Research Paper Notes IV

1. Research Paper Notes IV

2. Step 2: Drafting Before you begin writing your paper, organize your notecards by topic by putting all cards with similar information together. Then, look at the cards and develop an outline for the paper based on the cards and the basic structure that follows. After you sketch out the outline, try to figure out transitions to use between the topics.

3. Structure of the Author Paper • Introduction • A. State your main idea: Who your author is and a general statement as to the importance of this author. • B. Catch your reader's attention (question, anecdote, startling fact, piece of dialogue, vivid description, quotation)

4. Body • Present the information you found • (from note cards) • Organize the information • 1. If you are telling the story of an event or of the life of a person, you are writing a narrative and will use chronological order. Put the events in the order that they happened.

5. 2. If you are describing something (object, category, problem, an author’s ideas), you are writing an expository essay. a. Expository essays can use logical order (cause and effect, problem—solution, compare—contrast). b. Expository essays can use order of importance (most important information to least important information or least important information to most important information). c. Expository essays can use a definition structure. For this, you describe the category or object and show how this fits with your thesis/topic. Show the importance of the thing you are categorizing or describing. If you are writing a description, use spatial order.

6. C. Write at least one paragraph for each main idea. 1. Use facts, sensory details, examples, reasons, anecdotes, expert opinions, quotes, and paraphrases. 2. Supporting sentences in a paragraph—sentences that attempt to explain, or prove the main idea of each paragraph—sentences that elaborate on the main idea.

7. 3. Three types of supporting sentences a. Sentences that give sensory details b. Sentences that give examples and incidents (specifics that show the main idea in action) c. Sentences that give facts, statistics or quotations from experts

8. Major events of the author’s life • 1. Information about an author’s writing (his or her major works and a brief synopsis of each) and its connection to the author’s life. Are parts of these writings based on the author’s life? On lives of people the author knew or knows? Does the author use any special knowledge from a career, hobby or way of life? • 2. Explain the author’s importance to American literature.

9. E. Citation—giving credit for a source of information 1. A direct quotation—introduce the quote with an identification of who wrote or said the quote and where it was reported. According to _author or speaker_ in _source_, “Put the quote here” (page number/web address).

10. 2. Indirect quotation—use information gathered from sources but written in your own words. Write it in this fashion: ___Information information information___ (Author/page or web address).

11. Conclusion A. Signal to your reader that your research paper is complete.

12. As your conclusion, you could do one of the following: 1. Restate and amplify the author’s importance 2. Tell an important anecdote about the author’s life 3. End with the author’s death or the most recent information about a living author 4. Explain how one or more of the author’s ideas relate to our lives today 5. Refer your audience to a source or some sources that it can use to learn more about the author 6. Or, something else that brings the paper to a satisfactory close.

13. Sources Cited The last page of your research paper should be entitled “Sources Cited” and will list all of the sources that you used in the writing of your research paper. Use your source cards to make this page. Put these in order by the last name of each author (or whatever came first on your source card). Indent the second, third (or more) line for each entry.