CALENDAR FOR THE HONORS GRADUATION PROJECT RESEARCH PAPER
DUE Oct. 3
Outline Skeleton with Thesis (via Noodle Tools)
DUE Oct. 6
7 potential sources in correct MLA Format (Via Noodle Tools)
DUE Oct. 13
AT LEAST 30 Notecards (Via Noodle Tools)
DUE Oct. 24
COMPLETE RESEARCH PAPER ROUGH DRAFT (This included outline, paper, and
works cited page)
Do not print out! Bring in an electronic copy or pull up on Google docs
GUIDELINES FOR THE GRADUATION PROJECT RESEARCH PAPER (30% of 2nd Quarter Grade)
The research based paper can be constructed from any genre, including but not limited to
• Compare and Contrast
• Cause and Effect
• Argumentative (Persuasive)
• Critical Review
• Analytical
****The paper cannot be a how-to paper.
****The paper must include original insight from you, the author.
RESEARCH PAPER REQUIREMENTS
1. Length
• 6-7 pages of text
• A works cited page
• Appendix (if needed – for illustrations, charts, reference tables)
• No visuals may appear within the written text
2. Format
• MLA style
• Each paper must cite a minimum of 6 different sources. (2 print, 2 electronic, 2 other)
• Encyclopedias and other general resources are not acceptable and you should not rely solely
on online sources.
• Typed in professional 12 point font (ONLY Times New Roman)
3. Preliminary materials
• Bibliography cards and note cards
• Thesis and outline
• Rough draft with parenthetical documentation and thesis statement in boldface.
4. Final Draft
• Outline
• Paper with parenthetical documentation
• Appendix with charts or graphs
• Works Cited Page
SKELETON OUTLINE
THESIS: ______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
I.
Introduction
A. Attention grabber – what will you say to get the reader’s attention? You can begin with a
startling fact, an anecdote (brief story), an analogy (comparison), etc. DO NOT BEGIN WITH A
QUESTION!!!!!
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
B. State your thesis: ___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
II.
Point one (first reason your thesis is correct): ________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
A. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
B. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
C.
III.
Evidence: _________________________________________________________
Point two (second reason your thesis is correct): _____________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
A. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
B. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
C.
IV.
Evidence: _________________________________________________________
Point three (third reason your thesis is correct): ______________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
A. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
B. Evidence: _________________________________________________________
C.
V.
Evidence: _________________________________________________________
Conclusion (leave blank for now)
RESEARCH PAPER OUTLINE
The basic research paper has three parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion
1. Introduction
 Contains background information on your topic
 Use an introductory strategy
 Broad at beginning
 Narrows to thesis at end
 1 paragraph
2. Body
 Paragraphs which support a part of your thesis
 One part of the thesis will have multiple paragraphs
 Contain a topic sentence
 Follow a logical progression
3. Conclusion
 Reasserts your thesis
 Hints at future action
 Ties everything up
However, before you can write your paper, you have to have a tentative outline to get started.
To develop an outline, you need to identify the main categories. These come from your thesis statement!
Then you must Create Subcategories.
Thesis: Television violence devalues the importance of developing healthy relationships.
I.
Healthy relationships at home are devalued by television.
A. Parents
B. Sibling
C. Pets
II.
Healthy relationships at school are devalued by television.
A. Classmates
B. Teachers
C. Administrators
III.
Healthy relationships at play are devalued by television.
A. Friends
B. Recreational Activities
C. Sporting events
IV.
Healthy relationships at work are devalued by television.
A. Co-workers
B. Supervisors
C. Competition
Topics and
subtopics will
become the labels
on your note
cards.
BIBLIOGRAHPY CARDS AND NOTE CARDS
Steps to create a bibliography and note card:
1. Go to www.easybib.com, www.citationmaker.com (found on NCWISE OWL),
or www.citationmachine.net and create a bibliography
for your source.
2. Bibliography Cards
a. At the top of an index card, write Source #.
b. Write the bibliography entry on the index card.
Source #3
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Vintage, 1996.
Student's First Name Last Name
Teacher's Name
Course Name
Month Date, Year
An Adaptation of MLA Style
Use only white, eight and one-half by eleven-inch paper. The MLA heading takes the
place of a title page. Begin one inch from the top of the first page and flush with the left margin.
Type the heading information (see top left of this page), double spacing between each line. For
last name and page numbers on the upper right of each page, leave a one-half inch margin at the
top and a one-inch margin at the right side. Space once between last name and page number.
Do not abbreviate "p." before a page number or add a period, hyphen, or any other symbol.
Also, leave a one-inch margin at the bottom and left side of each page. Indent the first word of
each paragraph five spaces from the left margin. Double space the paper throughout, including
quotations, notes, and the list of works cited. Double-space between the heading and the title and
center the title. Do not underline your title or place it in quotation marks or type it in all capital
letters. If the title of the paper is more than one line long, double-space between its lines.
When writing a paper for which the student has researched and used others' ideas, the student
must give these "others" credit by both citing which ideas have come from others in parenthetical
documentations and by providing at the end of the paper, a Works Cited, or Bibliography, page
which lists all sources the student has used. Failure to provide both is considered plagiarism,
which results in a failing grade of a 0 for the student. For documenting quotations and ideas from
others, the author's last name and a page reference are usually enough to identify the source and
the specific location from which material is borrowed. Note this example: Ancient writers
attributed the invention of the monochord to Pythagoras (Marcuse 197). If the material is a
Last Name page #
quotation from the source, note this example: The Ibo show their
understanding of the importance of networking in their proverb, "A man who pays respect to the
great paves the way for his own greatness" (Achebe 22).
A citation at the end of a paraphrased sentence generally applies to material that precedes
that sentence from the last citation or from the beginning of the paragraph in which the citation
appears. To avoid interrupting the flow of writing, place the parenthetical reference where a
pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as near as possible to the
material the reference documents. To quote lines of poetry that are not set off from the text, place
a slash (/) where each line ends in the original text, skipping a space before and after the slash.
If the quotation is more than four typed lines, indent each line five spaces from the left margin,
and double-space the lines. For these longer quotations, omit quotation marks, immediately
follow the quotation with a period, and add the author and page number inside parentheses, but
do not place a period after the closing parenthesis. For example, read the following five-line
quotation:
Looping is generally defined as a teacher remaining with a group of students for more
than one year. This practice is quite common in the elementary schools of the United
States, and it greatly benefits the students and teachers.
Because the teacher-pupil relationship has time to develop over a two-year time period,
academic achievement tends to be greater. (Queen 61)
To omit words from a quotation, use an ellipsis ( . . . ), spacing before/after each ellipsis point, as
in the quotation above.
Alphabetize
Centered, no quotes or underlining
Works Cited
"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund. Environmental
Defense Fund, 8 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.
Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” New York Times. New
York Times, May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.
Hang Indent
Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times. New York Times, 22
May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.
Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth, dir. Davis Guggenheim.
Rogerebert.com. Sun-Times News Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.
GlobalWarming.org. Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.
Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-organized Extinction: Toward a Co-evolutionary Economics of
Sustainability." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.1
(2007): 27-36. Print.
An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore, Billy West. Paramount, 2006. DVD.
Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New York:
Springer, 2005. Print.
Nordhaus, William D. "After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming."
American Economic Review 96.2 (2006): 31-34. Print.
---. "Global Warming Economics." Science 9 Nov. 2001: 1283-84. Science Online. Web. 24 May
2009.
No numbers in front of the
bibliography entries