Chapter 11 Elements of Argument

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Works Cited Rottenberg, Annette T. and Donna Haisty Winchell. “Chapter 11: Planning and Research” Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. 11th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 337-371. Print.

Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader Chapter 11

Writing an Effective Research Paper

Taking Notes

Summarize instead of quote!

Make notes of the bibliographic info along the way and cite it! Create a new file for sources.

Use your pre-writing to help you keep structure and note only relevant material.

If quoting, copy the sentence verbatim in quotes and use ellipses for any left out info.

Evaluating Sources

Evaluating Sources for Relevance: Choose sources with relevant terms and credibility.

Evaluating Sources for Reliability: sources should be current, objective, provide enough info on the subject, and relevant.

Finding Sources

Other types of sources include:

Multimodal sources

Web-based sources: not a good place to look for traditional info; does not have good quality control and can locate topics with little relevance.

Government Resources

Statistics

Encyclopedias: offer overviews and easy info. Has good bibliographies.

Limit a search through: publication date, language, format, peer-reviewed articles, full text, and images.

To search for more than one topic, students may use connectors (Boolean operators).

Subject searching- use terms from a list of subject headings (or descriptors) from creators of the database.

Keywords- words most relevant to your search or subject. Pros: can use terms that come to mind and will find a wide variety of info. Cons: may be more than 1 way to express a topic and might get irrelevant material.

Databases- allows you to search for books, videos, or personal publications.

Initiating Research

Use the correct types of sources! 1. Primary sources- firsthand, or directly from the source, information. Examples are: field research, letters, photos, and text of law. 2. Secondary sources- provide commentary on and analysis of a topic. Examples are: news, opinion pieces, and reports.

Sketch a preliminary outline! Use roman numerals for major divisions and A,B,C levels for paragraph ideas.

To keep your research on track: focus your investigation on building your argument, use at least two pieces of evidence to support each point, use a variety of sources, have authoritative sources, do not let your opinion be swayed, do not ignore opposing info, and use the right number of sources.

Finding an Appropriate Topic

Evaluate all possible topics! Effective research papers are: interesting, debatable, not too broad, not too narrow, and not too unconventional.

Write down all possible topics! Putting words on paper will stimulate the brain's thought process.

First look at the paper's guidelines to narrow your selection.