1. Pick a topic.
Pick a controversial topic of your choice. You are not limited to the topics on this website; if you come up with your own topic make sure it is controversial and has many perspectives. Narrow your research question from a large topic to a small, manageable topic.
Good news sources:
The New York Times The Economist Time Magazine The Washington Post The Wall Street Journal Newsweek Magazine BBC Good search terms: debate, opinions, pro, con, controversy, issue, effects, evidence, examples, facts, statistics, research, study, chart, graph, background information, summary, overview, reasons for, arguments for, reasons against, arguments against, positives, negatives |
2. Find reliable sources. Enter citations into noodletools correctly. Share your citations with me.Students have a tendency to search online forever for sources of information. I would like you to pick good sources and read them all the way through. Highlight, take notes, or whatever helps. You will discover that pretty soon the information will become familiar and certain facts and ideas will repeat themselves.
Of these articles you will want at least two that provide broad background information. Other articles should be more specific on pertinent examples, reveal useful opinions of people that matter, and/or outline analysis that sheds more light on your topic. Documentaries on DVD or youtube may also be valuable sources.
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3. Take notes from your sources into an outline. Cite all information with parenthetical references.This is the most important step of the research process for two reasons: 1) you are organizing your research and analyzing the content, and 2) you are avoiding plagiarizing by keeping your sources organized and making sure to paraphrase/ summarize.
Take all six of your sources and type the information you want to use in your research paper into an outline. (Of course, you are welcome to do more research and use more sources. Just make sure to enter your new sources into noodletools accurately.) Your outline will have the following sections. Each section will be marked with a Roman numeral and titled as follows: I. Introduction (a brief summary of the topic and a thesis which summarizes your analysis/evaluation) II. Background Information (the facts about your topic that are necessary to understand it) III. Debate (the controversy and differing opinions about your topic) IV. Analysis and Evaluation (pulling apart your research and explaining your opinion about it) V. Conclusion (a very short summary of the topic, your opinion, and why it is important to know about)
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4. Do extra research and add to your outline. Write a rough draft with correct parenthetical references and works cited.After I give you back your outline you will probably need to do some more targeted research. Please make sure to keep your sources organized by adding the citations to noodletools and adding parenthetical references to your outline. Most research papers have more than six sources. The average is ten. Some have up to twenty.
Once your outline is complete you will need to write it up into full sentences and paragraphs. For some this is easy; for others it is hard. Don't procrastinate! For this step you will be required to write in full sentences all of the following: I. Introduction (a brief summary of the topic and a thesis which summarizes your analysis/evaluation) II. Background Information (the facts about your topic that are necessary to understand it) III. Debate (the controversy and differing opinions about your topic) IV. Analysis and Evaluation (pulling apart your research and explaining your opinion about it) - at least 1 page long V. Conclusion (a very short summary of the topic, your opinion, and why it is important to know about) The minimum length for the rough draft is six pages. Most papers are longer. Some are as long as ten pages.
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5. Edit and revise your rough draft. Write a final draft and submit with a works cited.When you get your rough draft back from me you should revise (make content or organizational changes to your paper) and edit (correct grammar, spelling, and other format mistakes).
I will not do a plagiarism check until you submit your final draft. Hopefully by this point you have kept your sources organized, correctly referenced your sources with parenthetical references, and put all information in your own words. The requirements are the same as for the rough draft (see above). The research paper will be graded according to the scoring guide (see file on left). |
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6. Make a PowerPoint. Practice. Present.The PowerPoint and presentation of your research is the semester final. It is worth 20% of your semester grade! The PowerPoint and presentation will be graded according to the scoring guide (see file on left).
The presentation will last 45 to 50 minutes (a full period). Each presentation will have the following structure:
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