Writing the Rough Draft Mrs. J. Brent

Supporting Each Point The body of your paper will consist of evidence in support of your thesis. The key points in your paper should all support your thesis. In addition, each point should be supported by specific, well-documented evidence.

Quoting If you do use a direct quotation, the explanation should be twice as long as the quote. Even summaries and paraphrases don't become your own thoughts just because they're in your own words. You have to explain them too. Readers have to know why you include source material where you do.

Supporting Your Key Points Use your sources as support for your insights, not as the backbone of your paper. A patchwork of sources stuck in a paper like random letters in a ransom note does not a research paper make. There can be no more than 1-2 quotes per paragraph (Quotes should not be longer than 2 lines). Remember for each quote, your explanation should be twice as long.

Citing a Source; Avoiding Plagiarism Citations are required in each of the following situations: When you quote from a source (taking direct words from someone else) When you paraphrase or summarize a source When you borrow facts, ideas, statistics from a source (except common knowledge)

Sample In Text Citation One author believes that poetry is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263). (Author last name page number).

Sample In Text Citation 2 According to the famous poet William Wordsworth, poetry can be defined as “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263). (page number).

Plagiarism Three acts are considered PLAGIARISM: 1.Failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas 2.Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks 3.Failing to put summaries and paragraphs into your own words

PARAPHRASING A paraphrase is a restatement of someone else’s ideas in approximately the same number of words. Simply changing a few words in passage is not paraphrasing. This is actually plagiarism. If you are using more than 3 of the author’s words, use quotation marks.

Paraphrasing Example Original Version Source: Doty, Mark. Heaven’s Coast. New York: Harper, We trivialize pain if we regard it as a preventable condition the spirit need not suffer. If we attempt to edit it out, will it away, regard it as our own creation, then don’t we erase some essential part of the spirit’s education? Pain is one of our teachers, albeit our darkest and most demanding one.

Example of Paraphrase Version A According to Mark Doty, pain cannot always be alleviated. In a spiritual sense, however, people can grow through suffering if they are willing to learn from what is happening to them (159). Version B Mark Doty argues that pain is the best teacher (159). Version C Pain can never be prevented. It is completely outside our control, but it makes us grow stronger (Doty 159).

Practice Paraphrasing The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976):

Select the best paraphrase Version A In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47). Version B Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes (Lester 46-47).

How to begin your introduction Begin with a quotation. Just make sure you explain its relevance Begin with a question –Answer it! Begin with an acknowledgment of an opinion opposite to the one you plan to take

Introduction Begin with a very short narrative or anecdote that has a direct bearing on your paper Begin with an interesting fact Begin with a definition or explanation of a term relevant to your paper Thesis statement should be the LAST SENTENCE OF YOUR FIRST PARAGRAPH!

Rough Draft Deadline – Thursday, 3/12 Typed 3½ pages (12 pt. Times New Roman / double spaced) Include your works cited pageworks cited page

Additional Resources urce/557/01http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/reso urce/557/01 citationmachine.net (at the bottom of the page, it shows you parenthetical citation) liaison/english/mla.shtmlhttp:// liaison/english/mla.shtml