English 3

1. English 3 Welcome to Research

2. Writing to Inform: Formal Research • Purpose: Report information through research • Audience: classmates and teacher

3. Tone: serious, informational, and formal • Third-person point of view: you do NOT use the word I • Formal language: You do not include slang, colloquial expressions, or contractions (can’t, don’t, won’t…); you do not want to sound too casual. • Format: MLA

4. Selecting a Topic: • Great sources to help you brainstorm ideas of interest: • Family/friends, • heroes/important people, • places, • current events, • library and media.

5. Brainstorm ideas first. Your ideas may be very broad subjects, such as “great scientists” or “the American Civil War” or “African American literature.” • However, you have to NARROW the focus of that broad topic into a specific aspect of that subject that intrigues you and that can be covered in a composition. • Your constant challenge to yourself is this: Be more specific.

6. Gathering Sources: • Sources of Information. When you are writing to inform, you need to share accurate information.

7. Relevance of Information. • As you are gathering information, you may come up with all kinds of sources; but they are not all equally useful. • What you are looking for are RELEVANT (related and important) features or points that will add to or support your specific information.

8. Be sure you can find five or six good sources. All website sources must end in .org, .edu, .net, .gov, and any paper with wikipedia will be given back for revision. Also, you must include three from EBSCO. • NO wikipedia

9. Objectivity and Facts: • Your interest leads to a topic, but your experience is NOT the basis of a report. • You could write about how sonar detection of fish works, using credible sources to support, but you could not write about your fishing trips using the equipment. • This is not a personal response paper.

10. 4R’s • How to evaluate your sources: • Relevant: Does it relate directly to your topic? • Reliable: Can you trust it? Was it written by a scholar or a respected magazine?

11. 4R’s • Recent: Be sure you are not using outdated sources, because information on many topics rapidly changes. • Representative: IF you are working on a controversial topic, you will need to show different points of view. Study balance and interpret the views on all sides.

12. Primary and Secondary Sources: • Primary: firsthand, original information • Example: a letter or an autobiography • Secondary: information derived from, or about primary sources, and even other secondary sources • Example: biography, encyclopedia

13. Taking Notes. • The first step is to ask general questions. You will need ALL the source information to complete a works cited page. If you take notes from ANY source, make sure you know exactly where you got it.

14. MLA Work Cited Page

15. In-text Citations- crediting the source • Direct quotations, Summaries and Paraphrases • ALL of the above must be properly cited; credit must be given for borrowed words or ideas. When in doubt, ALWAYS cite to eliminate the risk of plagiarism.

16. Developing a four-point, specific thesis statement. The thesis is the main ideas that you will be sharing; it is like the topic sentence for your entire essay. • Everything in your following paragraphs must relate back to and support your thesis. This will help both the writer and the reader to follow the organization of the essay. • You should have a general idea of a thesis once you research and take notes. However, this is a working thesis, meaning that it can and probably will change as you continue to write your paper.

17. Generic example for an informative compare/contrast essay: Dogs and wolves are close relatives, but dogs assist human beings more than wolves do by serving as pets, as work animals, as protectors, and as healing treatments.

18. Each one of the four body paragraphs will discuss these four points in great, supported detail. • Body Paragraphs: • Topic sentence/Main idea (that relates back to your thesis) • Supporting detail (relates to the topic sentence) • Supporting detail (relates to the topic sentence) • Supporting detail (relates to the topic sentence) • Explanation • Conclude

19. Double-check • (Did you include at least one relevant and reliable citation in MLA?) • (Did you include transitions to help your sentences flow?) • (Did you indent the first word?) • (Proof your paragraph for punctuation and spelling errors.)

20. Basic Example: Disunity in a paragraph • Beavers build a special home called a lodge. They use trees to build their lodges. Beavers use their sharp teeth to cut down small trees. They cut off branches and carry trunks to the stream. Beavers have babies in the spring. They stack the trunks and branches into a big pile. They make the door to the lodge under the water. Beavers are excellent builders.

21. Generic Example: • HELPFUL HINTS: Sometimes it helps to develop main ideas through examples, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, definition and explanation. • Subject: Dinosaurs • Paragraph: Through definition and Explanation • Define what a reptile is and explain why most dinosaurs fit into the reptile category.

22. Paragraph: Through examples: • Describe different kinds of dinosaurs. • Paragraph: Through comparison and contrast: • Tell how the dinosaurs’ environment was different from our own today. • Paragraph: Through Cause and Effect • Tell what may have caused dinosaurs to become extinct.

23. Some transitions for each: • Through definition and Explanation: • Is/are • As an example • Also • First, next, then, finally • Through examples: • For example • For instance • In addition • Also

24. Through comparison and contrast: • However • Instead • On the other hand • Also • Likewise Through Cause and Effect: • So • Because • As a result • For this reason • Due to

25. Brainstorming as a class: • Broad topic: MUSIC (first, get general ideas)

26. Groups • Group by rows • Read the list for your number • Choose ONE topic from the list • Brainstorm any associations for five minutes