Writing Research Papers

Writing a research paper is easier if you break the activity into steps.
Ask a question
Do some preliminary research to determine what material is available on your area of interest. Review your class notes: has your professor or other students raised any questions that have not been not fully discussed? Has the professor dropped hints about interesting areas of inquiry? Has a particular class topic stimulated your interest and made you want to know more? Think of your topic as a question you are trying to answer or a problem you are trying to solve.

Conduct research
You will find books, periodicals, bibliographies, and other print resources that will contribute to your research in the James H. Thomason library. Use THOMCAT, PC's library catalog on the Web, to search for books by title, author, subject, or key words. By combining keywords, you can broaden or limit your search as necessary. Get to know the library staff. Reference librarian Teresa Inman, Dan Lee, or other librarians can help you learn to use the resources available in the library and online. Ask for help if you need it. 

Internet-based electronic reference sources (accessible from on-campus computers only)

• Research Quick Links
• Guided Research
• Inter-library loan, a cooperative agreement among libraries who share their resources, gives you access to a practically unlimited number of books and periodical articles. Because inter-library loan requests cost you money and often take several weeks to arrive, plan ahead if you know our library does not have the sources you need. Please check to be sure our library does not have the material you request.

The Internet
Evaluating Internet sources is a bigger concern than with books and journals: whereas book authors and publishers and journal editorial boards control the content of their resources, the Internet is unmonitored. Although much of what you find may be valuable, much may be information that lacks documentation or substantiation.

Helpful links on Searching the Internet

• Searching the World Wide Web from Purdue University includes a list of search engines and search strategies
• Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Klepping

Evaluating Internet Sources

• Assessing Credibility of Online Sources from St. Cloud State

Keeping track of source material
If you cut and paste from the Internet into a file or document, use a different font for source material. in your early drafts. Put quotation marks around exact words you copy into your own document. Or paraphrase as you go by looking away from the printed page as you type your draft or notes. Give the URL (Internet address) or the full citation for every source you use.

James D. Lester in Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide (New York: Longman, 1999, available in the Writing Center) has some suggestions for creating effective notes for those of you who write longhand before going to the computer.

• Use ink and write on index cards with one size for notes and one for bibliography entries. Write on one side of the card only.
• To paraphrase: rewrite the original in the same number of words by reading the passage and then looking away from the original as you rewrite it in your own words. Provide an in-text citation. Use quotation marks to keep exceptional words and phrases from the original source.

1. Write one item per note (or label single files for notes on computer and label them for easy retrieval).

2. List the source on each note with the name, year, and page number.

3. Label each note by describing each one or putting one of your own headings on it.

4. Write a full note in sentence form so that you are already doing the writing for your paper.

5. Keep everything.

6. Label your personal notes: put PER (personal notes), my ideas, or mine.

7. Conform to conventions of research style if you already know which style you will use. Write your citations as you go.

• Using Source Material
• Citing Sources
• Using Quotations
  
  See Writing Process or one of the specific Guides to Writing at Presbyterian College as you continue with your paper.
• Writing a Research Paper: a step-by-step procedure from Purdue University
• Writing Term Papers in History or Guidelines for Writing Papers in History Courses by Rick Heiser
• Writing the Biology Review Paper by Jane Ellis
• Advanced New Testament by Robert Bryant