| Hi, Lisandra –
I’m very glad to see that you are getting right to the point your sentences – good! Grammatically, this is much better.
On another note, a research paper always makes and seeks to prove a specific point. You’ll need to revise this so that it does so, so that it is much more specific.
The way I see it, you’ve got two subjects here that could both work well for a research paper. One paper might be about the causes of the recent Supreme Court decision to allow gay couples to marry. Another paper might be about the effects of one particular technology on either infants’ cognitive skills or infants’ social skills.
I’d do some research first and find out what’s out there on each topic before I chose. Then, in a day or two, I’d choose my topic and begin researching in earnest.
Let your entire paper focus on the one topic. Come right to the point about it in your thesis.Let your introduction bring up the topic, try to interest readers in it, and give the thesis. Let the topic sentences of each body paragraph support and develop one aspect of the thesis.
Use research – quotations and paraphrase which are attributed to their sources – to support your topic sentences. Use quotations with care, though. You don’t want your paper to look like a patchwork of quotations sewn together.
Here are some tips for using quotations:
Quotation marks are used to record someone’s precise words, either spoken or written. You must also attribute the quotation, tell who said it or wrote it. On first reference, give full name and credentials:
According to geologist Dr. Linda Carl, “Earth’s early atmosphere was much different than it is today.”
OR:
“Earth’s early atmosphere was much different than it is today,’ notes geologist Dr. Linda Carl.
Some words to consider using in an attribution: she says, she writes, he observes, he mentions, she notes, he points out, etc.
Don’t write that someone is “quoting” unless they are giving someone else’s words or ideas. If you are writing their words, it is you who are doing the quoting. You are quoting them in your essay. The speaking is writing, saying, pointing out, mentioning, observing, etc. You should say someone is “quoting” only if they are repeating something someone else has said or written.
If you are giving the article’s name along with the quotation, do it like this: According to Jane Smith, writing in “James Bonding: A Study of Extra-Marital Psycho-Sexual Relations in Espionage” (2015), “In the real world, a government would almost certainly give a spy, such as James Bond, a much lower public profile” (p. 15).
Here’s a tip for giving names: On first reference, give a person’s full name and title. Capitalize the first letters of the important words title of their name if it precedes their name in the sentence:
As Sargeant Mark Smith points out …
Vice-Principal Valery Kelly notes …
The Chief of Operations, Vanessa Wu, was on hand to …
If their title does not precede their name in the reference, keep it lower case:
When we went to England, we saw the prince and princess at the theatrical opening.
On subsequent references, reference the last name, title, or both:
Smith says …
The vice-principal observes that …
Wu points out…
There is no need in our class to use Mr., Ms., Miss, or Mrs. before a name when you mentioning people. if it is relevant to your discussion, but use your judgment here.
I know this wasn’t said anywhere, but let me point it out here: Use present verb tense for literary attribution unless it would make your sentence really awkward. So even though Shakespeare died in 1616, we still need to say: As “Shakespeare writes… “, not “As Shakespeare wrote.” This is a convention in few languages, not only English.
Here’s a link to UMUC’s guide for parenthetical style: http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/citationresources.cfm
Here’s a link to APA style from The Purdue Owl for in-text citations, parenthetical citations that go inside your paragraphs:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/
Here’s a link for the Reference Page at the end of your paper:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/
I look forward to reading your work!
Best, |
