Research Paper

The research paper was assigned on Monday, January 8 and is due on Friday, February 23.

Purpose: to inform the reader; to explain factual information to the reader
Assignment: Write a research paper of at least 500 to 700 words.

Writing Standard 2.3 - Write research reports about important ideas, issues, or events by using the following guidelines:
a. Frame questions that direct the investigation.
b. Establish a controlling idea or topic.
c. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations.

Writing Standard 1.2 - Create multiple-paragraph expository compositions:
a. Establish a topic, important ideas, or events in sequence or chronological order.
b. Provide details and transitional expressions that link one paragraph to another in a clear line of thought.
c. Offer a concluding paragraph that summarizes important ideas and details.

Writing your paper:

• Write your thesis statement. It has two parts. One, it tells the reader your topic. Two, it explains the point of your essay. (Example: John Dickinson, while not a well-known founding father, was an influential writer who helped to inspire rebellion amongst the American colonists and who later helped to shape our Constitution.)
• Write your outline. You should have at least three sub-topics that support your main topic and your focus question on that topic.
• Write your body paragraphs. Write at least one paragraph for each of your sub-topics. Each body paragraph should follow the same basic structure. One, write your topic sentence. Two, write at least three sentences that support your topic sentence. You may also write sentences that elaborate on your supporting ideas. Three, write a concluding sentence.
• Write your introduction and conclusion. Now that the body of your essay is done, go back and introduce your topic and conclude your essay. Your introduction should immediately get the reader’s attention. It should also end with your thesis statement. Your conclusion should provide closure to your paper, summing up your main points.

Note: Using someone else’s ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as your own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism.

Avoid this problem by writing your notes in your own words. Paraphrase the information in your sources so that you are not copying what someone else has written. If your notes are in your own words, then your essay will be your own ideas in your own words, and you will not have plagiarized someone else’s writing. You will have written an original research essay, and that is the assignment.