Research Paper

Step-by-Step

Formatting

1. USE GOOGLE CHROME!

SIGN IN IMMEDIATELY

(click on the three horizontal lines in top right corner of Chrome and go to “Sign in”) WITH YOUR SCHOOL ACCOUNT.

2. Go to your Apps page (button in top left corner)

3. Click on “Google Drive”

4. Click on grid in top right corner

5. Find “Docs.” If it’s not there, click on “More” or “Even more” until you find “Docs.”

6. Click big blue circle with a plus sign in bottom right corner to open a new Google Doc.

7. Click on “Untitled document” and name your document like this: “Sylvester’s Research Paper” (use your name, of course).

Next, paginate. Here’s how:

8. This entire paper should be in Times New Roman, size 12 font. Change these settings now.

9. Then click on “Insert”

and choose “Page number”

and “Top of page.”

10. Put the cursor in front of the 1 and type your last name in front of the 1, with a space between. (Now your last name will appear on every page with the page number in sequence.)

11. Click below the line to get out of the page number mode.

Double-space the entire paper before you even start writing:

12. Click on “Format” and choose

“Line spacing”

and “Double”

13. Type your personal info. on the left, BELOW the imaginary line, so it’s NOT part of the pagination (otherwise, it would appear on every page). The personal info. goes only on the first page. You have just set the entire paper to be double-spaced, so don’t do any extra spacing when you type your personal info. Just type it, so that the paper is double-spaced evenly all the way down (no extra white space in the personal info. or before/after the title). Your Name

 Teacher Name Course Name Day Month (full spelling) Year (no comma)

14. Give your paper a title and center it. Your title can simply be your topic (e.g., The Media in World War II) or something more clever. This title should NOT be enlarged, NOT underlined, and NOT put into quotation marks.

Writing the Essay1. Make sure you have set the font to Times New Roman 12 pt. for the whole paper (you already should have set it in the previous steps).

2. Go to the next line under your title. Make sure the cursor isn’t centered anymore.

3. Hit the TAB button to indent the first line of your first paragraph. Type your thesis statement from your outline packet. If you didn’t do your outline packet, then write your thesis statement now. Remember, a thesis statement…

A thesis statement:• is 1-2 sentences in which you take a position

on the topic• must be appropriate for the sources you’ve

summarized (what are your sources collectively proving?)

• must be about the media• must be an arguable opinion of yours (others

could disagree)• will be supported by each paragraph of your

paper• Student Example…

A thesis statement:• Student Example:

In wartime, the people’s right to know isn’t as important as national security and the safety of the troops. For that reason, it was a good idea that the media’s coverage of World War II was censored, leaving out the details of the war and mostly focusing on what citizens could do to support the troops.• If you can’t think of one yet, skip down to the

next item and come back to the thesis later when you have a better idea of what your sources are collectively proving.

4. Get out your Annotated Bibliography or your printed articles. 

5. After your thesis statement, go to the next line and hit the TAB button to start a second paragraph, where you will put your first piece of information from an article to support your thesis—the next slide will show you how…

You will “sandwich” the information between a top layer of where it comes from (signal phrase) and a bottom layer of opinion. Start setting up the sandwich like this:

The top bread: This is very short.

It is called the signal phrase.

Tell what author--or article title if no author--the information comes from (you may get this from your Annotated Bibliography). Also put says• Student Example: Harry Henderson says• Unknown Author: The article “Perspectives

and Issues” says

The meat: After the top bread, summarize the information from the article or use an exact quote--or a mix of both (you may get this from your Annotated Bibliography). Make sure you don’t create sentence fragments.• Student Example of an Exact Quote: Harry

Henderson says, “All these channels of information can be tapped by people interested in persuading other people,” thanks to technology like the Internet.

• Student Example of a Summary: Harry Henderson says that there are so many ways the average person can try to convince the public, thanks to technology like the Internet.

The bottom bread – give your opinion about the information/meat that you just put (you may get this from your evaluations on your Annotated Bibliography).* It is very important that you distinguish where your opinion sentences begin. You don’t want the reader to think your opinions are the author’s, so start your opinion by commenting on the author, similar to this:

- This author (or this article) makes a good point because…

- This author (or this article) is not very reasonable because…

- Do NOT start with I think…

(I, me, my are too informal for a research paper).

Student Example of Bottom Bread:

This author makes a good point because reporting seems to have become something that anybody with a blog can do, whether they are qualified to comment on current events or not.

The whole paragraph

sandwich would look

like this:

Harry Henderson says that there are so many ways the average person can try to convince the public, thanks to technology like the Internet. This author makes a good point because reporting seems to have become something that anybody with a blog can do, whether they are qualified to comment on current events or not.

At the end of class each day, make sure you back up your files in another location. They will be saved to your Google Drive, but never put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to technology. Glitches happen. Back up your files by emailing them to yourself or saving them to your own flash/thumb drive (they are cheap! $5). Lost files are not an excuse to miss deadlines because I’m warning you to back up files in another location.

6. Go to the next line and hit the TAB button to start the next paragraph, where you will put your next piece of information from an article.• Follow the “sandwich” procedure from the

previous steps for every paragraph of your paper as you continue to put in information from articles. Without the top bread/signal phrase, you are plagiarizing—even if you’re summarizing instead of using an exact quote.

• The top bread/signal phrase doesn’t always have to be so-and-so says. Choose from these words, so you don’t use “says” too often:

acknowledges adds admits agreesargues asserts believes claimscomments compares confirms contendsdeclares denies disputesemphasizesendorses grants illustrates impliesinsists notes observes points outreasons refutes rejects reportsresponds suggests thinks writes

Student Example:Harry Henderson asserts…

Amounts1. The final draft must be 1300-1900 words, depending on the grade you want. I won’t accept fewer than 1300 words (not counting the Works Cited page). If you submit a paper to Turnitin.com that doesn’t meet the requirements, I will hand it back to you with a zero until you fix it.

2. You must use 5 or more authors/articles in 5 or more different places in your paper. Every place you mention one, it must be easily found in the Works Cited page at the end of your paper.

3. You must use an exact quote from at least 3 of those 5 articles. There is no limit to how many times you can use exact quotes, but they should NOT go past four lines long. Do NOT use back-to-back exact quotes.

4. Your paper must have ONE and only ONE long quote. See the 7 “Deadly” MLA Rules later in this slideshow for how to do long quotes.

5. You must give your opinion in every paragraph about the information there. You must distinguish where your opinion sentences begin with something like This author (or this article) makes a good point because…

GradingThe research paper involves several major grades, some now, some later. The Bibliography grades go on this 6 weeks. The Final Draft will be turned in this 6 weeks, too, but it won’t appear in the gradebook until the final 6 weeks of the year (I need time to grade over 100 research papers). The Final Draft gets three major grades: the Contract Grade, the Product Grade, and the Form Grade, which are all described on the next slides…

 

1. Contract Grade

The contract grade will be determined by the turning in of your paper on time and on the following:

These numbers are not counting words in the Works Cited page

 

You may not contract for a lower grade than 80; therefore, the 80 requirements are the minimum requirements. For example, if you try to submit a 1,000-word paper, it will be handed back to you with a zero until you add what is missing. Or if you turn in a paper with only 2 authors or articles mentioned, it will be a zero until you add what is missing. You may still earn less than an 80 because 5 points will be deducted each day until you add what is missing. Unlike other assignments, you cannot perform below the standard and just accept whatever grade you get. If you never meet the minimum requirements of the Contract Grade, you will take zeroes on all three major grades (Contract, Product, and Form), which means you will fail and not graduate.

2. Product Grade

The product grade will be based on how well you develop your thesis. Make sure your thesis statement is persuasive, make sure the body of the paper supports your thesis with reasons and evidence, and make sure there are no fragments, run-ons, awkward sentences, or spelling errors.

See the rest of this slideshow for help on this.

3. Form Grade

The form grade will be given according to how well you follow that nitpicky MLA format for the “sandwich” method, the works cited page, exact quotes, etc. You will fail this part if you do not pay close attention to the details of MLA format.

See the rest of this slideshow for help on this.

Due Date:

The Final Draft is due Tuesday, February 10, 2015. There is only a two-day window after that for lateness. You must submit your paper by then, even if it is incomplete. Submitting it by the deadline is required for graduation.

Leading up to the deadline, there are separate due dates and grades for the bibliographies and the rough draft. Do not turn in the Final Draft and expect it to count for all the grades leading up to it. If you don’t turn in those assignments separately, they will get zeroes.

Remember:

After you submit your paper, you are only allowed to fix amounts of words and sources, NOT your mistakes of MLA rules, grammar, nor punctuation.

So follow the instructions in this slideshow because your grade is based on it.

If there is something you don’t understand in this slideshow, ask me to check your work ahead of time.

However, don’t misquote me later, saying, “You told me such-and-such!” Everything you need to know is right here for you to read and follow.

I can explain something for you, but I can’t understand it for you.

When You SummarizeYou can NOT simply copy all the information you want to use—you must word it in a different way. Here is how to summarize an article without plagiarizing it:1. Read the part you want to use.

2. Look away from it. Then write what you remember in your own words.

3. Then compare your version with the original to make sure you’ve changed the words and their order, so that you are giving the same information but in alternative style (like retelling a story your own way).

4. Remember, you do NOT have to change words like numbers, dates, names of people, companies, organizations, cities, countries, or other proper nouns, names of religions, races, species, titles of books, films, or albums.

Follow these instructions carefully!

I can tell if you plagiarized even if Turnitin.com doesn’t catch it!

I only use Turnitin.com as a tool. If it says you didn’t plagiarize, but you actually did, I will still catch it myself.

When You Quote Exactly

Your exact quotes must be done correctly:

1. Comma after says, and a capital letter to begin the quote. Student Example:

Gene Busnar asserts, “The Beatles’ neat, cuddly image was easy to caricature.”

2. No comma after says that and no capital letter beginning the quote. Student Example:

Alan Axelrod adds that “at this point the feud had begun.”

3. When you blend an exact quote into your own words, make sure it flows grammatically and use no comma and no capital letter.

Student Example:

According to John Hudson, King Henry’s attempt at transferring these cases was seen to Thomas as “a distinct threat to the church’s independence from secular authority.”

4. It is okay to put in a quote in the middle of a paragraph, as long as you put a top bread/signal phrase. Student Example:

Frederick Lane believes that the personal computer has posed new challenges for employers worried about workplace productivity. Technology has become so sophisticated that it now makes non-work-related computer activities easy and inviting. Giving employees access to the Internet is “roughly the equivalent of installing a gazillion-channel television set for each employee.” The author makes a good point because employees are not being paid to play around, yet that is what essentially happens in most businesses.

5. There is no limit to how many times you can use exact quotes, but they should not go past four lines long. Do not use back-to-back exact quotes because that is equivalent to having one quote that is too long. Student Example:

Jonathan Frakes says, “The Crusades were a series of Holy Wars launched against the Muslims.” “In 1065, Jerusalem was taken by the Turks. Three thousand Christians were massacred” (Smith). Brent McFadden says, “The defeat of the Byzantine army led the Byzantine emperor to appeal to the pope for aid against the Muslims.”

When Giving Your OpinionsIf you aren’t sure what opinions to give about the information you use in a paragraph, try answering a couple of these questions:

1. Do you agree with the author? Why?

2. Does the author seem biased or overly emotional about the topic? How?

3. How does the information compare to your personal experience?

4. How does the information compare to what goes on in the world?

1. You MUST give a signal phrase—e.g. Harry Henderson says—for every piece of information you include from a source NO MATTER WHAT:

• When you quote directly• When you summarize/put it in your own words• When you give statistics• ANYTHING THAT ISN’T COMMON KNOWLEDGE!

7 “Deadly” MLA Rules

If the author is unknown, you must give the article title: The article “Perspectives and Issues” says

You quote directly:Harry Henderson says, “Out of this torrent of stories, all delivered in about the same tone of importance, it has become hard to tell what really is important.”

You summarize:Harry Henderson discusses how difficult it is now to determine what information really matters because of the way the news floods us with current events and makes them all seem equally significant.

OR

• The signal phrase Harry Henderson says indicates that the information came from his article, not from you. Since you gave the author’s name, the reader can look up the source in your Works Cited page at the end of your paper. The name in your signal phrase MUST be easily found in your Works Cited page alphabetically.

• The signal phrase Harry Henderson says indicates that the information came from his article, not from you. Since you gave the author’s name, the reader can look up the source in your Works Cited page at the end of your paper. The name in your signal phrase MUST be easily found in your Works Cited page alphabetically.

Works Cited

Cunningham, Erin. “Egypt’s Jon Stewart Treads Carefully.”

Post 25 Oct. 2013. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28

Henderson, Harry. “Perspectives and Issues.” Power of the News

New York: Facts on File, 2004. Student Resources in

13 Nov. 2012.

Killough, Ashley. “North Carolina GOP Precinct Chair Resigns

CNN Wire 25 Oct. 2013. Student Resources in Context.

Pollak, Joel B. “Krauthammer vs. Stewart on The Daily Show.”

Newsletter. 24 Oct. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints.in Context.

2. A parenthetical citation (Jones) is NOT needed at the end of the sentence because the author is

already stated as the signal phrase.

Student Example: David Jones characterizes the Europeans as

“hunters for gold or pursuers of fame.”

Unknown Author: The article “Media Madness” says that Americans

don’t think the media should be abolished, just repaired.

Don’t need (Jones) at the end.

Don’t need (“Media”) at the end.

Article title is the signal phrase.

Author’s name is the signal phrase.

The signal phrase introduces the information. Readers will understand that everything in the paragraph after the name is from that source:

Student Example:Frederick Lane believes that the personal

computer has posed new challenges for employers worried about workplace productivity. Technology has become so sophisticated that it now makes non-work-related computer activities easy and inviting. Giving employees access to the Internet is about the same as giving them their own TV’s. Student’s opinions about the info. cited in this paragraph go here…

3. Long quotes:

Jones characterizes the Europeans as

somewhat brutal:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Your paper must have

ONE and only ONE long quote.

Long quotes must go to 5th line or more, but not beyond 8 lines.

Long quotes are DOUBLE indented & have NO quotation marks.

Introduced w/ a complete sentence which includes the author’s name and ends in a colon.

Special Situations…

4. The only time to use a parenthetical citation—e.g. (Jones) or (“Media”)—at the end of a sentence is if you weaved in a quote or summary of a new source not mentioned in the signal phrase.

Student Example:

Stephen Braun has called caffeine “the most popular drug on earth.” The author has a good point because there is a coffee machine in almost every business building, and when people try to skip their morning coffee they realize they are hooked. “Caffeine withdrawal symptoms include fatigue, headache, nausea, and psychological symptoms” (Pendergrast).

New source, different from Braun but in same paragraph.

In those cases, the parenthetical citation should only be ONE word:

Student Example:

Stephen Braun has called caffeine “the most popular drug on earth.” The author has a good point because there is a coffee machine in almost every business building, and when people try to skip their morning coffee they realize they are hooked. “Caffeine withdrawal symptoms include fatigue, headache, nausea, and psychological symptoms” (Pendergrast).

The entire citation is the author’s last name.

Put the period outside, after the parenthesis.

Between the last word of the sentence and the parenthesis, put a space.

In those cases, the parenthetical citation should only be ONE word:

Student Example:

Stephen Braun has called caffeine “the most popular drug on earth.” The author has a good point because there is a coffee machine in almost every business building, and when people try to skip their morning coffee they realize they are hooked. “Caffeine withdrawal symptoms include fatigue, headache, nausea, and psychological symptoms” (“Uncommon”).

And make sure you use quotation marks.

Let’s say the new source doesn’t have an author.Then use the first word of the article title (skip “A” and “The”).

5. If you have more than one article by the SAME author, the signal phrase will have to also specify the article title:

• Situation: If Robert Ballard wrote “The Finding of the Titanic” and also “The Wreck of the Century,” how are we to know which article you mean if you only put the author? Add the article title:

Student Example:

Robert Ballard’s article “The Finding of the Titanic” says, “The wreck was awe inspiring.”

Situation: Two articles have no author, and they are both called “Caffeine Harms” and “Caffeine Harms”.

Include the magazine title or website:

Student Example:

The article “Caffeine Harms” in Science Weekly says that for those people who already lead a healthy lifestyle, drinking a little coffee will not cause heart disease.

6. What if two articles have no author, and they have exactly the same titles? The signal phrase will have to also specify the magazine title or website:

7. If you use an actual book you can hold in your hands, you must give the page number used:

• Situation: You’re using information from a library book called Buzz: the Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine by Steve Richardson.

Student Example:

Steve Richardson says, “Nearly all the studies linking coffee with increased cholesterol have involved unfiltered coffee” (27).

Include the page number where you found the information, but don’t put “pg.”

Finishing Your Paper1. After you finish all your paragraphs, go back

up to your thesis statement and make sure it covers everything you wrote about. Also add an interesting hook before the thesis to pull in the reader. You might also have to add more sentences to your thesis to make your topic and opinion clear.

2. Go down to your last paragraph and add a concluding paragraph that sums up your paper and restates your thesis.

3. Go back through your essay and add a topic sentence before the top bread/signal phrase of each paragraph. This topic sentence should give one reason for your thesis or the aspect of your thesis that you address in that paragraph. It might also explain what the situation is with the information in that paragraph (like background).

Student Example…

Do this to every paragraph. Add a topic sentence to the beginning of your original paragraph:

Harry Henderson says that there are so many ways the average person can try to convince the public, thanks to technology like the Internet. This author makes a good point because reporting seems to have become something that anybody with a blog can do, whether they are qualified to comment on current events or not.

One author explores how the requirements of reporting are changing because of the Internet.

Student Example:

4. You must reiterate your thesis in each paragraph of your essay. Go back through your essay, and at the end of every paragraph, add a sentence that restates your thesis or some aspect of it.

Student Example…

Student Example:

One author explores how the requirements of reporting are changing because of the Internet. Harry Henderson says that there are so many ways the average person can try to convince the public, thanks to technology like the Internet. This author makes a good point because reporting seems to have become something that anybody with a blog can do, whether they are qualified to comment on current events or not.

This has turned the media into an octopus with way too many tentacles to control.

Do this to every paragraph. Add a sentence that restates your thesis or some aspect of it:

5. Warning:

You will lose a substantial amount of points…• if your essay is one solid body of text with no

paragraphs,• or if your essay consists of extremely long

paragraphs that are full of information but have only one small opinion from you.

Instead, your essay should have several paragraphs (sandwiches) that each have opinions from you, as this slideshow has demonstrated.

6. Check for use of apostrophes with possessive words.

- Singular words: add 's (e.g., the teacher’s problem)  

- Person’s name ending in s: add 's (e.g., Chris’s friend)

- Plural words (only if possessive):

ending in s: add ' (e.g., two patients’ clothes)

not ending in s: add 's (e.g., two deer’s thicket)

- Do not use apostrophes when there is no ownership nor contraction:

There were thousands of abortion’s.

7. Check for obvious spelling errors, as well as the following:

- Their, they’re, there (are they each used correctly?)

 

- Where, were, we’re (are they each used correctly?)

- Too, to, two (are they each used correctly?)

their

e.g., People don’t use there heads.

8. Make sure that all the verbs are in the same tense unless you have a good reason for changing the verb tense.

Of course, do not change the verb tenses inside the exact quotes.

Fix the verb tense, so it is consistent:

past

The salesman and his son were always kidding themselves.

presentchange to “lacked”

They lack the strength…

9. Check for fragments and run-on sentences.- The best way to catch them is to read each sentence one at a time from the bottom of the page to the top.

- Read from capital letter to end mark, checking to see that what is punctuated as a sentence is truly a complete thought.

- If there are two complete thoughts separated by only a space or a comma, that is a run-on. You can fix a run-on by inserting a period or, sometimes, by adding a FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Remember the rule: I, FANBOYS I.

Change to a period:

The doctor got help from other specialists, they were as unsuccessful as he was.

OR sometimes you can insert a fanboys: but

The doctor got help from other specialists, they were as unsuccessful as he was.

^

Works Cited Page1. After the last paragraph of your essay, hit ENTER until you get to the top of a new page.

2. You must entitle the new page Works Cited (centered).

3. Go to the next line. Make sure the cursor isn’t centered anymore.

4. If you saved your “Annotated Bibliography” file, open it. Highlight/copy the source citations for only the articles that you used in your essay and paste them under Works Cited in your research paper.

Student Example:

Works Cited

Henderson, Harry. “Perspectives and Issues.” Power of the News Media. New York: Facts on File, 2004. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

5. If you didn’t save your “Annotated Bibliography” file, you will have to retype the source citations or cut and paste them from the articles.

6. BE CAREFUL! The Works Cited page is where many students lose the most points! If you kept your graded “Working Bibliography” (your old list of sources), get it out and follow the corrections I made for the sources that you used in your essay, so you don’t make the same mistakes on your Works Cited page. Follow the formats on the next slides, especially if you don’t have your graded “Working Bibliography,” or if you used any sources not on that list.

If you got the article from a website found through Google (no more than three), you must type the citation information like this:Author(s) if given (name reversed, comma between). “Article Title in Quotation Marks with First Letters of Words Capitalized.” Website Title (this should never be Google because Google is only the search engine that took you to the website) Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized (if none given, put the words Home page). Sponsor of the Site (if none given, skip to the next part), and last update (if no date given, put the letters n.d.). The word Web. Day Month (abbreviated) Year that you accessed the article.

Student Example:

Kehoe, Bobby. “Secrets of the Preseli Blue Stones.” Stonehenge Universe. TechMedia Network, 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.

If you got the article from the News section of the database or the Magazine section, you must type the citation information like this:Author(s) if given (name reversed, comma between). “Article Title in Quotation Marks with First Letters of Words Capitalized.” Newspaper or Magazine Title Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized Day Month (abbreviated) Year of the newspaper or magazine: page. Name of Database Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized. The word Web. Day Month (abbreviated) Year that you accessed the article.

Student Example:

Jefferson, Steve. “Senate Passes the Pro-Abortion Mikulski Amendment.” Life Science Weekly 15 Dec. 2009: 23. Student Resources in Context. Web. 17 Dec. 2009.

If you got the article from the Academic Journals section of the database, you must type the citation information like this:Author(s) if given (name reversed, comma between). “Article Title in Quotation Marks with First Letters of Words Capitalized.” Academic Journal Title Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized Volume.Issue (Year of publication in parentheses): pages. Name of Database Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized. The word Web. Day Month (abbreviated) Year that you accessed the article.

Student Example:

McCrery, James, and John Wickey. “Abortion Diminishes Us All.” First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life 19.8 (2009): 3+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 17 Oct. 2009.

If the citation information uses the abbreviation “Ed.” (for editor), or it gives the name of a city, or it uses the word “Press,” that means it is from a book, not a newspaper, magazine, nor journal. You must type the citation information like this only for a book from the databases:

Author(s) if given (name reversed, comma between). “Article Title in Quotation Marks with First Letters of Words Capitalized.” Book Title Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized. Editor’s Name in normal order. City: Publishing Company, Year. Name of Database Underlined with First Letters of Words Capitalized. The word Web. Day Month (abbreviated) Year that you accessed the article.

Student Example:

Harmon, Amy. “Aborting a Fetus with a Genetic Disorder Is a Personal Decision.” Opposing Viewpoints: Genetic Disorders. Ed. Katherine Swarts. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Dec. 2009.

7. Do not number your list. Instead, list the sources in alphabetical order by authors’ last names and by first word of article titles if author not given.• Do not just stick sources that have no author at the front or the

end of the list. You’ll have to cut and paste them where they belong to follow the alphabetical flow.

• For example, if you have a source with the last name Anderson, another source with the last name Christiansen, and an authorless source with the first word in the article title “Big,” you’ll have to cut and paste the source starting with “Big” in between the sources by Anderson and Christiansen.

8. The whole page must have “hanging indent”: - All lines are indented EXCEPT for the first line of each source.

- No extra space between each source. They are double-spaced EVENLY down the page.

Works Cited

Stallone 6

- You’ll have to do hanging indent manually by putting the cursor at the end of the first line of each source, hitting BACKSPACE, ENTER, and then TAB.

9. Read through your essay. Every time you mention an author or article in the essay, check to make sure it is listed in your Works Cited page. If it isn’t, add it to the list. If the list has a source NOT mentioned in the essay, remove that source from the list. The list must ONLY include the sources that you mentioned in your essay.

Turnitin.com• Your paper must be electronically submitted

by Tues., Feb. 10, or you don’t graduate!• I can tell if you plagiarized even if

Turnitin.com doesn’t catch it!• I only use Turnitin.com as a tool. If it says you

didn’t plagiarize, but you actually did, I will still catch it myself.

• Don’t worry about the % number that Turnitin.com gives you--what matters is what it highlights in your essay. See next slides…

1. Go to turnitin.com.

2. Type in your email, then your password.If you don’t remember, then check your “Turnitin.com: Annotated Bibliography” sheet, which said to write down your email and password for future use and gave you blanks to write them in. If you didn’t do that, you’ll have to click on “Create Account,” scroll down and click on “Student,” enter the Class ID: 9381325, and enter the Class Enrollment Password: irish15. Then you’ll have to enter your name spelled slightly differently, or it will say the account already exists. Enter a new email and new password.

3. Click on “English IV.”

4. There are different submit buttons. Click on the “Submit” next to Research Paper, not the one that says Annotated Bibliography and not for the wrong period.

5. Click on “Cut & Paste Upload” and change it to “Single File Upload.”

6. Type in a submission title like this: “Sylvester’s Research Paper” (use your name, of course).

7. Click on “Choose from Google Drive” to locate the file to attach.

8. Click on “Accept.”

9. Your Google documents should come up. Click on your research paper and click “Select.”

10. Click “Upload.”

11. It will show you the document you just submitted. Click “Confirm” if correct.

12. Click “Return to assignment list.”

Checking for PlagiarismIt may take 15 minutes or more for your originality report to be

accessible. You may have to logout and check back later (to login again: go to turnitin.com, type in the email used above, and type in your password from above).

13) Find your class period on the list, and click on the colored box next to the % number. Again, make sure you choose Research Paper, not Annotated Bibliography.

14) Your originality report will come up.

15) The % number is the percentage of your paper that Turnitin.com thinks is plagiarized. Don’t worry about the % number—what matters is what Turnitin highlighted in your essay:

a. Parts that Turnitin thinks are plagiarized will be highlighted and given a number.

b. The numbers correspond to the column on the right, which contains links to sites that have those same

words. 

c. Click on those links and compare your words to the sources’ words.

d. Ignore highlighted names, titles, numbers, and things in quotation marks. Instead, focus on the highlighted regular nouns and verbs because those are the parts that will need to be re-worded (see next slide)…

Some of the highlighted parts might be sentences you took from your Annotated Bib. Since you’re not plagiarizing from yourself, ignore those (the column might say it comes from a student in Granbury, which is probably you).

e. Open your Google document of your research paper and re-word thenecessary parts, so they are true summaries that don’t use the same words as the article.

f. Some links won’t give you access because sometimes the source is a student from somewhere else in the country and his/her paper coincidentally uses some of the same words as you; Turnitin won’t let you see his/her paper.

16) After you have fixed the plagiarized parts of your essay, re-submit it to Turnitin (see next slide). 17) Warning:

I can tell if you plagiarized even if Turnitin.com doesn’t catch it!

I only use Turnitin.com as a tool. It’s not perfect. If it says you didn’t plagiarize, but you actually did, I will still catch it myself.

Just because you did Turnitin, that doesn’t mean you can’t still be penalized for plagiarism.

Resubmitting to Turnitin1) Go to turnitin.com.2) Type in your email.

Type in your password.3) Click on “English IV.”4) Repeat Steps 4 through 12 above.

You may resubmit your paper as many times as you want, which will overwrite your previous submission.

However, when you resubmit, it MAY take up to a day before you can see a new originality report. You may have to login again later.