Writing and Research!

1. Writing and Research! I know – Your favorite thing, right?

2. Steps to Research • Where does one go to do good research? • Find a quality source – usually an educational site (.edu),an organization (.org), or a government site, (.gov) are pretty quality. Attempt to stay away from (.com) sites as the are usually commercially paid for sites. • Try the Library link on the Carroll website • Mrs. Ohcs has got some good stuff! • Not Wikipedia! • Although Wikipedia is great for a quick lookup, the fact that anyone can add information makes in unreliable.

3. Keep track of where you find information! • Anytime you go to a new site or book, make sure you copy down the information onto your source page. If you use information from that source, you must cite it in your Works Cited page. This is much easier if you keep tabs as you go! • Use your source page to help you out!!

4. Works Cited Page – Do it as you go! • The new Microsoft Word 2007 has a built in Works Cited Generator – but you have to do some tweaking to get it into MLA (the language arts) format. • Info can be found for this on the wiki but there are some steps that you need to remember!!

5. Steps in formatting your Works Cited Page • Keep a list of all sources - write down information on worksheet • Double space all of Works Cited Sheet • Center Works Cited on top of page! • Indent the 2nd line, the3rd line, and all subsequent lines of each citation • Put sources in alphabetical order according to author's last name (if no last name alphabetize by first word of title (but not the word "the") • Check citation information - make sure you have everything in the right order! (see links below on how to cite sources!) • Underline all titles of books, magazines, films, etc. • Put quotation marks around the titles of poems, short stories, and articles • Proofread and check everything! • Check punctuation • Periods go • inside quotation marks • outside parenthesis

6. Take notes as you go • In order to limit the time that you will need, take notes as you research. How to avoid plagiarism (from The Writing Center at The University of Wisconsin – Madison (http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html) When using secondary sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented. • Specific words and phrases - If you use an author's specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source. • Information and Ideas - Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source. • Information: If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge you need to provide a source. • Ideas: An author's ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source.

7. Common Knowledge? You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge: • General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain. • Field-specific common knowledge is "common" only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. You must be sure, however, that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers. • If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source. • Again, from http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_PorQ.html

8. Should I paraphrase or quote? In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words. Also, it's often conventional to quote more extensively from sources when you're writing a humanities paper, and to summarize from sources when you're writing in the social or natural sciences--but there are always exceptions. In a literary analysis paper, for example, you'll want to quote from the literary text rather than summarize, because part of your task in this kind of paper is to analyze the specific words and phrases an author uses. In research papers, you should quote from a source to show that an authority supports your point • to present a position or argument to critique or comment on • to include especially moving or historically significant language • to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized You should summarize or paraphrase when • what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it • you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is • Again, from http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_PorQ.html

9. Our Favorites – Quotations! Introducing a quotation • One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don't simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections. Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements: • A signal that a quotation is coming--generally the author's name and/or a reference to the work • An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement. • Ross, in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], "To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence" (9). The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase: • Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], "Maternal thinking about children's health revolved around the possibility of a child's maiming or death" (166). • Again, from http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_PorQ.html

10. In other words, Don’t Leave Your Quotes Hanging!! • The purpose of a quote is to assist you in making your point • If you use quotes poorly, they only help make your reader more confused. Ever been on the awkward end of a one handed high five? Then you have to play it off as a wave . . . Awkward! That’s what happens when you don’t lead into (signal) and (assertion) and out of your quotation!! See Don’t Leave ‘em Hanging! Worksheet!

11. Punctuating with Quotation Marks In order to cite quotations in a work, one must have a - Parenthetical citations With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark): • Menand characterizes language as "a social weapon" (115). Commas and periods Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows: • Hertzberg notes that "treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new," but because of Dahl's credentials, his "apostasy merits attention.“ • In this instance, there was no page number and the author has already been cited!! • Again, from http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_PorQ.html

12. Info for the Parenthetical Citation • The information for a parenthetical citation (or reference) comes straight from your Works Cited page. • The first word of the citation becomes your first word in the parenthetical citation Works Cited Entry: Carlino, Lisa. Writing as a Process. Wichita, Kansas: Bishop Carroll Catholic Press, 2007. 123-125. • Citation would be, “quote” (Carlino 124). The 124 is the page number of the quote • If the author’s name is present in the quote, only a page number is included in the parenthetical citation.

13. Practice time!! • Take a look at your MLA Documentation Practice Worksheet. • Practice the way to use parethetical references from Don’t Leave ‘em hanging!