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Welcome to the

RESEARCH PAPER RESOURCE ROOM

 

 

Use the links below for help navigating through research and writing processes.

 

The Poking & Prying Stage

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
—from Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942.

 

I.
Start with the Fundamental Decisions: Topic (What are you curious about?); Question (What specifically do you want to know about your topic?); Basic Organizational Map (What ideas will be discussed, in roughly what order? How long will the project take?)

Get Examples

 

 

II.

Do your searches, locate resources, and decide the relevance of sources to your purpose.

Get Examples

 

 

  

The Evidence-Building Stage

"A research paper is not a list of findings: it is
the coherent communication of a meaningful
pattern of information."
—Richard M. Coe

http://www.uni.edu/unialc/writingcenter/images/PuzzlePieces.JPG

 

I.

Choose, understand, and record information that will support your purpose. Just remember that knowing how to read isn’t the same as reading well for research. Many plagiarized and disorganized research papers are made when researchers try to use information they haven’t really digested themselves.


Get Examples

Understanding Your Sources


Ethical, Efficient Note-taking Strategies


Thinking Critically about the Form and Function of Your Sources

 

 

II.

Draft a document. Your rough draft should begin to put all the content pieces together to build a complete explanation or argument, in an order that will make sense to your readers. It’s impossible to make perfect decisions about how the document will be developed, organized, and phrased the first time. There is no ideal number of drafts—however many it takes to meet your goal.

 

Get Examples

Focusing and Structuring Your Document


 

 

The Document Makeover Stage

I.

Reread the entire document critically to eliminate plagiarism and blend all material together into a seamless finished product.

 

Get Examples

 

II.

Think like an editor/proofreader. Read line by line for clarity, format and style inconsistencies, grammatical errors, missing punctuation, and all sentence-level problems that can confuse your message. Remember that Spell-Check and Grammar-Check tools and Citation Style-builders are very limited and not always accurate.

 

Get Examples

Proofreading

For Complete APA Documentation Advice, Consult the Manual:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., 2009
UNI reference desk and stacks: BF76.7.P83


MLA

For Complete MLA Documentation Advice, Consult the Manuals:
The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd ed., 2008. UNI Stacks, Reference, and Reserve desks: PN 147 G444 2008

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., Joseph Gibaldi, 2009. UNI Stacks, Reference, and Reserve desks: LB 2369.G53 2009

Note: The MLA Handbook is designed for high school and undergraduate college researchers; the MLA Style Manual focuses on graduate students and professional writers.


Chicago

 

 

 Last Updated: July 21, 2011

008 ITTC - University of Northern Iowa - Cedar Falls, IA 50614     319-273-2361 
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