Research Paper
You will be researching a topic and writing a paper to support a thesis. Your paper will contain MLA citations to support your thesis statement and conclude with a list of works cited.
Timeline:
Jan 4: Pick a Topic / Topical Databases
Jan 8: Search Strategies / EBSCO Databases
Jan 10: Website Evaluation
Jan 14: Notecards
Jan 16: Finish Research / Finish Notecards
Jan 18: Begin Outline
Jan 29: Finish Outline
Jan 31: In-Text Citations / Plagiarism
Feb 5: MLA Citations
Feb 7 – Feb 15: Work Days / Type Paper
Step 1:
Your first step will be researching some background information on your topic. If you find an article that will be useful to you, copy the entire article and save it in MS Word. The following databases are good places to begin. These databases are organized by topic:
Points of View
SIRS Issues Researcher
Issues and Controversies
Directions for Saving Articles to MS Word:
Open MS Word.
Copy the MLA citation from your article and paste it at the top.
Copy the entire text of the article and paste it below the citation.
Save one article per document.
Step two:
After reading a good background article about your topic or after gathering and reading several articles about your topic, create a working thesis statement. See the link below about creating a thesis statement. Use the EBSCO databases to find additional information on your topic.
Step three:
Find and save research articles that support your thesis statement. Read each article and highlight the important and relevant information.
Step four: Using the highlighted articles create note slides in PowerPoint. The notes will be either a direct quote or a paraphrase. See link below for information on paraphrasing.
Step five: Organize note slides, create outline for your paper and compose your rough draft.
Step six: Compose paper including in-text citations.
Step seven: Compose your MLA style works cited page.
MLA Basics:
1. List your sources in alphabetical order by author's last name, no author, begin with the title
2. Title your works cited page: Works Cited (center)
3. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font
4. Include Hanging Indents
5. Double space between sources
6. Be sure that every source you use is listed on your works cited page
**Everything that is not your own original idea or thought MUST be cited in the text AND on the works cited page. Failure to do this is plagiarism.**
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