Chapter 11. Developing Your Thesis Statement.

A thesis statement is simply your topic, what you intend to convey, and how you might convey the information and why. In most cases you will start off with making a thesis statement to help you start your research. This may change after dong some research. It is not a sin if you change or reword your original statement. Reasons on why you might change it up include better presentation of your topic, or a stronger, more valid approach to your audience. What is the purpose of writing the paper, and why might somebody be interested in your writing? These are questions to take into account when choosing a topic to write about. Sometimes picking a topic you know everything about can be a good thing and also a bad thing. If you know everything about your topic then you might not have the proper sources. What you think is common knowledge might not be the same as the audiences. Now if you are a physicist and you are writing to other highly intelligent physicist then you might assume they know exactly what you are talking about. But to a widely diverse college class you must assume they know nothing or very little about the topic at hand. When coming up with your thesis statement you might write it once or you might write it ten times. It is a very critical piece of your paper because it explains how you are going to bring across the message. Make sure it is not too broad and also not to narrow. Then back up the statement with valid research information on your topic.

Chapter 10. Searching for Information with Field Research Methods.

There are several ways of collecting information for your research paper. You may start by observing a certain topic such as behavior of a cheetah in the wild. First you need to decide if you need or want to take an observation. In a lot of cases this may be very helpful with your creation of the topic. Next you must plan your observation. Cheetahs don’t just roam the streets of Seattle hunting caribou. So plan to go on a trip if funds allow it, or simply watch Animal Planet! Then you need to conduct the observation followed by analyzing your results. Interviews can be a huge part of your research. If you somehow can get an interview with a cheetah expert then great, but chances are you might just talk to a zoo keeper. Either way an interview can bring you valuable information that you might not find online or in a book. Surveys are another way to portray what you are trying to get across in your paper. The only thing you need to do is make sure it is adding to your purpose. If the survey is about the number of people who think cheetahs are adorable, it might not help the purpose of the paper. Some topics may not have much research, such as giving a gift versus an experience as a present. In that situation you can survey people, observe what happens, and interview the correspondents of the gift giving. Which ever method you might use in your research, just make sure it adds to and doesn’t negatively affect your paper.

Chapter 7. Avoiding Plagiarism.

Using somebody else’s work as your own is plagiarism. In some cases you will unintentionally plagiarize by not properly acknowledging where the ideas or work originated from. This is the most common way to plagiarize because a lot of people do not think about it. In other cases people have been caught trying to pass on somebody else’s work as their own. This is the most serious form of plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Some students will purchase online a document that someone else has written, or patched together paragraphs from a few sources and failed to acknowledge the source. When you do something like this you intentionally are not trying to write your own information thus should receive the proper penalty. When you don’t take notes when doing your research you tend to forget where you learned some information. This makes it hard to give credit to the original source where the information came from. Plagiarism has also been found in group projects. If you get feed back from a group member you don’t necessarily have to give them credit for fixing a spelling error or rephrasing a single sentence. However, if the feedback they give you changes your writing significantly they you might want to give them some credit on the help. There are several ways to avoid plagiarism. Checking your works cited page; identify each quotation, paraphrase, and summary, check for appropriate in-text citation, include every source you used on the works cited, and check for changes in the writing style will help you avoid plagiarism. Make sure you writing your own ideas instead of copying some ones work. If you cant find a better way to word something the make sure you appropriately credit the person who wrote it in the first place.

Chapter 8. Searching for Information with Digital Resources.

Chapter 8 uses various pictures and diagrams to show you specific ways to use search engines such as Ebsco Host and Google. When you search sometimes what you type in can be too broad. On page 140 the book explains how to narrow your search. By putting parenthetical Quotations around certain words you indicate that the words between them should be treated as a phrase. example would be "Adolescent girls" "competitive sports". The search engine will then take the two phrases and search for a more narrowed search. When you are looking for a scholarly journal or peer reviewed document it is better to use Ebsco Host. Go into the advanced search and it lays out what you need to search in boxes. If your topic is Immigration and you want to know what advantages and disadvantages there might be then you would type Immigration to the top box and advantages and disadvantages into the next two boxes. The engine will then narrow the journals it brings up by what you typed in. This will give you a more direct answer or result to your search. You can also click other options such as full text, scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, publication, document type, and PDF full text. Google as well has an advanced search option that is very useful. I myself believe that Google's advanced search is a little bit easier to browse because of the layout. But the practical relation is the same as other engines such as Ebsco Host. Some other cites to check out might be Ask, Bing, and Yahoo.

Chapter 6. Managing information and taking notes

After you read chapter 6 you will be able to manage your information like a professional along with taking notes. You will learn exactly how to save and organize print and digital information. Learn why its important to take notes. Learn how you should take notes. How to create a bibliography or annotated bibliography. You need to take notes so that when you start your paper you can refer back to your notes as a reference. when you take notes you must choose a method that works and use it consistently. This helps with your organization skills. Quote directly from the source to show accuracy and credibility or the information. Paraphrase information in your own words to avoid plagiarism and to make it your own. if you are unable to paraphrase then summarize and cite your information. record your reflections and impressions to add emotion to your writing and to make the writing more personal. You must take notes to compare the information, ideas, and arguments in sources. Taking notes also helps to classify your sources and help plan your documents. Creating a bibliography will allow you to organize your sources. You must write a bibliography or annotated bibliography to cite your sources so that you give credit to the proper people. Taking notes and keeping organized will help you with any paper you choose to write.

chapter 3. Developing your research question and proposal

In this chapter the book covers how to take two major topics. How can I develop my research question, and How can I create a research proposal? There are four steps to developing my research question. The first of these is reflecting on your writing situation. As you research you will find more information on both sides of the topic. this will lead you to explain your side on the topic or could possibly change your mind on the topic. In this step you will also talk to others about your topic and take down the observations. In this step you will ask yourself many questions about the topic you chose and hopefully have a better understanding on the topic. Step to is to generate a list off questions about the issue you've decided to address. What is known and not known about the issue? what has occurred in the past that is relevant to an issue? what conclusions merited or not have writers and readers already made about an issue? What do the writers and readers involved in conversation about this issue want to see happen or not happen? And many more. Step three is how to craft questions that reflect your writing situation. Asking yourself what, why, when, where, who, how, why could would, and should are good starting points to this step. You must ask yourself these for every question you have or any point. If you can answer all these simple questions and continue writing then you should have a solid point. The final step is to refine your research question. To do this you must choose the research question that seems most likely to help you achieve your purpose as a writer and address the needs and interests of your readers. You can refine your research questions by using qualifying words and phrases to narrow its scope. After all of that is done you can now start to create a research proposal. Identify your topic, issue, and research question. provide a review of literature. Explain how you'll collect information. Identify relevant types of sources. Develop a project timeline. This step can be one of the most important parts of your paper. Compile a working or annotated bibliography. Clarify and elaborate on your core proposal, and last but not least evaluate the problems you may run into.

chapter 5. Evaluating sources.

In this chapter it explains how to evaluate your sources. Things to evaluate are; relevance, evidence, the author, the publisher, timeliness, comprehensiveness, and genre. You must also evaluate the relevance and credibility of digital sources, and the accuracy of field sources. Some questions you need to ask yourself when evaluating are; what style of writing does the genre use, how is evidence used, how is the genre organized, what citation style is used, and how is the document designed? This chapter explains in detail how to evaluate your sources to know whether or not your sources are credible and a good source to have. This chapter will help when choosing sources to cite in my works cited page.