Multi Genre Project: Research Paper The next part of your Multi-Genre Project. One part of this project is your Mini-Research paper. The paper will be short one pager where you do the following: Pose a researchable question that is based on your book. For example, if your book deals with cloning, you might ask “Should human cloning be allowed?” After you have a question, you will take a side on your question. Then find three sources help answer your question. Your paper will include a thesis where you take a side, give a reason for your opinion and provide two pieces of evidence from your sources to support your side. Proper citations and a bibliography.

Ways to Use Your Sources Review There are 3 major ways you can present information from a source in your paper: Direct quotation Summary Paraphrase Make sure your evidence supports your thesis.

For example… My thesis is:  However, even today, gender roles can be extremely harmful because they can negatively affect a person’s mental and physical health. 

Direct Quotation A “direct quote” is a string of words taken from the text EXACTLY how it is written. “Meanwhile, boys committed acts of violence to try and seem manlier. The study also revealed that the “constant effort to manage one’s everyday life in line with gender norms produces significant anxiety, insecurity, stress and low self-esteem for both boys and girls, and both for ‘popular’ young people and those who have lower status in school” (Culp-Ressler). We do this if we like the way the author put something and do not want to change his or her words.

Summary Sometimes, your source will go into a lot of detail on a topic, but you just need to give a general idea. Or you want to incorporate background information you gathered from an entire article. Here is my summary of the same quote: Gender roles often require boys to try and be macho or “manly,” and this is also harmful for their health because it can cause them to be more violent. Also, girls are more obsessed with their appearance and can engage in dangerous dieting. All of these expectations can cause children to suffer from insecurity and anxiety (Culp-Ressler).

Paraphrase Sometimes, you want to say BASICALLY the same thing as an author, but you want to say it differently, in your own words. This is called paraphrasing. From source: “Commenting on the possible causes of the increase in teen death especially among teen girls, Dr Suzanne Petroni, the senior director for gender, population and development at the International Centre for Research on Women, opines “that lack of opportunity and rigid gender roles” are possible factors that could be influencing such high rate of young female suicides in developing countries. She went on to mention sexism and stereotypes of what they should and cannot be, and harmful gender perceptions and norms as other things which could be behind the recent surge.  Paraphrase: In fact, in developing countries where gender roles are more rigid, suicide rates among women are much higher than that of men. In a recent interview on Ventures Africa, Dr Suzanne Petroni, the senior director for gender, population and development at the International Centre for Research on Women, claimed that strict gender roles and the lack of prospects fro women could be causing the increase. (Jadetade).

Citations for your Bibliography Go to easybib.com and copy and paste the link into the form. Then, follow the instructions. Fill in all of the information you can. If you don’t have some elements, leave it blank. However, do your best to fill it all in.

For your project: You can use only one direct quote. Your other piece of evidence MUST be paraphrased or summarized. Do not forget parenthetical citations. Otherwise, it’s plagiarized and you get a ZERO. I will not allow rewrites. Please do it correctly the first time.

Parenthetical Citations! Internet Sources: When citing an Internet source, give only the name of the author, and if that is not provided, give the name of the Internet site. You do not have to put page numbers. For Example: (Smith) or (The Website of Many Uses). Where to put the parenthetical citations: Place parenthetical citations at the end of the sentence you are paraphrasing and quoting. For example: The destruction of the argentine is due to many socioeconomic factors (Taylor 33). Even when quoting, place the parenthetical citations after the quotations. For example: "Mamma always said stupid is as stupid does" (Gump 89).

Sample Research Paper Click here for Ms. Rolfe's Paper