The Research Paper

1. The Research Paper Following the MLA Guidelines Many thanks to Diana Hacker, The Purdue Online Writing Lab, and Stacey Miller! Your work has contributed greatly to this culmination of research writing instruction and support.

2. Focus • For this essay you should be answering a bigger question, not just reporting on a topic: • Why should your person be considered a National Treasure? • Avoid simply reporting information • You need analysis, too– lots of analysis!

3. MLA • You must follow the MLA formatting guidelines for this assignment • Here are two useful websites for help with all things MLA: OWL MLA Diana Hacker MLA

4. Plagiarism • Your research paper is a collaboration between you and your sources. To be fair and ethical, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of these sources. If you don’t, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious academic offense. • Three different acts are considered plagiarism: • Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks • Failing to cite quotations and/or specific facts and ideas • Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words, with your own style and structure. • Here’s a useful website for help with avoiding plagiarism: OWL plagiarism Penalties for plagiarism for this class include the following: a zero on the assignment, no option to redo assignment, and a referral.

5. Paraphrasing • To paraphrase, you restate an author’s ideas in your own words and style. • When you paraphrase, remember the following points: • You must alter the style and wording of the original material. You can’t just insert a few synonyms. • You should not alter the meaning of the original material in any way. • Here’s a useful website for help with paraphrasing: OWL paraphrasing

6. Quoting • Integrate quotations smoothly enough for readers to move from your words to the words of a source without feeling a jolt. Avoid dropping quotations into the text without warning; instead, provide clear signal phrases, sometimes including the author's name to prepare readers for the quotation. • Dropped Quotation: (bad) Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species, its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. "The bald eagle seems to have stabilized its population, at the very least, almost everywhere" (Sheppard 96). • Quotation with Signal Phrase: (good) Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species, its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. According to ornithologist Jay Sheppard, "The bald eagle seems to have stabilized its population, at the very least, almost everywhere" (96). [notice you do not use last name in citation – you've already informed readers who the quote is coming from, so there's no need to include that in the citation]

7. Splicing quotes • It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a source's sentence into your own sentence structure: • Brian Millsap claims that the banning of DDT in 1972 was "the major turning point" leading to the eagles' comeback (2). • The ultrasonography machine takes approximately 250 views of each wing, step by step. Mary Spletter likens the process to "examining an entire loaf of bread, one slice at a time" (40).

8. Modifying quotes • Brackets (square parentheses) allow you to insert words of your own into quoted material. You can insert words in brackets to explain a confusing reference or to keep a sentence grammatical in your context. • Example: Robert Seyfarth reports that "Premarck [a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania] taught a seven-year-old chimpanzee, Sarah, that the word for 'apple' was a small, plastic triangle" (15).

9. Block Quotes • When you quote more than four typed lines (which you should rarely do), set off the quotation by indenting it ten spaces from the left margin. Use the normal right margin and do not single-space. Long quotations should be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon. Quotation marks are unnecessary, because the indented format tells readers that the words are taken directly from the source. • Example: Desmond describes how Washoe tried signing to the other apes when the zookeepers returned her to an ape colony in Oklahoma: On one particularly memorable day, a snake spread terror through the castaways on the ape island, and all but one fled in panic. This male sat absorbed, staring intently at the serpent. He seemed completely fixated on the curious sight, and hadn’t noticed the other apes running away. Eventually he looked up and noticed that he was the only remaining ape in the area which didn’t appear to concern him. Then Washoe was seen running over signing to him. (42)

10. Citing Sources • In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your sources by making brief parenthetical citations in your text. These are called in-text citations or parenthetical references • Your in-text citations correspond with an alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of the paper. This list is called a Works Cited

11. In-Text Citations • Every time you quote or state a specific fact or idea that is not common knowledge, you must cite your source. This happens on a sentence-by-sentence basis. • In-text citations are made with a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references. • A signal phrase indicates that something taken from a source (a quotation, summary, paraphrase, or fact) is about to be used; usually the signal phrase includes the author's name or perhaps the title of the source. • The parenthetical reference, which comes after the cited material at the end of the sentence, usually includes the author’s last name (and a page number, if you know the page), or if you don’t know the author, then you should use the title of the article/section, or name of the sponsoring organization. • What you include in the parenthetical reference will depend on what you include in your signal phrase and your source. • Through your signal phrase or parenthetical reference, you must direct the reader to the source listed on your works cited page and you do so by providing the first part of the entry. • If you have to use the source’s title because you don’t know the author, you can write a shortened form of the title in your parenthetical reference.

12. In-Text Citation help • Here are some useful websites for help with your in-text citations (there are good samples here too): OWL In-Text Citations (basic) Diana Hacker In-Text Citations

13. A few more things about in-text citations • Everything that you cite in the body of your essay must correspond to your list of sources (Works Cited) at the end of the paper • You need to cite your source after every sentence of quoted or paraphrased material with specific facts/ideas. • There are two exceptions to the sentence-by sentence citation rule: 1. block quotes 2. what I call the “sandwich” method. • The sandwich method???? As long as you mention the author or the title of the source in your signal phrase first, then you can write two sentences of quoted or paraphrased material and end with the parenthetical reference. • Here’s what it looks like: According to Judy Stagnaro, only twenty two percent of students know how to use MLA format properly. That number is significantly lower in Sophomore classes (42).

14. Works Cited • This is the list of works that you actually cited in your essay • If it wasn’t cited in your essay, it doesn’t belong on this page! The Format • Begin the list of works cited on a new page at the end of the paper. • Continue to use your header and maintain your one inch margins. • Center the title Works Cited about one inch from the top of the page. • Double-space throughout. • Alphabetize the list by the last names of the authors (or editors); if a work has no author or editor, alphabetize by the first word of the title other than A, An, or The. If you don’t know the title, use the name of the sponsoring organization. • Do not indent the first line of each works cited entry, but indent any additional lines one-half inch (or five spaces). This technique highlights the names of the authors, making it easy for readers to scan the alphabetized list. I call this “reverse indentation.” • I do not require that you include the URL’s, so don’t worry about them.

15. Sample Works Cited Page • Here is a website with an excellent example of a Works Cited page: OWL sample WC

16. What is included on the Works Cited Page? • Because every source is different, it’s difficult to know exactly what information or data is required for each entry. • For online sources, this is the sequence of what you need: • Author. (last name, first name) • “Title of article or short work.” (notice the quotes) • Title of Site. (notice the italics) • Publisher or Sponsor, • Date created or updated. • Medium. (this means web) • Date you accessed the site. • If you don’t have a piece of information (because it wasn’t provided), you simply can’t include it. • The most recent version of MLA asks you to write n.p. for no publisher and n.d. for no date.

17. Works Cited Help • Here are some websites to help you with your Works Cited entries: OWL WC Basic Diana Hacker WC Entries Easy Bib

18. More helpful stuff Diana Hacker OWL • These are among the most helpful websites when it comes to MLA format and the research paper, and I’ve included links to specific pages by topic throughout this PowerPoint. • I highly recommend that you refer to these sites in their entirety as you work on your research paper and encounter your own individual challenges.

19. MLA Essay Samples • Here are some examples of properly formatted essays: Diana Hacker Sample OWL Sample

20. turnitin.com • One of your last steps is to submit your paper to turnitin.com • Once you have electronically submitted your paper, you’ll need to note the paper id number (it’s like a receipt number) and write it on your grading rubric. • Without completing this step, I will not accept your essay!