12th GRADE CP REASEARCH PAPER REQUIREMENTS AND FORMAT
Welcome to the 12th Grade College Prep Research Paper! This packet will serve as a guide through your research process. Included are instructions on formatting, citations, and works cited. This packet will guide you through the process and explain what is expected of you. There will also be a list of due dates for certain parts of the paper.
Due Dates: *You must have your research binder with you on these days:
November - Rough thesis statement is due November 20th for a Classwork grade.
December 3rd and 4th - Final thesis must be approved by me!
December 13th Outline is due. Quiz grade
December 21st PartialRough Draft is due. Test Grade (First 3 pages)
January 14th- Final draft of paper due with notes, resources, elements, and works cited.
*Paper will be due on Turnitin.com at 11:59 P.M. on January 14th!
GUIDELINES TO HANDING IN FINAL RESEARCH PAPER
1. You must physically hand me the research paper at the beginning of your class period on April 23rd. Papers will not be accepted electronically. I will not accept papers later in the day. If you hand in the paper anytime other than the beginning of your assigned period, your paper will automatically be deducted 10 points. Each day your paper is late it is deducted 10 points. After 5 days you may not turn the paper in. This paper is a REQUIREMENT of the course. You must turn in a paper in order to graduate.
2. On the day you turn your research paper in, you will also hand over your binder. You will bring the binder up to my desk with your checklist. The checklist will be given to you prior to you handing in your final paper. YOU MUST MEET ALL THE REQUIREMENTS ON THE CHECKLIST. If one item is missing your entire paper will be deducted 10 points. All of the requirements will include printed copies of your sources, as well as the elements you turned in on the various due dates. You will also be expected to have notes on each of your sources.
3. You MUST submit your paper to turnitin.com. Turnitin.com scans papers for plagiarism from other websites, students, and various other sources. Your paper must be submitted by midnight the night before it is due.
4. If you’re absent, you must turn your paper in immediately the following day. If the paper is not turned in, you will receive reductions.
5. When you hand in your paper and research binder, you must sign off that you have given me your paper, that way we both have a record of what happened on the day of turn in.
MLA FORMAT
1. Paper must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman. Do not use a script typeface or all italics or capitals for your text. Type on the front side of the paper; do not use the other side for any purpose. Try to use a letter-quality printer for your final copy. Be sure to keep a copy of each manuscript submitted.
2. Paper: Use white, 8 ½” x 11” paper.
3. Margins & Indentations: Except for page numbers, leave one-inch margins at the top and bottom. The left hand margin should also be 1 inch while the right hand is left to .0. Indent the first word of a paragraph five spaces from the left margin. See below for indentation of long quotations.
4. Spacing: Double-space the entire paper, including the title, quotations, and Works Cited page(s).
5. Quotations: Set off a quotation of more than four typed lines from your text by beginning a new line, indenting ten spaces from the left margin, and typing it still double-spaced, without adding quotation marks. A colon generally introduces a quotation displayed in this way. The right margin remains the same, one inch. If you quote four or more lines of poetry, indent ten spaces from the left margin (the right margin remains the same), but do not double space; present poetry exactly as it is in the original. Example:
If he knew of the useful properties of bogmosses, as seems entirely plausible, then he may have gathered some to staunch the wound or wounds," the researchers write in the December issue of the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, "and so tiny pieces could well have stuck to the blood drying on his fingers and then he accidentally ingested some of them when next eating meat or bread as we know he did during his last few days.
(Strayer 87).
6. Page Numbers: Paginate consecutively throughout the manuscript (even the Works Cited page) by placing your last name and the page number in the upper-right corner of each page, approximately one-half inch from the top and one inch from the right edge of the page. Do not use the word page or any of its abbreviations p., pp., or use a period or any other mark of punctuation.
Example: D’Amico 3 (on the top right hand corner of the right page)
7. Corrections and Revisions: Proofread and correct the manuscript before handing it in. You may type brief corrections and revisions (or write them neatly and legibly in ink) directly above the lines involved, using carets to indicate where they go. Do not write below a line or use the margins. Redo any page that requires numerous or substantial changes.
8. Titles: Do not underline your title, put it in quotation marks, or type it in all capitals.
9. Abbreviations: These are often used on the Works Cited page but rarely in the text of a manuscript. The exceptions are lb., $, %, AM and PM.
10. Numbers: In general write as words all numbers from one to nine and use numerals for all numbers 10 and over, but never begin a sentence with a numeral.
11. Binding:Secure shorter manuscripts with paper clips--never staples.
Paper Requirements:
-12 point Times New Roman Font, Double Spaced
- Margins must be set correctly.
-6-8 full pages
-6 Secondary Sources (6 quotes)
-1 primary source(5 quotes)
An Explanation of Plagiarism
Fundamentally, plagiarism is the offering of the words or ideas of another person as one's own. While the most blatant violation is the use of another student's work, the more common error is carelessness with reference sources. Sometimes paraphrase never quite becomes paraphrase--too much of the original is left intact. The obvious form of plagiarism is to copy any direct quotation from a source without providing quotation marks and without crediting the source. The more subtle form, but equally improper, is to paraphrase material that is not properly documented. Remember that an author's ideas, interpretations, and words are his or her property; in fact, they are protected by law and must be acknowledged whenever borrowed. Consequently, the use of source materials requires conformity to a few rules of conduct:
Acknowledge borrowed material by introducing the quotation or paraphrase with the name of the authority. This practice serves to indicate where the borrowed materials begin.
Enclose all quoted materials within quotation marks.
Make certain that paraphrased material is rewritten into your own style and language. The simple rearrangement of sentence patterns or substitution of synonyms is unacceptable. Do not alter the essential idea of the source.
Provide specific in-text documentation for each borrowed item. MLA style requires the page number for all in-text citations and the author’s last name and the page number for all in-text references in which the author’s name is not already given in the sentence.
Provide a bibliography entry on the Works Cited page for every source cited in the paper. You may create a Works Consulted page for sources consulted but not used.
Quotations obtained from oral sources, such as conversations, interviews, and speeches, should also be treated like prose quotations. You will need to obtain approval from the speaker for statements you use in your text unless the material was recorded with the speaker’s permission.
If your work is plagiarized it’s an automatic 0. This includes any portion of the paper.
Research Paper Topics
This year you are being asked to write a literary analysis paper on one of the following works we have covered in class. This type of research is relevant to what you will be asked to do for college level papers. Below you will find 10 topics that you may choose from. Read each topic carefully, and pick the one that most interests you.
1. This year we focused most of our attention on a very tragic hero, Othello. Discuss Othello and how he fits the profile of a tragic hero or you may discuss how he is not a tragic hero. Use actual text and scholarly articles to support your stance. Make an argument about how his tragic-flaw, human nature or society led to his demise.
2. Throughout the play Othello, we have seen the motif of women and their roles time and time again. The female characters in Othello are portrayed very differently. In a well thought out thesis statement, analyze the female characters in the play. Analyze how their roles are either traditional to Elizabethan times or non-traditional. You can even explore the notion that Shakespeare was ahead of his time when writing such characters.
3. The theme of revenge is present throughout the play Othello. Write a paper discussing the theme of revenge in the play and the role it plays in the final outcome of the play and its characters.
4. The play Othello would not be as successful as it is without the cunning ways of Iago. Write a paper and discuss if Iago is simply a master manipulator, or a truly inherently evil character. In order to prove that he is purely evil, both your primary and secondary sources would have to prove this notion.
5. Iago is very successful at creating allusions and manipulating the main characters into believing that these allusions are reality. Write a paper discussing how these allusions prove Iago to be purely evil, or insane.
6. Racism is a prevalent motif within the play Othello. Writer a paper discussing how racism affects how Othello sees himself throughout the play and whether or not this plays a role in his demise.
7. Loyalty is an important trait that both Desdemona and Othello have throughout the play. Desdemona’s loyalty is to her husband/god while Othello’s loyalty is to his pride and reputation. Write a paper discussing how loyalty can be a negative trait and lead a character to his or her downfall.
8. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and leads Iago down a path of destruction. Write a paper discussing how greed can turn one into a savage and ultimately lead the people around him or her to deteriorate.
9. Iago is evil and that is clear throughout the play Othello. However, it has long been debated whether or not his evil ways are inherent or they are learned from a harsh environment. Write a paper discussing whether or not Iago is born evil or is simply reacting to the harsh world around him. Is he a natural born psychopath? That is for you to decide.
Three Ways to Take Notes
1. Quoting is one convincing way to demonstrate and refute ideas and to gather evidence. Copy the quotations carefully, making sure to reproduce the spelling and punctuation exactly, even if they're unusual. Put quotation marks around the material. Use the ellipsis mark (. . .) to indicate your omission of transitions, parenthetical remarks, and other unneeded information.
2. Summarizing is sometimes called nutshelling. A summary gives the reader just a sense of a passage from another writer. Material is condensed into one's own words. Only the essential ideas are written.
3. Paraphrasing closely follows the original text, often sentence by sentence, recording in your own words the author's line of reasoning. Since the words and the sentence structures are yours, you do not enclose a paraphrase in quotation marks, although, of course, you must acknowledge the author of the idea. Here is an example paraphrase of the original quotation from Jessica Mitford's Kind and Usual Punishment (New York: Random House, 1973).
Original Quotation:
According to one critic of the penal system, "The character and mentality of the keepers may be of more importance in understanding prisons than the character and mentality of the kept"
(Mitford 9).
Paraphrase:
One critic of the penal system maintains that we may be able to learn more about prisons from the psychology of the prison officials than from that of the prisoners (Mitford 9).
If you adopt or barely change the source's sentence pattern and simply substitute synonyms for key words, you are not paraphrasing but plagiarizing, even if you acknowledge the source, because you have used someone else's expression without quotation marks.
Evidence
The largest part of your paper is taken up by evidence. What is evidence? It is anything that demonstrates the truth: facts, expert opinions, illustrations and examples, and reported experience. Obviously, if you aren't writing a term paper on which you can spend months, you're limited in the amount of evidence you can collect by the amount of time you have.
Categories of evidence:
- Facts--statements that can be verified by objective means, such as going and looking for
ourselves or accepting the testimony of others.
2. Statistics--facts expressed in numbers gathered in answer to a question. Most of us find numbers extremely convincing. As you take notes, collect any promising statistics to use when you write. To win your reader's confidence, when you use figures, use them fairly, and make sure they are accurate and current. Compare a doubtful statistic with facts and statistics
reported by several other sources. A report that differs from every other report may well be true, but distrust it unless it is backed by further, incontrovertible evidence.
3. Testimony of experts--people with knowledge of a particular field gained from study and
experience. The test of an expert is whether his or her expertise stands up to the scrutiny of
others knowledgeable in that field. The best way to know whether someone is a highly
regarded expert is to ask others familiar with his or her field. Experts may disagree, but in
general, they treat one another with respect when respect is merited.
4. Memory and observation--first-hand experience and observation. They are persuasive and
add life to any paper. Often they will be more persuasive than many facts taken from reference books or tables of figures.
Documenting Research
Proper documentation of your research need not be as formidable a task as you might suppose; ordinarily it means mastering just a few simple forms. Under the MLA system of citation of sources, you include the author's last name and the page reference from your source within parentheses at the end of the sentence being documented if you do not give the author’s name in the sentence. Note that the name and page number are separated ONLY by one space (do not use a p. or punctuation mark).
Examples of in-text citations:
One proponent of the wind energy industry chides unions for supplying nuclear energy rather than recognizing "the potential for employment in this new low-technology, labor-intensive industry" (Inglis 46).
When the writer's name already appears in the sentence, you cite only the page number within parentheses:
From the perspective of David Inglis, "It is deplorable… that labor unions do not see the potential employment in this new, low-technology, labor-intensive industry" (46).
Special cases: If the source you are citing is anonymous, use a key word from the title, along with the page reference, as in ("Harnessing" 38). If two or more works have the same author, you distinguish between them by placing a key word from the title between the author's name and the page, as in (Inglis, "Answer" 43) and (Inglis, "Power" 17).
Examples of in-text citations:
One proponent of the wind energy industry chides unions for supplying nuclear energy rather than recognizing "the potential for employment in this new low-technology, labor-intensive industry" (Inglis 46).
When the writer's name already appears in the sentence, you cite only the page number within parentheses:
From the perspective of David Inglis, "It is deplorable… that labor unions do not see the potential employment in this new, low-technology, labor-intensive industry" (46).
Special cases: If the source you are citing is anonymous, use a key word from the title, along with the page reference, as in ("Harnessing" 38). If two or more works have the same author, you distinguish between them by placing a key word from the title between the author's name and the page, as in (Inglis, "Answer" 43) and (Inglis, "Power" 17).
Works Cited Page
The works cited page comes at the very end of your paper. The works cited page lists all of the sources that you quoted within the paper. The list must be alphabetical according to the last name of the author. Below are the exact formats for listing your sources in MLA format. Please make sure your sources are listed correctly.