A Guide and Study Manuel Surviving the Research Paper
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Fear and Loathing It is with great fear that students come to
the research paper. And with much loathing do they leave it. But
leave it, we hope, better writers. Abandon hope all ye who enter
here --Dante, Inscription at the gates of Hell
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What am I going to do? Not a simple history or book report
(Important Rivers of Africa) Not merely an argumentative essay
where you are objective, and present critical judgments in a formal
argument (An Interpretation of Women in Shakespeares King
Lear).
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Next level of analysis: Read a primary text (Catcher in the
Rye) and manage textual support from it to defend a critical
judgment about it BUT ALSO present secondary material, that is,
commentary and analysis written by other scholars.
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Three Criteria to Keep in Mind 1. Personal Interest: Seek out a
topic that appeals to you. Become an authority. Live it! Own it! 2.
Appropriateness: Make sure your topic has depth to it and theres
sufficient secondary material to back up claim. 3. Uniqueness:
Choose road less traveled.
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The Topic What aspect of the text is worthy of your time and
effort? Several places to look for topic Your Interests: What
situations, characters, problems, settings, and images catch your
eye. What about book appeals to your own experience? The Primary
Source: What problems arise in the text? Symbols, metaphors,
structure, etc. Preliminary Research: Sometimes, in research, a
topic is found
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Standard Categories of Literary Research Character study:
Symbolic/image study: figurative language? How used? Why? Thematic
study: What is theme? Could it form basis of study? Setting study:
Does setting play a major role in advancing significance of work?
Narrative technique study: Describe and discuss narrative
structure.
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After all that: You should be able to narrow down topic to
manageable size. i.e. a paper on Dantes Inferno may be reduced to a
study of Dantes criticism of the corruption of the Church. On
Gatsby, a paper on the corruption of the American Dream.
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The Working Bibliography A bibliography is a list of sources
(books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for
researching a topic. A bibliography includes the bibliographic
information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.). ASAP begin
compiling a working bibliography a list of references that may
provide information about your topic. Go to library. See indexes of
reference books. Use the Internet (smartly) (more on use of
internet later)
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What to Look For What is suitable? Be aware that some sources
will ultimately not be used. Some will be more helpful than others.
The following kinds of sources are listed in order of descending
importance; that is, the first one would probably yield the most
information, while the last one would probably be least
helpful:
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1. A book or essay on primary source about topic or possibly
related topic. 2. A book or essay on author about your topic or a
possibly related topic. 3. A book or essay your authors period
about your topic or related. 4. A general study of primary source.
5. A general critical study of your author. 6. A study of the life
and works of your author (a critical biography). NOT SUITABLE: a
biography of your author!
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The Annotated Biography An annotated bibliography includes a
summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your
project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of
the following: 1. Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the
source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book
or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this
article/book is about, what would you say? 2. Assess: After
summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a
useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your
bibliography? Is the information reliable? 3. Reflect: Once you've
summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into
your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you
shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research
project? Your annotated bibliography may include some of these, all
of these, or even others.
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Why should I write an annotated bibliography? To learn about
your topic: Writing annotated bibliography is excellent preparation
project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but
when you have to write annotations for each source, forced to read
each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically
instead of just collecting information. To help you formulate a
thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of
research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part
of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting,
and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a
good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading
and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you'll start to
see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you'll
then be able to develop your own point of view.
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Format The annotations for each source are written in paragraph
form. The lengths of the annotations can vary significantly from a
couple of sentences to a couple of pages. The length will depend on
the purpose. If you're just writing summaries of your sources, the
annotations may not be very long. However, if you are writing an
extensive analysis of each source, you'll need more space. You can
focus your annotations for your own needs. A few sentences of
general summary followed by several sentences of how you can fit
the work into your larger paper or project can serve you well when
you go to draft.
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The bibliographic information:The bibliographic information of
the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written in
MLA.
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SAMPLE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES This example uses the MLA
format for the journal citation. NOTE: Standard MLA practice
requires double spacing within citations. (This is wrong due to
space constrictions). Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions
on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. Lamott's book
offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with
its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the
realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book are wry
and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development
to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one's own
internal critic. In the process, Lamott includes writing exercises
designed to be both productive and fun. Lamott offers sane advice
for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main
project seems to be offering the reader a reality check regarding
writing, publishing, and struggling with one's own imperfect
humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to
producing and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of
its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and its
encouraging approach. Chapters in this text could easily be
included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the
chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to
generate discussion on students' own drafting and revising
processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate
for generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find
Lamott's style both engaging and enjoyable.
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Bernethy, Thomas P. The Burr Conspiracy. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1954. The first in a burst of books published on
Burr since 1954. Abernethy incorporates previously unused primary
sources in his attempts to prove that Burr did attempt to wrest
Louisiana from the United States.
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Blackford, William W. War Years with Jeb Stuart. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946. A sympathetic and intelligent
close-up of Stuart and the interesting young men around him. The
author served as Chief Engineer on Stuart's staff and observed form
his commander's side nearly all of the operations of the cavalry
from June, 1986, to the end of January, 1964.
