Senior Research Project – Handout 4 – English 12 CP
Last week, you picked a second topic, collected two related sources, and started a works cited document. This week, you will make a final decision on your topic for this semester, and collect two more sources. If time allows, you will begin summarizing your sources for your annotated bibliography, which will be assigned next week. Your two additional sources need to be added to your works cited document, and this document needs to be printed out and turned in by the end of the period today.
Overview:
1.	Choose which topic you will work on for the rest of the semester and clean-up your “Research” folder.
2.	Visit INSPIRE.net or http://scholar.google.com/ to research your topic further. 

Details

1.	Choose which topic you will work on for the rest of the semester.
o	Move any documents NOT related to your chosen topic into your “Scrap” folder.

2.	Visit INSPIRE.net or http://scholar.google.com/ to research your topic online.
o	Choose and save TWO more articles relevant to your topic in your “Research Folder.”
•	If no PDF version of your article is available, copy the article into a Word document and save.
o	Cite your sources in your Works cited document—confirm the entries are formatted properly.
•	See the “Works Cited” in the example paper posted on the class website. 
•	See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/ for formatting information.

Results – This is what will be checked for a grade.

You should have the following items when you are finished:
1.	ONE MLA formatted works cited document with at least FOUR sources listed, printed and turned in for credit
2.	FOUR articles saved to your “Research” folder

Where are we going with this?  During the next few lab sessions, you will summarize and evaluate your sources to create an annotated bibliography. Then you will create a working thesis statement, which you will use to plan a paper with three or four major points. You will then write an explanatory or argumentative paper (you decide which). In this paper you will synthesize your sources to develop your thesis statement.