ENGLISH II CP RESEARCH



English III Honors Research

argumentative essay

Purpose

An effective persuasive research paper...

➢ argues a clear, specific position on a debatable issue

➢ blends a variety of resources to support a position

➢ reinforces habits of ethical scholarship

Page Length: 5-7 pages

Earlier this year, you wrote a paper analyzing another author’s argumentative techniques and rhetorical devices. Now it is your turn to apply your persuasive skills by arguing your position on a current, relevant issue and supporting your position with research.

Step 1: Research proposal

The first step in our research process is to submit a typed research proposal explaining your top three choices for a topic. No more than two students per class may write on the same topic. For each of your top three choices, you must write a proposal including (1) The central question you would like to answer related to your topic (see my examples below), (2) what position you would like to take on each topic, and (3) any assumptions or prior knowledge you currently have on this issue.

Here are some sample argumentative questions:

--Should the federal government institute mandatory background checks for the purchase of firearms?

--Does the federal government have too much power to spy on its citizens?

--Should the U.S. government pass laws to limit carbon emissions?

--Should children of illegal immigrants be allowed to pay in-state college tuition?

--When is it acceptable for police officers to use deadly force?

--Should the Affordable Care Act be amended, strengthened, or repealed?

--Should the U.S. government send troops into Iraq and/or Syria to stop ISIS?

--Should the Electoral College be replaced with a popular vote system?

--Should members of Congress be subjected to term limits?

--Is it ever acceptable to torture a terrorist suspect?

Proposal Length: approximately 1 page

Step 2: Prewriting

The next step is to organize your ideas into a prewriting activity. See the handout on the Wheel of Reasoning and the questions that accompany this organizational strategy. When writing a persuasive research paper, the two most important components of the wheel are data, the research you will provide in your paper, and inferences, your commentary and conclusions you draw from the research. You will then input your writing into an outline.

Step 3: Rough draft for peer editing

After prewriting, you will need to compose a 5-7 page argument and bring a printed rough draft to class for peer-editing. After you’ve engaged in the peer-editing process, you may see me for individual writing conferences by signing up for a tutorial.

Incorporating Research

One of the most challenging steps in writing a research paper is to include and cite another author’s work without plagiarizing. There are three ways to cite another author’s work: summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting.

1. Summaries. A summary is a succinct synopsis of a large amount of research. Here is a sample summary of columnist Kathleen Parker’s article about students who fail:

Kathleen Parker argues that sometimes students need to fail in order to learn how to succeed. She sites two famous examples to prove her point: Steve Jobs and J.K. Rowling. Both of these successful entrepreneurs failed at different points in their lives, but they rebounded in a major way (Parker A8).

Summarized material needs to be documented with a source reference and page number when needed.

2. Paraphrasing. To paraphrase is to restate a smaller amount of research in your own words. For example, an original text reads:

“We’re so afraid our kids won’t measure up that we drive them crazy with overbooked schedules and expectations, and then create a sense of entitlement by assigning blame elsewhere when their performance is lackluster.”

To restate this in your own words you might say:

According to Parker, parents expect so much out of their kids, but they quickly blame others when their kids cannot meet the parents’ unreasonable expectations (Parker A8).

The second passage conveys the same message but in different words. Even when you paraphrase, however, you must give credit to the original author (see the citation above).

3. Direct quotations. When you determine that the original wording is the most effective way to convey the information, copy the piece word for word, comma for comma, using quotation marks. Use direct quotations carefully, and only quote stylistically interesting or thoughtful passages. I’ve quoted Parker word-for-word in the example below:

Mrs. Parker notes that everyone accumulates experiences for a resume, but she also adds, “Anyone with a resume of accomplishments also has a resume of failures, humiliations, and setbacks” (Parker A8).

You can see that part of Kathleen Parker’s style includes the use of antithesis and parallelism. I may have struggled to paraphrase this stylistic technique without plagiarizing it, so I chose to keep the exact words.

*Quotation tips:

--Do not quote dry facts, statistics, or obvious remarks. Save this type of research for paraphrasing and summarizing. Quote quotable quotes. (

Parenthetical Citations—MLA Format

As you use quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material from your sources, you must give credit at the end of each borrowed passage. The MLA stylebook uses parenthetical citations, which are the most widely used style in universities today.

The following are guidelines for using parenthetical citations:

1. The information in your parenthetical citation must correspond clearly to the source written up on the Works Cited page. Usually the author’s last name and the page number are enough to identify the source. A reference directly after a quotation follows the closing quotation mark.

Ex. …we appreciate why young children have often been called “linguistic geniuses” (Wiessbourd 128).

2. If, however, two separate sources written by Bernice Weissbourd appear on your Works Cited page, you must provide more specific information by listing the title of the source after the author’s name.

Ex. (Weissbourd, The Wonder of Language 128)

3. If you include the author’s name in the sentence, you need not repeat it in the parenthetical citation.

Ex. Weissbourd argued this point before (128).

4. If the article or book is unsigned, refer to the work by a shortened version of its title. It would be a mistake to refer to the whole title such as Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry in the citation; instead use the first word Glossary as that will be the first word entered in the Works Cited entry.

Ex. (Glossary 35)

5. If using books from the Bible, abbreviate them. For example, this means:

1 Chron. 21.8 or Rev. 4.6-8. When you use them in parenthetical citations, you must include the Bible’s title as it is on the Works Cited page and that is followed by the abbreviation.

Ex. (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10)

6. If what you quote or paraphrase is itself a quotation, put the abbreviation qtd. in (“quoted in”) before the indirect source you cite in the parenthetical citation.

Ex. (qtd. in Boswell 450)

7. If you wish to include two or more works in a single parenthetical citation, cite each work as you normally would in a reference, and use semicolons to separate the citations.

Ex. ( Fukuyama 42; McRae 101-33)

8. Make sure you have inserted your citation into the text in a manner that is readable and clear. The citation should appear as close as possible to the pertinent information and should fall where a pause would naturally occur in the sentence—at the end of the sentence, at the end of the clause, or at the end of the phrase containing the borrowed material.

9. The citation precedes the punctuation mark that concludes the sentence, the clause, or the phrase containing the borrowed information.

10. Do not include the word “page” or the abbreviation “p.” in the citation. No comma is needed after the author’s name or the name of the source.

Source Requirements—Minimum of Five (5) Sources

➢ at least 4 DISCUS database sources

➢ no more than 2 internet sources

➢ Another source of your choice. May include an interview, film or TV clip, magazine, newspaper, article, etc.

--YOU MAY NOT USE WIKIPEDIA FOR YOUR RESEARCH.

*I will be flexible with your source requirements if you are unable to find articles on DISCUS.

Step 4: Final draft submission

When you submit your final draft, you must also turn in all materials in the writing process, from the proposal to the final copy. The items should be bound by a clip in this order and turned in at the beginning of class:

1. Research paper grading rubric

2. Final draft of paper (hard copy and shared Google Doc copy)—Works Cited page included

3. Outline (formatted as instructed)

4. Edited rough draft(s)

5. Prewriting (Wheel of Reasoning)

6. Research proposal

7. This handout signed

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism will result in an automatic zero. You must write your own paper and not rely on a parent, sibling, or anyone else to do the work for you.

Important Dates

You should write down important due dates on the lines below.

_____________________________________________

Criteria Acknowledgement

I have read all of Mrs. Murphy’s criteria, and I know what this paper entails. I understand that if I need help, I should ask Mrs. Murphy. I know what she expects me to do in the process of this assignment

Signature Date

Honor Statement

I attest that all work I have turned in is mine. The ideas presented from research are properly cited. I did not rely on a parent, sibling, or anyone else to write this paper. I understand the plagiarism policy and the penalty for plagiarism.

Signature Date

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