For Kim Woods Only

English Composition II: Week VII

Research Paper Draft 3 - Unit VII Assignment

Follow the directions below for the completion of the Research Paper Draft 3 for Unit VII.

Purpose:

The purpose of Draft 3 is to build upon Draft 2 and to move your drafting process forward so

that you can add a body, conclusion, and abstract to your paper, making it a cohesive, whole

academic paper.

Description:

In this assignment, you will take Draft 2, written in Unit VI, and further develop the body of

your paper.

Your body paragraphs should contain the six elements indicated below and be developed in an

appropriate manner. If the body does not contain these elements, it is likely you have not fully

developed the body, and this lack of development can severely impact your grade for this

assignment.

You will need to write at least four body paragraphs and incorporate five academic

sources for this assignment. The paragraphs should be thorough and cover all the listed

elements. Your Draft 3 (introduction, review of literature, and body) should include the elements

listed below.

Elements:

Your grade for Draft 3 is based on your inclusion of various elements and the overall quality of

your writing. Your Draft 3 must contain the following elements.

1. Cover page and APA formatting:

Include an APA-style cover page for your Draft 3. Your cover page should include the

following: the title of your paper, your name, the title of the course, your professor‘s name, and

the date of submission (with the month, date, and year). The running head should contain a

portion of the title of the paper, along with a sequential page number in the upper right-hand

corner.

The second page of your paper must include a title block in the upper left-hand corner with the

following: your name, your professor‘s name, the title of the course, and the date of submission.

The title of the paper should be repeated again after this title block, centered with no underlining

or font size change.

English Composition II: Week VII

2. Introduction:

To avoid pitfalls to writing an introductory paragraph, review the Checklist: ―Avoid Certain

Mistakes in the Introduction on p. 519 of Strategies for Writing Successful Research Papers.

3. Review of literature:

Using any comments received on your Drafts 1 and 2, revise the review of literature, and include

it with this newest draft. This is not a separate section of the paper, but it is incorporated into

your body paragraphs.

4. Body paragraphs:

Each paragraph of the body of your Research Paper should be a cohesive unit. It should be tight,

but developed. It should serve a function, and its purpose should always be to bolster the thesis.

Therefore, you should use the following order for each paragraph in the body.

a. Topic sentence: This sentence summarizes the entire paragraph in one strong, well-written

sentence, and it directly supports the thesis statement.

b. Explanation of topic sentence (1-2 sentences): Often times there is more to be said about the

topic sentence, more explanation that is necessary in order for it to be a clear idea, so there are

usually a few sentences that follow the topic sentence that explicate the idea more for the reader.

These sentences not only ―unpack‖ the topic sentence, but they also anticipate the evidence that

will be used to support the topic sentence, usually indirectly.

c. Introduction to evidence (1-2 sentences): No piece of evidence (quotation, example,

paraphrase, etc.) should be dropped into a paragraph without first introducing it. An introduction

might include the title of the source, the author, and/or a short description of the source/author‘s

credentials. In this way, no evidence is presented without a context because it is this context that

makes the evidence meaningful.

d. Evidence: The evidence that you present backs up your topic sentence and, by extension,

supports your thesis statement. The evidence that you supply can be a number of things: a

quotation from a source; a reasonable, illustrative example; a statistic; commentary from an

interview; etc.

e. Explanation of evidence: No piece of evidence stands on its own or is convincing on its own.

Although it may seem to draw a direct line to your topic sentence to support it, often the reader

needs you to make the connection between the two. Further, the general rule is that for each

sentence of quoted material, your explanation should be just as long, so if you include a block

quotation, the block quotation should be met with an equally long explanation.

English Composition II: Week VII

f. Transition (1-2 sentences): Transitions are essential for research papers because body

paragraphs, especially, are written as units, and it is the transitions that allow for these units to be

linked together. Take a look at the list of transitional expressions on pp. 44-45 in The Little,

Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises.

5. References:

Include a references list. See the example on p. 40 of The APA Style of Documentation: A Pocket

Guide. There is an additional example on p. 525 of The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, which

includes some explicit directions on formatting the references list.