Rev. 9-06
Introduction
Research is the
process of acquiring enough
information to support a
stated conclusion.
In the process of acquiring information on your subject
you will learn to compile the findings of other writers and combine them to
demonstrate how and why you arrive at your conclusion. This
process is much more than writing a personal opinion essay, reading one book or
article on a subject and reporting its contents, or stringing together a
collection of quotations from various writers.
Writing a research paper requires effort and time, but
carefully following the steps presented here will allow you to do it well. It is very important that you do each
step systematically. None should be
omitted since the next step depends on the successful accomplishment of each.
The following is a countdown, an idea of how many weeks
it takes, start to finish, to produce a paper. It is
assumed that you have more than one class and cannot devote your hours solely
to this one assignment.
Week 1 Chose a subject and begin
gathering research, making a works cited card for each source be it book,
magazine, encyclopedia or internet article.
Week 2 Skim the articles you
found, discard unusable sources, gather more articles if needed; devise thesis
statement and make an outline.
Week 3 Re-read
your sources, making notes on index
cards as you read, re-work outline if new ideas arise.
Week 4 Read. Put notes in order, make a rough draft of the paper.
Week 5 Type the paper and
works cited; proofread.
The most important preparation is allowing plenty of time. Writing at the
last minute never produces a good
paper.
Step
1: Choosing a Subject (Week 1)
There are three basic points to remember when choosing a
subject:
(1)
The subject should interest you. Since thorough
research may take several weeks to complete, the task will be easier if you
have a general interest in your subject.
Documenting what you already know is difficult.
It might be best to work on a subject you know little
about, but which will hold your attention and your interest.
(2) It must be something you can explain to anyone. A topic such as "The Evolution of Zeus in
the Plays of Aeschylus" may be fine written by a specialist in religion
and drama and read by specialists in
the fields. Stay away from a topic
which is beyond your full understanding or one you will have trouble making
clear to the non-specialized reader.
(3) There must be enough material available to research it.
A topic on a very current interest may yield no research materials except a few
newspaper or magazine articles. A
topic such as "Queen
Keeping the three basic
points in mind, you can choose your topic from many different sources. Did a television program bring up a
topic that interests you? Perhaps a
general bull session with friends suggested a topic of interest that you would
like to know more about. A
conversation with your instructor or counselor might also be helpful. The sources for topics are endless, and
these examples represent just a few.
After a topic has been chosen, you are ready to begin
your research. Have a supply of 4 x 5 index cards on hand.
Step II:
Preliminary Search (Week 1 Continued)
The next step is to acquire a general overview of your subject,
find out what the library has on it, and start looking for the special aspect
of the topic on which you will concentrate. Give yourself at least a week to gather sources; it takes time to find books on the
on-line library catalog and retrieve them from the shelves, search periodical
(magazine) indexes and locate the magazines, make photocopies, and browse the
Internet. You may also need 
to request material via an interlibrary loan if the
library doesn’t have the periodical or book you want. Loans usually take
two days. Also, you may find after skimming your books and magazines that they
are not suitable and you will need to return to the library for more resources.
With searching, reading, and weeding articles, a week spent in gathering
sources is reasonable.
At this point you begin using an important research
technique which will save much time and will greatly affect the success of your
paper: You prepare a “work cited card” for each source consulted.
A work cited card for a book, encyclopedia, magazine or
electron source may look like this:
Work cited card for a book:
Latham, David. Crazy Sundays: F.
Scott Fitzgerald in
Author’s
Name
Title
Publication
Date
Publisher
Place
of Publication
You may add the call number to help you relocate a
book later, and if only part of the book is consulted, list the page numbers.
Write all of the information
(author, publisher, date, volume, internet address, etc) found when you
searched the on-line catalog, indexes, or electronic sources and found entries
because you will need it when you do a
works cited page.
Work cited card for an encyclopedia:
Fairchild, Johnson E. “ Colliers Encyclopedia, 1960. I, 332-342.
Title
Volume number
Author
Encyclopedia Title
Pages
Work cited card for a magazine: Author
Breslin, Catherine. “Waking up from the Dream of Women’s Lib.”
Title of Article
Date
Volume number
Name of Magazine
Pages
Work cited card for an online journal
Palfrey, Andrew. “Choice of
Mates in Identical Twins.” Modern Psychology 4.1
(1996): 12 pars. 25 Feb. 2000 http://www.liasu.edu/modpsy/palfrey4(1).htm.
Author
Title of Article
Journal, Volume,
Issue,
Date
Date you consulted
source
Address
The advantages of making works cited cards as you first consult
library materials are: (1) time and effort saved
when you decide to use the material but can’t remember where you
found it, (2) you can refer briefly to the source without repeating the full
information as you make notes on your reading, and (3) you can simply
copy the cards to compile your final
works cited. Any card for a
source you decide not to use may be discarded.
As you look for your
background information, begin gathering ideas on which subject headings you will use in the
on-line catalog and periodical indexes.
The process of finding the subject in the encyclopedia should give you
some clues. Also, check the bibliography following
the encyclopedia articles as it may give you the lead to some specific books. The next thing to do is find out how
much material the library has on your topic.
At this point you decide, is my
subject of recent current interest that would be written about only in
magazines? Has it been around long
enough that books as well as periodical articles have been published about
it? Or is it so old that I would
find it only in books? The witch
trials in
Check the on-line catalog, periodical indexes, or the
Internet to find material on your subject.
If it is not listed in any way you can think of, either there is not
enough material in the library or you need help from the librarian. When you find the subject has many
subdivisions listed, you have selected too broad a topic. A long list of "see also"
references in either place will indicate, too, that your subject is too
broad. Restricting your subject to
a topic you can handle in a six- or eight-page paper is your next problem. Looking at the subdivisions of the
subject in the catalog or the subtopics in the periodical index will give you
some ideas on how to do this.
The Internet is
a new and speedy tool for research and seems limitless in its scope of topics
– archaic or current. full-text articles from on-line journals can
be accessed and printed out. Or they can be sent to your home e-mail as well as
saved onto a disk. Via computer, you can search encyclopedias, newspapers, TV
news, magazines, journals in the fields of medicine, sociology, psychology,
sports, agriculture, ecology, etc. If you don’t print or save an
interesting article and think you may want to return to the site later, it is a
good idea to make a works cited card for it.
Step III:
Developing a Thesis Statement (Week 2)
Now that you have found your subject and have done some
preliminary reading about it, you must decide how you will work with the topic
you have chosen. Developing one
sentence, the thesis statement, which
presents the scope of your entire paper, will accomplish this step.
For instance, your subject may be "Alternative
Energy Sources." To show what
you will discuss and the viewpoint from which you will write about, the thesis statement could be "The sun is a source of energy which should be
utilized as a practical method for relieving the energy crisis." With such a
statement in mind you can proceed to gather information in an intelligent
manner. You will search for
material to support the statement and work within the limits it provides.
There is no value in simply restating the facts or
opinions you have read. You must
decide to concentrate on some aspect of the topic which your
preliminary reading has suggested and which further reading will clarify.
Take the topic of the teenage runaway as an example. Your preliminary reading may have shown
what types of teenagers run away, what problems they run away from, what
problems arise for the runaway, and have found statistical studies on the problem. Your reading may suggest the public assumes
the problem of runaways exists only with families of "problem"
children. One possible thesis statement focusing
on that aspect could read "Contrary to popular myth, the teenage runaway problem is not
limited to the typical juvenile delinquent."
As you gather material on your topic, you will be able to
select the details to support your thesis statement. Remember: a good statement is never a
preconceived notion or a bias that you could prove only by distorting or
ignoring facts; nor is it the statement of any accepted fact about which research would
reveal nothing new. The more exact the statement is, the
easier the paper will be to research and to write. At this point, you will need to add more
materials to your works cited since you know which precise aspect of the
topic you are treating. Remember to
make a complete works cited card as you consult each source. With the thesis statement completed, you are ready to make a preliminary outline
for your paper.
Step
IV: Preparing the Outline (Week 2 Continued)
Having
decided what our paper will discuss by phrasing the thesis statement, your next
step is preparing a preliminary outline.
An outline is the skeleton
frame of your paper. It consists of briefly stated ideas or
topics arranged in a logical order to show the relationship between the
ideas. It makes sure that you
present everything on your subject which is necessary to reach your
conclusion. A good outline will
guide you in your reading and note-taking -
and is essential!
Start asking yourself questions about the subject you have selected,
but so far have only background information about. What do you want to find out about it
and what information will you need to arrive at a conclusion? Ask yourself: What? Why? When? Where? How? Jot down the ideas the questions give
you, then arrange them logically.
A logical order for some subjects is a chronological arrangement. For others, you can present the main idea and
then expand it; that is, introduce the subject, develop it, then show the
significance of what you have presented.
Outlines consist of a numbered list of important ideas
with subheads describing different aspects of the important idea. It may be a topical outline, which simply states the name of the idea, or it may be a sentence
outline in which a
whole thought about each idea is expressed. The sentence outline has the advantage
of making you think more clearly about what you are trying to do and allows you
to get a good start on the actual writing.
The following examples of outlines will help you as you
prepare one for your own subject. NOTE: YOUR RESEARCH PAPER WILL NOT LOOK
LIKE THE OUTLINE FORMAT. The outline is a guide for thinking and writing. Consult your Little Brown Handbook
to see what a research paper will look like.
Example 1. Topical
outline arranged in chronological order
Subject: The Effect of the Automobile on the Development
of Highways
Thesis statement:
Improved engineering and increased use of automobiles has led to the
construction of many miles of interstate and secondary highways.
A.
Early automobiles
1.
Number per capita population
2.
Speed and power
3.
Purposes for
which used
B.
Early highways
1.
Miles constructed
2.
Materials used
3.
Amount of use
C.
Modern automobiles
1.
Number per capita population
2.
Speed and power
3.
Purposes for which used
a.
Travel to work
b.
Pleasure
c
Transportation of goods
c.
Schoolhouses
D.
Modern highways
1. Miles constructed
2.
Materials
and methods used
3.
Amount of
use
E. Relation
between development of automobiles and development of highways
Example 2. Sentence
outline arranged in chronological order.
I. The few
automobiles on the road in the early 1900s used roadways constructed for
horse-drawn vehicles.
A. Very
few people owned cars.
B. They were low-powered, not capable of traveling long distances.
C.
Most automobiles were used for pleasure.
Example 3. Topical
outline arranged in expanded idea order.
Subject:
Solar Energy
Thesis statement: The sun is a source of energy which should be
utilized as a practical method for relieving the energy crisis.
I. Amount of
energy produced by the sun
A. In
varied parts of the country
B. In
all weather conditions
II. Available
methods for harnessing the sun's energy
A. Description
of methods
B. Purposes
for which used
III. The practicality of using
solar energy
A. Cost
of development
B. Cost
of installation
C. Cost
of maintenance
IV. Comparison with other
available methods
A.
As to cost
B.
As to availability
C. As
to future availability and needs
V. Conclusion
Because you develop your outline before you do extensive reading, it is quite probable
that you will change it as you read more
about your subject. A
chronological arrangement will stay the same, but you will certainly add flesh
to the skeleton by adding additional subtopics to the main ideas, and you may
find more main ideas you wish to place in the chronological order.
The
expanded idea arrangement should be reexamined constantly to be sure you
are building from the
first presentation of
an idea through increasingly important and significant ideas to the
strongest point which is your conclusion.
When you
do a competent job on your outline, you are well on your way to a good
research paper.
Step V:
Note-taking (Week 3)
With your outline developed, you are ready to do
extensive reading and note-taking, the
heart of your research. Unlike
class notes which are usually outlines or running summaries, notes for research
papers are much more selective.
Entire sources are not summarized; instead, specific facts, ideas,
and pertinent
statements that will give substance
to your paper are collected.
Notes
will almost never be used in the order in which they are made, and notes which
you cannot use when you compile the rough draft will need to be eliminated
without disturbing the rest of your collection. For these reasons, using 4" x
5" note cards is by far the best method since they can be readily
shuffled, added to, and eliminated in an efficient manner. Notes scribbled on odd scraps of paper
or into notebooks may get misplaced or forgotten by the time you are ready to
compile the rough draft.
What should go on a note
card? Only one idea, to be sure, so shuffling and ridding your collection
of needless notes can be done simply.
Three basic items of information should be included on every card. The first
item is the source
of the note.
Referring to your works cited card which has the complete
information, your can either write the author's last name and the page on which
you found the note or you can use a letter symbol which corresponds to the
symbol you have assigned to a particular works cited card. This letter, along with the
page number, will identify the
specific source as you take notes without having to write the complete
information.
Only one works cited card will be labeled "A,"
for example, but there may be many note cards from that source. The source is most important when making
note cards because you will need it for crediting the author and making the
reference page. It does not matter
where you locate your source reference on the note card; it is important,
however, to be consistent and use the same location for every card.
The second item to be
included on each card is a topic heading, relating the note to the idea
you are looking for. The heading
should match a topic, whether a main heading or a subheading, in your
outline. Write in the upper corner of your card
the numeral and subheading from the
outline. For example, a topic in
your outline labeled III. C., refers to cost factors
in maintaining a solar energy system.
Finding that topic covered in a source,
you will write III. C. on the top of the card.
When you begin your rough draft, arranging the note cards
by outline notations will automatically organize your paper. Use pencil to mark these notations. You may want to change the label later
if you find that the note would be better used under a different topic.
The third item is the note itself.
How do you know when to take a note? There is no easy answer, but you become
a better note-taker with experience.
You may take notes as you read, or you may skim a whole passage and then
return to the highlights. In either
case, you are not just reading but reading
for notes. Remember, your
thesis statement and outline limit the notes which
will be useful for your paper.
Although your note-taking has only one purpose – to
write authentically and well on your topic – you will be taking several
kinds of notes to achieve that purpose.
These kinds of notes fall into three
basic areas: a direct
quotation, a paraphrase or summary of the original material, and a critical
note, which adds your own opinion.
The quotation note takes material directly from the text, exactly as the author has written it.
There is
usually a reason for quoting from your source. Perhaps the author has so aptly
said what you wish to convey that you will quote the passage directly, or the
author is an outstanding authority on your subject. Since you are taking text
word for ward from the source, it is distinguished from all other notes by
quotation marks (quotation marks used in the original now become single quotes –
‘ Due to the …’ .
When writing your paper, seeing the quotation marks on the card will
alert you to the fact that this note is verbatim, and must be typed exactly as
you copied it.
In your paper you must give credit to the source in your works
cited. You should be cautioned that your natural tendency will be to take too many quotation notes
and quote too much in your rough draft.
A good guide to follow is to
allow no more than 10 percent of quotations in your finished paper.
The paraphrase or summary note conveys the general idea of the source,
but is stated in your own words.
The words must be genuinely your own, not simply a slight rewording of
what you have read. You will use a
passage, and re-phrase or clarify a definition or explanation. Very often a chapter can be summarized
into two or three sentences. Large amounts of
statistics can be paraphrased into a few generalities.
The best method when taking a paraphrase note is to 1. read
the passage 2. close the book 3. write
the note without looking at the text, and then 4. check
your note against the passage to insure that you have not misrepresented the
author. Since the paraphrase or
summary note uses the ideas of the author, you must give credit to the author. In the case of a paraphrase, you are
crediting the content; with quotes, you are crediting the way the content is
expressed.
Critical
notes are your or another critic's reaction to what you read. They are a valuable record of ideas that
cross your mind, suggestions for future references, or points with which you
disagree. If critical notes are
your own, you do not need to give credit.
!!! You must guard carefully against plagiarism !!!. Plagiarism is the literary word for thievery
of style, ideas, or phrasing. No
one can accuse you
of plagiarism if you give credit to the real author.
Before you decide that you have finished note-taking,
check your cards to be sure that you have adequate information for each topic
in your outline. You may need to
locate additional material and make more works cited and note cards. If you are successful in your
note-taking, you will have gone far in producing a fine research paper. The
next two examples show how to make two
types of note cards working with the
same source. The following
information is located in
Asimov, Isaac. Human Intelligence.
Realize now that our
earth has just entered a technical phase capable of interstellar communication.
Providing that scientific societies survive their own technology, we have just
entered a galactic system of communicating technologies. Since these
technologies exist millions of years in advance of our own, we must realize:
they are relatively intelligent, and we are relatively stupid.
For over a half a century earth radio communications have traveled outward through interstellar space. These waves now touch planetary systems fifty light years away. Already a reply to these radio emissions could be traveling earthward. At any time, radio telescopes could reveal to all the world that human intelligence does not reign supreme. Human wisdom – the youngest, most immature mind within a galactic society of millions – has just received membership in that society.
Example of a quotation note card:
III. 1 “Human
wisdom—the youngest, most immature mind with a galactic society of
millions—has just received membership in that society.” Asimov.
p. 159
Example of a paraphrase note card:
III.1 Our
radio telescopes have been in use only fifty years, so replies from
galaxies 50 light years away have not been received. Because other
technologies have existed for millions of years longer than ours, the
replies may tell us their civilizations are much more advanced than ours. Asimov,
p. 159
14
Step VI: Writing the Rough Draft
You have your subject, a thesis statement, a preliminary
outline, a collection of works cited cards representing your reading, and the note
cards you have keyed to your outline.
Reread your thesis statement and outline. Does the statement say what you are
discussing in your paper? Does it
reveal the approach you are taking to your subject? Is the outline arranged in logical order? Does it build methodically to the climax
of your conclusion? At this point,
revise either or both as necessary.
Review your note cards. Have you keyed them to the appropriate
ideas in the outline? If not,
correct them. Do you have adequate
information in your notes to cover each point in your outline? You may need some additional
reading. Do some of the notes fail
to apply to your thesis statement points in your outline? Are they inappropriate or too
repetitious? Eliminate them.
The thesis statement tells you where you are going, and
your outline tells you
how to get
there. With these well done, you
are ready to write a coherent paper.
Step VI: The Rough Draft (Week 4)
Assemble all your materials, put a dictionary within
reach, and find a good place to work.
You will need plenty of paper.
As you write, leave space between lines, use wide margins, and leave
space at the bottom of the page. This allows room for inserting changes and
additions without constant recopying.
Start writing, using your notes to
cover the ideas in the order they appear in your outline. Generally, the information on a subtopic
will form a paragraph. Be sure each
one begins with a good topic sentence, usually containing the outline topic,
and ends with a transition leading to the following idea. If your outline is in sentence form,
most of your sentences are already written.
Be the master of the material you present. Your
thesis and your outline are in
control. Use other writers'
thoughts to illustrate your outline
ideas, to
make your paper say
what you want it
to say. Other writers' ideas are presented to indicate how you
arrive at your conclusion either because they further your view or are contrary to it and you point out why you think so.
When paraphrasing another writer, your wording
should differ considerably from his.
Unless the idea is general knowledge, that is, information shared by
many, you must give the writer credit in a footnote. When
you use another writer's own words, use quotation marks.
For a long quote over five typed lines, use a double-spaced paragraph with all
lines indented five spaces. Any quote should become part of your own writing,
however.
An effective way to do this is to start a sentence in
your own words, continue it with the quotation, and when appropriate, conclude
in your own words.
Compare the effectiveness of the following examples:
Hooten said, "Superiority and inferiority are
predetermined by biological makeup."
Hooten's view that, "superiority and inferiority
are predetermined by biological makeup," is unacceptable to
criminologists.
Using a quotation as part of your own writing will make
clear your reason for using it, and only when
you have a good reason should you use a quote. That you are copying quotations to avoid
the labor of composition becomes readily apparent because they do not further
the plan for your paper and result in incoherence.
The
conclusion of your paper is
the
The final state in
writing your rough draft is revision. Check the logical development of your
thesis; eliminate material which repeats or does not fit in. Be sure one point moves to another with
transition sentences showing relationship.
Correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Step VII: Preparing the Finished Paper (Week 5)
You have examined your first draft and corrected sentence
structure, spelling, organization and documentation. You are ready to complete the finished
product of your research.
The final version includes
the body - the text of the paper - and the works cited page.
Title pages and outlines are optional; check with your professor. The research
paper should be typewritten and double-spaced. The body of the paper has 1-inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides.
Number each page, including the works cited. Although the top margin for the body of your paper is 1 inch, your last
name and page number is placed ½ inch from the top of the page at the
top right beginning with the first page.
At the left of the first page, provide your full name,
the professor’s name, course, and date, all
double spaced. Double space and center the title. A sample first page of a document is
shown in The Little Brown Handbook.
Just as in the first draft,
care should be taken in copying quotations accurately. Short quotations are typed as part of
the text; quotations longer than 5 typed lines are indented 1-inch from the
left and double-spaced.
The works cited page contains all of the sources
you actually used in preparing your paper. It includes books, magazines,
on-line sources, etc., from which you obtained information as well as
paraphrases or quotes. The works
cited entry consists of the author, title, publisher and its location, and date
of publication.
In the works cited, meticulous attention must be paid to proper placement of spaces, periods, abbreviations, underlining, quotation
marks, and other details. Having
guidelines for proper formatting on 
hand as you type the works cited is a must. The standard formatting is MLA (Modern Language
Association) style. Entries are arranged alphabetically, each item
double-spaced, both within and between
entries, and second and subsequent lines indented one-half inch, with
double-space between items. Some samples of MLA documentation, from The
Little, Brown Handbook follow:
1. A book with one author:
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological
Theory and Women’s
Development.
2. An article in a reference
work:
“Reckon.” Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed. 1993
3. An article from a magazine:
Lever, Janet. “Sex Differences in
the Games Children Play.” Social
Problems. 23 (1976): 478-87.
4. An article in an online article or CD-ROM
Palfrey, Andrew. “Choice of Mates
in Identical Twins.” Modern
Psychology. 4.1 (1996): 12 pars. 25 Feb. 1996
<http://liasu.edu/
modpsy/palfrey4(1)htm.>
These are just four of
forty-nine of possible citing situations shown in The Little, Brown Handbook. Some books have
more than one author, or you may use two books by the same author; a book may
have an editor and no author. You may get your sources from a reference book,
an anthology, a review, or a CD-ROM.
Each situation has its own proper MLA requirements. A later edition
of The Little, Brown Handbook will
include MLA
guidelines, as well as APA
guidelines used in psychology, social sciences and
medicine, and Chicago Documentation for history and
humanities. Also, the MLA and APA
Style Sheets can be found on the library’s web page under Sites For Sore Eyes and printed for your use.
A First Rate research paper
can be produced by you.
Give yourself plenty of time, most of all, and follow the
guidance in this pamphlet.
Our thanks to Elizabeth A. Scott, Laurel J.
Reid, Millie Wilson, and Kathie Clarke.