Research Paper Guidelines
Because research papers can be overwhelming, we are going to break the paper down into small,
simple steps. This will make your paper seem much less intimidating. The steps really are easy,
and the ones you will learn now are the exact steps that every college student should be using. I
say should because many of them formed bad research habits that are extremely difficult to
break. Learn the correct way the first time, and you'll be set for life.
These are the eleven steps that we will (and that you should always) follow:
I. Choose a Topic
You will probably have some sort of idea, but most likely, your idea will need refining. You will
have to make sure that material on your topic will be available to you. Also, if your topic is too
wide, it will be impossible to read and take notes on all the information you find. Narrow your
topic so that the amount of material will be manageable. For example, if you research the Tower
of London, there would be enough information to write an entire book. You are just writing one
paper.
It will be up to you to come up with an angle for your paper. You have a topic, but you have to
make a point. You need to compare your topic to something modern. Is it like our prison
system? Did anything like the Tower of London exist here? Is there anything like it now?
Note: The most important thing to keep in mind when you are choosing a topic is to find one
that interests you. If it is boring to you, it will be boring to your reader. You will hate the
research process, and it will show. If you enjoy what you are learning, you will do a job that you
can be proud of.
II. Locating Sources
Most of your sources will be found in the library. However, you should keep in mind that you
are certainly not limited to the library. You may use interviews, videotapes, audiotapes, the
Internet, etc. For each source that you find, you will make a bibliography card on small index
cards. I suggest 3" X 5" cards. The cards will vary slightly depending upon the type of sources
that you use. For example, your book cards will be written a little differently than your
newspaper cards. You will need to put several pieces of information on your cards including:
A. the author's name
B. the title
C. publication information (place, publisher, year, etc.)
Much of the time, the hardest part is figuring out what type of source you have. For example,
your textbook is an anthology. Make sure you are looking at the right type before you write your
card. Also, be careful with electronic publications such as websites. They are tricky.
YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT USE WIKIPEDIA.COM! No World Book either. You can
read these sources to get yourself more informed on your topic, but you may not use these as
sources in your paper.
This is what a card for a book should look like:
3
3
Lindsay, Matthew. The Tower of London: Murder,
Mystery, and Mayhem. Boston: Land Shark
Press, 2002. Print.
The source number (3) on this card means that this is the third source you have found that may be
useful for your paper. You will later use this number on all notes that you take from this
particular book. That way, you do not waste time writing down the same information every time
you write down facts or a quote from the book. You must remember exactly where you obtained
all of your information. This will save you a lot of heartache later on.
The publication information will be useful to you when you make your Works Cited page at the
end of your paper. The information on this page will be written exactly as it is written on your
card. Since you will already have it, you will not need to go back to recheck you sources. This is
a big timesaver.
You will find information on the format for the different types of sources at the end of this
packet. You can also use sites like www.citationmachine.net and www.easybib.com to help.
You may find the required number of sources early in the process, but this does not mean that
you should stop looking. You may find that some of your acquired sources are not as good as
you hoped, and really good ones may still be out there.
III. Note Cards
After you have located your sources, you will begin to make note cards. You will have four
pieces of information on your note cards. You will have the source number, the page number(s),
a subject heading, and the actual note. You should use a bigger card because you will write more
information on these. A different size card will also help you keep your bibliography cards
separated from your note cards.
You will have three basic types of notes. These are direct quotations, summaries, and
paraphrases. A direct quotation, obviously, is the exact words of the author enclosed in quotation
marks. A summary is a brief description of what you have read. A paraphrase is the information
written in your own words.
If you were writing a paper on the Tower of London, you could write the notes in any of the three
ways as follows:
Direct quotation – “Over its thousand-year history the Tower stood as a symbol of the English
monarchy and served as both a palace and a prison.”
Summary – The Tower of London has imprisoned many historical figures including royalty.
Paraphrase – Throughout history, the people who have lived and died in the Tower of London
include the royal and common, good and bad, heroes and villains. Queen Elizabeth I was
imprisoned in there by her sister “Bloody Mary.” Elizabeth’s friend Sir Walter Raleigh was also
imprisoned in the Tower of London. Stories of other historical figures such as Anne Boleyn,
James I, the Princes in the Tower, Jane Grey, Guy Fawkes, Colonel Blood and Rudolf Hess…etc.
The paraphrase would be much longer that the summary if I'd kept going because it was every
action in my own words. Still, you get the same information. It just depends on how much detail
you want to go into.
A good rule of thumb is to only use quotations when putting the idea into your own words will
dramatically take away from the author's idea.
Use a subject heading at the beginning of your note cards so that you will be able to quickly
determine the topic of each card later. For example, you could title all three of the above notes as
something like "The Suicide Scene" because they all deal with the suicides of the main
characters. When you write your first draft of the paper, all of the cards with the same topic can
be grouped together.
Here is what a typical note card will look like:
6
Lady Jane Grey
She was queen for only nine days. She resided
in
the Tower of London and never left again
before
her execution.
78
Be careful not to plagiarize while taking notes. To plagiarize is when you pass someone else's ideas
off as your own or when you fail to give the person credit for what he or she has written. If you copy
someone's words exactly, use quotation marks. If you use paraphrase or summarize someone's ideas,
give them credit by using correct documentation.
WRITE PAGE NUMBERS ON YOUR CARDS AS YOU GO! If you don’t, you have to go
through every book, journal, etc. to find those page numbers. Do it the first time so that you don’t
lose time and points.
IV. Working Outline
You should already have headings on you note cards. With those already done, making a working
outline should be a breeze! It's just a matter of organization. Put your topics and ideas into a logical
sequence. Start with major topics. Next, break these down into smaller topics. This will be your
map or blueprint for your paper. Think of it as your GPS. It tells you where to go.
Here is an example of the beginnings of a working outline for a paper on who is to blame for the
Tower of London:
I.
Architecture
A. William the Conqueror
B. Structure
1. Different Towers
2. Different Wards
a. Innermost Ward
b. Inner Ward
c. Outer Ward
If you have good notes for each of these headings, all you need to do is copy down the information
onto you paper for your rough draft. You may not use some cards at all, and you may find other
areas needing more research.
Remember that if you have a I, you must have a II. If you have an A, you must have a B. (etc.)
Also, if you start with phrases, stick to phrases; if you use complete sentences, stick to complete
sentences.
V. Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is the main point of your paper. If you could sum up the entire paper in just one
sentence, that would be your thesis. You need to take a stand or state an opinion. Be bold. Tell
what you think. Don’t be wimpy.
Examples of good thesis statements:
 Prison systems in the United States seem quite agreeable when compared to that of the Tower
of London during Medieval and Elizabethan England.

Unlike prison systems of today, the Tower of London had a sense of beauty in addition to the
horrors.
These are statements that you can prove. You make a point and then give evidence to support what
you say. We are long past the days of simply listing information. This is not a book report. YOU
MUST HAVE AN IDEA! People rarely ask for your opinion in life. Take advantage of writing
what you think.
Example of a bad thesis statement:
 The Tower of London is a historic structure in London, England.
This is a fact. You are not taking a stand, and it will not matter what you have to say. The fact will
be the same. You are not sharing any of your ideas or anything new.
Don't worry if you feel like your thesis statement needs to change. Often, the thesis is the last part of
the paper to be perfected. Just come up with a "working thesis," and if you later feel like your paper
is taking a different direction, change the thesis to fit. It happens all the time. It's not written in
stone.
VI. Introduction
Your introduction lets your reader know the topic of your paper. Don't go into detail. Just briefly
mention the main topics (use your outline) that you will be discussing. Your thesis statement can be
your very first sentence, but it doesn't have to be. However, it should be somewhere near the
beginning of your paper.
VII. Rough Draft
If you have done a good and careful job up to this point, your rough draft should be a piece of cake.
Copy your notes to form a logical and organized paper while interjecting your own thoughts. Your
outline will help here. Typing and saving your rough draft on a computer is a good idea. You can
print it out to proofread and only have to write or type the entire paper once. It's easy to just go back
and make necessary changes.
Whenever you use a direct quotation, something that is not common knowledge, or something that is
not your own idea, you will use parenthetical documentation. You will put the author's name and
the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence with a period after the parentheses. This is
where those page numbers on note cards really come in handy.
Examples:
 Some say that the ghost of Henry VIII’s beheaded bride, Anne Boleyn haunts the Tower of
London. She is said to walk around the White Tower carrying her head under her arm (Lindsay
44).
 The site immediately became a major tourist attraction, and in 1866 it was surrounded by
railings and marked with a plaque (Sax 6).
The following would be considered common knowledge and would not need to be documented:
 The Tower of London is quite an old structure.
Most people already know this. Documentation would not be necessary.
If you are using direct quotations, make sure you follow the rules of documentation. For example, if
a quote would take up more than four typed lines, you should indent ten spaces one inch on each
margin. If you leave out part of the quote, use must use ellipses points (. . .) to take the place of the
omitted words. You must also be very careful to put the periods in the correct place when you end a
quotation. There are too many rules to list here, but I will give you examples later and will help with
any problems that you cannot figure out on your own. Just ask.
Long quotations
If your quotation runs longer than four lines, you should use set it off by indenting 10 spaces on each
line. Do not use quotation marks. The period would come BEFORE the parentheses when you do
this instead of after. Don’t use long quotations just to take up space. It will be very obvious. If the
quotation is not strengthening your paper, don’t use it.
Be very careful about plagiarism while writing your rough draft! Direct quotations are NOT
the only instances in which you should document!
Documenting Sources in the Text
Parenthetical or in-text references to print publications usually include the author's last name and the
page number of the reference. Often, for electronic sources, some or all of these elements may be
missing. Thus, parenthetical references to electronic sources will usually include only an author's last
name or, if no author's name is available, the file name.
VIII. Conclusion
Your conclusion should remind your reader of the point that you are making (your thesis). If you
simply restate the thesis, you should be fine. Give any final thoughts that you may have to conclude
your paper.
IX. Works Cited
A Works Cited page is an alphabetical list of the sources that you cited. You may have some
bibliography cards or some note cards that did not make it into your paper. Do not list these sources.
List only those used in your paper.
X. Final Typed Draft
Your final draft will be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins like the following
example. Use 12-point font in Times New Roman. Be sure to include your works cited page.
Finch 1
Jean L. Finch
Ms. Weaver
English IV CP
22 August 2010
Conditions of the Tower of London
The Tower of London is a historic structure in London, England. Prison systems in
the United States seem quite agreeable when compared to that of the Tower of London
during Medieval and Elizabethan England.
Notice that there is no title page. All pertinent information is on the first page. Your last name
and the page number will be listed at the top of each page. The title is centered and is not written
in bold nor is it underlined or in quotation marks. Everything is double-spaced.
On each of the following pages, you will type your name and the page number at the top and then
continue with your paper.
Finch 6
Lady Jane Grey was queen for just a little over a week. She resided in the Tower of
London and never returned to the outside world again before her execution in 1553. She
was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII and Mary. Lady Jane Grey was considered to
You will also number and double-space your Works Cited page. Remember that this page does
not count as one of the pages of your paper. Type the words (no quotation marks, underlining,
italics or bold) at the top center:
Finch 8
Works Cited
Lindsay, Matthew. Chaos in the Tower: Beauty, Beheading, and Betrayal. New York:
Vandelay Industries Publishing, 2008. Print.
Williams, Laura. Lady Jane Grey: Queen of Nine Days. Madison, NJ: Chupp House,
2006. Print.
XI. Final Points
Keep in mind that this is a formal paper. Follow all rules that this entails. (Underling titles of
plays and novels, putting quotation marks around stories and poems, correct grammar, spelling,
and mechanics, no contractions, no slang, etc.) Be sure that you follow all guidelines for
margins, font, etc., and proofread carefully
If you followed each step carefully, RELAX!!!! You did a great job while forming wonderful
research habits. I promise that this will get easier every time you do it.