The Research Process

Brought to you by Ms. Molina-Porter

What is MLA?

Modern Language Association

What is MLA’s purpose?

The object of the association shall be to promote study, criticism, and research in the more and less commonly taught modern languages and their literatures.

Why do we use MLA style?

To prepare scholarly manuscripts and student research papers and help with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources.

MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for nearly half a century.

Because your teachers make you!

Research

Re- means again You’ll be ‘searching again’ and

reading a ton of information you gather on your topic

You won’t use everything you read in your paper, but you’ll be all the more informed on your topic

Plagiarism

PROBLEM:Plagiarism is use of material without documentation. Plagiarism suggests intellectual dishonesty: practically speaking, it undermines research by confusing or obscuring the sources of information. There are two basic kinds of plagiarism: intentional and unintentional. TYPES:Intentional plagiarism is easy to spot. It involves the copying of sentences, paragraphs, even entire papers and calling them your own. Paraphrasing without acknowledging the source falls into the same category. Both are dangerous, dishonest practices. Unintentional plagiarism is different: it could arise from failure to put quotes around material in your notes or from a lack of understanding of what should be documented. Be very careful in this area because your instructor has no way of knowing the cause of plagiarism in a paper. SOLUTION:Give a parenthetic citation for anything in your paper that your readers may believe came from a book or article, especially every indirect quote, paraphrase, unconscious borrowing.

First step: Find your sources and write your

source cards

Secondary vs. Primary Sources Print vs. Electronic Sources

What is print source?

BooksMagazinesNewspapersJournalsOnline database

What is an electronic source?

Internet sites (use .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and be careful with .com)

Online periodical articles

What is a secondary source?

A secondhand account about people, events, topics or places that is based on what some other writer has experienced.

Good examples of secondary sources are books, newspapers, pamphlets, encyclopedias and other materials in which information has been gathered for you.

http://www.archives.state.al.us/activity/actvty06.html

What is a primary source?

The original material of a person. Primary sources offer an inside view of a

particular event. Good examples of primary sources are

films, music, photographs, documentaries, and interviews.

When you use first-hand, eyewitness accounts to help you write your paper, you are creating a secondary source.

http://www.archives.state.al.us/activity/actvty06.html

Source CardsTroy

1.0HG132.R4S

Molina-Porter, Hope. The Joy of Dogs. Long Beach: Great Books, 2009.

Home 2.0

Internet

Jones, Jill. “If You Could Be a Shoe.” Shoe Space. 30 Jan 2006 <www.retailtherapy.org>.

Card #Call #

Last, First Name.Title.

cityPublishing Co.

year

Next step: Read the material you’ve gathered

and create your note cards

Paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting

Paraphrasing Effectively

When you paraphrase, you restate an author’s ideas in your own words.

The only reason to paraphrase is to make the ideas in a source clearer, both to your readers and to yourself.

You want to phrase them in a way that suits the purpose of your paper, but be careful not to distort the author’s ideas.

Paraphrasing Effectively cont. Simplify the complex sentence structure

and vocabulary into language you are more comfortable with and helps you understand.

Use paraphrase when you need to record details but not exact words.

Don’t use the same sentence patterns or the same vocabulary as the original.

A paraphrase can run as long as the original

When to paraphrase in your paper

Clarity- make complex ideas clear to your readers

Details- when you need to present briefly certain details that an author or speaker has described at greater length

Emphasis- when including an author’s or speaker’s point suits the goals of your own paper

The original passage:

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

A legitimate paraphrase:

In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim.

Summarizing EffectivelyWhen you summarize, you distill

the main ideas of a passage and state them in your own words.

Include only the essentials of the original, not the specific details

The length of the original has no bearing on the length of your summary

Be sure to keep all the information your readers need to understand

When to summarize in your paper

Main points- when your readers need to know the main points from an original source but not the supporting details.

Overviews- to provide an overview or an interesting aside without digressing too far from your paper’s focus.

Condensation- to condense lengthy or rambling notes from your note cards into a few effective sentences.

The original passage:

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

An acceptable summary:

Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper.

A plagiarized version:

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

Taken from the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Quoting Accurately Quotes cite an author’s or speaker’s

exact words Too many quotes indicate that you

haven’t said and made it your own Reserve direct quotations for places

where you cannot express the ideas better yourself

Long quotations slow readers down and invite them to skip something you think is important

When to quote in your paperPrecision- when the words are

important in themselves or when the author makes fine but important distinctions

Clarity- when the author’s ideas are complex and difficult to paraphrase

Power- when the words are especially powerful and authoritative

Vitality- when the language is vivid or unique to the writer or speaker

Original

However, although humans are comparatively poor sprinters, they also engage in a different type of running, endurance running (ER), defined as running many kilometers over extended time periods using aerobic metabolism.

Paraphrase

Having limited success in sprinting compared to other mammals, humans perform better in endurance running, which is a form of aerobic running over extended distances and periods of time.

Original

In the current paper we will be examining responses to a particular type of imposter; the vegetarian who eats meat. We chose this example because the core norm of the vegetarian is very clear (to not eat meat), and violation of the norm is easily recognized.

Paraphrase

Hornsey and Jetten investigated group responses to impostors. For the purposes of their study, the impostors were defined as vegetarians who go against the norm by eating meat. The “violation of the norm” in this particular situation is easily noticed.

Original

In The Sopranos, the mob is besieged as much by inner infidelity as it is by the federal government. Early in the series, the greatest threat to Tony's Family is his own biological family. One of his closest associates turns witness for the FBI, his mother colludes with his uncle to contract a hit on Tony, and his kids click through Web sites that track the federal crackdown in Tony's gangland.

Paraphrase

In the first season of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano’s mobster activities are more threatened by members of his biological family than by agents of the federal government. This familial betrayal is multi-pronged. Tony’s closest friend and associate is an FBI informant, his mother and uncle are conspiring to have him killed, and his children are surfing the Web for information about his activities.

• Taken from Duke University Libraries

Note CardsTag/Slug line

1.1

Paraphrase/Quote(P.#)

Notes

Biographical Info. 1.1

Billie Holiday had a rough start in life but was able to pull herself up and achieve success (100).

*Notes for self

Make sure that the paraphrase is in your own words completely! If you are using the author’s words make sure you put quotes around his/her words. Even when you paraphrase you must cite your source in your paper!

The New Republic: Blog Entry

Plumer, Bradford. “Will Facebook Kill Off the Automobile?”. The New Republic. 6 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2010 <www.tnr.com/print/blog>.

Parenthetical Citation

(Plumer).

BBC News: Internet article with author given

Shiels, Maggie. “Online time ‘is good for teens’”. BBC News. 21 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2010 <http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk>.

Parenthetical Citation

(Shiels).

Parenthetical Citations

Book by one author

(Fairchild 100).

Book by two or more authors

(Hide and Forset 100).

Encyclopedia article (no author available)

(“Melodeon” 100).

Magazine article

(Hernandez 100).

Web page

(Gray).Note: electronic citation do not

include page numbers.

What if there isn’t an author?

Always skip to the next bit of information in your citation. Typically, it will be the title of the piece you are citing. If the title is in quotation marks on the works cited page, it should be in quotation marks in-text. If it is italicized on the works cited page, it should be italicized in-text.

Web page (no author available)

“Shakespeare…”Note: If you are citing a title and not an

author in text, you may shorten the title by including the first word or two and an ellipsis. This will indicate there is more to the title on your works cited page.

If you use two or more articles of the same name and there are no authors to cite, you will number each entry on the works cited page. The parenthetical citation will correspond to those entries.

Within the body of the paper

(1 “Shakespeare”).(2 “Shakespeare”).

On the works cited page

1 “Shakespeare.” Ms. Shakespeare and the Shminternet. Web. 17 Feb. 2010 <http://shmaphne.edu>.

2 “Shakespeare.” Sir Vinny and his Royal Hounds. Web. 23 Jan. 2010

<http.//academicjackrussels.edu>.

Note: keep in alphabetical order.

Note CardsTag/Slug line

1.1

Paraphrase/Quote(P.#)

Notes

Biographical Info. 1.1

Billie Holiday had a rough start in life but was able to pull herself up and achieve success (100).

*Notes for self

Make sure that the paraphrase is in your own words completely! If you are using the author’s words make sure you put quotes around his/her words. Even when you paraphrase you must cite your source in your paper!