The Research Paper

What does this quote

mean?

What are you trying to tell your

audience?

Examples:--the impact of the atomic bomb of modern warfare--how aggression and anger affects personality--the assassination of JFK remains one of the biggest and most controversial American mysteries to date--the battle of Antietam was one of the bloodiest battles in American history

What does your audience need to know about your

topic to be informed?

Shakespeare’s Shakespeare’s Playwright & The Returning Death & Parents & Siblings Education Poet Globe to Stratford The Folio

Childhood Career Later Years

Add supporting details and extra information

Shakespeare’s Career

-several plays on London stage by 1592-wrote Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, etc.-divided his time between London and Stratford

What is a thesis statement?

• A thesis statement is an opinion-based sentence that names the topic of your paper. It is the last sentence in your introduction.

A thesis statement must do three things:

• Make a claim (that is debatable)• Be supportable with research• Be specific and narrow (only covering

what is discussed in paper) • Be expressed in one sentence

**You may need to revise it after you’ve written your paper in its entirety.

Types of Claims• Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what

the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

What some people refer to as global warming is actually nothing more than normal, long-term cycles of climate change.

• Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

The popularity of SUV's in America has caused pollution to increase.

Types of Claims• Claims about value: These are claims made of what

something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Global warming is the most pressing challenge facing the world today.

• Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Instead of drilling for oil in Alaska we should be focusing on ways to reduce oil consumption, such as researching renewable energy sources.

**Types of Claims from Purdue OWL

Example Argumentative RP Thesis:

Example of an argumentative thesis statement:High school graduates should be required to take a year off to pursue community

service projects before entering college in order to increase their maturity and global awareness.The paper that follows should:

Present an argument and give evidence to support the claim that students should

pursue community projects before entering college.*From Purdue OWL

Weak

Drug addiction is a big problem.

Strong

Drug addiction has caused a huge increase in violent crimes.

Weak

Home and schools.

Strong

Parents need to participate more in the education of their children.

WeakI want to share some thoughts with you about the space program.

StrongThe space program is a waste of money.

Never use first (I, me, we, my, mine, our) or second (you, your) person in your final thesis statement. It’s too informal.

Write a belief statement about your topic:

• I believe….

Example: I believe that the SAT tests should be eliminated.

Now add a fact to the belief statement

• I believe….because….

Example: I believe that the SAT tests should be eliminated because they cannot predict success in college.

Finally, take away your “I believe” statement and you have your thesis!

Example: SAT tests should be eliminated because they cannot predict success in college.

The Introductio

n

The Introductio

n

The IntroductionThe Hook—opening sentence that catches the reader’s attention1.Quote from a source2.Startling Statement/fact/statistic (use a misconception about the topic)3.Vivid word picture description (of a scene or story related to topic)4.Image bursts (Ancient buildings. Spicy food. Colorful clothing.)5.Rhetorical question (make sure it is appropriate and thought-provoking)

The Introduction

The Link-bridge between hook & thesis statement, explaining the significance of the hook

All Hard Core Rock musicians aredrug-seeking Satan worshippers whoare hardened criminals. This is amisconception that many people share about those who perform Hard Core Rockmusic, but this is not an accurate image of all of these artists.

The Introduction

Thesis Statement—purpose of paper and preview of points

Hard Core Rock music is a genre that is misunderstood because the positive message is often overlooked.

Write your thesis from your worksheet in the box on your handout.

How can you avoid PLAGIARIZING in your research paper?

1. Use QUOTATION marks to identify a direct quote from your source. ALWAYS use quotation marks around quotes taken from your text which are word for word. Only use direct quotes when it is important for the reader to know the exact words that the author used. You also need to cite the source of your information immediately after your direct quote.

The Crime of Plagiarism

2. CITE the source of your information when using ideas and information taken from the text. Even if you put the information in your own words, you must still cite your source.

The Crime of Plagiarism

3. PARAPHRASE correctly. Just changing one or two words in a sentence from your source is not acceptable, even if you cite it. You must use your own sentence structure and ideas.

The Crime of Plagiarism

4. Do NOT use others’ WORKS and IDEAS as your OWN. The most obvious form of plagiarism is turning in work that you did not complete at all, but that you “borrowed” from another and turned it in as your own. Just changing the name and some words does not make it yours.

Avoiding Plagiarism

• If you have any information that contains a NUMERICAL figure, make sure that you document it. As a rule, numbers are not common knowledge.

Avoiding Plagiarism

• Do not try to write as PROFESSIONAL as the sources you are using. Use coherent language and avoid long technical terms whose meaning you do not know.

MLA Format

Sample 1st Page*

Works Cited Page: Books*Basic Format:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication:

Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

Examples:

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York:

Penguin, 1987. Print.

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to

Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St.

Martin's, 1997. Print.

---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois UP, 1993. Print.

Works Cited Page: Periodicals*Article in a Magazine Format:

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year:

pages. Medium of publication.

Example:

Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good Housekeeping

Mar. 2006: 143-8. Print.

Article in Scholarly Journal Format:

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year):

pages. Medium of publication.

Example:

Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television

as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona

Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127- 53. Print.

Works Cited Page: Web*Web Source Format:

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). “Article

Name.” Name of Site. Name of institution/organization

affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher). Date of last

update. Medium of publication. Date of access.

Works Cited Page: Web*Examples:

Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.”

A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A

List Apart Mag., 16 Aug. 2002. Web. 4 May 2009.

Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory.

Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10 May 2006.

"How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. eHow,

n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009.

Parenthetical Documentation

How much of my paper should be documented?You do not have to document your TOPIC or

TRANSITION sentence because you wrote them. The rest of every body paragraph must be from a SOURCE, and must be documented.

How do you document?To document, you put important information in

PARENTHESIS after the information you have QUOTED, PARAPHRASED, or SUMMARIZED.

Parenthetical Documentation

Author-Page Style*In-text Example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a

"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of

powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth extensively

explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford

U.P., 1967. Print.

Print Source with Author

In-text Example:

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as

"symbol-using animals" (3).

Human beings have been described as "symbol-using

animals" (Burke 3).

Print Source with Author*

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays

on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of

California P, 1966. Print.

With Unknown Author*In-text Example:

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America

likely because this region has “more readily accessible

climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor

and study environmental change . . .” (“Impact of Global

Warming” 6).

With Unknown Author*

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

“The Impact of Global Warming in North America.”

GLOBAL WARMING: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar.

2009.

Where do you put the period?

In-Text Citations

• 1 sentence– “In 2013, more than 59 percent of the population

still believed that more than one person was involved in the murder of John F. Kennedy” (“Who shot the president” 78).

In-Text Citations• More than 1 sentence• In contrast to the conclusions of the Warren Commission,

the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded in 1978 that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The HSCA found the original FBI investigation and the Warren Commission Report to be seriously flawed. While agreeing with the Commission that Oswald fired all the shots which caused the wounds to Kennedy and Connally, the HSCA stated that there were at least four shots fired (only three of which could be linked to Oswald) and that there was a high probability that two gunmen fired at the President. (“Who Shot JFK” 56-58)

In-Text Citations

• More than one source in a sentence• Although some medical ethicists claim that

cloning will lead to designer children (Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (James 46).

Body Paragraphs

Writing Paragraphs• Organized around one “controlling” idea that is

usually stated in a topic sentence• Made up of supporting sentences that develop

the main idea• Typically 5-8 sentences• Topic Sentence: doesn’t have to be the first

sentence (you can begin a paragraph with details that build up to a summary topic sentence)

• Topic Sentence formula: topic + something particular about the topic

• You should always be able to find a topic sentence in a paragraph!

Body ParagraphsTopic Sentence—clearly identifies main

point of the paragraph…it is like a mini thesis statement for each paragraph.

The variety of cuisine in Brussels provides a delicious culinary experience.

Write a topic sentence for each of your body paragraphs.

Body ParagraphsTransition sentence to next point (reviews current

paragraph and previews relationship with next paragraph; it is the puzzle piece that connects your paragraphs).

Belgians enjoy eating their delicious food while watching popular sporting events.

Write a transition statement for each of your body paragraphs. The last body paragraph’s transition sentence is a summary of that paragraph’s main idea.

Body ParagraphsMeat of the paragraph: • Find information about the topic of each

paragraph and put it in your own words. • Start writing after the topic sentence.• Make sure you are putting the

information in a logical order and are paraphrasing correctly!

• Don’t forget to document at the end of each block of information you paraphrase from a source.

THE WORKS CITED PAGE

• The title of the page, WORKS CITED, is centered at the top of the page.

• Everything on the page is DOUBLE-SPACED, never more than that.

• Entries on a Works Cited page are called BIBLIOGRAPHIC entries, which means “Biblio”- BOOK and “graphic”-WRITING.

•  The entries on the Works Cited page are in ALPHABETICAL order.

General Info. About Works Cited:

General Info. About Works Cited:  When you alphabetize, you alphabetize by the FIRST word of the bibliographic entry, unless it begins with the three English articles, A , AN , and THE. You ignore these words and alphabetize by the SECOND word in the title.

•You do not INDENT the first line of a bibliographic entry, but you do indent the SECOND line of a bibliographic entry. It is the opposite of a PARAGRAPH in an essay where you indent the FIRST line.

• All of your SOURCES must be DOCUMENTED in your paper, so be sure to put only the sources you used on your Works Cited page.

• Every PERIOD, COMMA, and COLON are very important, so do not get careless when you create your entries.

General Info. About Works Cited:

WRITE ROUGH DRAFT WORKS CITED PAGE

THIS WILL BE GRADED!

The Conclusion

Restate Thesis (paraphrase your own thesis…no more than three words in a row from the original)

NEVER BEGIN WITH “IN CONCLUSION” or “As you can

see,” or “As already stated,”

The Conclusion

Intensified Insight leading into a quote (Give any final thoughts and lead into a quote

that you find in your source.)

People should make informed decisions about Heavy Metal music before criticizing it. Neil Young agreed with this when he said, “All that stuff about heavy metal and hard rock, I don't subscribe to any of that. It's all just music…Who's to say what is and isn't a certain type of music?” (Young 1).

The Basic Principles of Persuasive Writing

Tips for Writing Your Argumentative Research Paper

Persuasive writing is…

• Writing that sets out to influence or change an audience’s thoughts or actions

You are subjected to persuasion everyday…

• From the time you wake up until the time you go to bed…

• When you turn on the radio, television, read the paper or a magazine…

• Buy a product or use a service, your choice has likely been influenced by a persuasive marketing ad.

How do we get others to accept our point of view?

• By appealing to their reason• By appealing to their emotions• By appealing to their ethics

AND…• Offer opinions (not for your RESEARCH paper)• Urge actions• Back up points with evidence

Appealing to Reason

• Remember that an argument is an appeal to a person’s sense of reason; it is not a violent fight, dispute or disagreement. It is a measured, logical way of trying to persuade others to agree with you.

• One critical thing to remember is that there are at least two sides to every issue. If you take the attitude that there is only one side--your side--you will quite likely alienate your reader.– Examples: Statistics, Court Cases, Studies, Expert

Opinions (Quotations), Historical Examples

Appealing to Emotion

• The logical appeal is certainly an extremely persuasive tool. However, our human nature also lets us be influenced by our emotions.

• One way of evoking emotion in your reader is to use vivid images or language that is emotionally charged– Ex: anecdotes, vivid images, details of the pain

of certain procedures

Appealing to our Good Character

• The appeal to your ethics can occur on one or more of the following levels in any given argument:– Are you a reasonable person? (willing to

compromise/concede?) – Are you authoritative? (knowledgeable?)– Are you an ethical/moral person? (is argument

ethically sound/morally right)

The ethical appeal…

• Is based on the audience’s perception of the speaker.

• Don’t overlook it! It can be the most effective of the three!

Elements of a good argument

• Remember to identify any unfamiliar or uniquely used terms in your argument!

• If you forget to define your terms, (or choose not to define them) you run the risk of alienating your audience or confusing them!

• Ex: If you argue that teachers should “monitor” their students, the word monitor should be defined. What does monitor mean? Does it include looking through their registrar’s files? Reading through their notebooks?

To assess the validity of your paper…Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I have enough evidence? (Is it sufficient?)• Will my audience believe my evidence? (Is it

trustworthy?)• What are the assumptions built into my

argument, and are those assumptions fair? (Is it verifiable?)

• Does my conclusion follow logically from the claims I make?

Complexify your argumentThere are several rhetorical “moves” or patterns writers can utilize to enhance their

argument and demonstrate critical thinking about their topic. Cause and effect: discuss what has led to your topic becoming an issue and why the issue is affecting

people.• Qualification: “qualification” here means to limit your position to specific contexts or

situations, a “yes, but…” perspective. Qualifying not only can demonstrate that you understand the complexity of an issue but can show you have a unique perspective on it.

• Examination of the opposing argument: know thy enemy. Analyzing other perspectives on your topic has three key advantages: you demonstrate a broad understanding of the issue; you can strengthen your position by comparing it to others; and you’ve given yourself plenty more to write about.

• Concede a little, as necessary: it’s perfectly okay to admit your position is not perfect; in fact, breaking down what works and what doesn’t about your topic can enhance your analysis. Anticipating and alleviating your reader’s concerns can be incredibly persuasive.

• Propose a solution: a logical and feasible solution to your issue provides authority and credibility, and it can make for a strong conclusion.

• Examine the implications: what effect will this issue have on individuals and/or the world? Discussing what lies ahead for your topic also makes for a strong approach to a conclusion.

• Note: there is no “correct” strategy about how to integrate these techniques into your writing, nor is there a desired amount or limit to how many can be used. Use your best judgment.

Reminders for your paper.

• Make sure you have parenthetical documentation in EVERY PARAGRAPH and a Works Cited page.

• Highlight all direct quotes (only 3 allowed)

• No 1st or 2nd person (I, me, my, you, our, us, we)

• No contractions (can’t, won’t, shouldn’t)

Works Cited Page

All information on this PowerPoint was copied from the following website:

-“The Basic Principles of Persuasive Writing.” UBC Writing Centre. The University of British Colombia, 8 March 2010. Web. 23 March 2010.

-www.eNotes.com/topics/how-write-argumentative-essay

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