1.
Determine what kind of research paper you will be writing. Will your paper be primarity informative (informational overview) OR is it argumentative in nature? Frequently, your paper is not one or the other, but a combination. What is the ratio between the two
(informational overview and argumentation)?
Summary of Info. l Argumentative
2.
Avoid a cut and paste job by citing from more than one source in each body paragraph.
Effective:
A,D
Avoid:
A
B,D,E C
3.
The topic sentence and concluding sentence of each body paragraph should be your own. Do not start or end with a quotation or direct paraphrase.
4.
As with all expository papers, each body paragraph should have its own focus, not repeated elsewhere in the paper.
5.
The first time you introduce a source, include the title and author of the source in the signal phrase leading up to the quotation. Thereafter, introduce the source with the authors’ last name. If the source has no author (careful!!!), use the title. If it’s a long internet title, use an abbreviated version of it. See examples in citation section below.
6.
It is up to you, the writer, to make clear when you are switiching from one source to the next.
7.
It is up to you, the author, to make clear when a paraphrase starts and ends. Therefore, introduce your paraphrases when possible.
Kunkel/Engl 7

8.
NEVER directly quote someone without using quotation marks.
9.
Cite paraphrases the same way you do direct quotes.
Direct Quotes:
The standard: In his article “What is High School,” Theodore Sizer argues that our current high school system of “taking subjects” does not fit the goals of education set by the state. He writes, “We must abolish general education requirements and instead offer students flexibility in the courses they take” (135).
Embedded Quote: Ung’s father describes the Khmer Rouge as “destroyers of life and family” who cared nothing for the people (Loung 100).
Combo: In Land Mines in Cambodia, Jane Smith writes that “three million land mines are still buried in the Cambodian countryside” (45). She goes on to argue, “Land mines…………………………………” (46).
Paraphrases:
In “School is Bad for Children” John Holt argues that compulsory attendance be abolished since a child who does not want to be in school will not learn (45).
Estimates of the number of landmines left over from the war in Cambodia range between three to five million (Smith 45).
Variations (no author/page #)
Lol Nol lost popularity when he permitted the Americans to build army bases in Cambodia
(“Killing Fields”).
According to “Landmines in Cambodia,” three million landmines remain leftover from the
Cambodian civil war.
Another educational theorist claims that children are ready for adulthood at age 16 since they are physically mature by then (“Let Them Try Adulthood” 56).
Three million landmines are left in Cambodia from the war (“Land Mines”).
Kunkel/Engl 7