THE RESEARCH PROJECTA Step-by-Step Guide

Professor Lisa ShawMiami-Dade College

Research isResearch is

• A multiple-step project, not a single paper, to be completed over the course of six weeks

• An investigation into an area that interests you

• A documented essay in which you present a thesis and support it with reputable sources on the subject

The Steps

Bibliography Cardsone source per card

Read and Highlightimportant information

facts, details

Write Note Cardsyour highlighted passages

are recorded on cards

WRITE IT DOWN!

Gather Sources

• Web sites: use Yahoo, Google, or other search engines

• Articles: find academic journals scholarly articles as well as articles from popular magazines

• http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml

• Your research should be CURRENT -- no more than five years old

• Legitimate academic sources are required. People and Reader’s Digest are not academic sources

• Use a variety of sources: web based, magazine, journal and news sources

Bibliography Cards

For each source you use, write the bibliographical information on an index card exactly the way the MLA requires such listings on a works cited page.

If you have five sources, you have five index cards. Check your handbook for MLA List of Works Cited for guidelines, which you must follow to the letter.

Sample bibliography card

Robinson, Jerome B. “Cat in the Ballot Box.” Field and Stream Mar. 1996: 30-35.

Evaluate Your Sources:

• Any schmo can get a web site. Do you know who you’re quoting? Links to find determine source

credibility.

• http://www.canisius.edu/canhp/canlib/webcrit.htm

• http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html

• http://sol.slcc.edu/lr/navigator/discovery/eval.html

The Final Steps

The Easy Part!

Write a topic outineThese come from your notecards

Document the outline Wirte the Rough Draftfrom the outline

Putting It All TogetherAll steps come together

Note Cards• Every interesting idea/sentence/point/fact/statistic needs a note card

•Note cards constitute the substance of your research paper

• The most important step in researching is taking good notes

• FOLLOW DIRECTIONS

NOTE CARD FORMAT

Note card Format

A note card must have a topic label ( a 1-4word summary of what that specific card details) and the author’s name and page

number the material came from. If there is no author, use the first couple of words of

the article title in quotation marks.

ONE NOTE PER CARD. If you highlight four areas in a particular article, you will write

four note cards. Each card might be on a different subtopic and require a different

topic label.

Mountain lion behaviorSeidensticker 177

“The boldness displayed by mountain lions doesn’t square with the shy, retiring behavior familiar to those of us who have studied these animals.”

Sample Note card

Two Types of Note Cards

• DIRECT QUOTATION

• PARAPHRASE

Direct Quotation

• Write down word for word what you read in your source. Do not change ANYTHING.

• Make sure you enclose the words in quotation marks to indicate direct quotation YOU are the person quoting. When you take information word for word, YOU are quoting your source.

• Clinton proclaimed, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Paraphrase Note Card

• This is the DANGER zone, so pay attention

• When you use a source’s ideas but change the words, you paraphrase

• Paraphrase is a required research skill

• Do NOT enclose paraphrases in quotation marks

• Any idea you were not born with must be properly credited to avoid plagiarism

Paraphrase

President Clinton denied having an affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Plagiarism

Using another’s words OR ideas as your own without giving proper credit within the paper

PLAGIARISM WILL RESULT IN A FAILING GRADE.

Make sure your cards and bibliography cards are complete,

so you properly credit your sources.

Combination Note card

President Clinton denied have an affair with “that woman.” OR

President Clinton denied having “sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky

In a correct paraphrase, you must

• change all the words of the original

• use no word forms from the original (responsible -- responsibility)

• change the sentence structure so it doesn’t resemble the original.

Check your Handbook for more examples

Finishing the Note Cards

• By the time you are finished researching, you should have between 20 and 30 note cards.

• You might not use ALL of them in the paper

The Topic Outline

1.Arrange all your notes card by topic label. Make sure you have groups of notes under the same label.

2) Put them in order: which group should go first? Which topic will you address next?

3) Then on a separate sheet of paper, write your thesis statement and underneath that, list your topic labels

by Roman numeral to form an outline.

Thesis: Women in television have been limited to narrow and stereotypical roles

I. Housewives

II. Mothers

III. Mistresses

IV. Older, single caretakers

Inserting DocumentationNow add your sources in parenthesis after each

card you will use. Write the source from the upper corner of your note card.

Thesis: Women in television have been limited to narrow and stereotypical words.

I. Housewives

A. Early shows (Andres 23)

B. Lucy (Robins 12) (McMillan 6)

C. Honeymooners (Laker 2)

D .Writers (Ducjebs 4)

II. Mothers

A, Donna Reed types (Andres 18) (Lord 3)

B, Claire Huxtable (Akins 3) (Hacker 3

C. Roseanne

Paper Format

Follow the model in your handbook and carefully read the notes.

Little, Brown handbook Pp. 742-780

• heading (no cover page), heading on left (p 743, read note #1)

• header: your last name and the page number appears on every page in the upper right

• margins set at one inch

• double spacing throughout the paper, including the Works Cited page

• if you use section headings, underline them and capitalize only the first word

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/manuscript.html

Additional pointers

• Ellipsis marks Use these when you must omit material and the beginning, end, or in the middle of a quotation. It allows you to select only the kernel, the most important piece of the quotation to use. Follow the rules. If you omit in the middle of a sentence, use brackets [ …] around the marks

• Little, Brown Handbook p 511-513, 671

Final Writing Pointers

• Make sure you have a balance of paraphrase and quotation. Try to use quotations only where they are absolutely necessary

Vary your signal phrases. Steer clear of repeating old, simple phrases such as “said” or “wrote” use your textbook list to help you.

Try interrupting quotations with signal phrases. It make your writing more sophisticated. First read the following pages for examples.

Little, Brown Handbook p.676-677, Pp. 468-469

Back to back quotations

• Do NOT use back to back quotations, that is, one quotation following another. Quoted material should be used within and around your writing as support. Putting two quotations next to each other is just a scotch tape method of constructing a paper; it is not writing.

Consecutive quotations

When you have CONSECUTIVE quotations, that is, a quote/paraphrase from one author

the next quote or paraphrase is from that same source, you do not need to re-list

the authors name. Just list the page number. If there is a different author between those citations, then you must

rename the author next time you use his/her work.

The Final Paper• Your paper is graded on both

CONTENT and FORMAT. You MUST adhere strictly to MLA rules to get a good grade.

• Grammar counts. You are expected to write without major grammar and mechanical errors.

• Take time to proofread.

• Make sure you cite paraphrase. Failure to cite borrowed information even if it is in your own words is PLAGIARISM.

• Plagiarism will cause your paper to fail.

• Make sure the body matches the Works Cited.