1. Research Paper: International Theme
English Language Arts Grade 7 Accelerated

2. Last week you were given a pre-writing assignment based on a series of questions.
You and a partner picked a country for a research paper. **Keep in mind, what you picked when you did the questionnaire is NOT set in stone.
TAKE your time with picking a country! Some people may pick something, but at the end, they may find out that there is very limited information based on the country of your choice!
Picking Your Topic

3. Developing the thesis statement…
By now, all of my middle school student comprehend what a thesis statement is…
Let’s review it anyway!

4. Thesis Statement
The thesis statement tells the reader what your paper is about… and which points you are covering. It also tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.

5. Thesis Tips
1. Make sure that your thesis FITS the scope of the paper. If you only have two pages, for instance, you need to keep the thesis narrow enough to cover the argument/point adequetaly.
2. DO not start your thesis with “I believe…” or “In my opinion…” You are the author of the paper…so by using such clauses or phrases you are stating the obvious!

6. Research Essay: International
Why pick an international country? First, we are a nation of immigrants. Look at our staple food…. it reflects the immigrants who have come here. *potato salad (brought by the Germans) *corned beef (brought by the Irish) *hamburgers (originated by the Germans)

7. Narrowing Your Topic
For this assignment, be VERY careful to two break down the topics so that they aren’t so broad. For instance, if you focus on the history, narrow it down to perhaps a certain era. If you pick culture, again, break it down.
Let’s go over this a bit….
PICK one aspect of its history. For example, if you picked Ireland, you could focus on the Great Potato Famine…and go into how many people ended up migrating to the United States as a result.
Then… YOU could focus (on the next paragraph) on how the Irish influenced the USA.
Finally, the last body of the paragraph can focus on the Irish contributions to society such as the literary greats that we study in literature class.

8. EXAMPLE of a paragraph based on a point in your thesis statement
One point that you can cover is CUISINE… EVERY staple food of a country has a story behind it. In a way, this could fall under history (culinary history) if you plan to use history as a focus.
So….let’s look at corned beef and cabbage!
Upon doing my research, it turns out that corned beef hash and cabbage is actually a VARIATION of a classic dish from the Emerald Island which involved corned PORK.

9. So… a paragraph based on the cuisine for Ireland might look like this….
They say that every staple cuisine of a country, tells a story. The Emerald Island is no exception. The classic “St. Paddy’s” dish, corned beef and cabbage, actually is a variation on a classic Irish corned pork dish. When Irish immigrants flooded New York, they became in awe of the Jewish deli… where they discovered corned beef, a Jewish staple food. Seeing that this type of meat was less costly than the Irish pork variation back in their homeland, many transformed corned beef by adding an Irish twist. When the immigrants returned to their original homeland, the locals embraced it. Thus, every St. Patrick’s Day, the aroma of corned beef and cabbage fill the streets, despite the fact that the dish has American roots, and not Irish!

10. OK… SO …
So on Thursday, you basically started brainstorming. TODAY… it will be officially “set in stone.” LET’s GET STARTED!

11. Pair up with your research partner!