American Literature Honors:
Research Paper
Final Exam: Due Before or On May 19
Step One: Brainstorming
A. Choose a topic in which you are sincerely interested.
1. In order to do this, begin by taking out a piece of paper. Fold the paper in half,
like a “hamburger”.
2. On that paper list everything in which you are interested in learning for the next
two weeks. **Write down whatever comes to mind.
3. In the bottom half of the paper, group all the similar topics together in circles or
boxes. Choose the group that has the most ideas.
4. Think of a general word for these ideas. This is your topic.
Step Two: Organizing
B. Narrow the topic to a very specific idea.
1. From the group of ideas that you brainstormed, choose the most specific idea.
2. Put that idea on the back of your paper, somewhere in the middle.
3. Draw a circle or oval around it.
4. Draw three circles, spaced out, over the top of the middle circle.
5. Draw three circles, spaced out, below the bottom of the middle circle.
6. Fill in the circles with ideas about which you can research that come from your topic.
Step Three: Synthesizing
C. State the tentative objective (thesis).
1. Write the purpose of the paper in one sentence.
2. This sentence should answer one of the following questions:
a. What idea is going to be proven?
b. What ideas are going to be researched and for what purpose?
3. The thesis should be the guiding statement for the entire paper.
Step Four: Gather Information
D. Form a preliminary bibliography.
1. This is the list of resources that you will turn in with your paper.
2. You will only turn in the actual list of sources that you put into the paper.
3. In order to have good information, you should only use reliable sources on your
topic.
4. Make a list of 15 possible resources to use.
5. As you proceed, take out the resources that are not necessary because they not
match your thesis.
Step Five: Prepare a Working Outline
E. Outline
Topic
Thesis:
I. Introduction A. Hook
B. General Discussion of the Topic
C. Thesis
II. Body 1(Skip lines as needed)
III. Body 2 (Skip lines as needed)
IV. Body 3 (Skip lines as needed)
V. Conclusion
Step Six: Documentation
F. Start Taking Notes
1. As you read the articles/books/web pages, copy, with quotations,
information about your topic. Paraphrase ideas so that you will practice
writing ideas in your own words.
2. For each part on which you take notes, label that place on your
paper/notecard with the website/book/magazine with the page number,
author, and date which you accessed the information.
Step Seven: More
Organization
G. Outline the Actual Paper
1. This is where you start to place the information you want to discuss.
2. Use the Working Outline and insert quotations, page numbers, and
paraphrases in the appropriate paragraphs/sections.
3. Write your rough intro and conclusion on this so you can edit as it
becomes necessary.
4. Begin to expand ideas into sentences
Step Eight: Writing
H. Write your rough draft.
1. Begin by copying your intro onto a separate piece of paper.
2. Start body paragraph #1 with a topic sentence that lets the reader know your first
idea of discussion/piece of research.
3. The next sentences are a combination of idea/questions, research/answer, and
summations/conclusions.
4. For each combination, you should have quotations or paraphrases that support
exactly what you are discussing in the paragraph. These must have the proper
citation so that you are not guilty of plagiarism.
5. After each piece of evidence, you should then further explain, or draw conclusions,
regarding the evidence/support/research.
6. Write a concluding paragraph that mirrors the introduction.
Step Nine: Rough Draft DUE!
I. Due Date:
Friday, May 16, 2014!!!
Letter grade off for each
day it is NOT turned in.
***You are not finished at this point. I will grade them over the weekend and return
them with your necessary corrections so that you can fix them. They are due in
final draft form on the day of the exam.