Documented Argumentative Paper

Overview

Since we will be killing two birds with one stone on this paper, the directions will be more involved and detailed. As a result, for you to be successful, you will need to follow these directions very closely. If you do, you will find that writing this kind of paper will be easier than you ever thought that it could be. I know that many of you have experience with writing research papers in high school and had to complete note cards and bibliography cards and all that. Who has time for all that? I’m going to show you how to streamline the process. There will be a few things that you will need though.

Materials:

Highlighter

PJC Student ID

Duo Tang Notebook to keep your research together and submit your research and essay for grading.

Reading:

Steps to Writing Well pp 355-406

The problem that most students encounter when writing a researched paper is that they tend to rely on the quotes to speak for them rather than using the quotes to substantiate their argument. Yes, there is a difference. This step-by-step process helps you avoid that tendency.

Finally, because the purpose of the paper and your role as the writer are different than they traditional researched paper, your topic selection is going to be critical. The traditional research paper in high school is designed for you to learn something about your topic and record your learning in the essay—it’s an informative essay. In an informative essay, the research is used to prove that you have learned something. In college, the expectation is different. You will be expected to have enough knowledge of the topic to be able to formulate an opinion about it. As a result, the research substantiates your argument by showing that other, more learned individuals share your opinion. Consequently, as you consider topics, think of things that you know something about. Don’t choose a topic that you have limited experience or knowledge of.

We have already completed steps 1-3 with the problem solution meets causal analysis essay.

Step 1: Choose a topic. Remember that it should be something that you know something about and aren’t researching and learning about for the first time.

Step 2: Decide on a working thesis statement. Your working thesis statement is one that is not carved in stone but is able to change as you write your paper. You may decide that your thesis is too broad for the length of the paper, so you will have to narrow it. Or you may find that your opinion changed a bit and so then you would need to refine your thesis. Hence, we call this preliminary thesis statement a “working” thesis statement.

Step 3: Write a position paper. And now you are wondering what exactly is a position paper? Never fear—I won’t leave you hanging long. A position paper is just what the name implies—It’s an essay in which you present your position on a given subject. In other words, it’s an argumentative essay and it will become the foundation of your research paper. Your position paper should be 3-5 pages in length, have an effective introduction which ends with your working thesis statement, a well-developed body which has a recognizable organizational pattern, and an effective conclusion. I will grade your position paper based on the aforementioned areas.

Step 4: Do research. I’ll give you the class period and be available to help you with research issues on Mon 12/3. During that time, I will show you time saving tips concerning efficiently finding what you need when you need it and the various resources available to you. You'll need to find 10-12 articles that deal with your topic in some way. The articles can be historic in nature--provide an overview of the problem, discuss solutions that have not worked in the past, suggest a new solution that has yet to be tried. If I were doing research, I would find articles evenly distributed among the sections of the paper.

Step 5: Prepare an annotated bibliography using the 10-12 sources that you found during your library research time. An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list by author (if the article has not author, use the first word of the title and place it in the list in the appropriate alphabetical spot) of sources that you might possibly use in your research paper. The Each entry has an annotation, or brief summary (2-3 sentences), that explains what the article is about and why it might be useful to you in your paper as you develop your argument. Here are sample annotated bibliography entries:

Prager, Emily. "Our Bodies, Ourselves." The Bedford Reader. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy Kennedy, Jane Aaron. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2000. 288-290.

This article deals with the ways Barbie dolls have influenced generations of women’s body images. She presents such arguments as the emasculation of Ken, Barbie’s disproportionate, unrealistically shaped body, and points out that some could even consider her a liberated woman.

Sontag, Susan. "Women's Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?." 75 Readings: An Anthology. Ed. Santi Buscemi, Charlotte Smith. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. 91-94.

Sontag argues that it is virtually impossible to be considered beautiful and effective or competent at the same time. She points out that women, who are traditionally seen as the weaker sex are the only ones that can be described as beautiful. In addition she looks to Christianity as a source of the dichotomy between outward and inward beauty.

The above entries are color coded for a purpose. The information in gold is the bibliographic information. Bibliographic information is the road map, if you will, that leads someone else to be able to find the exact same information that you did in putting together you paper. It includes the author's name, title of the article, where it was published originally, the place of publication, date of publication, etc. To make your life much easier, there is a website that will help you make sure that you have the bibliographic information properly formatted: http://citationmachine.net/. You will choose "MLA." Click on "(more resources)". Then Choose "Work from a Subscription Service Accessed through a Library - one or more authors." At this point you will get a form to fill-out. Include as much information as possible from the articles and then click "submit." The information you provide will be automatically formatted and all you have to do is copy and paste it into your word processing program and make it look like the sample one I have given you.

Step 6: Integrate your research into your position paper as you revise and hone your argument using the proper documentation format. I will show you exactly how to do that as we progress through the assignment. There are three ways that you can integrate source material into your essay.

1. Summary: You can summarize one or more than one article. This is particularly useful when you are providing an overview of an issue. In a summary, you hit the high points of the author or authors' argument. At the end of the summary, you provide a parenthetical citation like this:

One article by one author: (Jones)

One article by more than one author: (Jones, Smith, Wesson)

More than one article: (Jones; Smith; Wesson)

Notice the difference in punctuation. Commas between the names means that they authored the same article; semi-colons different articles

2. Paraphrase: In a paraphrase, you put something the author said in your words, changing not only the vocabulary but also the sentence structure of the original. In other words, you can't just plug-in a few synonyms and call it a paraphrase. At the end of your paraphrase, you also need a parenthetical citation as with a summary.

3. Direct quotation: When you find a statement or statements that perfectly fit your argument and help support your position, you would copy that information word for word in to your paper placing quotation marks (" ") around that information and a parenthetical citation at the end.

As you begin to integrate source material into your essay, you need to think of it as adding a new paragraph to your essay. You wouldn't just stick a new paragraph in your essay without making sure that it makes sense where it is placed and that it doesn't interrupt the flow of the essay. You make sure to use transitions and show how it is connected to what is being said at that point in the essay. The same is true with source information. You have to integrate into your essay rather than just picking a place an plopping it in. So here are the steps you should follow in incorporating source material into your essay:

Introduce the source material in some way. You can suggest what the reader is supposed to get from the source information. If it is the first time that you are using a source, include the author's name and the title of the work in your introduction. Here's a sample:

John Jones argues that 16 is to young to receive a drivers permit in "Sweet Sixteen and a Deadly Killer." He points out that "due to emerging brain research, it has been proven that the part of the brain that controls impulses is not fully developed in 16 year-olds" (15). Because a person at sixteen is more impulsive than a 21 year old, we should consider issuing graduated drivers licenses which give drivers increasing responsibility and privileges as a driver.

The garnet portion is the introduction of the quotation (your text calls this portion a signal phrase). It sets the reader up for the quote. The purple portion is the actual information from the source material. Notice that the number in the parentheses comes before the period and it is the page number that the information can be found on. Most of your articles will not have page numbers, so the author's last name, if there is one, or the title of the article should go in the parentheses. Finally, the information in blue is the transition back into your argument from the source information.

In addition you will need to include a works cited page. A works cited page alphabetically lists only those articles that you included information from in your essay in the proper format. Again, I will show you where to find that information and how to use it. Information concerning integrating research and documenting research can be found on the following pages in the following textbooks.

Steps to Writing Well pp 355-406

Notate Bene: When you turn in your final draft, you will turn in everything—your position paper, copies of your research, final draft of your essay. Part of your grade, as you will see from the following rubric, will be for the process. In other words, did you successfully follow the directions?