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Learning to LoveLearning to Lovethe Research Paperthe Research Paper

OrOr…… at least learning to do it well! at least learning to do it well!

MLA Made EasyMLA Made Easy

“BORROWED” AND “SLIGHTLY” ALTERED FROM

The Academic Support CenterThe Academic Support Center

M.W.C.CM.W.C.C

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Table of ContentsTable of Contents

1. Getting Started

2. The Importance of a First Draft

3. Doing Research

4. Bringing Research Into Your PaperQuoting, Paraphrasing,

SummarizingAvoiding Plagiarism

5. MLA-Style Documentation

6. Proofreading Strategies

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Getting StartedGetting Started

Finding a Topic

Developing an Effective

Research Question

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Finding a Topic

Write about what you know.

Whenever possible, seek out a research topic that interests you and that you care about.

Aim to build on knowledge that you already have.

If the topic is assigned, try to develop an angle that will interest you, then run the idea by your instructor.

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Why should you write about what you know?

Starting with your own views and opinions will motivate you.

Writing about a topic familiar to you will help you to ask the right questions.

If you care about the topic, you will care about your paper.

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Developing an Effective Research Question

The best research papers begin with a question because…

Questions help you to find direction.

Questions help you to narrow your scope.

Be careful of questions that are too broad. Make sure that your question is relevant to the

length of your paper.

Most students use research questions that are not focused enough.

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Too Broad:

---- What is Attention Deficit Disorder?

More Focused:

---- Is diet an effective treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder?

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Constructing a Thesis

Form a thesisForm a thesis Write what you know or think Write what you know or think

about the subject about the subjectResearchResearch

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Constructing a Thesis

The purpose of your paper is to EFFICIENTLY ARGUE YOUR THESIS & SUPPORT YOURSELF W/ YOUR RESEARCH

When you formulate a thesis, you are defining your position on a topic

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Constructing a Thesis

The thesis statement should NEVER be a question

A good thesis statement focuses on a specific, narrow aspect of the topic

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Constructing a Thesis

A thesis statement should NEVER be an obvious opinion which everyone already shares.

Ex: Smoking is deadly and leads to cancer

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Constructing a Thesis

A thesis statement:1. is clear2. is specific3. can be defined by reason

rather than emotion4. asserts a definite position

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Constructing a Thesis

Subject: Violence in The Great Gatsby

Topic: Symbols of violence and technological destruction in The Great Gatsby

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Constructing a Thesis

Thesis: Symbols of modern technology, such as the train, the car, and the telephone, support one of The Great Gatsby’s main themes: the violent death of the American Dream in the twentieth century.

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Constructing a Thesis

Thesis: The United States should not provide free health care.

Weak or strong?

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Constructing a Thesis

Thesis: Legalizing the practice of euthanasia will ultimately result in a society desensitized to the unacceptable murder of the elderly and terminally ill.

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Constructing a Thesis

Thesis: English must be declared the official language of the United States.

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The Importance of a First The Importance of a First DraftDraft Techniques to Help You Start Writing

Brainstorming Freewriting Clustering Using Drafts

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Brainstorming Before you begin doing any research, take some

time to brainstorm.

When you brainstorm, list everything that comes to mind about your topic, all of your thoughts and ideas, in the order in which they occur to you.

Let your mind free associate and make connections.

Write down everything—even those things which appear silly and unimportant at first.

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Freewriting Freewriting is nonstop writing. Set aside ten or

fifteen minutes, and write whatever comes to you without thinking of word choice, spelling, organization, etc.

Don’t stop. Don’t get in your own way—you will be surprised what gets down on paper.

Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, in that you write what comes to you in the order it comes to you. However, rather than a list of your ideas, you develop your thoughts by having more of a conversation with yourself.

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Clustering While brainstorming and freewriting are ways to

get information down on paper, clustering allows you to begin to see relationships among ideas.

To cluster, put the main idea in the center of the page, circle it, and list other sub-topics around it, connecting ideas that belong together with lines.

The result looks a lot like a spider’s web and will do wonders when you being to organize your paper.

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Using Drafts Most writers cannot sit down and, in one setting,

produce quality work. Most writers write in steps or stages.

The first step is a rough draft. It is the “get down” draft—where you get down your ideas onto paper. You do not need to worry yet about spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.

This first draft is also called the discovery or exploratory draft. Why? Because it is where you explore your topic and discover what you want to say about it.

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“But,” I hear you say to yourself…

“I don’t know anything about my topic—what can I write about before I do research?”

Think about this:A good research paper comes from wanting to know more about something.

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A good research paper contains facts and quotes and statistics—yes, but these have been integrated with and filtered through the writer’s own ideas and experiences.

A good research paper is not a fact-finding mission; it is a synthesis of what you already know and what you learn in the process of your research.

USE YOUR TIME WISELY.

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Brainstorming, Freewriting, Clustering, and Using Drafts…

These strategies help you to explore your topic before you begin researching it.

They give you the opportunity to get your thoughts down on paper without worrying about organization, grammar, spelling, etc. (There will be plenty of time to worry about these things when you revise your later drafts.)

You can use all of these techniques or only one of them.

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Whatever the technique you use, the goal is to try to get all of your thoughts down on paper:

what you already know about your topic

what you want to know more about

why you’ve chosen the topic

questions you havehow you plan to answer those questions

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The Internet has been called an information highway.

–It is free.–It is vast.–It is democratic.–It is accessible 24 hours a day.–Anyone can post anything.

You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

Performing Research

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The information highway known as the Internet has potholes.

– Anyone can post anything on the Internet.– There are no editors or experts reviewing the

material.– Yes, you can access legitimate sites like the

American Cancer Society or university research centers, but you can also access pornography, incorrect or misleading information, biased opinions, and prejudiced information.

While the Internet may provide you with some good information, your paper will be stronger for having searched many different kinds of sources.

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Using the Galileo Database type in the following web address:

www.galileo.usg.edu

1. You may use any of the databases on this website to find information. If you need a password, the password for all of the databases is acting

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Bringing Research Into Bringing Research Into Your PaperYour Paper

Points to Remember What Are Sources? What Are Citations? Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing Avoiding Plagiarism

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Writing a research paper is like writing any other academic paper, with the difference that you are bringing into your essay the words, ideas, and theories of others, often experts in that field of study.

In the process of writing your research paper, you will learn a new set of vocabulary words and concepts.

What follows is a list of these words/concepts and their definitions. Becoming familiar with them will help you in the research process.

Points to Remember (About Writing a Research Paper)

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What Are Sources? A source is what you turn to for information

about your topic.

A source can include any of the following: a book a magazine or newspaper article a scholarly journal article a film, television show, or radio program a web site a personal interview

They generally fall under print sources, non-print sources, and electronic sources.

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Print Sources A print source can be a periodical or a

non-periodical. A periodical is a publication that is issued

periodically, such as any of the following:

– a newspaper (The Boston Globe);– a magazine (Newsweek); – a journal (Journal of Naturopathic Medicine).

A non-periodical most often refers to a book.

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Journals and Magazines How do we tell the difference between a

JOURNAL and a MAGAZINE? Look at the publication date

JOURNALS are published quarterly or yearly and will often have seasonal dates (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)

MAGAZINES can be published weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly

This is important because they must be cited differently

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Non-Print Sources

A non-print source can include, but is not limited to, any of the following:

a television or radio program a film a personal interview a class lecture a recording

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Electronic Sources An electronic source can refer to a source found

on the Internet, such as a personal or professional web site.

There are some electronic sources that originally appeared in print form. These include articles found on databases such as EbscoHost and Galileo and articles in newspapers and magazines that publish on the web and in print.

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What is a Citation? When you bring research (quotations,

paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your paper, you must give credit to the source and its author(s).

Giving credit to a source is also called citing a source.

You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations. They are called parenthetical citations because the bibliographic information goes inside parentheses.

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What to Cite Quotations: Someone else’s exact words,

enclosed in quotation marks.

The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone else—even if you restate them in your own words in a paraphrase or summary.

Facts and statistics—unless they are common knowledge and are accessible in many sources.

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Common Knowledge is information that can be found in many sources and that no one can claim owning. It is information that “belongs” to everyone. Often, it is the stuff of encyclopedias. Examples:

6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust. The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall. The Civil War ended in 1865.

You may not have known this before you started your research, but it is still common knowledge. Often, you will encounter knowledge that is common in your field of study, even if the general population may not know it.

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Quoting When you quote, you borrow an author’s exact

words.

Use a quotation when…

the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so well that you cannot improve or shorten it without weakening it;

when the author is a respected authority whose opinion supports your own ideas;

when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with others in the field.

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Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is putting material (including major

and minor points) into your own words and sentence structure.

You can paraphrase a theory, an idea, the results of a study, or a passage in an original source, as long as you use your own words to describe it.

A paraphrase is often the same length as the original, but it is in your own words.

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Example of a Paraphrase Original Text (from James C. Stalker, “Official English or English Only”)

“ We cannot legislate the language of the home, the street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set up a cadre of language police who will ticket and arrest us if we speak something other than English” (21).

ParaphraseStalker points out that in a democracy like the United States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use of a language and it certainly would not be possible to make police enforce such laws in homes and public places (21).

Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writersby Ann Raimes

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Summarizing Summaries are often less detailed than

paraphrases.

In a summary, you provide your reader with the gist of the most important sources you find in your own words.

Summaries give readers basic information and are always in your own words.

When you include a summary in your paper, introduce the author’s name and/or the work.

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What is Plagiarism? It is fine to bring the words and ideas of other

writers into your paper.

However, when you do so, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of these sources.

If not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious

academic offense.

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The Most Egregious Form The most blatant and egregious form of

plagiarism is putting your name as the author of a paper you did not write.

The Internet has certainly made it easier for students to find papers on any number of topics.

However, professors also know how to use the Internet and are quite adept at searching the same sites that students use.

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The Subtle Forms Other types of plagiarism are more subtle and

include any of the following:

failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;

failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks;

failure to put summaries and paraphrases into your own words.

Most students who plagiarize are simply unaware of the proper way to document sources in academic writing.

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Avoiding Plagiarism In order to avoid plagiarism, be sure that you not

only give credit where credit is due, but that you follow the appropriate formats, often either MLA (Modern Languages Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) styles of documentation.

There are also several good publications available with which students should be familiar. They will be mentioned later in this presentation.

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MLA Style DocumentationMLA Style Documentation I Have all My Sources, so Now What? What is MLA? How To Integrate Research Into the Body

of Your Paper How to Create a Works Cited Page

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I HAVE ALL OF MY SOURCES, I HAVE ALL OF MY SOURCES, SO NOW WHAT DO I DO?SO NOW WHAT DO I DO? Make sure you have all the pertinent

information for the Works Cited for the sources you are using

Begin assimilating information…reading and highlighting pertinent information in each of the sources you have found

Begin developing your argument Begin drafting

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What is MLA? If you are writing a research paper in English,

foreign languages, or other humanities classes, use MLA-style documentation.

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association.

The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for Writing Research Papers. This book contains all of the rules that govern MLA-style documentation.

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Points to Remember(About MLA-Style Documentation)

All written material (the body of your paper and the Works

Cited page) is double-spaced & have running headers (name & p. #) on the top of each page

MLA-style has two main elements:

In-text Citations

Works Cited page

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Use in-text citations in the body of your paper when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other borrowed material. Citations should be as concise as possible, while still giving readers enough information to find the full bibliographic information on the Works Cited page.

The Works Cited page is a separate page and carries the heading Works Cited (or Work Cited if you are using only one source). This is where you list all of your sources, giving the reader full bibliographic information.

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On the Works Cited page, sources are always listed ALPHABETICALLY by the author’s last name.

If your source has no author, go by the first word of the title to alphabetize.

When listing sources, you must use REVERSE INDENTATION…that is, you must indent every line AFTER the first line five spaces or one-half inch (or, just hit the TAB key once)

italicize book, journal, newspaper, and magazine titles

Use quotation marks around article titles, stories, poems, and essays.

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Integrating Research There are only two pieces of information

that need to go inside the parentheses of an in-text citation:

the author’s last name the page number (DO NOT USE A “p.” to

denote the page)

This information refers readers to the full bibliographic information on the Works Cited page.

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An in-text citation looks like this: (Smith 165)

If there are two authors, give both last names: (Jones and Nichols 18)

If there is no author, give the first word of the title:

(“Recent” 23)

If there is no page number, give the paragraph number:

(McKnight par. 10)

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Examples Many young women, from all races and classes,

have taken on the idea of the American Dream, however difficult it might be for them to achieve it (Sidel 19-20).

The adult mountain lion population in California is now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and Messina B1).

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More Examples In California, fish and game officials estimate that

since 1972 lion numbers have increased from 2,400 to at least 6,000 (“Lion” A21).

An article that appeared in Research Quarterly states that, “Their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (Russo par. 3).

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Signal Phrases Signal phrases help you to transition from your

words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.

With practice, you will learn how to integrate research smoothly into your paper.

In most cases, it is preferable to include the author’s name in a signal phrase that precedes the quote, fact, statistic, etc. Because the author is already named, you need only list the page or paragraph number in the parentheses.

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Examples The sociologist Ruth Sidel’s interviews with

young woman provide examples of what Sidel sees as the “impossible dream” (19).

Michelle Russo’s article from Research Quarterly states that “their recovery process parallels the steps taken by those recovering from other afflictions” (par. 3).

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The following signal phrases are good examples of ways you can introduce the findings of your research in your paper:

According to…

In the words of…

In a recent study by…

Current research proves that…

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Avoid overusing the verb “said” in your paper. Here is a list of strong, active verbs that you can use in your signal phrases.

You can write that someone…

acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees

argues, asserts, claims, or comments

confirms, believes, declares, or implies

insists, notes, observes, or points out,

reports, states, theorizes, or writes

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Often in your research you will encounter quotes, facts, statistics, etc. that are written by someone other than the author of the piece you are reading. Use the following format:

We generate words unconsciously, without thinking about them; they appear, as James Britton says, “at the point of utterance” (qtd. in Smith 108).

“We only used seven signs in his presence,” says Fouts. “All of his signs were learned from the other chimps at the laboratory” (qtd. in Toner).

NOTE: On the Works Cited page give the bibliographic information for the source you read, not the source quoted from—since you haven’t read that.

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If you encounter an actual quote within a source that you wish to use that is written by someone other than the author (a quote within a quote), you must use the following format:

Original Text as it appears in article by Joe Schad: "They can stop the presses, quit killing trees and move on

to other things," Lewis said, defending Johnson despite the wide receiver's critical comments about the team. "There is, at no point, anyone in the Bengals organization who has ever uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson. Nor will he be traded."

How it would appear in your paper: Coaches seem to always defend their players. In a recently

published article, Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Bengals, argues that “ ‘there is, at no point, anyone in the Bengals organization who has uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson’ ” (qtd. in Schad 34).

Notice the use of double and single quotation marks

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Creating a Works Cited Page

A Works Cited page contains the full bibliographic information to which you have been referring in the body of your paper.

The Work Cited page is…

the last page of your paper

double-spaced

alphabetized

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There are many different ways to cite sources on your Works Cited page, depending on whether your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.

You are not expected to memorize each way; you are expected to know how to find the format you need for your particular source.

Once you find the format, follow it to the letter. Do not add information not in the example.

The following is an example of a Works Cited page. (On the left is the name of the kind of source; this is only to help you in the presentation and does not appear on your Works Cited page.)

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Works Cited 

Allende, Isabel. “An Act of Vengeance.” Literature and Its Writers.

Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: St. Martin’s

Press, 2001. 66-71. Print.

Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Laura E. Hunt

and William Barek. May 1998. U of Toronto. 11 May 1999

<http://citd.scar/index.html>.

“The Decade of the Spy.” Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27. Print.

Hallin, Daniel C. “Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections,

1968-1988.” Journal of Communication 49.2 (1992): 5-24. Print.

Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:

U of Chicago P, 1980. Print.

on-line

professional

site

anon. article in a

magazine

work from

an anthology

article in a journal

that pages issues

separately

book two

authors

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Works Cited

Navarro, Mireya. “Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building.” New

York Times 13 July 2001: A1+. Print.

Russo, Michelle Cash. “Recovering from Bibliographic Instruction

Blahs.” RQ: Research Quarterly 32 (1992): 178-83. Infotrac:

Magazine Index Plus. CD-Rom. Information Access. Dec.

1993. Print.

Sidel, Ruth. On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the

American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.

Zacharias, Peter. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2001.

book one

author

journal article

with continuous

pagination (from

a database)

article in a

newspaper

interview

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While this presentation attempts to give a brief introduction to MLA, it cannot cover all aspects of it.

If you still have questions, it is best to consult the MLA Handbook for Writers, which is available on my shelves.

You can also visit MLA’s web site at http://www.mla.org/. Click on MLA-Style.

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Time Proofreading takes time.

There is no way around it. Once you have begun to finalize your paper, you need to give yourself ample time to read it over (and over) again.

Proofreading is another kind of writing. It is not as creative, perhaps, as brainstorming or developing your ideas, but it is still a part of the writing process.

Reading your paper one time through is not adequate proofreading.

Here are some tips.

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Don’t wait until the night before a paper is due to proofread it; you won’t be allowing yourself enough time to correct it.

Always correct a hard (paper) copy of your essay; you will catch things on paper that you can’t on screen.

Read through your paper—not for meaning but for clarity and presentation.

You’ve already developed meaning in earlier drafts—proofreading is about making sure that your meaning is clear.

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Decide on the areas that you should pay attention to. For instance…

Punctuation

Spelling

In-text citations

For each of these areas, read through your paper at least once, paying attention to only one area at a time.

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Go back to the computer after several readings and make corrections on the screen.

Print out another clean copy.

Ask a friend, parent, or tutor, to be a second set of eyes.

This is not cheating; it is common sense.

Even great writers get help.