research paper
Alcohol
Should the U.S. lower the drinking age to 18?
1500-1800words
The following are some more things you should focus on while writing the research paper.
1. Do not let the sources write the paper. Ever. The essay is your essay. Use sources to help build your ideas, argument. Bring in experts, people with experience, as correlatives and to provide emphasis—to strengthen and legitimize the material.
2. Try to cite at least one source per page. Two would be preferable. Three works, but getting a bit close to losing your voice to the sources, especially if they are of any length…
3. Consider using integrated, non-integrated, and block quotes. Integrated quotes flow with the essay. They become part of the paragraph and use the source in the sentence:
Art cinema is akin to Hollywood cinema and derives its very essence fro the Hollywood system. “Historically,” Susan Hayward writes in Key Concepts in Cinema Studies, “art cinema was not intentionally devised as a counter–Hollywood cinema, even though its production is clearly not associated with Hollywood” (10). *I do not write (Hayward 10) because I’ve already mentioned her and book—only requires page #.
In a non-integrated quote, where we do not mention the author or book in the paragraph, we cite the source as follows: (Hayward 10). A “non-integrated” quote simply uses the material followed by a parenthetical citation: “Historically, art cinema was not…” (Hayward 10)
Block quotes [4 or more lines requires block quoting] are as follows:
Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake is indeed difficult to the point of being impenetrable. John Bishop, in his introduction to the Penguin edition of Finnegan’s Wake, writes,
———————————————————————————————
———————————————————–. (Bishop 5)
*note how unlike integrated, in block quotations, the period precedes the parenthetical box.
4. Magazine and newspaper articles, essays, short stories [if they are part of a collection] receive quotation marks [e.g., Tom Wolfe’s article, “Pornoviolence,” gets to the root of tabloid journalism…Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” points out the dominion of nature…] whereas books are always underlined [see above].
5. If you’ve already mentioned a book or article in the essay, simply quote the page # next time you quote the source: “quote” (Blake 10). “quote” (14). “quote” (17); but if you use another source (White 14) in between, you will need to cite Blake again next time you quote him: “quote” (Blake 22).
6. When you omit something from a quotation, signal the omission with three spaced periods [ellipses] surrounded by brackets: “It is difficult to know […] simply how James Joyce did it.”
7. Common knowledge does not require a source citation [“Of course only one president actually managed to hold office more than three times in a row: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”]
8. You must acknowledge all material quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from any published or unpublished work. Failing to cite a source, deliberately or accidentally, is PLAGIARISM—presenting as your own work the words or ideas of another. A quote is a quote—verbatim.
9. A paraphrase is a restatement of words in about the same number of words. These words are also your own. Paraphrase can help you restate difficult material more simply.
10. A summary is a concise restatement, shorter than the original source. Helps avoid needless details.
