Research Paper

Dr. Clifton Snider

The Research Paper

The topic you choose for your research paper should be one that you're interested in but do not know a lot about; otherwise, why would you want to research it? It should be accessible to the whole class (including me), not too technical nor too personal, and it should be one that you can find the required number of sources on. You need not continue our emphasis on moral/spiritual issues; however, your paper must be an evaluation (analysis) of your topic. It need not be an argument paper, although by definition argument is evaluative. Finally, you should be able to cover the topic in the limits of the paper: 1200-1400 words.

General Guidelines

Remember, start with a hypothesis, look for sources, "fine tune" your hypothesis into an evaluative thesis based on your research. By now you should be an expert in doing this. Ask questions such as "How?" "Why?" "What can be done?" I want your analysis, not just a report on what you found. You may choose to write another argument paper, but you are not required to. Your thesis and topic sentences, as always, must be yours, not your source's. Follow MLA style. (Click here for another link to MLA style. This site also has a sample research paper using MLA style. Remember, your margins must be 1/2 inch on top, 1 inch otherwise, no separate title page, and no headings throughout the paper. Do not skip lines between paragraphs.)

Whether you quote or not, always you must give credit to your source. If you do quote, make the quotation part of your own sentence. For example: The eminent feminist scholar, Georgia Jones, believes that "the ERA should be revived in the next Congress" (23). (This is a made-up example, of course. As you know, the 23 refers to the page number of the published source the quotation comes from. The full citation would be in your Works Cited list under Jones. Note that you use the present tense for quoting sources.)

You need at least one article from a database and one book. A web site can count for only one of your five minimum sources, though you may use more than one authorized web site. Such a web site at the very minimum must be written by an unbiased expert in the field and published by a non-commercial source (no "dot.coms" other than news periodicals, such as latimes.com). Click here for ways to Evaluate Web Pages. Read also the MLA Handbook on evaluating sources.

Political commentators and blogs are not authorized web sources.

The difference between a primary source and a secondary source is that a primary source is what you're writing your paper about. For example, if your topic is the "No Child Left Behind" law or the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, the law and/or policy itself is a primary source, just as if you're analyzing a film or a book, the film or the book is a primary source.

For suggested topics, see the Course Packet.

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