1. Research Paper

2. Housekeeping Activities
Take student paths survey at
Set up an account on Student Research Center
Go to Infohio
Click on Grades 9-12
Click on EBSOhost
Click on Student Research Center
Click on Sign In (at top)
Click on Create an Account (under log in)
Remember your username and password!
Check out Instagrok at

3. Requirements: Research question – Monday, March 4th
Source cards – Friday, March 8th
Note cards, 1st check – Friday, March 15th
Thesis (your research question answered) – Friday, March 15th
More note cards – Friday, March 22nd
Outline – Wednesday, April 3rd
Rough draft – Friday, April 12th
Works Cited – Friday, April 12th
Final Copy – Friday, April 19th

4. Choose a good topic that has these characteristics:
Interesting – holds your interest and that of your audience; it’s something you want to learn about
Manageable – you only have a limited amount of time and resources available, so choose a topic you can handle
Worthwhile – choose something of substance, something that matters
Original – a good topic is not just a rehashing (like Abe Lincoln’s childhood); a better topic is how books he read as a child influenced his political decisions

5. Avoid a poor topic with these characteristics:
Too broad – Ice Age is too broad; the role of the Ice Age in the formation of the Great Lakes is better
Too narrow – avoid a topic for which little information is available (metric cooking conversions is too narrow)

6. Avoid a topic that is:
Too trivial – every driver’s manual will name same laws of the road
Too subjective – you need to set personal preferences aside to respond objectively
Too controversial – hotly contested arguments can bog you down with information
Too familiar – you’ll be bored
Too technical – the research is difficult in itself; don’t try to learn a whole new language
Too factual – shouldn’t be a recitation of facts
Too new – may have insufficient research
Too regional – localized topics won’t have enough

7. How to narrow your topic:
Ask questions about the subject to generate more specific topics
Break the subject into smaller parts
Simplify a complex subject

8. Choose a topic that you can word into a question:
How did Jefferson affect American politics prior to his presidency?
How do the Amish differ from the Mennonites?
What elements are necessary in a landfill design to protect future generations?

9. Do preliminary reading/scanning to see if your topic will generate enough (or too much) information
Check out your topic in an encyclopedia (Infohio, Worldbook Advanced or an Internet encyclopedia)
Search your topic on the Internet (.net, .gov, and .org tend to be more reliable sites)
Check out your topic on Instagrok (topic and organization ideas)
Do a general search on Ebscohost, student research center – just look for magazine articles

10. Write a research question:
Reflects the purpose of your paper
Is a clear, focused, concise, complex and arguable question
How are online users experiencing or addressing privacy issues on such social networking sites as MySpace and Facebook?
What are common traits of those suffering from diabetes in America, and how can these commonalities be used to aid the medical community in prevention of the disease?
After research, you will answer your question in the form of a thesis statment

11. Things to keep in mind:
Your information should be current – avoid sources that are more than 5 years old
You need to reference at least six resource in your paper – find eight to give yourself leeway
Make an account on Ebscohost so you can save articles that look promising instead of printing everything out

12. Things to keep in mind:
On Infohio, check only magazine and tv shows at first
Log in to Student Research Center
Save promising articles to your folder
When you print an article, be sure to click the Citation Format and from pull down menu, select MLA
Create a word document Works Cited
As you print articles, copy and paste the citation into your Works Cited page and save
The citations are not always perfect; you will need to double check at OWL at Purdue

13. Note Cards
You need to make a source card for each of your resources (the citation and number each source)
You need to take notes on your research on notecards (follow guidelines for setting up a notecard)

14. Requirements: Research question – Monday, March 4th
Source cards – Friday, March 8th
Note cards, 1st check – Friday, March 15th
Thesis (your research question answered) – Friday, March 15th
More note cards – Friday, March 22nd
Outline – Wednesday, April 3rd
Rough draft – Friday, April 12th
Works Cited – Friday, April 12th
Final Copy – Friday, April 19th