WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

ENGL 1301

Topic

Focus Explore—Research!/Orient Yourself Sort out available information

Topics to Avoid

Topics based entirely on personal experience or opinion

Topics fully explained in a single source

Topics that are brand new Topics that are overly broad Topics that have been worked over

and over

From Topic, to Issue, to Claim Use brainstorming to narrow down the

topic and create an issue Issue = Question Avoid simple issues/issues that can be

easily answered by a single source Come up with a tentative claim—a

hypothesis Test and refine hypothesis as you research Having claim will prevent you from being

overwhelmed by the information of the sources you read

Claims for Different Purposes Try to Establish Something as a Fact—

Point of your informative research paper

Defend or oppose some policy Support or oppose some action Assert the greater value of someone or

something Often deductive as you show how

conclusions follow from agreed-upon values

Directing Essay to Readers

Need to know: How much does audience know about this

issue? What are readers’ interests, expectations,

and needs concerning this issue? What evidence is most likely to inform

them? What objections and consequences would

probably weigh most heavily with them?

Research: Using Sources

The best and most reliable sources are old-fashioned print media (often now in electronic form but initially in print form)

If you restrict yourself to electronic sources like the Internet, you do yourself a disservice

Finding Sources Using the Library

Go Through Cougarweb Online Catalog, includes Ebooks Databases

Full Text Only

Evaluating Sources

Most reputable sources:1. Books published by academic and

university presses2. Articles in scholarly and professional

journals3. Articles in prominent and reputable

newspapers

Questions on Sources

Is the information recent? If not, is the validity of the information likely to have changed?

How credible is the author? Is he/she an expert on the subject?

Does the argument seem sound, fair, thoughtful?

Is the evidence convincing?

Evaluating Web Sources

Restrict yourself to web sources: Signed by an Author Hosted by a Respectable Site,

University Library Official Association devoted to the topic

Also ask: Does it explain how the data was obtained? Does it appear to misuse any data? Is the information it presents consistent with other

material you have found? If not, does it provide adequate support for its claims?

Taking Notes on Sources

Write down everything that might be useful later—remember to include author and title

Write down page numbers and double-check facts and spellings

Think about why you chose to write down a particular idea—write a commentary on it

Differentiate your ideas/words from those of your source!

Use quotation marks for direct quotations!

Drafting the Research Paper

Revisit tentative thesis and refine as needed

In outline, figure out where each source might fit

Construct an essay of your own using secondary sources to support your structure of ideas and evidence

Integrating Sources

The source is an article, “The Temper of the 1920s” by Frederick J. Hoffman. In “The Temper of the 1920s,” literary

historian Fredrick J. Hoffman argues that the young American writers of the 1920s rejected the values and conventions of America’s literary tradition, pointed to World War I as a sign that Western civilization had failed them, and turned to art as the source of meaning.

Definitions

Summary—gives main idea, types of evidence, supporting points. Short, not exhaustive, a succinct overview, often much shorter than original

Paraphrase—puts the information into new words. About the same length as original, possibly longer or shorter

Quotation—records exact wording and punctuation of source and enclosed in quotation marks

When to Use a Summary

Get across main ideas from source Take a long passage and focus on main

points to provide background or general support for your point

Remember to cite source!

When to Use a Paraphrase

To clarify meaning of obscure or ambiguous term or idea

Get across significant details author has described

When source’s language is not especially arresting or memorable

Useful to make sure you “get” the original

When to Use a Quotation

Author’s words are especially vivid or expressive

Exact wording needed for technical accuracy Words of reliable authority would lend support Highlight an opinion Language of source is topic of discussion If you make a change, you need to indicate it May combine paraphrase with one special or

technical term quoted

Benefits of Summary and Paraphrase over Quotations

Keep quotations as short as possible Summaries and Paraphrases fit better

into your prose style Paraphrase is easier to integrate into

your essay than quotation

Avoiding Plagiarism

Document everything you learn from a source,

including ideas and language If you express the ideas of others in your

own words, still need complete, correct documentation

Exception: extremely common knowledge The fact that something is repeated verbatim

on several internet sites does not make it common knowledge—it may mean they are plagiarizing from another source

Paraphrasing Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t change a few words here and there omit a few sentences or scramble their order use same sentence patterns or vocabulary strain to find substitutes for words that are essential to the

meaning of a passageDo: Introduce your own comments or reflections, just be sure to

indicate that these are not those of the source Reproduce the original’s emphasis and details Indicate the page numbers of the original source as well as author’s

name Use a dictionary if any words in the original are not completely

familiar to you Work with whole ideas—break complex sentences down into several

simpler ones of your own

Incorrect and Correct Paraphrase

From “Causes of Prejudice” by Vincent Parrillo on page 577:

“Prejudice is a complex because it is most likely the product of more

than one causal agent.” Incorrect paraphrase: Vincent Parrillo claims that prejudice

is complex because it is most likely the product of more than one causal agent. (577).

Incorrect paraphrase: Vincent Parillo claims that prejudice complex; it is usually produced by more than one cause (577).

Incorrect paraphrase: Multiple causes often create prejudice, making it a complicated phenomenon.

Example of correct paraphrase: According to Vincent Parrillo, multiple causes often create prejudice, making it a complicated phenomenon (577).

Practice Paraphrase

From Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: “In the early nineteenth century, a group of reformers set out to establish a system of public education in the United States. What passed for public school at the time was a haphazard assortment of locally run one-room schoolhouses and overcrowded urban classrooms scattered around the country. In rural areas, schools closed in the spring and fall and ran all summer long, so that children could help out in the busy planting and harvesting seasons. In the city, many schools mirrored the long and chaotic schedules of the children’s working-class parents. The reformers wanted to make sure that all children went to school and that public school was comprehensive, meaning that all children got enough basic schooling to learn how to read and write and do basic arithmetic and function as productive citizens” (252).

How to Integrate Quotations: Don’t Just Drop It In!

Be wary of the assumption that a quotation is self-sufficient or its meaning self-evident

Every time you put a quotation in your paper, be sure to identify the source with a signal phrase

Provide sufficient context so that your reader understands what the quotation means and how it relates to your ideas

You may need to paraphrase material surrounding the quotation to provide context

How to Integrate Quotations: Signal Phrases

Signal Phrase tells reader a bit about thequotation Author’s or organization’s name and verb that

reveals something about the author’s position Robert Pearson acknowledges, advises, affirms,

advocates, believes, charges, claims, concludes, concurs, contends, criticizes, denies, discusses, emphasizes, interprets, objects, offers, observes, responds, reports (etc.)

Can precede quotation, interrupt it, or follow it

Integrating Quotations: Variations

Vary the signal phrase Reynolds makes a strong case that Poe was

influenced by the popular press: “Poe frequently included in his tales phenomena recently reported on by the daily papers” (399).

Reynolds further explains that Poe “frequently included in his tales phenomena recently reported on by the daily papers” (399).

According to Reynolds, “Poe frequently included in his tales phenomena recently reported on by the daily papers” (399).

Rules for Quotations

Quote fairly and accurately; don’t distort the meaning of the original

When quoting up to 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry, integrate the quotations directly into your paragraph; enclose the quoted material in double quotation marks

Block Quotations—omit quotation marks, start a new line and indent twice the amount as you would to start a new paragraph (10 spaces or 1 inch) on the left margin only, no extra spaces before or after quotation. Page number appears after period at end of block quotation.

Block quotations should be rare

Block Quotation

Margaret Bledsoe disagrees:From all that we know of “enlightened self-

interest,” the best chance that humans will begin to act differently from their habitual response

is if they are provided a clear model for change, one that answers their most pressing questions concerning the needs of their everyday lives. Utopian images will simply confuse them. (73)

That said, ideals can motivate people to reach beyond their daily experience and to examine new

possibilities.

Changing Quotations

If the source has a grammatical or spelling error, reproduce it exactly, but indicate it is not your error with sic in square brackets: John Berring claims that the class struggle “represents

the zeitgiest [sic] of the 19th century” (223). To change words, enclose the alteration in square

brackets: “Much of Matthew Pearl’s research involved reading

newspaper articles written at the time of [Poe’s] death” (Carson 99).

To change from lowercase to uppercase or vice versa, use square brackets The doctor told him to “[t]ake these pills” (Harris 7).

Deletions from Quotations

To delete words, indicate deletion with an ellipsis (three spaced periods): Standish is also correct that the French Revolution “left in its wake . . . years of uncertainty about the nature of democracy in France” (78).

When an omission comes at the end of the sentence and what is quoted can stand as a complete sentence, use an unspaced period followed by an ellipsis: According to Jane Hendricks, “The plight of the freedman in the South also angered the abolitionists. . . .” (2).

When you drop a whole sentence, you also use an unspaced period followed by an ellipsis: Marcus Jacque finds fault with this explanation: “The notion that truth is relative does not open up a Pandora’s box of moral turpitude. . . . On the contrary, the mania for absolute truth is more likely to lead to violence” (151-52).

Quotation in a Quotation

If there is a quotation within a quotation, use single quotation marks: “‘The last two and a half centuries have seen the

rise, apogee, and decline of a family structure based on a male bread-winner norm’” (Seccombe qtd. in Hanagan 136).

Generally speaking cite source of quotation within a quotation in the signal phrase: As Scottish poet Robert Burns once noted, “‘The best-

laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley’” (qtd. in Partridge 225).