1. How to…

2.  So many students are over-run with fear and anxiety at the prospect of having to write a research paper. But the truth is, provided you know how to approach the assignment, writing research papers is not difficult at all.  In fact, if you are writing about something that interests you, you will find the assignment to be a great deal of fun.  Here is how to do it:

3.  To make things easy for this and all future research assignments, develop a template on your computer, formatting it according to Turabian standards. Then, use the "save as" function to save the template for your first research assignment.

4.  What’s a template?  A template is nothing more than an MS Word document that you set up to use for your research papers.  Turabian shows you how to format your papers (see page 378).  Each time you have to write another paper, just go back to your template and save it with a new title.

5. E-Turabian generator  Book mark this link on your laptop computer:  http://www.eturabian.com/tura bian/index.html

6.  It is alright to consult with your instructor about this.

7.  focus on a specific part of the topic you have chosen.  It's alright to consult with your instructor about this, too.

8.  A bibliography is a list of books and other information sources that you use to write your paper.  So the bibliography is essentially the foundation of the paper; and just like the foundation for a house, the house is no better than the foundation it sits on.  Librarians can help you develop your bibliography.

9.  In building your bibliography it is a good idea to the find a variety of sources, such as:  Books  e-Books  Articles from peer-reviewed journals, and  maybe some information from online sources.

10.  Also, when you compile your bibliography, it has to be formatted according to Turabian standards. Once you've become accustomed working with Turabian this part will come easily to you.  Each of you should have your own copy of Turabian.

11.  Since you are a seminarian, it's pretty likely that you will often make references to biblical scriptures.  Note that according to Turabian, you do not need to include the Bible or any books of the Bible in your bibliography; but you will need to know how to make footnote references to scriptures. (see Turabian 19.5.2)  To do this, include the abbreviated name of the book, the chapter and verse—but never a page number.

12.  See Turabian section 24.6 for a list of biblical abbreviations. Chapter and verse numbers should be in Arabic form and separated by a colon. For example:  Jn 3:16.

13.  Research that culminates into a written report begins with either a thesis statement or a thesis question.  Professor Currin specifies that you use a thesis statement.

14.  “There is a large body of scientific and sociological data that indicates that a world- wide flood occurred during the time of Noah and this paper presents this evidence.”

15.  Once you acquired the sources you need for your paper, start reading.  When you read the books you have selected, you can usually use the index to find information that specifically addresses the point of your research.  That will save you the trouble of having to read the whole book.

16.  One of the "trick of the trade" that experienced researchers use is they make a photocopy of the pages that contain information that specifically addresses the thesis statement, and then use a yellow highlighter to mark those statements.  Or, when you read articles, either make photocopies of them out of the journals, or print them out from their online sources, and then use a yellow highlighter whenever you find statements that focus on the specific point of your research.  (Some of your quotes might be a whole paragraph long.)

17.  When you make these photocopies, it is a really good idea to also make a photocopy of the title page of the book or article and staple those pages together. This will make it more convenient when you cite the bibliographic information.  These sections that you are highlighting will ultimately become the quotations you use in your paper.

18.  Go back to each of part of your sources that you highlighted in yellow.  Start typing on your template the information you've highlighted.

19.  Be sure to enclose each of these quotations in "quotations marks" (unless the quote is five or more lines long).  For long quotations, format them as block quotes without quotation marks (see Turabian 7.5).

20.  These days, nearly all modern word processing software programs are equipped with a program to format your footnotes for you, so this takes a lot of the drudgery out of your work.  In MS Word, this is found under:  References / AB 1 Insert Footnote.  Next to that is something called Next Footnote.  These features will make it a lot easier to type up the quotes in your papers.

21.  At this point, what you have on your template is a collection of quotations from your sources.  It is important to have at least one quote from each source (never include any source in your bibliography if you did not actually use it in your paper).  It is even better to take a few quotations from each of your sources.

22.  Plagiarism is when you copy words from another author, without acknowledging the source in your paper.  Plagiarism is a form of theft.  The faculty here at New Life take the issue of plagiarism VERY seriously. Students have been kicked out of here for plagiarizing.  Just be sure to put all of the things you quote in quotation marks (unless it is a block quote) and ALWAYS cite the source (and learn how to do this correctly, per the Turabian style manual).

23.  If you are an undergraduate, think in terms of providing one or two quotations per page (i.e.: number of quotations = number of pages x 1.5).  If you are a graduate student, make a point of including about 2 or 3 quotations per page (number of quotations = number of pages x 2.5).

24.  You may need to cut- and-paste your quotations in order to put them in an order that makes sense to the reader.  Fortunately, with modern computer word-processing technology, this is easy enough to do.

25.  Believe it or not, you’ve already completed the hardest part of writing your paper.  All you have left to do is write a commentary or analysis of what the quotations are telling you.  Just read over the quotes, think about what they are saying, and write your paper around the quotations.

26.  Oh yes, research papers are supposed to have a conclusion at the end, so see if you can write a paragraph that wraps up the whole thing in a concise summary of your thesis statement.

28.  Now that you know how to use Turabian, you no longer need to ask the librarian any more questions about it or how to use it…  Right?  RIGHT!

29.  Now if you think you are a real research hot-shot and desperately want to go the extra mile (and get a better grade), you should provide some analysis and commentary in your paper about the authors who wrote the books and articles you've used.  If you are researching the great flood from a scientific standpoint, understand that a geologist will look at it (and write about it) from one angle, while a meteorologist will look at it from another, and a cultural anthropologist will have another viewpoint, as will an archeologist.

30.  Also, every writer has his or her own background, which will develop a bias that will become evident in that researcher’s writing.  Experts in the field will recognize these biases in the author’s writing.  Stop to consider the educational background of the authors whose books and articles you are reading.  If you are a graduate student, this kind of in- depth analysis is standard.

31.  You will have to use the SBL Handbook of Style rather than Turabian.  If you have experience using Turabian, you will find the transition to SBL fairly easy, as they are pretty similar.

32.  Remember when I taught you about research and librarian- ship and I taught you about the “corpus of knowledge” and how it grows over time?  Hopefully, you will earn a PhD and get your research published and thereby make your own contribution to the ever- increasing body of knowledge.

33.  If you take a moment to set up a word processing template on your computer, and use it each time you write a paper, you will glide through your academic career all the way to graduation!!

34.  It took me YEARS to learn what I just taught you.  If I had known how to take this approach in research and writing when I was an undergraduate, it would have made my life MUCH easier!