The POWER Template To make your research even more successful you need to make sure you are organized and prepared before you begin writing.

P- Proposition Statement Write a one-sentence statement about your topic. This is also known as a thesis statement Ex: Many of Mark Twain’s books were banned from libraries, but today he is vastly studied in classrooms throughout the world. Who is this man and why is he so significant to literature?

A Good Thesis: A good thesis will… 1.Provide direction for your paper 2.Narrow the focus of your paper 3.Include the main points of your paper 4.Be interesting so your reader wants to continue reading.

Proposition Statement Look at the statement below. Is this a good thesis? Why/ Why not? Mark Twain was a great writer and led a very interesting life.

P- Proposition Statement The following websites will help if you are having trouble with the thesis. -How to Write an A+ Research PaperHow to Write an A+ Research Paper -Thesis Statement: How to Write Them –Thesis StatementsThesis Statements

O- Outline As you develop a preliminary outline, try to formulate three points to support your proposition statement. Assign each point its own section in your outline The outline will help you organize your work and stay on-task with the writing.

O- Outline An outline sets out the main points of your paper and therefore organizes your paper. You can use the headings on your note cards to determine what these points will be. Re-order your note cards and decide what material will go together and in what order. There is a handout in your writing packet for this. Also- This should support your thesis.

W- Write Once you have your outline and proposition statement, you can begin writing. Work on content rather than style. The most important part of this is to get all your ideas down on paper.

A Word About Plagiarism If you wish to take a passage directly from a source, make sure you attribute the passage to its author. In order to cite work, you need to refer to your source cards. About Plagiarism

A Word About Plagiarism You need to give credit even if you changed the original words. If you don’t you will be given a ZERO on the assignment. To give credit you must have the following, after the part you copied: –Original sentence (first info from card, pg#). –EX: Janis Joplin said, “It’s going to be a long hard drag, but we’ll make it” (Smith, 35).

E- Enhance Rewrite not only to improve the writing quality, but to check your logic and arguments as well. I will know the difference between a paper that has been “enhanced” and one that has been thrown together in a single writing! Try to skip around, you don’t always have to start at the beginning. Understand- this is a draft and it will need work don’t worry about perfecting the first sentence, just keep moving through the paper.

R- Reference and Citations You must cite your sources in a works cited page. This is the compilation of all your source cards. You will sort them alphabetically. Make sure if it runs over one line, the lines that follow are indented.

R- Reference and Citations Here are some helpful links for your works cited page: Citation Builder Citation Machine Internet Sources

GET TO WORK! What are you waiting for?