RESEARCH PAPERS

RESEARCHING

Collecting the pieces from your anchor text, reputable

websites, historical archives, scientific or medical journals,

newspaper articles, reliable books, etc.

Start with your topic, questions, & keywords

Take notes, identify quotes you plan to use

Document sources as you go

WHY USE QUOTES?The essay you write for class must be your essay. It

should be your own ideas and in your own

words. However, many essay assignments will ask that

you use sources or quotes. Why would you use quotes in

an essay that is supposed to be your own work? 1. To prove that your ideas are correct 2. To illustrate your point of view 3. To demonstrate how you arrived at an original

idea of your own 4. When the quote will have an impact on your

readers

WHEN TO USE QUOTES

Usually, you will not use any quotes in your essay’s introduction.

The paragraphs in the body of your essay will begin with your topic

sentence (the statement that tells the readers what the rest of the

paragraph will be talking about). Do not start a paragraph with a

quote.

After you have given the topic sentence and explained what you will

be writing about in your paragraph, you can consider using a quote

that proves or illustrates what you claimed in your topic sentence.

Do not end a paragraph with a quote.

QUOTES CANNOT STAND ALONE

• O’Brien’s character in his novel, The Things They

•Carried, is able to sort through his emotions by

•writing about what he experienced in Vietnam.

Topic Sentence

• The method of story-telling is effective for him,

•because “by telling stories, you objectify your own

•experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin

•down certain truths” (158).

Quotation

•His stories thus become a type of therapy for him

•where O’Brien can discover the lessons he learned

•without feeling directly involved.

Relevance

HOW TO USE QUOTESA quote should never appear in a sentence by itself because then there is no context for the quote. Integrate your quotes!Example: Men are the sole cause of the war. “May God forgive the men who brought about this war” (Rhodes 260). *Here, the reader can be confused or the reading can be disturbed because there is no warning that a quote is coming, and there is no context for the quote. (Dropped quote)

Example: Men are described as the sole cause of the war when Christian Rhodes states, “May God forgive the men who brought about this war” (Rhodes 260). *Here, the reader knows that someone else’s opinion is being used to support your own idea, and it gives a context to the quote.

SHORTEN LENGTHY QUOTES

•Ellipses Points •If you want to make a long quote shorter in order to present the reader with a more concise quotation, do so using an ellipse, which is three periods.

•Example: The narrator shows her belief that landscape can affect the human when she says that “the sound of that tinkling brook, for ever rolling by, filled my heart with a strange melancholy, which for many nights deprived me of rest. I loved it, too. The voice of waters in the stillness of night, always had an extraordinary effect upon my mind” (107) (Original Text)

•The narrator shows her belief that landscape can affect the human when she says that “the sound of that tinkling brook…filled my heart with a strange melancholy….The voice of waters…always had an extraordinary effect upon my mind” (107).

BLOCK QUOTE FORMAT

If you are quoting 4 or more lines of text (as it shows in your paper), indent

the quoted lines ten spaces from the left margin. Double-space the quote as

you do the rest of your essay, and do not use quotation marks.

Example: Douglass is particularly blunt in his assessment of “Christian”

behavior in the south:

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes – a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. (53)

Any source information that you provide in-text

must correspond to the source information on the

Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal

word or phrase you provide to your readers in the

text must be the first thing that appears on the left-

hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works

Cited List.

For more information on MLA format, consult

Purdue Owl online.

CHECKING YOUR SITES

RELEVANCE: Does it support my argument or

thesis?

DATE: When was it published? When was it revised?

Has the author of the page stopped updating it?

SOURCES BEHIND THE TEXT: Are sources

documented? Are references scholarly, popular, or

reputable?

THIS CAN BE HELPFUL FOR YOUR ENTIRE L IFE

You will be using information to make

important decisions!• Which car should I buy?• Which doctor should I choose?• Should my child have this surgery?• Should I take this medication?

Is your information reliable, credible,

current, balanced, relevant, and accurate?

Direct Quotes:

Author and page number

after quote

Put in context

Reporters stated, “Manson

looked crazy” (Smith 231).

TAKING NOTES

Information and details

Author and page numbers for

all information (in case you

decide to quote or paraphrase)

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is the act of

presenting the words, ideas,

images, sounds, or the creative

expression of others as your own.

IF

you have included the words and

ideas of others in your work that you

neglected to cite,

you have had help you wouldn’t want

your teacher to know about,

YOU HAVE PROBABLY

PLAGIARIZED!

Intentional• Copying a friend’s work• Buying or borrowing

papers• Cutting and pasting

blocks of text from electronic sources without documenting

• Media “borrowing”without documentation

• Web publishing without permissions of creators

2 TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

Unintentional• Careless

paraphrasing• Poor

documentation• Quoting

excessively• Failure to use

your own “voice”

IS THIS IMPORTANT?

What if:• Your architect cheated his way through math

class. Will your new home be safe?• Your lawyer paid for a copy of the bar exam

to study. Will the contract she wrote for you stand up in court?

• The accountant who does your taxes hired someone to write his papers and paid a stand-in to take his major tests? Does he know enough to complete your tax forms properly?

DO I HAVE TO CITE EVERYTHING?

Facts that are widely known, or

Information or judgments considered “common

knowledge”

Do NOT have to be documented.

EXAMPLE: John Adams was our second

president

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor

on December 7, 1941

3 STRATEGIES TO USE

Quoting - Quotations are the exact words of an author, copied directly

from a source, word for word. Quotations must be cited in MLA formate

Paraphrasing -Paraphrasing means rephrasing the words of an author,

putting his/her thoughts in your own words. When you paraphrase, you

rework the source’s ideas, words, phrases, and sentence structures with

your own. It will usually be the same length as the quote. Must be cited in

MLA format also.

Summarizing - Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) of one or

several writers into your own words, including only the main point(s).

Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad

overview of the source material.

Works Cited at the top of the

page and centered

Entire page double spaced

Alphabetical Order by

author’s last name

Hanging

Indentations

WORKS CITED

Use a website like

citationmachine.net or

easybib.com to help you create

one with proper punctuation

Header in upper right

because it is the last page of

your paper