THE RESEARCH PAPER 2010-2011

Made INCREDIBLY simple(yeah, right)

YOUR MISSION

Choose an author, work or genre dealing specifically with British or ancient Greek or Roman literature and explore a specific question or concern.

FORMAT

• MLA style• Typed or word-processed• 12 pt. Times New Roman font• Follow the remainder of the

guidelines already set out for you for a typewritten paper.

YOU MUST INCLUDE…

WORKS CITED PAGE

At least 6 (six) academic sources besides encyclopedias

primary and secondary sources Any Internet sources not available

through PowerLibrary must be approved prior to use.

All entries must be utilized and cited within your paper.

This research paper is weighed as a large portion of your final exam, which is 1/5 of your overall grade for

the year.

A RESEARCH PAPER IS NOT…

A Book report A BiographyA ComparisonYOUR (the writer’s) opinion

Derived from one source

A RESEARCH PAPER MUST…

Summarize information gleaned not just from one source, but from a series of sources

Include both primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources - firsthand material, novels,

interviews, & letters Secondary sources - works about someone

Merge the information from the various sources into one smooth coherent product.

CHOOSING A SUBJECT

Teacher assigned vs. Student choice Must be large enough to fill the assigned size and

small enough to be covered in that space variety of sources Come up with a general subject you like first, find

info, then narrow it to something manageable Determine your thesis.

COMING UP WITH A THESIS

A Thesis is the statement you are going to prove in your paper

Do preliminary research Come up with a question (“Shakespeare” is not a thesis) Do some research to answer that question

YOUR THESIS WILL BE THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

THESIS=TOPIC + ASSERTION

EXAMPLE

THE “SO WHAT? WHO CARES?” TEST

Will anybody care about your thesis? NOBODY wants to read about something they

already know. Examples of thesis that fails the test:

“Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers in British history.”

“Greek Mythology has had a great impact on literature.”

YOU MUST HAVE YOUR THESIS SELECTED BY DECEMBER 3RD

Email me your thesis statement.

rlane@gorockets.org

WHERE TO GO FOR MORE HELP

OWL (Online Writing Lab)- http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/index.html An online tutorial that

takes the reader through the research paper process.

NOTE CARDS, WORK CITED CARDS, OUTLINES & QUOTES

WORK CITED CARDS

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton, 1974.

1

Put the information on this set of cards EXACTLY as you will put it on the Works Cited page

Number your WC cards

NOTE CARDS

One Piece of information per card

“I am in blood/Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’re.”

(Macbeth saying he’s already too guilty to stop committing crimes.)

Blood p. 1327

1Page number of book you found info in

Work Cited card number

Topic or heading under which this information will go

OTHER NOTE TAKING OPTIONS

Microsoft OneNote Pros

very versatile if you own the program

Works in conjunction with Office Live, thus it is accessible from anywhere

Cons Not Cheap Not all versions of MS

Office come with OneNote

Evernote Pros

FREE! Can be used from any

computer with internet access

You don’t need to download software to use basic features

Notes are accessible from smart phones

Cons Isn’t as versatile as the PAY

version of MS OneNote

OUTLINE

Include Thesis statement at top. Major topics headed with Roman

Numerals Secondary topics headed with capital

Arabic letters “A” requires “B” “A” & “B” must be closely related

OUTLININGPurpose: to explain how to do

an outline before creating a speech

I. IntroductionA.What is an outline?B.Why is it needed?

1.Road map example2.Skeleton example

II. Parts of an outlineA.TitleB. PurposeC.Main TopicsD. Sub Topics

III. FormA. Divisions

1. Roman Numerals for main topics2. Capital letters for sub topics3. Numbers for next level of sub topic

B. “A” requires “B”C. Closely related

QUOTATIONS

Quote only words, phrases, lines, and passages that are particularly interesting, vivid, unusual, or apt.

Keep all quotations as brief as possible. Over quotation can bore your readers. RULE OF THUMB—No more than Twenty Percent of your paper should be direct quotes

PROSE QUOTES

If a prose quotation runs no more than four typed lines and requires no special emphasis, put it in quotation marks and incorporate it in the text. “It was the best of times, it was the

worst of times” wrote Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century in the book A Tale of Two Cities (1).

Sometimes you may want to quote just a word or phrase as part of your sentence. For Charles Dickens the eighteenth

century was both “the best of times” and “the worst of times” (Dickens 1).

PARAPHRASING

Paraphrase a quote to: Shorten the length Simplify the language

YOU MUST STILL CITE A PARAPHRASED SECTION OF YOUR PAPER!!!

MLA IN-TEXT CITATIONS

In parenthesis () Usually the author’s last name and page number, but not always

No Comma It’s part of the sentence so it goes inside the end punctuation (Dickens 123).