How to Write a Term PaperChoose a TopicCrafting a ThesisEvaluate Your Thesis and SourcesA Variety of Information SourcesTake Efficient NotesBegin and Organize a Research PaperParenthetical DocumentationPrepare a Works Cited PageDraft and Revise a Research PaperWorks Cited in this GuideHow to Write a Term PaperThis guide is designed to support you as you use electronic and print resources to:- choose a topic p.2 - craft a thesis p.4- evaluate thesis and sources p.6- identify a variety of information sources p.7- take efficient notes p.11- begin and organize a research paper p.15- use parenthetical documentation p.18- prepare a Works Cited page p.19- draft and revise a research paper p.21All steps of the research process will be illustrated by examples that follow the creation of a research paper exploring Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. You will be able to track the development of a thesis from initial questions asked during the reading of Beloved to the documentation of material researched to develop that thesis. First, a definition of terms: 1. Research a. "The purpose of research is not simply to retrieve data, but to participate in a conversation about it" (Brent 109). In addition to being a scholarly investigation, research is a social activity intended to create new knowledge. b. Because your purpose is to create new knowledge while recognizing those scholars whose existing work has helped you in this pursuit, you are honor bound never to commit the following academic sins: 1) Plagiarism: Literally "kidnapping," involving the use of someone else's words as if they were your own (Gibaldi 6). To avoid plagiarism you must document direct quotations, paraphrases, and original ideas not your own. 2) Recycling: Rehashing material you already know thoroughly or, without your professor's permission, submitting a paper that you have completed for another course. 3) Premature cognitive commitment: Academic jargon for deciding on a thesis too soon and then seeking information to serve that thesis rather than embarking on a genuine search for new knowledge. 2. Literary Researcha. Literary research is your response to the questions that you ask while experiencing the world the author or poet has created. These questions may concern such elements as character, style, setting, theme, or literary movement. b. Your original text, the literary work you have studied first hand, is called the primary source. Those works that present information as well as the opinions and ideas of other scholars are called secondary sources. c. During literary research, you return again and again to the primary source to choose the material you wish to discuss, or to compare and contrast to other authors or works. You also return to the primary source to evaluate the critical statements of literary scholars. Choose a Topic"Do not hunt for subjects, let them choose you, not you them."— Samuel Butler1. Choosing a topic is the first step in the pursuit of a thesis. Below is a logical progression from topic to thesis: a. Close reading of the primary text, aided by a reading journal b. Growing awareness of interesting qualities within the primary text c. Choosing a topic for research d. Asking productive questions that help explore and evaluate a topic e. Creating a research hypothesis f. Revising and refining a hypothesis to form a working thesis 2. First, and most important, identify what qualities in the primary source pique your imaginationand curiosity, and send you on a search for answers. This process of identification can be facilitated through the use of the reading journal. a. A reading journal is a permanent record of your immediate and candid responses to a piece ofliterature. b. In your journal, record spontaneously those quotations, ideas, questions, observations, and associations that move you, the reader. Also record the page where you can later find the source of your responses. c. Excerpts from a journal kept while reading Toni Morrison's Beloved:p. 3: "124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom." Why is the house identified as a number? And where did the baby venom come from? "Baby venom" interesting oxymoron! Why is 124 never referred to as a home? Sethe's sons have fled the house because it "committed" some horror. The house sounds scary. A woman's identity is often so tied up with her home that I wonder what Morrison is implying about Sethe. on p. 4: when she refers to the house's "Outrageous behavior":for example, it "turned-over slop jars ... and [emitted] gusts of sour air." Drivers whip their horses when they pass 124. Clearly outsiders are also afraid. Like Shirley Jackson's Hill House or Poe's House of Usher, 124 seems to be "vile." Note: This journal entry reflects the reader's growing interest in the house itself. A possible topic? 3. Below is a brief description of productive questions asked by critical thinkers. Each question is followed by a definition and a response. These kinds of questions may be used to explore and evaluate a topic. a. Knowledge: Who, what, when, where, how. Question: Where is 124 located? Response: 124 Bluestone Road is in Ohio, on the route taken by fleeing slaves. b. Comprehension: Awareness of a work's organization and pertinent ideas and facts. Question: Why is Sethe's story told in bits and pieces rather than in clear chronological order? Response: Sethe tells a sliver of memory and then retreats from the pain of remembering. The reader has to wait for the story of Sweet Home, where she lived as a slave, and of 124 to unfold gradually. Beloved calls these memories Sethe's "diamonds," an implication of her place in Sethe's past and of the value of memories. c. Analysis: Separation of the whole into parts. Question: Why are there so many seemingly disconnected female voices? Response: There seems to be a variety of female voices in Beloved: Sethe's, the living black community's, and dead slaves'.... I wonder how the voices will join and how they will affect life at 124. d. Synthesis: Combining those parts into a meaningful whole. Synthesis is especially effective when it results in new insights. Question: Are the voices in the yard of 124, those voices that wash over Sethe, the combined voices of all black women in the novel? Have they come to save her and exorcise the horror from124?Response: p. 261: "... the voices of women searched for the right combination, the key, the code,the sound that broke the back of words. ... It broke