1. Brainstorm for a topic. Select an interesting topic about which you are personally curious or have strong feelings.

2. Web your topic to narrow down to a subject. Choose two or three subjects from the web and web them until you can choose the one about which you have the most details.

3. Focus your efforts be deciding what really interests you about your subject. For example your general subject area might be air pollution  - Your Specific Subject might be air pollution in South Dakota -- your Focus or Special Interest might be eliminating air pollution in South Dakota.

2. Guiding your research. Open a file in MS Word entitled Questions. Jot down guide questions about your topic. What do you want to learn about this subject? Shorten each question to a word or phrase that could be used as an outline topic. For Example: a question such as "what are the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease?" could be shortened to "symptoms." You should have 10 to 15 guide questions. Make a folder in your Soph Comp folder named "Research Paper." Save your "Questions" file in this folder.

3. Locate information in the library and on the Internet. Make photocopies of all material from special pamphlets, magazines, books, etc. Make a photocopy of the title page and publication information from all sources. Save bibliographical information on all web sites. Save web pages or selections from web pages to separate files in you Research Paper Folder.

4. In your "Research Paper" folder open a new file named Sources./Notes. Type in all of the necessary information from each source. (See sample Dialectical Notes page). Use a different page for each source.

5. Read your sources, highlighting the information you want to use in your report. In pages saved in Word, click View – Toolbars – Reviewing and you will be able to highlight and insert comments.

6. Take your notes on the Dialectical Notes page. Put notes in the second column and comments on how you will use the note in the third column. If you have more notes from a source than the page will hold, make another page for that source. Take notes in the form of a direct quotation, paraphrase or summary. (See examples in Note Taking). NOTE: Only use direct quotations for statistics, quotations from famous people or acknowledged experts, or wording so unique that you want to use it in your paper. No more than 20 percent of your paper should be direct quotations.

7. At the end of each note in your file, put parenthetical information that you will need in your report. Example: "Pigs are people too" (Schulze 24).

8. When you have finished taking all of your notes, use a graphic organizer (I recommend Inspiration) to arrange your information for your report.

9. When you have organized your material, type out a working outline on your Questions page. If you used Inspiration, you can click to the outline view and copy it.

10. Now looking over all of your research and your outline, develop a thesis statement for your paper. Save this on your Questions page along with your outline.

11. Write the introduction. Show me your introduction before you proceed with your paper.

12. Write the body of your paper, inserting your notes, complete with parenthetical notation, where you want to use them. Show me your rough draft after you have completed two pages. Then finish the body.

13. Write the conclusion.

14. Let your paper rest for a day while you complete the Title page, the Thesis Statement and Outline Page and the Works Cited Page (annotated bibliography) Your thesis statement and outline page is already done for you in your Questions file.  It is a simple matter of rearranging and adding headings.

15. Look over your paper and revise. Have your writing group read your paper and give you suggestions for revision. Revise, and edit. Have an editing partner also edit the paper with you.

16.Email this revised draft to me. I will read it and conference with you on your paper.

17. Hand in print outs of your note pages and all of your photocopied research to me.

18. NOTE: You may consult the Writer’s Inc. books at the back of the room or online sources for help in your research paper. Mr. Harens has an excellent web site at http://www.ysd.k12.sd.us/~pharens/rhetoric_class.htm that will take you through the researching and documenting part of the paper. You may look at the note taking and other parts of his site, just remember, we are doing our paper on the computer. Oh! Word of Warning! Don’t chew gum when you are in Mr. Haren’s site!!!

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Source Page

First you need to come up with a list of questions about your topic. Imagine what you and your readers would want to know about the subject. Here are some sample questions for a paper about AIDS. You will need about 15 questions.

Put a parenthetical notation behind every entry, even though you may not need to use them in your paper. Include author’s last name and page number or, in case of no author, a shortened title and page number.

1. Avoid personal references. It is unnecessary to use "I think," "in my opinion," "I’ve found," and other first person phrases. If you are stating an opinion, simply state it. Not "I think students should be required to wear school uniforms" but "Students should be required to wear school uniforms. It is best to avoid first person pronouns as much as possible except in personal anecdotes and in a direct quote.

2. Avoid use of "you" forms. Never address the reader as "you." For example do not write "many of you are opposed to the relocation of the gray wolf" but write "many people oppose the relocation of gray wolves."

3. Avoid informal language. There are many informal uses of language that are acceptable in conversation and in informal writing, but not in a research paper. Make sure you use a word correctly when you write it, both in its spelling and meaning (accept/except; affect/effect; already, all ready; amount/number; beside/besides; their/they’re/there; coarse/course; because/cause; like/as; sight/cite/site; than/then; who/which/that; a lot/alot (alot is not a word but a lot is slang so choose something more formal).

4. Avoid Slang. Slang has no place in formal research writing.

5. Do not use contractions in formal writing. Words such as don’t, can’t, won’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t, I’ve, they’re, would’ve, etc. do not belong in your research paper. Instead write out do not, cannot, will not, would not, should not, I have, they are, would have (NOTE: would have, not would of).

6. Avoid being "wordy." Simply put, this means don’t say something in 20 words that can be said in 10. Be as succinct as possible without sacrificing clarity. For example, do not write "in the event of," instead of "if;" "in view of the fact," instead of "because;" "at the current time," instead of "now;" or "in the majority of cases," instead of "usually." Be on the lookout for other phrases of the same kind.