1. Doing Research Choosing a Topic For this project, you may choose a topic of your choice. It must be: Something you’re curious about Genuinely interesting to you Today, you will write 1-2 topic options on a sticky note after looking around in the library. Make sure your topic is not too broad or too narrow. You will also check out a book about your favorite of the three topics.

2. Doing Research Choosing a Topic Double-check your topic: Is it something I’m curious about? Is it something that’s genuinely interesting to me? Is it too broad? Is it too narrow? Will there be enough information on it?

3. Doing Research Finding Credible Sources There are two types of sources. First hand research is research you have conducted yourself such as interviews, experiments, surveys, or personal experience and anecdotes. Second hand research is research you are getting from various texts that has been supplied and compiled by others such as books, periodicals, and Web sites. Regardless of what type of sources you use, they must be credible. In other words, your sources must be reliable, accurate, and trustworthy.

4. Doing Research Finding Credible Sources How do I know if a source is credible? Who is the author? Credible sources are written by authors respected in their fields of study. Responsible, credible authors will cite their sources so that you can check the accuracy of and support for what they've written. (This is also a good way to find more sources for your own research.) How recent is the source? The choice to seek recent sources depends on your topic. While sources on the American Civil War may be decades old and still contain accurate information, sources on information technologies, or other areas that are experiencing rapid changes, need to be much more current.

5. Doing Research Finding Credible Sources How do I know if a source is credible? (Continued) What is the author's purpose? When deciding which sources to use, you should take the purpose or point of view of the author into consideration. Is the author presenting a neutral, objective view of a topic? Or is the author advocating one specific view of a topic? Who is funding the research or writing of this source? A source written from a particular point of view may be credible; however, you need to be careful that your sources don't limit your coverage of a topic to one side of a debate. Be especially careful when evaluating Internet sources! Beware of using sites like Wikipedia, which are collaboratively developed by users. Because anyone can add or change content, the validity of information on such sites may not meet the standards for academic research. Look for “.gov” or “.org” at the end of a URL!

6. Doing Research Finding Credible Sources Activity: Using BYOD, find 2 credible sources on your topic! Then, start your Works Cited (Bibliography) page by listing the book and the 2 internet sources you’ve found. Books: Author’s last name, author’s first name. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Websites: Author’s last name, author’s first name. “Title of the Article.” Name of entire website. Date of publication. Date of access. Underneath each source, write a 2-3 sentence explanation of why you feel that source is credible

7. Doing Research Writing Research Questions To help guide your research, write 3-4 research questions on your sticky note. Later, these could help you organize your paper! Example: Pokemon 1.What is the concept of Pokemon and where did it come from? 2.What is a Pokemon and what does it do? 3.How is Pokemon played? 4.How has the Pokemon universe grown over the last decade?

8. Doing Research Finding Credible Sources Activity: Continue writing your Works Cited (Bibliography) page by listing the 1 book and the 4-5 internet sources you’ve found. Books: Author’s last name, author’s first name. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Websites: Author’s last name, author’s first name. “Title of the Article.” Name of entire website. Date of publication. Date of access.

9. Doing Research Paraphrasing Read the whole passage first to understand it, rather than pausing to write notes Be selective. You usually don’t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper. Think of what your own words would be if you were telling someone who's unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) Look away from the text! Read the text several times until you feel that you understand it enough to rewrite it in your own words.

10. Doing Research Quoting When something is said perfectly, poetically, or there is no way to rephrase it, you can put it in “quotation marks” for your paper. Only a small percentage of your paper should be direct quotes.

11. Doing Research Changing a quote You can change a quote if you need to, but you must follow these rules: Removing part of a long quote: Use an ellipses (…) to show what part you cut out. – “He was a good student…he always finished his work.” Changing a word in a quote: You may change a word to clarify something by using [brackets]. – “[Marin] was one of the most accomplished authors of her time.”

12. Doing Research Embedding a quote It sounds more fluid when you can make a quote part of a sentence. Examples: According to studies done in Spain, art is more interesting to people when “it comes from the soul.” When she walked into the room, it was “as though the windows broke and the tiles fell from the ceiling.” TIP: Introduce your quote briefly, then flow into it!

13. Doing Research Using Quotes Practice using quotes! By the end of the period, show me that you can do the following: 1.Use ellipses…to remove part of a quote 2.Change a word in a quote using [brackets] 3.Embed a quote so that it flows in a sentence

14. Doing Research Citing In order to avoid plagiarism, you must cite your sources using parenthetical citation. This means that you tell your readers where you got the information from. Even if you already put the information into your own words, you still need to cite it! You learned that information from another source – it did not come from your own head.

15. Doing Research Citing After the sentence and before the period, put the citation information in (parenthesis). We call this a parenthetical citation. Usually, you would put the author’s last name and a page number (Jones 43). If there is no page number, just write the author’s last name (Goodall). If there is no author, put the title of the work in quotation marks (“Weather in Patagonia” 37).

16. Doing Research Quick Quiz! Take out a blank sheet of paper. You may use your notes from this week on this quiz. 1.Why would you use an ellipses… in your research paper? 2.Why would you use [brackets] in your research paper? 3.What are three ways to know a source is credible? 4.Show me an example of a proper parenthetical citation.

17. Doing Research Making a notes page: On a blank sheet of paper, write out your 3- 4 research questions with adequate space between them for notes. Research question #1 – Facts, paraphrasings, quotes with citations after each one to show where you got each fact (Jones 25). Research question #2 – Facts, paraphrasings, quotes with citations after each one (Cordova 11). Research question #3 Facts, paraphrasings, quotes with citations after each one (“The World of Racing” 739).