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.