Learning to Love
the Research Paper
Or… at least learning to do it well!
MLA Made Easy
ORIGINAL POWERPOINT PRESENTATION BY
The Academic Support Center
Mount Wachusett Community College
Learning to Love
the Research Paper
Or… at least learning to do it well!
MLA Made Easy
ADAPTED FOR LHS
BY MRS. JAN E. WOOD
Table of Contents
1. Getting Started
2. The Importance of a First Draft
3. Doing Research
4. Bringing Research Into Your Paper
 Quoting, Paraphrasing,
Summarizing
 Avoiding Plagiarism
5. MLA-Style Documentation
6. Proofreading Strategies
Getting Started
 Finding a Topic
 Developing an Effective
Research Question
Finding a Topic

Write about what you know.

Whenever possible, seek out a research topic that
interests you and that you care about.

Aim to build on knowledge that you already have.

If the topic is assigned, try to develop an angle that
will interest you, then run the idea by your
instructor.

Why should you write about what you know?

Starting with your own views and opinions will
motivate you.

Writing about a topic familiar to you will help you to
ask the right questions.

If you care about the topic, you will care about your
paper.
Developing an Effective
Research Question


The best research papers begin with a
question because…

Questions help you to find direction.

Questions help you to narrow your scope.
Be careful of questions that are too broad.

Make sure that your question is relevant to the
length of your paper.

Most students use research questions that are not
focused enough.
Too Broad:
---- What is Attention Deficit Disorder?
More Focused:
---- Is diet an effective treatment for
Attention Deficit Disorder?
The Importance of a First
Draft
 Techniques to Help You Start Writing
 Brainstorming
 Freewriting
 Clustering
 Using
Drafts
Brainstorming
 Before you begin doing any research, take some
time to brainstorm.
 When you brainstorm, list everything that comes
to mind about your topic, all of your thoughts and
ideas, in the order in which they occur to you.
 Let your mind free associate and make
connections.
 Write down everything—even those things which
appear silly and unimportant at first.
Freewriting
 Freewriting is nonstop writing. Set aside ten or
fifteen minutes, and write whatever comes to you
without thinking of word choice, spelling,
organization, etc.
 Don’t stop. Don’t get in your own way—you will
be surprised what gets down on paper.
 Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, in that
you write what comes to you in the order it comes
to you. However, rather than a list of your ideas,
you develop your thoughts by having more of a
conversation with yourself.
Clustering
 While brainstorming and freewriting are ways to
get information down on paper, clustering allows
you to begin to see relationships among ideas.
 To cluster, put the main idea in the center of the
page, circle it, and list other sub-topics around it,
connecting ideas that belong together with lines.
 The result looks a lot like a spider’s web and will
do wonders when you being to organize your
paper.
Using Drafts
 Most writers cannot sit down and, in one setting,
produce quality work. Most writers write in steps
or stages.
 The first step is a rough draft. It is the “get
down” draft—where you get down your ideas
onto paper. You do not need to worry yet about
spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.
 This first draft is also called the discovery or
exploratory draft. Why? Because it is where you
explore your topic and discover what you want to
say about it.
 “But,” I hear you say to yourself…
 “I don’t know anything about my topic—what can I
write about before I do research?”
 Think about this:
 A good research paper comes from wanting to know
more about something.
 A good research paper contains facts and quotes
and statistics—yes, but these have been integrated
with and filtered through the writer’s own ideas and
experiences.
 A good research paper is not a fact-finding mission;
it is a synthesis of what you already know and what
you learn in the process of your research.
 Brainstorming, Freewriting, Clustering, and
Using Drafts…

These strategies help you to explore your topic
before you begin researching it.

They give you the opportunity to get your thoughts
down on paper without worrying about
organization, grammar, spelling, etc. (There will be
plenty of time to worry about these things when
you revise your later drafts.)

You can use all of these techniques or only one of
them.
 Whatever the technique you use, the goal is to
try to get all of your thoughts down on paper:





what you already know about your topic
what you want to know more about
why you’ve chosen the topic
questions you have
how you plan to answer those questions
 You will be surprised how helpful this first draft
will be when you start to gather your research.
Doing Research
 For this presentation, we do not have time to
discuss how to search for information on your
topic.
 There is, however, one piece of advice that is
worth gold:

GO TO THE LIBRARY WHEN YOU ARE WRITING
A RESEARCH PAPER!
 Go to the school media center, go to your local
public library, go to any library/media center.
 Librarians are great people who are there to help
you.
 They can show you how to…





search for books on your topics;
search for journal and magazine articles;
use reference materials;
access electronic data bases, such as EbscoHost
and Infotrac, using key word searches
evaluate web sites.
 Speaking of web sites… Even if you have Internet
access on your home computer, you should still
visit a library. Let’s play “True or False.”

The Internet has been called an information highway.
TRUE.
–
–
–
–
–

It is free.
It is vast.
It is democratic.
It is accessible 24 hours a day.
Anyone can post anything.
You can believe everything you read on the Internet .
FALSE.

The information highway known as the Internet has
potholes.
– Anyone can post anything on the Internet.
– There are no editors or experts reviewing the
material.
– Yes, you can access legitimate sites like the
American Cancer Society or university research
centers, but you can also access pornography,
incorrect or misleading information, biased
opinions, and prejudiced information.
 While the Internet may provide you with some
good information, your paper will be stronger for
having searched many different kinds of sources.
Bringing Research Into
Your Paper
 Points to Remember
 What Are Sources?
 What Are Citations?
 Quoting
 Paraphrasing
 Summarizing
 Avoiding Plagiarism
Points to Remember
(About Writing a Research Paper)
 Writing a research paper is like writing any other
academic paper, with the difference that you are
bringing into your essay the words, ideas, and
theories of others, often experts in that field of
study.
 In the process of writing your research paper, you
will learn a new set of vocabulary words and
concepts.
 What follows is a list of these words/concepts
and their definitions. Becoming familiar with
them will help you in the research process.
What Are Sources?
 A source is what you turn to for information about
your topic.
 A source can include any of the following:
 a book
 a magazine or newspaper article
 a scholarly journal article
 a film, television show, or radio program
 a web site
 a personal interview
 They generally fall under print sources, non-print
sources, and electronic sources.
Print Sources
 A print source can be a periodical or a non-
periodical.

A periodical is a publication that is issued
periodically, such as any of the following:
– a newspaper (The Boston Globe);
– a magazine (Newsweek);
– a journal (Journal of Naturopathic Medicine).

A non-periodical most often refers to a book.
Non-Print Sources
 A non-print source can include, but is not limited
to, any of the following:





a television or radio program
a film
a personal interview
a class lecture
a recording
Electronic Sources
 An electronic source can refer to a source found
on the Internet, such as a personal or
professional web site.
 There are some electronic sources that originally
appeared in print form. These include articles
found on databases such as EbscoHost and
Infotrac and articles in newspapers and
magazines that publish on the web and in print.
What is a Citation?
 When you bring research (quotations,
paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your
paper, you must give credit to the source and its
author(s).
 Giving credit to a source is also called citing a
source.
 You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations.
They are called parenthetical citations because
the bibliographic information goes inside
parentheses.
What to Cite
 Quotations: Someone else’s exact words,
enclosed in quotation marks.
 The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone
else—even if you restate them in your own words
in a paraphrase or summary.
 Facts and statistics—unless they are common
knowledge and are accessible in many sources.
 Common Knowledge is information that can be
found in many sources and that no one can claim
owning. It is information that “belongs” to
everyone. Often, it is the stuff of encyclopedias.
Examples:



6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust.
The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.
The Civil War ended in 1865.
 You may not have known this before you started
your research, but it is still common knowledge.
Often, you will encounter knowledge that is
common in your field of study, even if the general
population may not know it.
Quoting
 When you quote, you borrow an author’s exact
words.
 Use a quotation when…

the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so
well that you cannot improve or shorten it without
weakening it;

when the author is a respected authority whose opinion
supports your own ideas;

when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with
others in the field.
Paraphrasing
 Paraphrasing is putting material (including major
and minor points) into your own words and
sentence structure.
 You can paraphrase a theory, an idea, the results
of a study, or a passage in an original source, as
long as you use your own words to describe it.
 A paraphrase is often the same length as the
original, but it is in your own words.
Example of a Paraphrase
 Original Text (from James C. Stalker, “Official English or English Only”)
“ We cannot legislate the language of the home, the
street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set up a
cadre of language police who will ticket and arrest us if
we speak something other than English” (21).

Paraphrase
Stalker points out that in a democracy like the United
States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use of a
language and it certainly would not be possible to make
police enforce such laws in homes and public places
(21).
Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writers
by Ann Raimes
Summarizing
 Summaries are often less detailed than
paraphrases.
 In a summary, you provide your reader with the
gist of the most important sources you find in
your own words.
 Summaries give readers basic information and
are always in your own words.
 When you include a summary in your paper,
introduce the author’s name and/or the work.
What is Plagiarism?
 It is fine to bring the words and ideas of other
writers into your paper.
 However, when you do so, you must acknowledge
your debt to the writers of these sources.
 If not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious
academic offense.
The Most Egregious Form
 The most blatant and egregious form of
plagiarism is putting your name as the author of a
paper you did not write.
 The Internet has certainly made it easier for
students to find papers on any number of topics.
 However, professors also know how to use the
Internet and are quite adept at searching the
same sites that students use.
The Subtle Forms
 Other types of plagiarism are more subtle and
include any of the following:

failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;

failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation
marks;

failure to put summaries and paraphrases into your own
words.
 Most students who plagiarize are simply unaware
of the proper way to document sources in
academic writing.
Avoiding Plagiarism
 In order to avoid plagiarism, be sure that you not
only give credit where credit is due, but that you
follow the appropriate formats, often either MLA
(Modern Languages Association) or APA
(American Psychological Association) styles of
documentation.
 There are also several good publications
available with which students should be familiar.
They will be mentioned later in this presentation.
MLA Style Documentation
 What is MLA?
 How To Integrate Research Into the
Body of Your Paper
 How to Create a “Works Cited” Page
What is MLA?
 If you are writing a research paper in English,
foreign languages, or other humanities classes,
use MLA-style documentation.
 MLA stands for the Modern Language
Association.
 The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for
Writing Research Papers. This book contains all
of the rules that govern MLA-style
documentation.

Most good English handbooks also include a
section on writing research papers. An
English handbook is a valuable resource for
any college student. The Academic Support
Center has copies for students to borrow.
Here are a few good ones:





The Everyday Writer, Lunsford and Connors
Keys for Writers, Ann Raimes
The Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers,
Jane E. Aaron
Rules for Writers, Diane Hacker
Rules of Thumb, Silverman, Hughes, and Weinbroer
Points to Remember
(About MLA-Style Documentation)
 All written material (the body of your paper and
the “Works Cited” page) is double-spaced.
 MLA-style has two main elements:


In-text Citations
“Works Cited” Page
 Use in-text citations in the body of your paper
when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or
use other borrowed material. Citations should
be as concise as possible, while still giving
readers enough information to find the full
bibliographic information on the “Works Cited”
page.
 The ”Works Cited” page is a separate page and
carries the heading “Works Cited” (or “Work
Cited” if you are using only one source). This
is where you list all of your sources, giving the
reader full bibliographic information.
 On the “Works Cited” page, sources are always
listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.

If your source has no author, go by the first word of the
title to alphabetize.
 When listing sources, indent every line after the
first line five spaces or one-half inch.
 Underline book titles and web sites.
 Use quotation marks around articles, stories,
poems, and essays.
Integrating Research
 There are only two pieces of information that
need to go inside the parentheses of an in-text
citation:


the author’s last name
the page number
 This information refers readers to the full
bibliographic information on the “Works Cited”
page.

An in-text citation looks like this:


If there are two authors, give both last names:


(Jones and Nichols 18)
If there is no author, give the first word of the
title:


(Smith 165)
(“Recent” 23)
If there is no page number, give the paragraph
number:

(McKnight par. 10)
Examples
 Many young women, from all races and classes,
have taken on the idea of the American Dream,
however difficult it might be for them to achieve it
(Sidel 19-20).
 The adult mountain lion population in California is
now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and
Messina B1).
More Examples
 In California, fish and game officials estimate that
since 1972 lion numbers have increased from
2,400 to at least 6,000 (“Lion” A21).
 An article that appeared in Research Quarterly
states that, “Their recovery process parallels the
steps taken by those recovering from other
afflictions” (Russo par. 3).
Signal Phrases
 Signal phrases help you to transition from your
words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.
 With practice, you will learn how to integrate
research smoothly into your paper.
 In most cases, it is preferable to include the
author’s name in a signal phrase that precedes
the quote, fact, statistic, etc. Because the author
is already named, you need only list the page or
paragraph number in the parentheses.
Examples
 The sociologist Ruth Sidel’s interviews with
young woman provide examples of what Sidel
sees as the “impossible dream” (19).
 Michelle Russo’s article from Research Quarterly
states that “Their recovery process parallels the
steps taken by those recovering from other
afflictions” (par. 3).
 The following signal phrases are good examples
of ways you can introduce the findings of your
research in your paper:

According to…

In the words of…

In a recent study by…

Current research proves that…
 Avoid overusing the verb “said” in your paper.
Here is a list of strong, active verbs that you can
use in your signal phrases.
 You can write that someone…

acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees

argues, asserts, claims, or comments

confirms, believes, declares, or implies

insists, notes, observes, or points out,

reports, states, theorizes, or writes
 Often in your research you will encounter quotes,
facts, statistics, etc. that are written by someone
other than the author of the piece you are
reading. Use the following format:

We generate words unconsciously, without thinking
about them; they appear, as James Britton says, “at
the point of utterance” (qtd. in Smith 108).

“We only used seven signs in his presence,” says
Fouts. “All of his signs were learned from the other
chimps at the laboratory” (qtd. in Toner).

NOTE: On the “Works Cited” page give the
bibliographic information for the source you read,
not the source quoted from—since you haven’t read
that.
Creating a “Works Cited”
Page
 A “Works Cited” page contains the full
bibliographic information to which you have been
referring in the body of your paper.
 The “Work Cited” page is…

the last page of your paper

double-spaced

alphabetized
 There are many different ways to cite sources on
your “Works Cited” page, depending on whether
your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.
 You are not expected to memorize each way; you
are expected to know how to find the format you
need for your particular source.
 Once you find the format, follow it to the letter.
Do not add information not in the example.
 The following is an example of a “Works Cited”
page. (On the left is the name of the kind of
source; this is only to help you in the
presentation and does not appear on your
“Works Cited” page.)
Works Cited
work from
an anthology
with a
translator
Allende, Isabel. “An Act of Vengeance.” Trans. E.D. Carter, Jr.
Literature and Its Writers. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel
Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 66-71.
on-line
professional
site
Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Laura E. Hunt
and William Barek. May 1998. U of Toronto. 11 May 1999
<http://citd.scar/index.html>.
anon. article in a
magazine
“The Decade of the Spy.” Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.
article in a journal
that pages issues
separately
Hallin, Daniel C. “Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections,
book two
authors
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:
1968-1988.” Journal of Communication 49.2 (1992): 5-24.
U of Chicago P, 1980.
Works Cited
article in a
newspaper
Navarro, Mireya. “Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building.” New
York Times 13 July 2001: A1+.
journal article
with continuous
pagination (from
a database)
Russo, Michelle Cash. “Recovering from Bibliographic Instruction
Blahs.” RQ: Research Quarterly 32 (1992): 178-83. Infotrac:
Magazine Index Plus. CD-Rom. Information Access. Dec.
1993.
book one
author
Sidel, Ruth. On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the
American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990.
on-line
professional
site with author
interview
Spanoudis, Steve. Poet’s Corner. 2 Feb. 1998. 4 Feb. 1998
<http://www. geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems>.
Zacharias, Peter. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2001.
 While this presentation attempts to give a brief
introduction to MLA, it cannot cover all aspects of
it.
 If you still have questions, it is best to consult the
MLA Handbook for Writers, which is available in
the classroom, or any of the English handbooks
mentioned in this presentation.
 You can also visit MLA’s web site at
http://www.mla.org/. Click on MLA-Style.
Proofreading Strategies
 How to Make Your Paper Perfect (or at least your
best work)



Time
Patience
Will
– Time
– Patience
– Will
• Time
• Patience
• Will
Time
 Proofreading takes time.

There is no way around it. Once you have begun to
finalize your paper, you need to give yourself ample
time to read it over (and over) again.

Proofreading is another kind of writing. It is not as
creative, perhaps, as brainstorming or developing
your ideas, but it is still a part of the writing process.

Reading your paper one time through is not
adequate proofreading.

Here are some tips.
 Don’t wait until the night before a paper is due to
proofread it; you won’t be allowing yourself
enough time to correct it.
 Always correct a hard (paper) copy of your essay;
you will catch things on paper that you can’t on
screen.
 Read through your paper—not for meaning but
for clarity and presentation.

You’ve already developed meaning in earlier drafts—
proofreading is about making sure that your meaning
is clear.
 Decide on the areas that you should pay attention
to. For instance…

Punctuation

Spelling

In-text citations
 For each of these areas, read through your paper
at least once, paying attention to only one area at
a time.
 Go back to the computer after several readings
and make corrections on the screen.
 Print out another clean copy.
 Ask a friend, parent, or tutor, to be a second set
of eyes.

This is not cheating; it is common sense.

Even great writers get help.
 Read the paper backwards, sentence by
sentence.

Sounds crazy?

It works.

Out of context, sentences with problems stand out in
ways they don’t when you are reading along for
meaning.
Patience
 Does this method sound like a lot of work?
 It is.
 Have patience with yourself. The more you write
the better writer you will become. You will make
less mistakes and get better at catching the
inevitable ones.
 Hey, we’re human; we all make mistakes
occasionally. However, skillful proofreading
eliminates many of the most common mistakes.
Will
 Writing (even a research paper) is a craft.
 Mastering the craft requires practice and hard
work.
 Most of the mistakes that students make are
made out of carelessness. Once the mistake is
pointed out, they know hot to fix it and why it’s
wrong.
 Those students who take the time are able to
produce polished final drafts that reflect
intelligence, thoughtfulness, care, and hard
work—qualities professors and future employers
value.
Confucius says…
“I hear, and I forget.
I see, and I remember.
I do, and I understand.”
The more you write—the more research
papers you write—the easier writing will
be and the better writer you will become.
This is the truth!
Good luck!