How to Write a Research Paper

[Analog]

How to Write a Research Paper​

By the 11th and/or 12th grade you will be assigned a research paper by either an English or History teacher. A research paper is usually worth 10-20% of your overall grade. This paper is difficult to write for multiple reasons, but if you follow this guide you will be guaranteed at least a B providing your information is correct. The guide will take you through, step by step, what you must include in your paper and how to do it.

Bibliography Cards: For every source you consult, you will make a bibliography card (index card). These cards are required for your research paper.
What You Will Include-This will be the points which you must include for a book:

• Author or editor, last name first.

• Title of the book, must be underlined.

• Place of publication

• Publisher

• Date of publication

• The writer's source number.

• The writer's comment, only one small statement.

Example: Taken from a book by Sadlier-Oxford

(1)Phillips, David, et al. (2)Blame It on the Weather: Amazing Weather Facts. (3)San Diego: (4)Portable Press, (5)2002.
(6)In the upper right corner include the number, for instance this would be your first card so label it #1.
(7)My note: Interesting account of "North America's Coldest Day,"incl. eyewitness description (pgs. 42-50)

Image Example:

What You Will Include-This will be the points which you must include for a newspaper of magazine:

• Author, if any.

• Title of the article, inside of quotation marks.

• The newspaper's or magazine's title, this must be underlined.

• Date of publication

• Pages on which the article is on

• The writer's source number

• The writer's comment

Example: Taken from a book by Sadlier-Oxford

(1)Boynton, Robert S. (2)"The Tyranny of Copyright?" (3)The New York Times Magazine (4)25 January 2004: (5)Pg. 40
(6)In the upper right corner include the number, for instance this would be your first card so label it #1.
(7)My note: Difficult to read but has interesting information about intellectual property law. Do we "own" CD's and books we buy? No, we "lease" them.

Image Example:

Documenting Sources: You will need to record the same bibliography cards on a separate sheet of paper on the back. The only thing which you should disregard is your note which is (7) on each card.

Internal Citations: Inside your research paper you will need to include internal citations. An internal citation is need when you quote someone or include a statistic. An internal citation is needed because you will need to avoid plagiarism. An an example of an internal citation is:

The documentation of the brutal murders of Ted Bundy are quite interesting and factual. "Ted Bundy's malicious acts were each accounted for and they were used in his conviction" (Ted Bundy's Documentation, Pg. 36, Line 10). Much of the malicious crimes he committed were horrible and the things which he did were unimaginable.

Thesis Statement: A thesis statement is a single declarative statement which will be the overall theme or controlling idea of your paper. This sentence will be located in the first of last sentence of the introduction paragraph.
Pointers About Your Thesis- (1)Make sure your thesis statement should not be a question. This statement, if anything, should be an answer to a question which you propose in your introductory paragraph. (2)This statement is what your paper will mainly be about. This statement is basically your topic sentence. (3)Your statement will control the content of the paper. (4)This is not a conclusion, so save what you have concluded for the conclusion, or final, paragraph of your paper.
Example of a Correct Thesis Statement: Taken from Sadlier-Oxford

The most important dilemma today's teenagers face is making informed career decisions: choosing a type of work that will sustain them and preparing adequately for that career.

Example of an Incorrect Thesis Statement: This is the same topic as the above thesis statement.

It seems to me that probably one of the serious important decisions almost all teenagers face today is deciding what jobs they might have sometime in the future.

*Note that the top statement is much more confident and provides important and relevant information to the topic at hand. The bottom statement just mentions very broadly and inadequately what the topic of the book is about.

Paragraphs: Your paper should consist of four paragraphs:

• Introduction paragraph

• Body paragraph number one

• Body paragraph number two (should use more if needed)

• Conclusion paragraph

Introduction Paragraph- You want to write and introduction that attracts your reader's attention and indicates which the overall paper will be about. Make sure you include you thesis statement.
Body Paragraphs- Make sure you keep a decent track of your sources. Make sure you also insert the number of the bibliography card if you decide to use any of them in your body paragraph. Write all your information in the present tense, only use the past tense when referring to historically accurate events.
Conclusion- Write a conclusion that brings your paper to a close. You should not be presenting any new information to your paper, any information that you might have forgotten you should insert somewhere into your body paragraph. Below are the main things which you should be doing:

• Offer a judgment, and do this so it is clear which your viewpoint is.

• A final comment or observation

• Take all your ideas which you previously used and summarize them.

• Make reference to your introduction paragraph.

 

[SuF]

I had to write my first research paper in 5th grade. I have now written 4 of them, and I have another one that is going to be assigned this spring.

There is a specific way you are supposed to write your works cited page, not just throw a bunch of information on the back sheet. I use www.easybib.com, to do it for me since its very easy, and it is perfect everytime.

The way I have been taught to do citations, (and get points off if I do not do them this way) is that at the end of each paragraph, (or at the end of a source that ends within a paragraph) you must put the last name of author if you have not mentioned the author in the above paragraph, and then the page number in the paragraph.

Just to let your know, many research papers are not thesis driven, meaning you do not need a thesis statement. The only reason you would need one is if your teacher told you to research something and then prove something about the subject you researched. I have done this once out of my four papers, and it was the shortest of the papers, and the easiest by far.

If I only have to write four paragraphs in a paper, that would the easiest thing I have ever written. My most recent paper, that I wrote in 9th grade, was about 3000 words (The minimum because I was lazy), and it had something like 23 paragraphs that were about 150 each.

I have always wanted to write a guide on this subject because I have been taught about 5 different ways to prepare to write, and write a research paper. An example of this is that I have only used bibliography type cards once, because I was forced. I ended up throwing them away after he looked at them.

Other points:
Outline - They help a lot, maybe you should add that in?
Rough drafts - They also help a lot
Proofreading - techniques and how it helps
Picking a topic - this is hard for many people

 

[Analog]

There is a specific way you are supposed to write your works cited page, not just throw a bunch of information on the back sheet. I use www.easybib.com, to do it for me since its very easy, and it is perfect everytime.

Actually there are multiple ways you can cite your sources on a works cited page. You take exactly what you wrote on your bibliography cards, minus the personal note, and that's all that you need. I never said you throw a bunch of information, it must be in the specific format which I give example of and requires the usage of points (1)-(7).

The way I have been taught to do citations, (and get points off if I do not do them this way) is that at the end of each paragraph, (or at the end of a source that ends within a paragraph) you must put the last name of author if you have not mentioned the author in the above paragraph, and then the page number in the paragraph.

Whenever you take a direct piece of information or direct quote from a book, you must cite exactly what I showed examples of directly after the quote or piece of information at the end of the sentence. If you have multiple citations in a paragraph all of them at the bottom would cause confusion. Also, in my examples, if you read, you would have seen that I did cite the author, page and line number. All of the information which I have provided is MLA format.

Just to let your know, many research papers are not thesis driven, meaning you do not need a thesis statement. The only reason you would need one is if your teacher told you to research something and then prove something about the subject you researched. I have done this once out of my four papers, and it was the shortest of the papers, and the easiest by far.

Every GOOD paper must have a thesis. Ever research paper must have a thesis statement. From the 12th grade on if you have no thesis you automatically lose points. Read up on what a thesis is:http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/thesis.html. Every 11th, 12th and college level paper MUST have a thesis.

If I only have to write four paragraphs in a paper, that would the easiest thing I have ever written. My most recent paper, that I wrote in 9th grade, was about 3000 words (The minimum because I was lazy), and it had something like 23 paragraphs that were about 150 each.

I stated that you should have multiple body paragraphs, but I only showed two. It's obvious that you shouldn't cram everything into one of two paragraphs max. Almost every research paper will contain multiple body paragraphs.

An example of this is that I have only used bibliography type cards once, because I was forced. I ended up throwing them away after he looked at them.

You need bibliography cards for a serious research paper and they are another form of citing your works.

Outline - They help a lot, maybe you should add that in?
Rough drafts - They also help a lot
Proofreading - techniques and how it helps
Picking a topic - this is hard for many people

Whenever you receive a research paper you will usually have an array of topics to chose from. It's simple just chose the broadest topic. Also, rough drafts, outlines, and proofreading is good but, not everyone needs that. Those are if you want to go the extra mile, and a lot of people don't create them, personally, I don't.

 

[SuF]

Whenever you take a direct piece of information or direct quote from a book, you must cite exactly what I showed examples of directly after the quote or piece of information at the end of the sentence. If you have multiple citations in a paragraph all of them at the bottom would cause confusion. Also, in my examples, if you read, you would have seen that I did cite the author, page and line number. All of the information which I have provided is MLA format.

I did not say have them all at the bottom, or I did not mean to. I meant that you always have to cite at the end of a paragraph regardless if the next sentence in the next paragraph is from the same source. At the end of each source, you must cite it, and you always must cite at the end of a paragraph. This is not my opinion, this is what MLA says. Also, you are not citing things in the correct MLA format. You do exactly what I said for MLA format, for in-text citations that is.

Every GOOD paper must have a thesis. Ever research paper must have a thesis statement. From the 12th grade on if you have no thesis you automatically lose points. Read up on what a thesis is:http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/thesis.html. Every 11th, 12th and college level paper MUST have a thesis.

Care to prove that to me in a thesis driven paper? Not all papers have need to have a thesis. A simple research paper, that states facts is not thesis driven. Many books about history are basically huge research papers, that are not thesis driven. Most papers you write will be thesis driven, because it forces you to think, but not all as you call it "Good" papers have to be thesis driven. Out of the 5 research papers I have written (Forgot my one about Egypt, thats somewhere on a hard drive sitting in my bros room), only one has been thesis driven, and that one was only about 5 pages long.

You also have no proof to backup your statement saying you automatically lose points, nor is that statement probable.

I stated that you should have multiple body paragraphs, but I only showed two. It's obvious that you shouldn't cram everything into one of two paragraphs max. Almost every research paper will contain multiple body paragraphs.

You said your paper should have 4 paragraphs:

Paragraphs: Your paper should consist of four paragraphs:

You need bibliography cards for a serious research paper and they are another form of citing your works.

Funny, since I think they are stupid, and I just make a works cited page as I go along, when I am writing my paper. I high-lite stuff, then cut it out and put it with the rest of the cutouts on that same topic, then paraphrase as I write, and cite as I write. No need for index cards in my opinion.

Whenever you receive a research paper you will usually have an array of topics to chose from. It's simple just chose the broadest topic.

That is not the best way to go. If you want to write a paper about Rome, and you pick Rome, you will end up writing a HUGE paper, or not covering everything that you said you were going to cover. You need a topic that you can easily find enough sources for, but not too big that you will not be able to write about it all. Many people in my class last year has trouble picking a good topic for their papers, and we spent a long time talking about how to pick a good one.

Also, rough drafts, outlines, and proofreading is good but, not everyone needs that. Those are if you want to go the extra mile, and a lot of people don't create them, personally, I don't.

If you do not proofread, or have someone like your mom(like i do) read it for you, there will be grammatical, and spelling mistakes, aswell as sentences that do not make much sense and such.

 

[Analog]

Just to get this out, this isn't a battle or anything, it's just different viewpoints coming into play. I actually used a Sadlier-Oxford book to help me write the guide so everything which I have mentioned is exact MLA format. The bibliography cards and citation pages are exactly how they should be done. Refer to the examples.

 

[SuF]

Your inline citation are not MLA, like I have said.

In-text citations

When citing a work within the text of a paper, try to mention the material being cited in a "signal phrase" that includes the author's name. After that phrase, insert in brackets, the page number in the work referred to from which the information is drawn. Note that the period is placed after the parentheses. For example,
In his final study, Lopez said that the response "far exceeded our expectations"(253).
The reader can then look up Lopez in the works cited list for complete information about the publication for which page 253 is being cited.
If the author is not mentioned in a "signal phrase," the author's name, followed by the page number, must appear in parentheses. For example,
The habits of England's workers changed dramatically during the Industrial Revolution(Hodgkinson 81).
When citing an entire work, or one without page numbers (or only one page), one writes only the author's last name in parentheses.
When the "Works Cited" contains more than one work by an author, if the text preceding a citation does not specify which work is being cited, there is a comma after the author's last name, followed by a shortened version of the title in question (or the entire title if it is short) and the page number. The short title contains one or a few words of title (enough for it to be easily identifiable and to distinguish it from other titles by the same author being cited). For example,
Securing its communications through the Suez Canal was Britain's overriding aim(Smith, Islam 71).
with the title italicized for a book or within quotation marks for an essay, a poem, or a speech, as appropriate. (In the "Works Cited" or bibliography, three short dashes [––– if word processed; hyphens (---) when typed] are used when the author or authors' name is the same in subsequent works being listed. Such in-text parenthetical citations guide the reader to the pertinent entries in the attached list of "Works Cited":

For your works cited page, or bibliography, which ever one you are using you must cite the works in the correct way.

Hodgkinson, Tom. How to Be Idle. New York: Harper, 2005.

 

[Analog]

Your using Wikipedia as a source....
That's semi correct but you must underline the title, that's an obvious. That citation which you have is incorrect. It should look like this:

Hodgkinson, Tom. How to Be Idle. New York: Harper, 2005.

The example that I have in the guide is exactly what your mentioning.
Edit: The exact citation from the guide

Phillips, David, et al. Blame It on the Weather: Amazing Weather Facts. San Diego: Portable Press, 2002.

This is exactly what you have just with a different source. You are claiming something that is exactly the same as mine, and therefor MLA format.

 

[SuperStar3]

Out of the many guides I've read here, your's is one of the top ones. Not because of the quality, although it is nice. It's the fact that everything is nicely formatted, spelling corrected and is easy to follow.

Well done.

~Ss3

 

[aint_no_saint]

Lmao who needs school/college i have sythe

Nice guide mate *

 

[Analog]

Thanks, it's much appreciated.

 

[R33l2r3al]

Things I liked about the guide:

• Correct grammar
• Organized
• Helpful topic
• Text color/size variations (This helps your organization a LOT)
• Provided specific examples (Relavent and helpful)

Things that you could work on:

• Provide alternate methods to citing sources (There are a few)
• Provide helpful links to websites that have further information (I reccomend OWL at Purdue)
• Add a section regarding prewriting. Any teacher that I've ever had requires this to be turned in with the Final Draft of your paper.