1. I am really excited about the topic I chose for my first research paper, but it's really something I know very little about, if not anything at this time. Therefore, all the material and information that I'm soaking up comes from other sources and not from any previous, or personal, knowledge that I've experienced. I don't want to have a paper that is almost entirely quoted and paraphrased so how do I avoid excessive quoting or paraphrasing. The plagiarism exercise noted that I should give credit to all subject material where it is not common knowledge. My paper subject deals with the Fourth World of the Hopi's and some of their creation myths, which having read about it recently, only strengthens the fact that most of the Hopi practices are not common knowledge, but mere oral histories that they don't eagerly share. I've left room to widen the subject if necessary, but much of the material seems to come from limited sources and they pretty much say the same things.
This is a very good question, and one that all research students wrestle with. I have marked in your message some of the words that I feel are very important.
A. You are not the expert in this subject, and therefore, your opinions must not be in the paper, at least directly. You are the compiler of this information from the experts, and from this compilation, you will inform the reader on this subject. The only place your opinion will come in is from what facts and information you pick and choose from your sources to use in your paper.
B. A common mistake that inexperienced research writers make is that all the information that they lifted from the experts must be either quoted or cited as a paraphrase. This is not so. Papers that contain quote after quote are boring and hard to read. They also indicate a laziness in the writer -- a writer who does not want to take the time to put the information in his/her own words. Information in a research paper should not be quoted unless something in the information will be lost if it is summarized in the author's own words. This same holds true for paraphrasing.
C. So most material in a paper should be summarized, and this material need not be cited unless it conforms to the rules of when to cite material in the paper: quotes, statistics, case histories and studies, and lifted experts' opinions.
D. If you find all of your sources saying the same things, that is considered general knowledge of your subject, and need not be cited. This material is covered by your Works Consulted page.
E. If you find that you do not have enough material to cover 4-6 pages, you must expand your subject somewhat to meet the requirements of the paper. Be careful here, though. College research demands some in-depth research, and if your coverage is very general, and does not show effort to get into the sources, your grade will reflect that. On the other hand, if you have too much material for 4-6 pages, you automatically will be too general, and you will be penalized for not limiting your subject so some in-depth research can be shown.
1.a I have pulled some information off the Internet regarding material for my research paper. The material says "Adapted from " The Book of Hopi" By Frank Waters, Ballantine Books, 1963. Is this considered an Internet source or a book source? In fact, there are quite a few excerpts on the Internet on the subject of my research paper that seem to have come from books. Because I found them on the Internet, again does it make it an Internet source. Please help.
You must always list the source from where you obtained the material, in this case the Internet. The Internet format has a place for you to list the original article -- and then list the Internet information.
2. How do I cite a document such as a senate report? The report includes: John McCain as submitter, 104th Congress, 2d session, Calendar No. 582, Report 104-363, September 9, 1996. There is also a long title in all capital letters, do I write it as is?
McCain, John. "Title of article." 104th Congress, 2d session, Calendar No. 582, Report 104-363. 9
September, 1996.
Second line is indented.
If you took it from the Internet, then following the above information would be the Internet address and the date you took it from the Internet.
3. I have several newspaper articles by the same author. When I cite one article, do I have to mention the name of the article in the sentence every time I cite an article by this author, or can I mention the author and put the title of the article in the ITC like this: ("title" p.p.)?
If you use the author's name in text, then you can just put the first words of the title (you never need to put more than 3 words) and be sure to put the quotation marks around the title in the citation. If you do not use the author's name in text, then you must use the last name of the author and the first three words of the title.
4. I have a question regarding the citation for a web site. For instance, If I don't use the name of the article in a sentence but need to document it, do I use it like this: At the end of the ceremony there is a feast and a rabbit hunt (Peabody 1).
The web site is: "Rainmakers From The Gods." Peabody Museum, Harvard University. 7 April 1999. http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/katsina/credits.html (15 July 2001).
No. Your citation is incorrect. The word that must appear in the citation is the word that will lead the reader to the correct source entry in your Works Consulted page. In this case, the word is "Rainmakers," for this is what you alphabetized your entry in the WC page by, and what the reader would look for when skimming down the WC page. So the entry would look like this:
At the end of the ceremony there is a feast and a rabbit hunt ("Rainmakers" 1).
Only that one word is necessary unless there are two source entries that start with "Rainmakers." If this were the case, you would need to use more than the first word, but never more than 3 of the words of the title. Since it is a title, you would put quote marks around it, which would clue the reader that it is an entry that starts with a title, and the author is anonymous. You do not need to use ellipses in the citation to show that it is only a partial title.
5. I have a couple questions for you -
A) on both assignments 2-3 and 4-5 you commented that I needed to use Times New Roman 12 pt font. I haven't found anywhere in your lectures, assignment pages or MLA book that says I need to use a specific font or size. Can you tell me where it says I need to use this specific font?
It is in your syllabus on submitting assignments. The reason that I want all students to use the same font is because of the 4-6 page requirement. Different fonts produce different amounts of words per page. Students were using other 12 pt. fonts to make sure their short papers met the requirement. You grade was not affected by that comment. It was instructions to be sure your paper is in this font.
B) Also, you make reference to a Works Consulted page and a Works Cited page. It was my impression that we title our page Works Consulted but the terms are being used interchangeably? Just checking.
No. The words are not interchangeable, as was explained in the lecture on Works Cited/Works Consulted pages. A Works Cited page lists only the sources that you have cited within your paper, which is what you did in Ass. 4-5, the note taking assignment. A Works Consulted page lists all sources that you read from and used to write your paper, and it is this second kind that I want for your two research papers for this course.
6. I noticed I have an extra blank page at the end of my assignment, how do I remove this unneeded page before I send it? I can't figure it out!!!
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This can happen in one of two ways. As you construct your document, many times extra spaces and returns (using the Enter key) collect at the bottom of your document. You do not see the spaces and lines because there is no text in them, but they are there. You can use your mouse to highlight and delete these extra spaces by putting the mouse cursor at the bottom of your document, holding the left mouse button down, and moving the mouse cursor down until it stops. Then select "delete" and the extra spaces will go away. Another thing that can happen is that you have an extra Page Break or two at the bottom of the page. You can see these spaces and page breaks by clicking on the icon on Word's toolbar that allows you to see page breaks and returns. This icon, when on, also shows you your spacing between words, periods, etc. with a dot. It is a handy tool to see your formatting. To turn it back off, just click on the icon again. I have circled the icon (with a grey circle) in the picture below to show you which icon to use. |
9. How do you get word to start putting in page numbers after the title page and not include the title page as page number 1. In other words, how do you get page number 1 to start after the title page?
The instructions for doing this are in your MS Word instructions. You will find a link to these instructions at the top menu of each Assignment page. Also, I have included the address below:
http://www.mesacc.edu/~abradshaw/eng102/class/instruct/word/page_numbers.htm