Surviving the Research Paper
A Guide and Study Manuel
Fear and Loathing
It is with great fear that students come to the research paper.
And with much loathing do they leave it. But leave it, we
hope, better writers.
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here…”
--Dante, Inscription at the gates of Hell
 What am I going to do?
 Not a simple history or book report (“Important Rivers of
Africa”)
 Not merely an argumentative essay where you are objective,
and present critical judgments in a formal argument (“An
Interpretation of Women in Shakespeare’s King Lear”).
 Next level of analysis:
 Read a primary text (Catcher in the Rye) and manage textual
support from it to defend a critical judgment about it BUT
ALSO present secondary material, that is, commentary and
analysis written by other scholars.
Three Criteria to Keep in Mind
Personal Interest: Seek out a topic that appeals to you.
Become an “authority.” Live it! Own it!
2. Appropriateness: Make sure your topic has depth to it and
there’s sufficient secondary material to back up claim.
3. Uniqueness: Choose “road less traveled.”
1.
The Topic
 What aspect of the text is worthy of your time and effort?
 Several places to look for topic –
 Your Interests: What situations, characters, problems, settings, and images
catch your eye. What about book appeals to your own experience?
 The Primary Source: What problems arise in the text? Symbols, metaphors,
structure, etc.
 Preliminary Research: Sometimes, in research, a topic is found…
Standard Categories
of Literary Research
 Character study:
 Symbolic/image study: figurative language? How used? Why?
 Thematic study: What is theme? Could it form basis of study?
 Setting study: Does setting play a major role in advancing
significance of work?
 Narrative technique study: Describe and discuss narrative
structure.
 After all that:
 You should be able to narrow down topic to manageable size.
i.e. a paper on Dante’s Inferno may be reduced to a study of
Dante’s criticism of the corruption of the Church. On
Gatsby, a paper on the corruption of the American Dream.
The Working Bibliography
 A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals,
websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a
topic. A bibliography includes the bibliographic information
(i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).
 ASAP – begin compiling a working bibliography – a list of
references that may provide information about your topic.
 Go to library. See indexes of reference books. Use the
Internet (smartly) (more on use of internet later)…
What to Look For
 What is suitable?
 Be aware that some sources will ultimately not be used.
Some will be more helpful than others.
 The following kinds of sources are listed in order of
descending importance; that is, the first one would probably
yield the most information, while the last one would
probably be least helpful:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A book or essay on primary source about topic or possibly
related topic.
A book or essay on author about your topic or a possibly
related topic.
A book or essay your author’s period about your topic or
related.
A general study of primary source.
A general critical study of your author.
A study of the life and works of your author (a critical
biography).
NOT SUITABLE: a biography of your author!
The Annotated Biography
 An annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each
of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations
may do one or more of the following:
1.
2.
3.
Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the
main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are
covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you
say?
Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a
useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography?
Is the information reliable?
Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask
how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it
help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research
project? Your annotated bibliography may include some of these, all of these,
or even others.
Why should I write
an annotated bibliography?
 To learn about your topic: Writing annotated bibliography is
excellent preparation project. Just collecting sources for a
bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for
each source, forced to read each source more carefully.You begin
to read more critically instead of just collecting information.
 To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an
argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis.
So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is
debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated
bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being
said about your topic. By reading and responding to a variety of
sources on a topic, you'll start to see what the issues are, what
people are arguing about, and you'll then be able to develop your
own point of view.
Format
 The annotations for each source are written in paragraph
form. The lengths of the annotations can vary significantly
from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages. The length
will depend on the purpose. If you're just writing summaries
of your sources, the annotations may not be very long.
However, if you are writing an extensive analysis of each
source, you'll need more space.
 You can focus your annotations for your own needs. A few
sentences of general summary followed by several sentences
of how you can fit the work into your larger paper or project
can serve you well when you go to draft.
 The bibliographic information:The bibliographic information of
the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written
in MLA.
SAMPLE ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES
 This example uses the MLA format for the journal citation. NOTE: Standard MLA practice
requires double spacing within citations. (This is wrong due to space constrictions).
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions onWriting and Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1995.
Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and
failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book
are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from
perfectionism to struggling with one's own internal critic. In the process, Lamott includes writing
exercises designed to be both productive and fun.
Lamott offers sane advice for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main project seems
to be offering the reader a reality check regarding writing, publishing, and struggling with one's
own imperfect humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to producing and/or
publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and
its encouraging approach.
Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the
chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students'
own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for
generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott's style both engaging and
enjoyable.
Bernethy, Thomas P.The Burr Conspiracy. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1954.
The first in a burst of books published on Burr since 1954.
Abernethy incorporates previously unused primary sources
in his attempts to prove that Burr did attempt to wrest
Louisiana from the United States.
Blackford, William W. WarYears with Jeb Stuart. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946.
A sympathetic and intelligent close-up of Stuart and the
interesting young men around him.
The author served as Chief Engineer on Stuart's staff and
observed form his commander's side nearly all of the
operations of the cavalry from June, 1986, to the end of
January, 1964.