Writing discipline specific research papers

Writing and Research in the Disciplines

This is a resource for students who are writing research projects in various disciplines. The sections that follow contain information about writing conventions in major citation style guides, sources for information in different fields of study, and helpful advice for developing a thesis and organizing material when writing a research paper.

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Writing

• How to Take Notes
• How to Summarize
• How to Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is something that everyone should know how to do and do it correctly. Paraphrasing is often confused with summarizing. They are not the same thing and can produce very different results to the reader. To summarize something will leave only a very general idea. Paraphrasing is taking someone else’s ideas and putting them in your own, unique words.

It is important, when paraphrasing someone, to give credit to the author. If you don’t give credit where it is due, it is considered plagiarism.

Here are a few basic guidelines for solid paraphrasing from Ms. Driscoll at Purdue University: 1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. 2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card. 3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase. 4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. 5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source. 6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper. (Driscoll, 1)

Mr. Plotnick gives a great example of what not to do when paraphrasing another person’s writing. Given this excerpt from Oliver Sack’s essay “An Anthropologist on Mars”: “The cause of autism has also been a matter of dispute. Its incidence is about one in a thousand, and it occurs throughout the world, its features remarkably consistent even in extremely different cultures. It is often not recognized in the first year of life, but tends to become obvious in the second or third year. Though Asperger regarded it as a biological defect of affective contact—innate, inborn, analogous to a physical or intellectual defect—Kanner tended to view it as a psychogenic disorder, a reflection of bad parenting, and most especially of a chillingly remote, often professional, "refrigerator mother." At this time, autism was often regarded as "defensive" in nature, or confused with childhood schizophrenia. A whole generation of parents—mothers, particularly—were made to feel guilty for the autism of their children.”

Here is an example of poor paraphrasing: “The cause of the condition autism has been disputed. It occurs in approximately one in a thousand children, and it exists in all parts of the world, its characteristics strikingly similar in vastly differing cultures. The condition is often not noticeable in the child's first year, yet it becomes more apparent as the child reaches the ages of two or three. Although Asperger saw the condition as a biological defect of the emotions that was inborn and therefore similar to a physical defect, Kanner saw it as psychological in origin, as reflecting poor parenting and particularly a frigidly distant mother. During this period, autism was often seen as a defense mechanism, or it was misdiagnosed as childhood schizophrenia. An entire generation of mothers and fathers (but especially mothers) were made to feel responsible for their offspring's autism (Sacks 247-48).” Notice how most of the sentences have only a few words rearranged or changed for synonyms. The sentence structure and paragraph layout are even almost identical to the original. Just because you cite the page numbers at the end of your paragraph doesn’t mean that you’re in the clear for plagiarism (Plotnick, 1).

                                           -Brandon Evans

Driscoll, Dana Lynn. “Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words.” The Owl at Purdue. 1995. University of Purdue. April 11, 2008. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

Plotnick, Jerry. “Paraphrase and Summary.” University College: Writing Workshop. 2007. University of Toronto. April 11, 2008. http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/paraphrase.html

• How to Organize

One of the toughest things about writing a paper is figuring out just how to organize it. Where do you begin? How do you begin? What do you include? What order do you put it in? How do you conclude your paper? Well below is a list of websites that may assist you in your organizational writing process. Included is also a brief summary of the positive and negative points of each website to help you further narrow your search.

1) How to Organize a Research Paper http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/4184 A Research Paper is a Tree

good: This provides a simple explanation of what to include in your paper, how to organize the basics of your paper, and what section to include specific information in. It gives an example of how an outline is a tree and how each aspect of your paper is like a specific part of the tree. This makes it easy to visually see where each piece of information should fall in your paper.

bad: It takes the example of the outline being a tree a bit far. It focuses more on making that analogy than it does presenting valuable information about writing a paper.

2) How to Organize Your Paper http://www.lasalle.edu/services/sheekey/organize.htm

good: It is a list of links to several websites to help with specific organizational problems such as having trouble putting ideas into the proper format in a paper, having trouble relating the different concepts in the paper, and having trouble getting started/getting organized.

bad: This site contains no actual information itself; it merely provides links to other sites that may be useful.

3) How to Organize a Research Paper http://www.ehow.com/how_138072_organize-research-paper.html

good: It contains a very cleat set of 8 steps to prepare for and organize your research paper. It also contains tips, warnings, and links to related articles and example research papers.

bad: It contains no examples of an actual paper, just links.

4) Research Guide for Students http://www.aresearchguide.com/1steps.html How to Write an A+ Research Paper

good: It contains a very clear list of steps to go through including choosing a topic, finding information, stating your thesis, making a tentative outline, organizing your notes, writing your first draft, and revising your final outline and draft. It includes a detalied explanation of each step as well as examples and links to find further information. It also contains a series of checklists to help ensure that you included everything and have written an effective paper.

bad: It unfortunately doesn't focus too much on actually writing the paper other than a brief discussion of the introduction, body, and conclusion.

5)How to write a Term Paper http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/term_paper/begin.htm Begin and Organize a Research Paper

good: It contains a very detailed outline of instructions on essentially how to go about formatting your thoughts, creating a detailed outline, and different methods to implement following the creation of and outline.

bad: It only has a few examples of how to actually carry out each step of the given process which may make it a little more difficult to thoroughly follow.

• How to Create a Thesis

How to Find Sources

• Reliable and Unreliable Sources
• Biology

Finding resources can be overwhelming at first. With all the information that is out there, how are you supposed to know where to find all of it? The first place that you should go to is your local library and searches their online databases for the specific topic that you are working on. A great database to use in the field of biology is PubMed. < http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/> It has over 11 million documents, some with full text that you can view. Another very broad database is the Biological and Agricultural Index Plus. It has a great variety of full text sources that one can utilize. Another database that you can search from your own home is called. EurekAlert! < http://www.eurekalert.org/> This site is regularly updated and includes links to article and databases dealing with science and technology.

• Internet sources

If you want to do a simple internet search on your topic, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Make sure that it is a scholarly website, primarily .org or .edu. Make sure that the author is credible. If the article isn’t peer reviewed, do a background check to make sure the author is trustworthy.

If you are stuck and can’t find any sources, try checking the bibliographies of the books you already have. These usually contain relative information on the topic that you are researching and should provide a good starting point to lead you to other sources. If all else fails, just ask a librarian. They will be more than happy to assist you in finding information for a topic. Even if they don’t have the information in the library, they will either order it for you or send you to a place where you can get it.

• Search Engines
• Business Journals

APA

• Citing Sources
• Formatting
• Links
• Citing In-Text

CMS

• External Links