APA Research Writing

1. APA Research Writing English IV

2. Research writing • No matter what your subject of study, learning to identify and analyze the work of other researchers will play a major role in your development as a student. • The sorts of activities that constitute a research paper— discovering, assessing, and assimilating others’ research and then articulating your own ideas clearly and persuasively— are at the center of the educational experience. • the main purpose of doing research is not to summarize the work of others but to assimilate and to build on it and to arrive at your own understanding of the topic.

3. What are we doing today? dISSCUSSING Research Writing • differentiating between informal & formal writing • comparing Apa & MLA Formats • reviewing steps of research writing: Prewriting Phase 1 • Defining types of support • discussing how to identify Credible sources

4. Informal vs. Formal Writing • Essays are short works of nonfiction that focus on a single topic. • Essays are written to communicate ideas or opinions. • Informal (or personal) essays are conversational in tone and are written on any topic that the writer wishes to share with the audience, such as a personal experience or an entertaining opinion. • Formal essays are serious in tone, and their purpose is either to explain (expository writing) or to persuade (persuasive writing).

5. Research writing • During your school career you have probably written many personal essays that presented your thoughts, feelings, and opinions and that did not refer to any other source of information or ideas. • Some assignments, however, require us to go beyond our personal knowledge. • We undertake research when we wish to explore an idea, probe an issue, solve a problem, or make an argument in relation to what others have written. We then seek out and use materials beyond our personal knowledge. The outcome of such an inquiry can be a research paper.

6. Before you start your research, you must choose a writing format appropriate for your topic… Several writing styles are available, and some disciplines require specific formats. Style differences often include organization, punctuation, and how source information is listed within the essay and on the bibliography page.

7. Three of the most common writing formats include…

9. APA Format • There are two common types of papers written in fields using APA Style: the literature review and the experimental report. • A literature review typically contains the following sections: • Title page • Introduction section • List of references • Experimental Report follows the scientific method: • Why the topic is important (covered in your introduction) • What the problem is (also covered in your introduction) • What you did to try to solve the problem (covered in your methods section) • What you found (covered in your results section) • What you think your findings mean (covered in your discussion section)

10. Steps for Research Writing Prewriting: Getting Started • Step One: Clarify the essay prompt and requirements – identify the purpose & audience • Purpose: persuasive or expository? • Audience: teacher & classmates • Step Two: Choose a topic – preferably something that interests you • A good research paper topic is interesting and relevant to your audience • Be original but also aware of what support is available to meet the assignment requirements • Your audience wants to learn something as a result of reading your essay What habit would you like to create or change to improve your life over 30 days?

11. Steps for Research Writing • Step Three: Overview the topic by conducting initial research • Your initial research is to “get to know” your topic • be on the look-out for information that you can use as support in your essay • Look for credible sources • Write down the citation information for sources you may want to use or relocate later • You can also print sources or sections of a source if you think you will want to use the information in your essay. • Review the APA handout or visit the Purdue OWL website for additional citation information. Purdue Owl

12. Types of Research • The research paper is generally based on a combination of primary research and secondary research. • Primary researchis the study of a subject through firsthand investigation, such as analyzing a literary text or carrying out an experiment. • Either you experience the investigation firsthand or you cite someone who records their firsthand experience with the topic • Primary sources are contemporary accounts of an event, written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event in question. • diaries, letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and other such unpublished works • published pieces such as newspaper or magazine articles (as long as they are written soon after the fact and not as historical accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings, research reports in sciences, or original literary or theatrical works

13. Types of Research • Secondary researchis the examination of studies that other researchers have made of a subject. You examine what others who have not experienced the topic first-hand have discovered or say about the topic through their research. • The function of secondary research is to interpret primary sources, and so can be described as at least one step removed from the event or phenomenon under review. • Secondary source materials interpret, assign value to, conjecture upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. • These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may also include radio, television, or other media documentaries. • empirical researchis articles or books written by experts in your field of interest, whose work has been read and vouched for by other experts in the same field. These can be found in scientific journals or via an online search. • Most academic papers depend at least partly, if not mainly, on secondary researchas support for the writer’s claims.

14. What is Plagiarism? “…Taking and passing off as one’s own someone else’s work or ideas (from Latin plagiārius, kidnapper, literary thief).” ~ Macmillan Dictionary IN RESEARCH WRITING, ANY TIME YOU REFERENCE SOMEONE ELSE'S IDEA, cite it.