Learning to Love

the Research Paper

Or at least learning to do it well!

MLA and APA Made Easy

The Academic Support Center
Mount Wachusett Community College

Table of Contents
1. Getting Started
2. The Importance of a First Draft
3. Doing Research
4. Bringing Research Into Your Paper
Quoting, Paraphrasing,
Summarizing
Avoiding Plagiarism
5. MLA-Style Documentation
6. APA-Style Documentation
7. Proofreading Strategies

Getting Started

Finding a Topic
Developing an Effective

Research Question

Finding a Topic

Write about what you know.

Whenever possible, seek out a research topic that

interests you and that you care about.

Aim to build on knowledge that you already have.

If the topic is assigned, try to develop an angle that

will interest you, then run the idea by your
instructor.

Why should you write about what you know?

Starting with your own views and opinions will

motivate you.

Writing about a topic familiar to you will help you to

ask the right questions.

If you care about the topic, you will care about your
paper.

Developing an Effective
Research Question

The best research papers begin with a

question because

Questions help you to find direction.

Questions help you to narrow your scope.

Be careful of questions that are too broad.

Make sure that your question is relevant to the

length of your paper.

Most students use research questions that are not

focused enough.

Too Broad:
---- What is Attention Deficit Disorder?

More Focused:
---- Is diet an effective treatment for
Attention Deficit Disorder?

The Importance of a First

Draft
Techniques to Help You Start Writing
Brainstorming
Freewriting
Clustering
Using

Drafts

Brainstorming
Before you begin doing any research, take some

time to brainstorm.

When you brainstorm, list everything that comes to

mind about your topic, all of your thoughts and

ideas, in the order in which they occur to you.

Let your mind free associate and make connections.

Write down everythingeven those things which

appear silly and unimportant at first.

Freewriting
Freewriting is nonstop writing. Set aside ten or

fifteen minutes, and write whatever comes to you

without thinking of word choice, spelling,
organization, etc.

Dont stop. Dont get in your own wayyou will

be surprised what gets down on paper.

Freewriting is similar to brainstorming, in that you

write what comes to you in the order it comes to

you. However, rather than a list of your ideas, you
develop your thoughts by having more of a
conversation with yourself.

Clustering
While brainstorming and freewriting are ways to

get information down on paper, clustering allows

you to begin to see relationships among ideas.
To cluster, put the main idea in the center of the

page, circle it, and list other sub-topics around it,

connecting ideas that belong together with lines.
The result looks a lot like a spiders web and will

do wonders when you being to organize your

paper.

Using Drafts
Most writers cannot sit down and, in one setting,

produce quality work. Most writers write in steps

or stages.

The first step is a rough draft. It is the get

down draftwhere you get down your ideas

onto paper. You do not need to worry yet about
spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.

This first draft is also called the discovery or

exploratory draft. Why? Because it is where you

explore your topic and discover what you want to
say about it.

 But, I hear you say to yourself

I dont know anything about my topicwhat can I
write about before I do research?
Think about this:
A good research paper comes from wanting to know
more about something.
A good research paper contains facts and quotes
and statisticsyes, but these have been integrated
with and filtered through the writers own ideas and
experiences.
A good research paper is not a fact-finding mission;
it is a synthesis of what you already know and what
you learn in the process of your research.
Most instructors assign topics that ask you to
examine a topic more deeply than a fifteen week
course can allow. Use class notes, lectures, and
textbooks as starting points for your early drafts.

 Brainstorming, Freewriting, Clustering, and

Using Drafts

These strategies help you to explore your topic

before you begin researching it.

They give you the opportunity to get your thoughts

down on paper without worrying about
organization, grammar, spelling, etc. (There will be
plenty of time to worry about these things when
you revise your later drafts.)

You can use all of these techniques or only one of

them.

 Whatever the technique you use, the goal is to

try to get all of your thoughts down on paper:

what you already know about your topic

what you want to know more about
why youve chosen the topic
questions you have
how you plan to answer those questions

You will be surprised how helpful this first draft

will be when you start to gather your research.

Doing Research
For this presentation, we do not have time to

discuss how to search for information on your

topic.
There is, however, one piece of advice that is

worth gold:

GO TO THE LIBRARY WHEN YOU ARE WRITING

A RESEARCH PAPER!

 Go to the colleges library, go to your local public

library, go to any library.

Librarians are great people who are there to help

you.
They can show you how to

search for books on your topics;

search for journal and magazine articles;
use reference materials;
access electronic data bases, such as EbscoHost
and Infotrac, using key word searches
evaluate web sites.

 Speaking of web sites Even if you have Internet

access on your home computer, you should still

visit a library. Lets play True or False.

The Internet has been called an information highway.

TRUE.

It is free.
It is vast.
It is democratic.
It is accessible 24 hours a day.
Anyone can post anything.

You can believe everything you read on the Internet .

FALSE.

The information highway known as the Internet has

potholes.
Anyone can post anything on the Internet.
There are no editors or experts reviewing the
material.
Yes, you can access legitimate sites like the
American Cancer Society or university research
centers, but you can also access pornography,
incorrect or misleading information, biased
opinions, and prejudiced information.

While the Internet may provide you with some

good information, your paper will be stronger for

having searched many different kinds of sources.

Bringing Research Into

Your Paper
Points to Remember
What Are Sources?
What Are Citations?
Quoting
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Avoiding Plagiarism

Points to Remember
(About Writing a Research Paper)
Writing a research paper is like writing any other

academic paper, with the difference that you are

bringing into your essay the words, ideas, and
theories of others, often experts in that field of
study.

In the process of writing your research paper, you

will learn a new set of vocabulary words and

concepts.

What follows is a list of these words/concepts

and their definitions. Becoming familiar with

them will help you in the research process.

What Are Sources?

A source is what you turn to for information

about your topic.

A source can include any of the following:

a book
a magazine or newspaper article
a scholarly journal article
a film, television show, or radio program
a web site
a personal interview
They generally fall under print sources, non-print

sources, and electronic sources.

Print Sources
A print source can be a periodical or a non-

periodical.

A periodical is a publication that is issued

periodically, such as any of the following:
a newspaper (The Boston Globe);
a magazine (Newsweek);
a journal (Journal of Naturopathic Medicine).

A non-periodical most often refers to a book.

Non-Print Sources
A non-print source can include, but is not limited

to, any of the following:

a television or radio program

a film
a personal interview
a class lecture
a recording

Electronic Sources
An electronic source can refer to a source found

on the Internet, such as a personal or

professional web site.
There are some electronic sources that originally

appeared in print form. These include articles

found on databases such as EbscoHost and
Infotrac and articles in newspapers and
magazines that publish on the web and in print.

What is a Citation?
When you bring research (quotations,

paraphrases, facts, statistics, etc.) into your

paper, you must give credit to the source and its
author(s).

Giving credit to a source is also called citing a

source.

You do this with in-text or parenthetical citations.

They are called parenthetical citations because

the bibliographic information goes inside
parentheses.

What to Cite
Quotations: Someone elses exact words,

enclosed in quotation marks.

The ideas, opinions, and theories of someone

elseeven if you restate them in your own words

in a paraphrase or summary.
Facts and statisticsunless they are common

knowledge and are accessible in many sources.

 Common Knowledge is information that can be

found in many sources and that no one can claim

owning. It is information that belongs to
everyone. Often, it is the stuff of encyclopedias.
Examples:

6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust.

The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.
The Civil War ended in 1865.

You may not have known this before you started

your research, but it is still common knowledge.

Often, you will encounter knowledge that is
common in your field of study, even if the general
population may not know it.

Quoting
When you quote, you borrow an authors exact

words.
Use a quotation when

the wording is so memorable or expresses a point so

well that you cannot improve or shorten it without
weakening it;

when the author is a respected authority whose opinion

supports your own ideas;

when an author challenges or disagrees profoundly with

others in the field.

Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is putting material (including major

and minor points) into your own words and

sentence structure.
You can paraphrase a theory, an idea, the results

of a study, or a passage in an original source, as

long as you use your own words to describe it.
A paraphrase is often the same length as the

original, but it is in your own words.

Example of a Paraphrase
Original Text (from James C. Stalker, Official English or English Only)
We cannot legislate the language of the home, the
street, the bar, the club, unless we are willing to set up a
cadre of language police who will ticket and arrest us if
we speak something other than English (21).

Paraphrase
Stalker points out that in a democracy like the United
States, it is not feasible to have laws against the use of
a language and it certainly would not be possible to
make police enforce such laws in homes and public
places (21).
Example taken from Pocket Keys for Writers
by Ann Raimes

Summarizing
Summaries are often less detailed than

paraphrases.

In a summary, you provide your reader with the

gist of the most important sources you find in your

own words.

Summaries give readers basic information and are

always in your own words.

When you include a summary in your paper,

introduce the authors name and/or the work.

What is Plagiarism?
It is fine to bring the words and ideas of other

writers into your paper.

However, when you do so, you must acknowledge

your debt to the writers of these sources.

If not, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious

academic offense.

The Most Egregious Form

The most blatant and egregious (bad or

offensive) form of plagiarism is putting your

name as the author of a paper you did not write.
The Internet has certainly made it easier for

students to find papers on any number of topics.

However, professors also know how to use the

Internet and are quite adept at searching the

same sites that students use.

The Subtle Forms

Other types of plagiarism are more subtle and

include any of the following:

failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;

failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks;

failure to put summaries and paraphrases into your own

words.

Most students who plagiarize are simply unaware of

the proper way to document sources in academic

writing.

Avoiding Plagiarism
In order to avoid plagiarism, be sure that you not

only give credit where credit is due, but that you

follow the appropriate formats, often either MLA
(Modern Languages Association) or APA
(American Psychological Association) styles of
documentation.
There are also several good publications

available with which students should be familiar.

They will be mentioned later in this presentation.

MLA Style Documentation

What is MLA?
How To Integrate Research Into the

Body of Your Paper

How to Create a Works Cited Page

What is MLA?
If you are writing a research paper in English,

foreign languages, or other humanities classes,

use MLA-style documentation.

MLA stands for the Modern Language

Association.

The MLA publishes the MLA Handbook for

Writing Research Papers. This book contains all

of the rules that govern MLA-style
documentation.

Most good English handbooks also include a

section on writing research papers. An
English handbook is a valuable resource for
any college student. The Academic Support
Center has copies for students to borrow.
Here are a few good ones:

The Everyday Writer, Lunsford and Connors

Keys for Writers, Ann Raimes
The Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers,
Jane E. Aaron
Rules for Writers, Diane Hacker
Rules of Thumb, Silverman, Hughes, and Weinbroer

Points to Remember
(About MLA-Style Documentation)
All written material (the body of your paper and

the Works Cited page) is double-spaced.

MLA-style has two main elements:

In-text Citations
Works Cited Page

 Use in-text citations in the body of your paper

when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or

use other borrowed material. Citations should
be as concise as possible, while still giving
readers enough information to find the full
bibliographic information on the Works Cited
page.
The Works Cited page is a separate page and

carries the heading Works Cited (or Work

Cited if you are using only one source). This
is where you list all of your sources, giving the
reader full bibliographic information.

 On the Works Cited page, sources are always

listed alphabetically by the authors last name.

If your source has no author, go by the first word of the

title to alphabetize.

When listing sources, indent every line after the

first line five spaces or one-half inch.

Underline book titles and web sites.

Use quotation marks around articles, stories,

poems, and essays.

Integrating Research
There are only two pieces of information that

need to go inside the parentheses of an in-text

citation:

the authors last name

the page number

This information refers readers to the full

bibliographic information on the Works Cited

page.

An in-text citation looks like this:

If there are two authors, give both last names:

(Jones and Nichols 18)

If there is no author, give the first word of the

title:

(Smith 165)

(Recent 23)

If there is no page number, give the paragraph

number:

(McKnight par. 10)

Examples
Many young women, from all races and classes,

have taken on the idea of the American Dream,

however difficult it might be for them to achieve it
(Sidel 19-20).
The adult mountain lion population in California is

now estimated at four to six thousand (Reyes and

Messina B1).

More Examples
In California, fish and game officials estimate that

since 1972 lion numbers have increased from

2,400 to at least 6,000 (Lion A21).

An article that appeared in Research Quarterly

states that, Their recovery process parallels the

steps taken by those recovering from other
afflictions (Russo par. 3).

Signal Phrases
Signal phrases help you to transition from your

words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.

With practice, you will learn how to integrate

research smoothly into your paper.

In most cases, it is preferable to include the

authors name in a signal phrase that precedes the

quote, fact, statistic, etc. Because the author is
already named, you need only list the page or
paragraph number in the parentheses.

Examples
The sociologist Ruth Sidels interviews with

young woman provide examples of what Sidel

sees as the impossible dream (19).
Michelle Russos article from Research Quarterly

states that Their recovery process parallels the

steps taken by those recovering from other
afflictions (par. 3).

 The following signal phrases are good examples

of ways you can introduce the findings of your

research in your paper:

According to

In the words of

In a recent study by

Current research proves that

 Avoid overusing the verb said in your paper.

Here is a list of strong, active verbs that you can

use in your signal phrases.

You can write that someone

acknowledges, adds, admits, or agrees

argues, asserts, claims, or comments

confirms, believes, declares, or implies

insists, notes, observes, or points out,

reports, states, theorizes, or writes

 Often in your research you will encounter quotes,

facts, statistics, etc. that are written by someone

other than the author of the piece you are
reading. Use the following format:

We generate words unconsciously, without thinking

about them; they appear, as James Britton says, at
the point of utterance (qtd. in Smith 108).

We only used seven signs in his presence, says

Fouts. All of his signs were learned from the other
chimps at the laboratory (qtd. in Toner).

NOTE: On the Works Cited page give the

bibliographic information for the source you read,
not the source quoted fromsince you havent read
that.

Creating a Works Cited

Page
A Works Cited page contains the full

bibliographic information to which you have been

referring in the body of your paper.

The Work Cited page is

the last page of your paper

double-spaced

alphabetized

 There are many different ways to cite sources on

your Works Cited page, depending on whether

your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.

You are not expected to memorize each way; you

are expected to know how to find the format you

need for your particular source.

Once you find the format, follow it to the letter. Do

not add information not in the example.

The following is an example of a Works Cited

page. (On the left is the name of the kind of

source; this is only to help you in the presentation
and does not appear on your Works Cited page.)

Works Cited
work from
an anthology
with a
translator

Allende, Isabel. An Act of Vengeance. Trans. E.D. Carter, Jr.

Literature and Its Writers. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel
Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2001. 66-71.

on-line
professional
site

Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Laura E. Hunt

and William Barek. May 1998. U of Toronto. 11 May 1999
<http://citd.scar/index.html>.

anon. article in a
magazine

The Decade of the Spy. Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.

article in a journal
that pages issues
separately

Hallin, Daniel C. Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections,

book two
authors

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:

1968-1988. Journal of Communication 49.2 (1992): 5-24.

U of Chicago P, 1980.

Works Cited

article in a
newspaper

Navarro, Mireya. Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building. New

York Times 13 July 2001: A1+.

journal article
with continuous
pagination (from
a database)

Russo, Michelle Cash. Recovering from Bibliographic Instruction

Blahs. RQ: Research Quarterly 32 (1992): 178-83. Infotrac:
Magazine Index Plus. CD-Rom. Information Access. Dec.
1993.

book one
author

Sidel, Ruth. On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the

American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990.

on-line
professional
site with author
interview

Spanoudis, Steve. Poets Corner. 2 Feb. 1998. 4 Feb. 1998

<http://www. geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems>.
Zacharias, Peter. Personal Interview. 23 Nov. 2001.

 While this presentation attempts to give a brief

introduction to MLA, it cannot cover all aspects of

it.

If you still have questions, it is best to consult the

MLA Handbook for Writers, which is available in

the Academic Support Center, or any of the
English handbooks mentioned in this
presentation.

You can also visit MLAs web site at

http://www.mla.org/. Click on MLA-Style.

APA-Style Documentation
What is APA?
How To Integrate Research Into the

Body of Your Paper

How to Create a References Page

What is APA?
If you are writing a paper for the sciences or

social sciences, follow APA-style documentation.

APA stands for the American Psychological

Association. This organization publishes the The

Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, which offers complete
guidelines for manuscript style and citation in
APA.

The MWCC library and the Academic Support

Center have copies of this manual.

 Many of the English handbooks mentioned earlier

in this presentation also carry information about

APA.
This presentation condenses the most important

elements of APA and illustrates how to document

commonly used sources.
If you still have questions after this presentation,

consult the APA manual or check out their web

site at http://www.apastyle.org/.

Points to Remember
(About APA-Style Documentation)
All written material (the body of your paper and

the list of references) is double-spaced.

APA-style requires parenthetical or in-text

citations in the body of your paper when you

quote, paraphrase, summarize, or use other
borrowed material.
These parenthetical citations correspond to the

full bibliographic entries on the reference page at

the end of your paper.

 The reference page is a separate page and carries

the heading References. This is where you list

your sources, alphabetically.
When listing sources, indent every line after the

first line five spaces or one-half inch, as shown in

the upcoming examples.
Capitalize only the first word of an article title and

of the subtitle (if any) and all proper names.

On the references page, do not underline the title

of an article or place quotation marks around it.

 Capitalize significant words in the title of a

journal.
Underline or italicize journal titles and volume

numbers.
Capitalize only the first significant word and only

proper names within book titles.

Capitalize the first significant word of the subtitle

(if any) of a book.

Underline book titles.

Integrating Research
With APA, there are generally two pieces of

information that need to go inside the parentheses

of an in-text citation:

the authors last name

the year the article, book, research, etc. was published

If giving a direct quote, include also the page number.

The information in the parentheses refers readers

to the full bibliographic information on the

References page.

 Why give the year of publication in the

parenthetical citations for APA?

In the sciences and social sciences, current research is

valued highly; therefore, the year that the research was
conducted is important to note in the body of your
paper.

In the humanities, which follows MLA-style

documentation, current research is certainly valued;
however, criticism of a piece of literature, for example
an essay by T.S. Eliot on Hamlet (written nearly a
century ago), can still be of value to a researcher.

A basic in-text citation of a direct quotation

looks like this:

If there is no page number, give the paragraph

number:

(McKnight, 2000, para. 10)

For a paraphrase or summary, follow this (note

that there is no page number given):

(Davis, 1978, p. 26)

(Davis, 1978)

If there are two authors when paraphrasing,

give both last names:

(Jones & Ellis, 1996)

If there are three to five authors, list all

authors:

Note: For the first reference to a study with

more more than two authors, list all authors.
For all subsequent references, include only the
surname of the first author, followed by et al.

(Levy, Bertrand, Muller, Viking, & Majors, 1997)

(Levy, et al., 1997)

If there is no author, give the first word of the

title:

(Strange Encounter, 1997)

Examples
If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling

for linguists, it was also startling news for animal

behaviorists (Davis, 1978, p. 26).

As Davis (1978) reported, If the existence of a

signing ape was unsettling for linguists, it was also

startling news for animal behaviorists (p. 26).

According to Davis (1978), when they learned of an

apes ability to use sign language, both linguists

and animal behaviorists were taken by surprise.

Important to Note
In the first example on the previous page, the

authors name was included in the parentheses

because it was not mentioned when introducing
the quotation.

In the second example, the author was mentioned

when introducing the quotation; therefore, only

the page number needed to be given in the
parentheses.

The third example was a paraphrase of the

original quotation. (No page number was needed

in the parentheses.)

More Examples
Patterson and Linden (1981) agreed that the

gorilla Koko acquired language more slowly than

a normal speaking child.

Researchers found a marked improvement in the

computer skills of students who took part in the

program (Levy, Bertrand, Muller, Viking, & Majors,
1997).

Several studies provide support for the idea that

spanking is not an effective method of

disciplining preschool aged children (Kames,
1983; Miller, 1977; Smith, 1993; Tower, 1988).

Signal Phrases
As with MLA-style documentation, it is helpful to

the reader if you introduce a quotation or other

piece of research with a signal phrase.
Signal phrases help you to transition from your

words and ideas to the words and ideas of others.

The same signal phrases and active verbs

mentioned earlier in this presentation work well for

both MLA and APA styles.

 Often in your research you will encounter the

quotes, facts, statistics, etc. of someone other

than the author of the piece you read. Give the
name of the author(s) of the work when you
introduce the information, and give the
secondary source in the parenthetical citation:

Seidenberg and McClellands study (as cited in

Coltheart, Curtis, & Haller, 1993) indicates that

NOTE: On the References page, you will include

the bibliographic information of the source you read,
not the original sourcesince you didnt read the
original.

Creating a References
Page
A References page contains the full

bibliographic information to which you have been

referring in the body of your paper.
The References page is

the last page of your paper

double-spaced

alphabetized

 There are many different ways to cite sources on

your References page, depending on whether

your source is a book, an article, a web page, etc.

You are not expected to memorize each way; you

are expected to know how to find the format you

need for your particular sources.

Once you find the format, follow it to the letter. Do

not add information not in the example.

The following is an example of a References

page. (On the left is the name of the kind of

source; this is only to help you in the presentation
and does not appear on your References page.)

Reference

journal article
one author

Bekerian, D. A. (1993). In search of the typical eyewitness. American

Psychologist, 48, 674-576.

journal article
five authors
from a
database

Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L.
A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449.
Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database.

book with
editors

Fox, R. W., & Lears, T. J. J. (Eds.). (1993). The power of culture:

Critical essays in American history. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.

online document
private
organization
no date

Greater New Milford (Ct) Area Healthy Community 2000. Task Force
on Teen and Adolescent Issues. (n.d.) Who has time for a family
meal? You do! Retrieved October 5, 2000, from http//:www.family
mealtime.org

References

corporate
author

National Head Start Association. (1990). Head Start: The nation's

pride, a nation's challenge. Report of the Silver Ribbon Panel.
Alexandria, VA: Author.

report from
govt printing
office

National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training in

serious mental illness (DHHS Publication No. ADM 90-1679).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

daily newspaper article,

no author

New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart failure.

journal article
two authors

Odom, S. L., & McEvoy, M. A. (1990). Mainstreaming at the

(1993, July 15). The Washington Post, p. A12.

preschool level: Potential barriers and tasks for the

field. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 10 (2), 4861.

References
magazine
article

book, one
author

Posner, M.I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science, 262,
673-674.
Shaller, G.B. (1993). The last panda. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
Sleek, S. (1996, January). Psychologists build a culture if

online
newspaper
article

peace. APA Monitor, pp. 1, 33 [Newspaper, selected

stories on line]. Retrieved January 25, 1996, from the
World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/monitor/peace.html
The Times Atlas of the World (9th ed). (1992). New York:

unknown
author, book

Times Books.

Proofreading Strategies
How to Make Your Paper Perfect (or at least your

best work)

Time
Patience
Will
Time
Patience
Will
Time
Patience
Will

Time
Proofreading takes time.

There is no way around it. Once you have begun to

finalize your paper, you need to give yourself ample
time to read it over (and over) again.

Proofreading is another kind of writing. It is not as

creative, perhaps, as brainstorming or developing
your ideas, but it is still a part of the writing process.

Reading your paper one time through is not

adequate proofreading.

Here are some tips.

 Dont wait until the night before a paper is due to

proofread it; you wont be allowing yourself

enough time to correct it.
Always correct a hard (paper) copy of your essay;

you will catch things on paper that you cant on

screen.
Read through your papernot for meaning but

for clarity and presentation.

Youve already developed meaning in earlier drafts

proofreading is about making sure that your meaning
is clear.

 Decide on the areas that you should pay attention

to. For instance

Punctuation

Spelling

In-text citations

For each of these areas, read through your paper

at least once, paying attention to only one area at

a time.

 Go back to the computer after several readings

and make corrections on the screen.

Print out another clean copy.
Ask a friend, parent, or tutor, to be a second set

of eyes.

This is not cheating; it is common sense.

Even great writers get help.

 Read the paper backwards, sentence by

sentence.

Sounds crazy?

It works.

Out of context, sentences with problems stand out in

ways they dont when you are reading along for
meaning.

Patience
Does this method sound like a lot of work?
It is.
Have patience with yourself. The more you write

the better writer you will become. You will make

less mistakes and get better at catching the
inevitable ones.

Hey, were human; we all make mistakes

occasionally. However, skillful proofreading

eliminates many of the most common mistakes.

Will
Writing (even a research paper) is a craft.
Mastering the craft requires practice and hard

work.

Most of the mistakes that students make are

made out of carelessness. Once the mistake is

pointed out, they know hot to fix it and why its
wrong.

Those students who take the time are able to

produce polished final drafts that reflect

intelligence, thoughtfulness, care, and hard work
qualities professors and future employers
value.

Confucius says
I hear, and I forget.
I see, and I remember.
I do, and I understand.
The more you writethe more research
papers you writethe easier writing will
be and the better writer you will become.
This is the truth!
Good luck!