler – “The Greatest Show on Earth” – (p.63-67) Pro-Celebrity Culture
Author argues that celebrity gives the public narratives of heroes and villains and a national conversation. He goes on to describe celebrity as a new art form.
“In effect, then, we have invented celebrity and latched onto it because celebrity does a better job of giving us what traditional art and entertainments once gave us before they became too enervated to surprise us or we became too jaded to be surprised” (66).
Agree with author’s idea that celebrity gives us a national narrative, but unsure to what extent I agree it is a new art form. Is it just a new drug or coping mechanism?
Newsweek 12/21/2009
Sample Note Card
SUMMARY
DIRECT
QUOTE
RESPONSE
Organizing Outlining
Now that you have organized your sources, you can start to outline your essay:
Review your working thesis Does your evidence support your thesis? What patterns of organization will work in your
essay? Compare/Contrast Cause and Effect Argumentative Analysis Or, some combination of the above patterns
Basic OutlineINTRODUCTIONIdentify the subject Explain the problem Provide background information Frame a thesis statement
BODYAnalyze the subject Examine the first major issue Examine the second major issue Examine the third major issue Discuss your findings
CONCLUSIONRestate your thesis and point beyond it Interpret the findings Provide answers, solutions, a final opinion .
Topic Sentence (TS) Support #1: proof,
concrete detail, quotes, etc. Explanation: your
reasoning about how S#1 proves TS
Support #2: Explanation: how S#2
proves TS Support #3:
Explanation: how S#3 proves TS
Concluding Sentence and Transition
Traditional Outline Body Paragraph Outline
Weaving in Sources: 3 MethodsSummaryParaphraseDirect Quote
For both of these methods, restate the information in your own words.
Weaving in Sources You have to cite (give credit to) your
sources whenever you use their ideas or words.
If you use the author’s language, it must be typed exactly as it was printed and be set off with quotation marks.
Anything that is common knowledge (information that can be found in a dictionary or encyclopedia) does NOT have to cited.
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
In-text Citations Direct quote, summary, or paraphrase
taken from one of your sources. Must have
author’s name (or title of source, if no author)
page number (or paragraph #, in no page #)
signal phrase
Summary vs. Paraphrase
A summary restates the entire article’s main ideas.
A paraphrase restates the information using about the same # of words.
Summary Paraphrase
Complete Article Summa
ryInformation
Paraphrase
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
When to Paraphrase or Summarize When you want to condense information
from a source Restate information, facts, meaning or
statistics in your own words
Direct Quotes: Using signal phrases.
Use signal phrases to introduce quotations. Gabler claims “we have invented celebrity .
. . Gabler argues “we have invented celebrity .
. . A signal phrase contains the author of
the source and an action verb. You can also make quotes part of your
sentence structure, but, at the very least, you must always use signal phrases to introduce direct quotes.
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
When to Use Quotations When language is especially vivid or
expressive When exact wording is needed for
technical accuracy When the words of an important
authority lend weight to an argument When the language of a source is the
topic of your discussion (analysis of poetry or prose)
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
MLA In-Text Citation Example
Jay Kesan notes that even though many companies now routinely monitor employees through electronic means, “there may exist less intrusive safeguards for employers” (293). AuthorSignal phrasePage Number
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Examples of Signal Phrases As legal scholar Jay Kesan has noted,
“…” “…,” writes Daniel Tynan, “…” “…,” claims attorney Schmitt Kizza and Ssanyu offer a persuasive
argument: “…” In the words of researchers Greenfield
and Davis, “…”
Direct Quotes: Do not orphan them.
Example of an orphaned quote:
Gabler talks about celebrity culture in his article. “. . . we have invented celebrity and latched onto it because celebrity does a better job of giving us what traditional art and entertainments once gave us . . .” I think he is wrong.
Direct Quotes: Example
Quote Sandwich
Gabler argues that other forms of art cannot compete with celebrity narratives “. . . because celebrity does a better job of giving us what traditional art and entertainments once gave us before they became too enervated to surprise us or we became too jaded to be surprised” (66). Celebrity narratives have overshadowed the arts in the popular media, but not replaced them completely. It is unlikely that students in the future will be poring over the tales of Brangelina.
Direct Quotes: Make a Quote Sandwich! Along with a signal phrase,
it is also a good idea to frame the quote with your ideas, avoiding the “orphan quote” syndrome.
Introduce your quotes with Identifying the source Give any background
context After a quote
Explain the significance of the quote
Establish how it relates to your argument
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Special Tools for Direct Quotes To condense quotes without changing
the meaning, use the Ellipsis Mark (. . .) Example: The author argues that the industrial
agricultural business has transformed the American landscape: “Small towns . . . are being turned into rural ghettos” (Schlosser 8).
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Setting off Long Quotations(4 lines or more)
Botan and Vorvoreanu examine the role of gender in company practices of electronic surveillance:
There has never been accurate documentation of the
extent of the gender differences in surveillance, but by the middle 1990s . . .(127)Quotation marks are unnecessary because the indented format tells readers that this a direct quote.
1” indent
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Special tools, continued. Brackets [ ]
Legal scholar Jay Kesan notes that “a decade ago, losses [from employees’ computer crimes] were already mounting to five billion dollars annually” (311).
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Example of Works Cited Page
Adapted from Hacker, D. (2007). A Writer's Reference (6th Ed.) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's.
Smith 7
Works Cited
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All
American Meal . New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.
½”1”
1”Indent 1/2”
1”
Double space
throughout
page, even
within &
between
entries.
Series 2 Review
REMEMBER…
Choose appropriate sources for your research paper.
Summarize, critique, and organize your sources.
Review your working thesis to see if you have enough evidence to support it. Revise, if necessary.
Create a rough outline of your argument.
Weave in your sources appropriately.