Marking and Color-Coding your Research Paper



Give your paper another look… then revise it like crazy

Completing this activity will help you catch your mistakes in your first draft… Do you have too much borrowed information? Are your topic sentences in the wrong place? Do you have enough transitions?

You’ll need thin markers or colored pencils in the following colors:

Green Blue Orange Red Yellow

Complete the following steps on your completed rough draft:

1. GREEN Underline your thesis statement. (Should be the last sentence in your intro paragraph).

Underline each topic sentence. (Should be the first sentence in each body paragraph).

2. BLUE Underline ALL information you borrowed from another source —everything that you took from your note cards/articles. Everything that is:

a. Common knowledge

b. Quoted word-for-word (should have a citation at the end of the sentence)

c. Paraphrased into your own words (should have a citation at the end of the sentence)

3. ORANGE Underline the citation/source in parentheses at the very end of the sentence of the borrowed information – both quotes and paraphrases. For example: (History of Hip Hop 7B).

4. RED Underline ALL the words, phrases, and sentences you used to describe, explain, or further expand on the borrowed information you just underlined in blue. These are YOUR words and ideas that help the reader make sense of the quote just before it and tie it smoothly to the next detail/note in the paper.

5. YELLOW Mark/underline ALL the transitions you used. Remember that transitions can be in the beginning, middle, and end of sentences and paragraphs. Transitions can also be more than one word long.

CONCLUSION: Mark it like we did in class yesterday:

PARAGRAPH Background info = blue

Concerns = red

Solutions = green

Powerful last words = black

← WHAT DID YOU DO WELL? WHAT MISTAKES DID YOU MAKE?

FIX THE MISTAKES IN YOUR PAPER.

Use the checklist on the back of the rubric to

help you revise and perfect your final draft.

DUE Monday, May 16th:

• Self-scored rubric with your name on it (duh)

• Perfect, clean copy of research paper—revised from rough draft… and I mean REVISED.

• Clean copy of works cited (print off NoodleTools) – be sure EACH source in your paper is listed in your works cited page

• Marked up rough draft

Checklist and Formatting Guidelines for the Research Paper

You MUST complete ALL the steps that led up to the final draft—most importantly the thesis statement, note cards, and outline – before you can submit your final draft of your research paper.

Staple, in this order:

• Self-scored rubric with your name on it (duh)

• Perfect, clean copy of research paper—revised from rough draft… and I mean REVISED.

• Clean copy of works cited (print off NoodleTools) – be sure EACH source in your paper is listed in your works cited page

• Marked up rough draft

FYI – Revised means that you made major changes and improved the first draft. Not just fixing commas and periods and capital letters. I mean really revised it and made it better. Fixed citations that were wrong. Added more of your own ideas between borrowed information. Broke up paragraphs that were too long. Fixed topic sentences to better fit your information within the paragraph.

Format

• 12 point Arial font

• Name in upper right hand corner

• Title, centered, twelve point font—no title page

• Double-spaced , no headings above each par.

• No extra spaces in between each paragraph

• One-inch margins

Content (use this checklist as you revise)

Intro paragraph has:

□ Hook

□ Information that narrows to the thesis

□ Thesis statement from pink sheet

Each body paragraph (at least three) has:

□ Topic sentence at beginning of each paragraph

□ Quotes AND paraphrases from your notecards… aim for about 3-4 facts per paragraph

□ Citation information (Name pg) at the end of EACH fact that you took from your sources/note cards—you must have a citation after each paraphrase and each direct quotation. Use the chart below to help you create your citations:

|If you know the: |Then the citation at the end of |

| |that sentence looks like this: |

|Author’s last name & page number of a book/article |(Rotar 21). |

|Author’s last name from a website article, but no page number |(Smith). |

|No author’s name, but a title and page number from an article |(Teens Spurn Blogging 8A). |

|No author’s name, no page number, but a title |(Blogs and Online Predators). |

□ Each direct quotation must have quotation marks around it and must be the exact wording from the article

□ Explanation after EACH fact you borrowed

□ Transition words that move the reader between ideas

Conclusion paragraph has:

C4 transition – one that signals the conclusion

Restatement of all three main topics (B, C, and S)

Powerful ending that leaves the reader thinking

Other things to look for when revising:

□ You’ve balanced:

-- The number of times you used each source

-- The number of note cards you have in each each section (B, C, and S)

-- The number of times you quote vs. paraphrase

□ Don’t use quotes that are way too long — each quote should be no more than 2 ½ – 3 lines in length

□ No first person pronouns (I, me, my, we, us, you) unless in a direct quotation

□ Each source you cite in your paper must be listed in your works cited page

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