Deadline Reminders for Research Paper

Annotated Bibliography: 4-26/27
Complete Rough Draft: 4-30/5-1

Issues in Drafting: Crafting a Thesis

At this point, you all should begin to see how your evidence is taking shape, and you have even begun drafting sections of the paper. Thus, the crafting of a thesis statement is beginning to take on paramount significance. You may not have been ready before the break, but you need to begin seriously developing a thesis now. Remember the thesis statement is meant to guide the piece and is created in response to the purpose of writing the research paper, which is the research question.

All of you were given essentially the same question, “What connections are there between the author’s life or experiences and their fiction?” This is easily made into a question stem that personalizes it for you, “How does [author]’s life and/or experience relate to [selected novel]?” The keywords are the verbs in those questions “connect” and “relate,” which immediately should tip you off to the idea that this is a paper about relationship(s). We all make connections between things all the time, as well as notice relationships all around us. One thing that becomes abundantly clear about relationships is how complicated they can be. With regard to your research paper, the more complicated the relationship(s) the better for you. The more complex the relationship, the more you will have when writing, and the more items from which you can choose to use in developing a thesis.

I have given you a recipe approach to developing a thesis with four components (see below). Once you begin to filter what you have found in your research you can basically begin prewriting that will help you immensely. As you sift through your research you can use the following as a guide:

Topic:	author’s life/experiences & selected novel
Elements:	relationship(s) + complications + connections + context + topics + themes + characters
Point:	make a decision about the relationship at the heart of the research question (more than a statement of fact or topic) based on your research, using “how” and “why” questions
Preview:	hint at what is to come in the paper and be specific

The questions stems that I gave you before the break (Bloom’s Taxonomy and Questions Stems) can help you with establishing a Point, but you have to have one, and it comes from you. It explains the relationship(s) and connections that you have begun to see as you review your research.

So the following statement will not do as a thesis:

Throughout his life F. Scott Fitzgerald had many experiences which he used in the writing of his books.

This is a bland statement of fact. Understand, he wouldn’t have even made the list of possible authors for you to research that you were given were this not the case.

Nor is this a very good thesis:

F. Scott Fitzgerald experienced a great deal of adversity in his life, especially as a young man, and he fictionalizes it in his novels.

This is basically a Topic sentence, albeit not even a very good one of those. However, it does have a topic, even though it is way too broad, and even eludes to the possibility of some elements that might be at play, just not with any specificity.

Neither of these statements really spells out the Topic clearly, nor do they specifically relate the elements that will be examined in the paper. What’s more, neither of them has a Point.

Having gone through the prewriting process suggested above, let’s say you come up with this:

In This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald romanticizes his own youth in an effort to wrestle with his own failings and attempts to articulate a new world view, rooted in the aspirations of his generation.

This is by no means perfect. In fact, you might not even like it all that much, but it is definitely something with which you can work. Plus, it definitely has a Point. It also provides you with an angle on your research that you can thread through your whole paper. Something to consider, often establishing a clear Point is bound to your choice of verb(s) in your thesis statement.

Working with Citation

There are two parts to what we call citation: the works cited list and in-line citation.

• works cited list – the list of resources you reference directly in the paper that is attached as the last page
• in-line citation – the parenthetical references that are made within the body of your paper that help a reader identify the source on your works cited page

All of the information needed for the works cited list should already be included in your annotated bibliography. So, you simply need to lift that information, make sure it is formatted correctly, and alphabetize it in your listing.

Remember, the difference between the works cited and bibliography. Since a works cited list is the listing of sources directly referenced in the paper, the bibliography is a listing of all the resources that you consulted as part of your preparation regardless of whether you cite them in your paper or not.

In truth, the works cited page is the easiest part of citation. If you have any questions or concerns there are a hundreds of resources all over the web (the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is one of the best), including our very own library’s Citation Help page. Make sure that you use MLA format and choose the right type of resource (book with one author, book with two editors, etc.). Your electronic database resources already include all the information, you just have to format it correctly. If you have any other questions, not answered by these resources, write them down and ask them in class.

The inline citation is related but takes on a different form. It is your note to the reader that the information they just read came from somewhere other than you. So being a decent person, you give credit to the source you found. The color system we have used in class and the note cards make this process significantly easier for you. Since all your note cards were taken from resources you found during your research, they are your evidence. Thus, anything from a note card needs to be cited. Here are some examples of what that might look like, using dummy text.

Card Types:

Direct Quote (DQ)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, “consectetuer aptent ad litora torquent per conubia nostraadipiscing elit” (Vestibulum 15).

Note: A direct quote need not be something someone said verbally, like a piece of dialogue. It is anything text that you have lifted from a source.

Variation on the Direct Quote (DQ)

Duis vehicula neque a felis, “Vivamus tincidunt, ‘turpis sit amet sagittis tristique,’ tortor metus ultricies justo,” in suscipit nunc dui eu enim (Curae 3).

Note:This is an example of a quote within a quote. The text between the single quotation marks (‘turpis sit amet sagittis tristique,’) is quoted material within the the text of the resource, for instance something someone said. You use the single quotes when the comment is within the larger quote that you have lifted from the resource.

Long Direct Quotations (DQ)

Suspendisse at ipsum at magna venenatis venenatis. Vivamus at enim et mauris porttitor accumsan.

Duis in ligula. Maecenas faucibus fermentum neque. Aenean sit amet purus. Morbi non ante vitae turpis dignissim dignissim. Nunc ligula magna, iaculis adipiscing, iaculis nec, aliquam in, nulla. Purus nisi, tempor commodo, blandit non, molestie vehicula, libero. Maecenas nisl risus, porta sit amet, dignissim eget, posuere at leo. (Fusce 18)

Praesent lacinia tortor non nunc. Sed nibh. Cras ante metus, rhoncus eleifend, interdum non, imperdiet eget, metus.

Note: With quotes that exceed four lines on the page you use the block quote method, which means you indent the entire quotation within your overall paragraph, as above. Also, this is one instance where you put the parenthetical citation after the punctuation. 

Paraphrase or Summary (Par or Sum)

Vivamus hendrerit, est nec egestas molestie, velit lacus adipiscing felis, ut elementum sem elit quis (Lectus 8).

Note: There are no quotes because you have already paraphrased or summarized information from the resource. However, it is still evidence that information that did not come from you, so you cite it.

Variation on a Paraphrase or Summary

Pellentesque ante eros, vestibulum id, euismod vel, interdum a, orci. Fusce fermentum lorem sed lorem tempus varius. Morbi magna diam, porta vel, fringilla vitae, rhoncus sed, augue. Integer consectetuer eros (Nullam 11).

Note: Here multiple sentences are being used from a resource. In this case, you place the citation after the last referenced sentence in the sequence.

Final Thoughts

Keep reminding yourself that everything that we have done regarding essay writing has prepared you for this project. All the same principles are at work, just on a larger scale. Yet, by working step-by-step you can all do it.

Soon you will discover that with a lot of research assignments the actual writing can be the easiest part of the process. Finding all the material and doing the actual research is often the hardest aspect of the whole process.