philosophy
1. What have you always wanted to learn more about?
2. What areas of your major are most interesting to you?
3. What problems exist in your field of study that will need solutions in the future?
4. What do you find controversial? What do most people think incorrectly about?
5. What do you think people need to change to find more health or happiness?
6. What community, national or global issues do you care about?
Choose one article or source you have found that you will use in your essay and answer the following questions in a journal entry of about 250-300 words:
1. Who is the author? Find out what else he or she has written, his or her education and what makes them someone worth quoting.
2. What is the author's stance? Is he or she arguing for a specific point of view, reporting on research or in anyway biased? How can you tell?
3. What can you tell me about the magazine/journal/website where this article was published? What is its mission? What other kinds of things to they publish?
4. Summarize the article in your own words.
5. Include one quote from the article that you think is relevant to your own research project and explain it.
Coming up with a Research Question:
Once you’ve surveyed the territory of your topic, you’ll likely find that your understanding of the topic has become broader and deeper. You may find that your interests have changed and your research has led to surprises and additional research. At some point, though, you need to come up with a research question--a specific question that you will then work to answer through your research. For this paper, your primary research question should be around a problem that needs to be solved.
To write a research question, review what you have learned about the topic and generate a list of questions that start with what, when, where, who, how, why, will, does, would, could and should. Here is a list of questions for the tentative topic “the potential environmental effects of fracking”:
What are the environmental effects of fracking?
When was fracking introduced?
Where is fracking done, and how does it affect the surrounding environment?
Who will benefit from increased fracking?
How much energy does fracking use?
Why do some environmental groups oppose fracking?
Would other methods of extracting natural gas be safer?
Could fracking cause earthquakes?
Should fracking be increased?
Select one question from your list that you find interesting and use that question to guide your research.
Additional Research Tips:
· Merely collecting material is not research. Collecting material from a variety of sources , reading it carefully, taking notes properly , and truly familiarizing yourself with the material—that is research.
· It may seem tedious, or just mechanical "busy work," but you must keep careful records of your source materials throughout the research phase, in order both to avoid plagiarism in the writing of your paper and also, later, to make compiling your bibliography a quick, efficient process.
· Always keep all of your research material. You will certainly need it when you are writing your draft (which is no time for a hasty trip to the library to retrieve a source you meant to copy earlier), and you may also need it in order to defend yourself against a charge of plagiarism.
· In the course of gathering information you'll soon find your imagination teeming with ideas about how to organize your paper, or ideas for the way you may want to word things, or even ideas about adjusting your topic altogether, perhaps making it more general or more specific. Write these ideas down as soon as they occur to you—don't make the mistake of telling yourself that you'll remember them later. (You won't.) Keep an "idea notebook" (or digital file) separate from your research notes.
Starting Your Research Paper
1. After choosing your topic, use this space to create a web, with your main topic in the middle and possible subtopics in the outer circles:
2. What do you already know about this topic? Briefly make a list of the things you already know about this topic:
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3. Make a list of all the questions you want to have answered about this topic. Sometimes you don’t know what questions you have about a topic until you have had a chance to research it. So over the next day or two you will need to come up with several questions you think you could answer about your subject in your paper. List them here:
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4. It is also important to start making a list of the books and Internet sites you visit that are useful. Start this list early as it will be important for your works cited page.
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5. Write your thesis. A sentence like this is not acceptable: “I am going to tell you about Ernest Hemingway and his life and stuff.” There is a certain formula to follow when creating your thesis statement:
General Topic + Limited Focus = Thesis Statement
For example, if my general topic was Ernest Hemingway and my limited topic is his involvement in WW1, then the thesis statement would be: “Ernest Hemingway’s involvement in WW1 shaped the way he would write and live for the rest of his life.” The rest of the paper would be spent only on the things that pertain to that focus. I would not discuss how living in Cuba affected his writing. So now it is your turn:
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After all of this information is collected it will be time to start your outline. What fun!
6. Creating a problem/solution outline
After narrowing your subject down, collecting some information, formulating some questions you would like to have answered and making a list of possible sources, it is time to organize your information into an outline. The important part of an outline is remembering that all of the information that you plan on including in your research paper must support your thesis statement.
Sources must be included in each section of the outline showing where you found the information you will be using.
Introduction (½-1 page)
1. Attention Getter (write this out) – could be a startling statistic/fact, an anecdote, quote, rhetorical question
2. Transition to thesis which explains connection between grabber and main ideas
3. Thesis statement-focus on emphasizing the solution to the problem in your thesis
Section 1 – Problem (1-2 pages)
1. Topic Sentence – Define problem (write out)
1. Describe
2. Examples
3. Who affected
2. Topic Sentence – Causes/history of the problem (write out)
1. Where/how it originated
2. Causes
3. Topic Sentence – Seriousness/Consequences (write out)
1. Negative effects
2. How serious
3. Consequences
Transition sentence to lead into the solution.
Section 2 – Solution (2-3 pages)
1. Topic Sentence – Solution
1. Overview of solution
2. Research to support
2. Topic Sentence – Implementation
1. Process of implementation
2. Possible problems-opposition
3. Drawbacks
3. Topic Sentence – Outcomes
1. Benefits
2. Compare to other solutions
3. Explicitly explore how it solves the problem
Conclusion (1/2-1 page)
1. Summary statement (write out)
2. Relate to the world today or future (write out)
3. Call to action/final thought (write out)
Research Paper Outline Template
After narrowing your subject down, collecting some information, formulating some questions you would like to have answered and making a list of possible sources, it is time to organize your information into an outline. The important part of an outline is remembering that all of the information that you plan on including in your research paper must support your thesis statement.
Sources must be included in each section of the outline showing where you found the information you will be using.
Introduction (½-1 page)
1. Attention Getter (write this out) – could be a startling statistic/fact, an anecdote, quote, rhetorical question
2. Transition to thesis which explains connection between grabber and main ideas
3. Thesis statement-focus on emphasizing the solution to the problem in your thesis
Section 1 – Problem (1-2 pages)
1. Topic Sentence – Define problem (write out)
1. Describe
2. Examples
3. Who affected
2. Topic Sentence – Causes/history of the problem (write out)
1. Where/how it originated
2. Causes
3. Topic Sentence – Seriousness/Consequences (write out)
1. Negative effects
2. How serious
3. Consequences
Transition sentence to lead into the solution.
Section 2 – Solution (2-3 pages)
1. Topic Sentence – Solution
1. Overview of solution
2. Research to support
2. Topic Sentence – Implementation
1. Process of implementation
2. Possible problems-opposition
3. Drawbacks
3. Topic Sentence – Outcomes
1. Benefits
2. Compare to other solutions
3. Explicitly explore how it solves the problem
Conclusion (1/2-1 page)
1. Summary statement (write out)
2. Relate to the world today or future (write out)
3. Call to action/final thought (write out)