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.
- 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)
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What You Will Include-This will be the points which you must include for a newspaper of magazine:
- Title of the article, inside of quotation marks.
- The newspaper's or magazine's title, this must be underlined.
- Pages on which the article is on
- The writer's source number
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.
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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:
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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.
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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
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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.
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Example of an Incorrect Thesis Statement: This is the same topic as the above thesis statement.
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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.
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*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:
- Body paragraph number one
- Body paragraph number two (should use more if needed)
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.
14-01-2009, 12:03 AM
How to Write a Research Paper
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