As you all know, by the end of your senior year here you will be writing a research paper that is meant to pull together various skills you've acquired during this and the preceding years.
The standard outlined for this paper is outlined below:
5.12.1 Write a research paper that develops a thesis, contains information selected from at least ten sources, and conforms to a style manual.
While initially this looks daunting we will look to make this task much easier as portions of the paper will be do in intervals. Once all the intervals are completed you will be asked to re-evaluate everything you have and finishing piecing it into your final paper. We will take a big task and make it manageable.
As the standard mentions, you will need:
- a clear and defined thesis (this will help narrow your search for information and focus your writing)
- to use 10 outside sources (these could come from books, magazines, the web, etc. They must be legitimate sources and must be used to support your thesis.
- to create a Bibliography (this is where you will list all the sources you used throughout the paper)
In addition to those you will need:
- to support your thesis (while it is easy to just state something and then spend the rest of the paper talking about stuff unrelated to the topic that is not going to cut it on this project)
- to properly cite sources in the paper (we will conform to MLA standards on this and in the links on the right you will see a website that is designed to help with this)
- to write a minimum of 15 pages. There is no maximum on length.
- to adhere to proper grammar and punctuation usage (more information on this can be found on the scoring rubric)
For now, that is the information we are looking at. The schedule and tasks will be posted in the links and any questions you have can be addressed as we move through the process.
Important aspects to Note:
Late Policy- Late assignments will be docked a third of a grade for each day that the assignment is late. You will be required to turn in your work at the beginning of the class period in which you meet. The only exception to this will be the final draft which will be due by the end of the school day.
Academic Honesty- Do not cheat and do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own: it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. A first offense of plagiarism will result in a warning. If the offense is not corrected it will result in the docking of a letter grade. After that if the offense is still not corrected it will result in an automatic "F" for the assignment.
Using the Links
- On the right hand side of this page you will see the entire process of the research paper broken down into individual steps. If you click on the link it will take you to a separate page that deals with that aspect of the paper. In addition, on those pages there will be more links that can help give you guidance for that particular step of the paper.
- When you click on the links from each individual blog it will take you to a new page. There are two ways of navigating this.
1.) After you are done with the page you click to, just click the browser's back button to return to the original page.
2.) Right click the link and select, "Open Link in New Tab" (for Firefox users) or "Open in New Tab" (for Internet Explorer users). This option will open the link in an entirely different page and will allow you to navigate back and forth a little easier.
- Also on the right hand side is a scoring rubric so you can get an idea as to how the research paper will be graded. (The link is a PDF document so you will need the ability to open that on your computer.) A paper that scores a "4" in all categories would receive an A. It would move down from there, and the grades will be discussed with you. After the paper is scored you will receive a copy of the rubric that will have broken down what you did well, and where you did not do as well. In addition there will be hard copies available before starting the paper.
With that all being said- your time starts now. Click onto Step 1 to begin
