Research Essay Instructions

Step one: Read the two poems handed out to you: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: The Daffodils written by William Wordsworth and Mariana by Alfred Tennyson

a.  Do a comparative analysis of the authors and the poems

b.  Write down the similarities and the differences within the two poems including the authors, themes found in the poems, and the language used in the poems.

Step two: Look at the format below to decide how best to organize your thoughts.

a.  INTRODUCTION:

  1. Hook
  2. Thesis statement
  3. List the three things you will compare and contrast: authors, themes, and language
  4. Explain that you will compare these things using sources that will help to prove your comparisons
  5. Transition

b.  BODY

a.  Topic sentence- what this paragraph will be about –“This paragraph will make a comparison between the authors”

b.  Concrete detail- proof or example- “According to The Washington Post in 2008, William Wordsworth was a great poet.”

c.  Commentary- what the proof or example means- “This means that William Wordsworth had a great career in literature.”

d.  Transition -Connection to next paragraph- “Although the authors are interesting, so too are the themes in both of the poems.”

c.  CONCLUSION

  1. Restate or reword your thesis.
  2. Summarize your arguments.
  3. Explain why you have come to this particular conclusion.

Step three: Do some preliminary research

a.  Surf the Net. For general or background information. Use search engines and other search tools as a starting point.

b.  Pay attention to domain name extensions, e.g., .edu (educational institution), .gov (government), or .org (non-profit organization). These sites represent institutions and tend to be more reliable, but be watchful of possible political bias in some government sites. Be selective of .com (commercial) sites.

c.  Check out other print materials available in the Library
Read and evaluate. Bookmark your favorite Internet sites. Printout, photocopy, and take notes of relevant information.

d.  As you gather your resources, jot down full bibliographical information (author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, page numbers, URLs, creation or modification dates on Web pages, and your date of access). If printing from the Internet, it is wise to set up the browser to print the URL and date of access for every page. Remember that an article without bibliographical information is useless since you cannot cite its source.

Step four: Write your first draft
a.  Using you research, outline, and notes, write a rough draft of your essay including citations within the text and on a works cited page.
Step five: Revise your draft
a.  Have several people read your essay to check for inconsistencies, spelling, grammar, and the six traits of writing.
b.  Take their advice into account, and comb through your essay to make it as presentable as possible.
c.  Look at the rubric on the next page to determine how you stand as far as grading for each element. If you fall short in any of the categories, revise your essay to meet the requirements.
Step six: Ensure that you have cited all of your sources perfectly.
a.  Any mistake in citations is plagiarism. Your citations must be done in MLA style.
b.  You can go to www.citationmachine.net to help you cite anything you use to fill your essay with information.
a.  When you open the page, you will see MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago on the left hand side. Click MLA.
b.  When the next page opens, you will be using the MLA format.
c.  To cite a source, (which you MUST do for every source you use, cyber or print), look on the left hand bar. Here you will see book, encyclopedia or reference work, journal article etc.
d.  Determine the kind of source you are using such as a print or non-print source. Choose the corresponding link on the web page to cite this source. To cite a web document, click the web document link.
e.  The citation machine will open with text fields which you will fill with the information from your source. If you do not have a particular piece of information like the publishing organization or any other piece of information, simply leave it blank.
f.  Once you are satisfied with the information you put into the text boxes, click submit. The citation machine will give you a bibliographic citation which goes on the citations page of your essay:

i.  Example: Wilkins, Kathryn. “Wikispaces.com” kwilkins. Kearns High School, January 2011. Web. 26 Jan 2011. <www.kwilkins.wikispaces.com>.

g.  It will also give you an in-text citation, which you will use within your essay if you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use any information that you got from someone else.

i.  Example: (Wilkins).

h.  To see an example of how these citations are used, look at the example research essay given to you.

Name

Date

Assignment title

Waste Disposal

Waste disposal has been one of human being’s biggest problems ever since the dawn of civilization. Humans create loads of waste every day ranging from empty bottles to excretions to banana peels. What to do with all the garbage that the people create has been the discussion of panels ever since the Roman senate got together. Most of the people are not aware of the fact that putting the garbage out of their trash cans can cause many safety and environmental problems. People tend to throw and litter stuff around thinking that ‘it’s only a little piece of trash and only I am doing it so it’s not going to make any difference’. This is a very wrong attitude because if everybody started to think like that, then the world would be in trouble because everyone will be littering and no one will be throwing the garbage in the cans. Also, we have a growing number of people in this world and as the people grow, so does their trash. The best way to reduce trash in our environment is to recycle it. The first step in getting the people to recycle is to have them understand that recyclable trash should be put in its right place.

An experiment conducted by P. Wesley Schultz concluded that pleading the people repeatedly is one of the best methods in which to get people to throw the garbage in its proper place. This experiment was based on recycling methods and it required the people to put the recyclable objects into their proper recycling bins. The experiment was conducting by using feedback interventions that were aimed at the personal and social norms of the participants. The experiment included the study of the “curbside recycling behaviors of 605 residents of single-family dwellings for 17 weeks. Groups of contiguous houses were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 experimental conditions: plea, plea plus information, plea plus neighborhood feedback, plea plus individual household feedback, or the control condition. Interventions were implemented using door hangers delivered to each household over a 4-week period. Results showed significant increases from baseline in the frequency of participation and total amount of recycled material for the individual (i.e., personal norm) and the group feedback (i.e., descriptive norm) interventions” (Schultz, 1999). Five other studies that were specifically designed to assess the effectiveness of feedback as an intervention to improve recycling include: DeLeon & Fuqua, 1995; De Young et al., 1995; Goldenhar & Connell, 1991-1992; Hamad, Bettinger, Cooper, & Semb, 1980 -1981; and Katzev & Mishima, 1992. It has been concluded that normative feedback can be used successfully to alter behavior in community settings, and our action plan is going to be based on this information.

The problems regarding pollution are well known to almost everybody but it is a fact that people sometimes do not really understand the implications of how their actions affect the environment. People think that just throwing a small piece of paper on the ground is a minor offense and would not contribute to the increase in pollution when they cannot be further from the truth. Every single piece of litter that is felled on the ground counts and this is what needs to be communicated to the public. The problem of putting the garbage in trash cans and recycle receptacles becomes more complex and hence important when recycling is involved. It now becomes imperative that the right type of garbage is placed in its proper receptacle. So it becomes another aspect of our plan: to educate the people about recycling and to change their behavior so that they put the right material in the right can. This can be achieved by giving the people a feel of moral commitment, where the people are made to oblige to recycling the garbage not because they are being forced to, but because they are told that it is for the betterment of the environment, hence the world and for their and their future families’ lives.

“Garbage may be an unusual case of a problem that could, at least in substantial part, be handled by instilling modest collective values in individuals. But it might not be worth the cost to do so unless we suppose that highlighting the morality of recycling and reduction of consumption of instant garbage has positive impact on moral commitments more generally. It is plausible that those who are morally motivated on garbage issues are generally so motivated and that environmental concerns are not the prior stimulus to their morality. If so, the limits of moral commitment may be relatively severe. In particular, there may be a fairly low ceiling on how much improvement we can expect to get with moral commitment to reducing the problem of garbage” (Hardin, 1998).

To recycle the recyclable garbage, it has to be sorted out into the different classifications, for example, metal should be separated from plastic etc. The problem here is that either people throw away the recyclables into normal trash cans or they contaminate the recyclables by either putting non-recyclable material into the cans or the wrong substance in the wrong can. All this adds to the costs as well as the time-period of the waste disposal process. I believe that it is important to highlight the importance of recycling to everybody and to let them know that we are all adding to the world’s pollution and waste by just throwing our garbage away. I believe that everybody should actively participate in recycling our garbage so that our world’s garbage is reduced and we can hope to live in a world that is cleaner, and one that gives us and our children a healthy environment.


Work Cited

DeLeon, I., & Fuqua, R. (1995). "The effects of public commitment and group feedback on

curbside recycling". Environment and Behavior, 27, 233-250.

De R Young, Boerschig, S., Carney, S., Dillenbeck, A., Elster, M., Horst, S., Kleiner, B.,

& Thomson, B. (1995). "Recycling in multi-family dwellings: Increasing participation and decreasing contamination". Population and Environment, 16, 253-268.

Goldenhar, L. M., & Connell, C. M. (1991-1992). "Effects of education and feedback

interventions on recycling knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors". Journal of Environmental Systems, 21, 321-333.

Hamad, C. D., Bettinger, R., Cooper, D., & Semb, G. (1980-1981). "Using behavioral

procedures to establish an elementary school paper recycling program". Journal of Environmental Systems, 10, 149-156.

Hardin, Russell. (1998). “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” Social Research. Volume: 65.

Issue: 1.

Katzev, R. D., & Mishima, H. (1992). "The use of posted feedback to promote recycling".

Psychological Reports, 71, 259-264.

Schultz, P. Wesley. (1999). “Changing Behavior with Normative Feedback Interventions: a Field

Experiment on Curbside Recycling”, Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Volume: 21. Issue: 1.

Research essay rubric

Requirements / 10 / 5 / 0-1 / Total earned
Evidence / Evidence is provided to develop each support topic. Evidence is:
*relevant
*documented
*varied
*valid
*reliable / Evidence is provided to develop each support topic. Evidence is:
*relevant / No evidence is provided to develop the support topics
Organization / The organization enhances the central idea or theme. The order, structure, and presentation of information are interesting and move the reader through the text. / The organization works well enough to move the reader through the text, but may be confusing in some areas. / The writing lacks a clear sense of direction, ideas, details, or events seem strung together in a random fashion. The reader is confused
Support topics / Each support topic:
*develops the thesis
*is believable
*creatively examines and connects ideas / At least three support topics are included / No support topics are included
Sentence fluency / Writing has an easy flow. Sentences are well built with varied beginnings and uses creative connectives between sentences to connect ideas. / The writing hums along with a steady beat, but is more mechanical than musical. Some variety in sentences, but lacking creativity / Writing has choppy, incomplete sentences. Does not sound natural. Most sentences begin the same way. Too many connectives Does not flow well
Standard typed format / Paper is typed, double spaced, in 12 point font, and Times New Roman. / Paper is typed, but does not include one or more of the rest of the format requirements. / Paper is not typed and does not use
Conventions / Writing makes no more than five grammatical errors / Writing makes between six and eight grammatical errors / Writing makes more than ten grammatical errors
Introduction / Introduction contains:
*thesis statement
*supports topics
*hook
*transition / Introduction contains the main idea or thesis statement / Piece begins without introduction
Body / Body contains at least one similarity and one difference paragraph:
*clearly related to the thesis
*in logical order
*connected with smooth transitions / Body contains at least one similarity and one difference paragraph / No support topics are included
Conclusion / Conclusion contains:
*reference to the thesis or main idea
*review of comparison
*closure techniques
*significance of message / Conclusion contains:
*reference to the thesis or main idea / Piece ends without conclusion
Voice / Language used:
*is appropriate for purpose
*is specific & clear
*shows rather than tells
*reveals the message through a distinct personal voice / Language used:
*is appropriate for purpose / Wording seems to mimic outside sources