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Springfield High School * 875 7th St * Springfield, OR 97477 Phone 541-744-4700 * FAX 541-744-4144 |
Research Paper Guidelines
Table of Contents
I. General Instructions
II. Cover Page Sample
III. Using Sources
IV. Using Quotations
V. Documentation
VI. Bibliography-General Information
VII Sample Bibliography
I. General Instructions
The Final Form of a research paper will have a minimum of three sections: a title page, the text complete with documentation indicating the sources of your evidence, and the bibliography.
You may also be required to include one or more options, such as a table of contents, an outline, a glossary, a set of notecards, or a binding cover. Know which options will be required.
II. Cover Page
(3 lines) (14 lines) Student's Name
(14 lines) Name of Class, Period |
In writing your research paper, you must document everything that you borrow, not only direct quotations and paraphrases, but also information and ideas. You may paraphrase, summarize, borrow parts as fact, or directly quote, but all of this information must be documented. (See Section V on documentation. You might also want to refer to "When to Cite Sources" and "What Is Plagerism" at http://www.open.k12.or.us/oslis/tutorials/cited/index.html.)
In addition, certain rules apply to the use of quotations.
IV. Using Quotations
A. Always quote accurately. Even minor mistakes in transcribing a passage damage a reader‚s confidence in the reliabilityof the writer.
B. Brief quotations. Quoted short passages and/or sentences woven into the text of your paragraphs should blend smoothlywith your own style and the tense you are using. Be sure your quotations supports or exemplifies some point in your paper and is not "just thrown in."
Quotations of not more than three or four lines of prose or two lines of verse are placed between quotation marksand followed by documentation.
Example: The Connecticut Yankee learns that "you can't throw too much style into a miracle. It costs trouble, and work, and sometimes money, but it pays in the end" (Bailey 8).
C. Longer (blocked) quotations. Sometimes a quoted passage is too long to blend into your own sentence. It is an entityin itself and must be set off from the paragraph in which it appears. Any directly quoted material that is three or four typed lines or longer must be blocked and single spaced in the text. The requirements for blocking follow:
1. Indent 5 spaces from both margins for each line of the blocked quotation. If the side margins are set at 1" and 7.5", change to 1.5" and 7.5".
2. Change the spacing from double spacing (DS) to single spacing (SS).
3. If the blocked quotation is at the beginning of a paragraph, indent that paragraph 5 more spaces.
4. Single space the entire blocked quotation.
5. Double space before the text of paper continues.
6. If the quoted passage is longer than one paragraph, double space between the paragraphs within the same blocked passage.
7. Do not use quotation marks around the blocked passage since this special typographical form indicates that you are quoting. However, if the material you are citing has quotation marks within your blocked passage, you do include those marks in your blocked quote. In other words, the punctuation in a blocked quoted passage looks exactly as it did in the source you used.
8. Documentation must follow the quote.
9. Be sure to relate the ideas in the blocked passage to the points you are making in the text of your paper.
V. Documentation
The current recommended form of documentation is called Parenthetical or Internal Documentation. Traditional footnotes or end notes are no longer used to show references.
Parenthetical or internal documentation shows the reference immediately following the information given in the text. Usually the author's last name, and a page number are enough to identify the source and location from which you have borrowed material.
1. If you use a source by one author, place the author's name and page number right after the quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material. Note that the parentheses go before the end punctuation, and no punctuation goes between the author's name and page number. Remember to use quotation marks or blocking for direct quotes, followed by the documentation note.
Example: Although pop art often resembles the comic strip, it owes a debt to such painters as Magritte, Matisse, and de Kooning (Rose 184).
2. If you use a source by one author and give credit to that author by name within your paper, you need only give the page number in the parentheses.
Example: According to art critic Barbara Rose, pop art owes a large debt to such painters as Magritte, Matisse, and de Kooning (184).
3. If you are directly quoting material longer than five typed lines, follow the rules for blocked quotations on page 5.
Example: In addition to causing tragedy for others, Crane's characters who are motivated by desire to appear heroic to their peers may also cause themselves serious trouble. Collins, in "A Mystery of Heroism," for example, almost causes his own death because of his vain desire to act bravely in front of his fellow soldiers. (Hall 16)
4. If you are citing more than one work by the same author, include a short title in the parentheses.
Example: "Within fifty years the Inca and Aztec civilizations were defeated and overthrown by outside invaders" (Thomas, Lost Cultures 198)
5. If you are citing a work by more than one author, use both last names and page numbers.
Example: Prisons today are overcrowded to the point of emergency. Conditions could not be worse, and the state budget for prison reform is at an all time low (Smith and Jones 72).
6. If you cite a work that has no author given, use the work's title and the page number.
Example: Each year 350,000 Americans will die of a heart attack before reaching a hospital ("First Aid for Heart Attacks" 88).
7. If the work you are citing appears in a series, include the volume and page number with the author's name.
Example: The most common view camera format is 4" by 5", though many sizes are available on today's market (Purdell 1:29).
8. If the material you are citing contains a quoted passage from another source, indicate the use of the quotation in these parentheses.
Example: According to George Orwell, good writing is like a windowpane. (qtd. in Murray 142).
VI. Bibliography - General Information
The bibliography appended to your paper should include all the sources actually cited in your references. Some instructors may ask you to also cite any other sources consulted in your research. This will be labeled as a "List of Works Consulted." A very useful link for making your bibliography is the MLA Citation Maker 
.
Follow the general requirements listed below:
1.The items in your bibliography are typed on a separate sheet of paper and are attached to the end of the text of your paper.
2.The entries are arranged alphabetically by author's last name. In the bibliography form, note that the author's last name is given first .
3.The entries are NOT numbered.
4.The punctuation in the bibliography form is rather detailed, but follow it closely.
5.Note, too, that it is not the first line but the second and the following lines that are indented five spaces.
VII. Bibliography
(sample)
Anderson, Kevin. "Home Computers: Who's On Top?" USA Today. 26 July 1983: Sec. A1 col. 2 (Vertical File).
Baxter, Herman. The Bidders. New York: Lippincott, 1995.
Bryant, Alice Franklin. "Our Role In The U.N." Letter to the Editor. Oregonian. 5 Dec. 1997: B7, cols.6-7.
"Cambodia." CIA World Factbook. 1997. Central Intelligence Agency. 12 June 1998<http://www.usa.net/~vinced/home/better-writing.html.>
Crickman, Barry. "Can We Control Spending?" Nation's Business. April. 1983: 22-24.
"Folk Music." Encyclopedia Americana. 1997 ed.
Hooper, Henry O., and Peter Gwynne. The Missing Umbrella. New York: Harper and Row, 1997.
Lancashire, Ian. Home Page. 1 May 1997: <http://www.chase.utoronto.ca:8080/~ian/index.html>.
"Spiders." Grolier‚s New Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Grolier‚s, 1996.
Survey. Central High School. Mr. Thomas's class. 16 April 1998.
Underwood, John. "Gone with the Wind." Sports Illustrated. 24 Oct. 1985: 42-49. Rpt. Information Access. TOM 46J2105.