The Research Paper: Finishing Details English B1A The Research Paper: Finishing Details

Creating a Title When you have finished a draft of your research paper, you’ll want to give your paper a creative title. Ideally, your title will reflect your narrowed topic and your stance on that topic. You can lengthen your title by including a colon after the introductory phrase followed by a more thorough, descriptive title. Here is what my MA thesis was titled "He shall never know how I love him" : An Analysis of the Problem of Perception in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights It should be catchy and invite your reader in. It should NOT be “Rough Draft” or “Research Paper”

Practice Get into small groups (3 or 4) The following are working titles of real books and films that were eventually replaced with the titles we know today. Try to guess the actual movie or film based on the fictitious title. Record your group’s answers on a single sheet of paper with all of your group members’ names.

Working Titles Original Titles: Forks The Lunch Bunch Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made for Under $10 Million That Your Reader Will Love But the Executive Will Hate The Dead Un-Dead First Impressions We Know them Today As: Twilight The Breakfast Club American Pie Dracula Pride and Prejudice

Your Title Still in your groups, take a minute to share your thesis statements with each other and briefly describe the points you plan to make in your paper. On a single sheet of paper, each group member should contribute a thoughtful, creative title for that paper as inspiration. When you are through, each member of the group should have a piece of paper with at least three potential paper titles. Be prepared to share these with the rest of the class.

Revising Your Draft Now that you’ve got a finished (and titled!) draft, you’ll need to work on revision Revising means looking for issues related to content and structure rather than issues with grammar or punctuation—those are editing concerns. You should always revise first and edit last. Make sure your paper says what you want it to before you commit to doing the final polishing. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when revising:

Revising Your Introduction Is my opening hook eye-catching to my readers? Is it relevant to my topic and stance? Do I provide enough background information for my readers to be able to understand my thesis statement? Do I provide too much or extraneous information? Are my topic and stance made clear in my thesis statement? Is the focus appropriate (not too broad or too narrow)?

Revising Your Body Paragraphs Does each body paragraph have a clear topic sentence that explains what the paragraph will be about? Is each topic sentence connected directly back to my thesis statement? Does it support my stance? Is each body paragraph fully developed with specific information from my source material? Do I cite from at least two sources in each body paragraph? Is my source material relevant to the point I am making in that body paragraph? Do I address relevant counterarguments in each body paragraph? Do I refute them appropriately? Does each body paragraph have a single focus?

Revising Your Conclusion Do I re-state my thesis statement in new words? Do I summarize my main supporting points in new words? Do I provide sufficient emphasis and answer the “so what” question? Is there any new evidence presented in my conclusion that should be in the body of the essay instead?

Revising the Essay as a Whole Am I consistent? Do I keep my focus throughout the essay or do I contradict myself? Are any of my supporting points lacking support? Do any have too much support? Is my argument balanced? Have I addressed the main concerns of my opposition? Have any been neglected or insufficiently handled? Are there any major reasons in support of my thesis that I neglected to include? Have I referenced all of my outside sources within the essay and on my Works Cited page?

Editing Once you have finished revising, you can start on editing. Read through your paper to check for correctness and coherence. Reading through your paper backwards can help you spot missing words, typos, and other errors that you would ordinarily miss when reading straight through. Have someone else read your paper for sentence clarity. This person doesn’t need to be a tutor or an “English” person. It could be your brother, aunt, or friend. All the person needs to be able to do is say “This part doesn’t make sense” for you to know that you need further editing. Taking your essay to the Writing Center for help with grammar is also a good idea, especially if you know you struggle with a particular issue (like comma splices, fragments, apostrophe errors, or parallel sentence structure). DON’T ask them to proofread your paper for you—they’ll say they don’t offer that service.

Finishing You should complete all of these steps BEFORE turning in your rough draft. The draft that you submit should be as complete and correct as you can make it. This will save you time and effort later on.