RESEARCH PAPER

Due by the end of Week Nine

Professor Linda M.
Elfers-Mabli

Petrocelli College of
Continuing Studies

Fairleigh Dicksinson
University

Student Manual
By Professor Linda M. Elfers-Mabli

Playwrights Poets Artists

William Shakespeare William Blake William Blake
Henrik Ibsen Gwendolyn Brooks Gustav Klimt
Lawrence Ferlinghetti Vincent Van Gogh
Gerard Manley Hopkins Jan Vermeer
Langston Hughes
John Keats
D. H. Lawrence
Frank O’Hara
Theodore Roethke
Anne Sexton
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Walt Whitman
William Wordsworth

Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007] 1

RESEARCH PAPER MANUAL | PHASE ONE
Phase One
Step One: Select a Take your time in selecting
General Topic the general topic for your
research paper. You’ll be
One of your major assignments this se- spending most of the se-
mester is to write a 8 - 10 page (double- mester working on this
spaced) research paper on one of the project, so you want to
authors we will study this semester. make sure you won’t be-
come bored with your gen-
Refer to the cover page of this brochure
eral subject.
to see which authors (both poets and
playwrights) we will study. Prof. Elfers-Mabli

If you choose to research one of these

authors, select a particular time in his/
her life to research as opposed to re-
writing someone else’s biography of the
author. In other words, don’t wind up
with an encyclopedic biography of the
writer. Rather, focus in on his/her
childhood, prime writing period, or
some special relationship(s) he/she might
have had.

one of the authors and artists lived. For proach on page 3 of this brochure in the
Another approach to this assignment is
instance, the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti “Narrowing Down Your Topic” section.
to write about one of the artists listed on
represents the literary (and cultural)
the cover page of this brochure.
movement known as the “Beat Genera- I hope you’re getting the idea.
tion,” a 1950s cultural, artistic, and liter-
A final approach is to research the his-
ary phenomenon. I discuss this ap-
torical period or literary period in which

Phase One
Step Two: Complete Go to the library (or the Internet) and
Background Reading find one or two general sources on your
subject. You could also refer to an ency-
clopedia to get an overview of your topic.
Browse through the general material you
found either in the library or online and
do some background reading on your
subject. In other words, become familiar
with your subject. This background
reading could also lead you to a specific
focus on your subject; such as, in the case
of focusing in on a particular period in
an author’s life.
Make sure you write down the publishing
information for the books (and websites)
you selected as background reading.
Follow MLA documentation style. (See
Phase Four of this brochure.)
You’ll need to submit the publish-
ing information for these sources
when you submit your preliminary
thesis statement to me via email
later this semester. You’ll also need
this information for the bibliography
(Works Cited) at the end of your com-
pleted paper.

Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007] 2

RESEARCH PAPER MANUAL | PHASE ONE
Phase One
Step Three: Narrow
Down Your Topic
After you have finished your background
reading, narrow down your topic so that
you can thoroughly handle your subject
in 8 to 10 pages.
This is a crucial part of Phase One of
the research paper process. For instance,
I mentioned the period of the 1950s
before in relation to Lawrence Ferling-
hetti. Now -- it is impossible to write a
thorough research paper on the whole
decade of the 1950s. It would take vol-
umes, and it has!! Don’t get caught with
too broad a topic because it will wear
you out, and you will wind up with a
sketchy, unsatisfying paper.
Phase One
Step Four: Write a Pre-
liminary Thesis State-
ment
The preliminary thesis statement keeps
you focused throughout the process so
that you don’t wander off into irrelevant
territory.
At some point in the process, you might
want to change the approach you ini-
tially thought you wanted to take with
your subject.
Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007]
3
The broadest part of the graphic
on the left is of the decade itself,
which offers many possibilities
for research.
I narrowed down the decade to
consider one cultural movement -
The Beat Generation.
I further narrowed down the topic
to a specific Beat Generation
poet - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - but
there have been several biogra-
phies written about this Beat
poet.
Ferlinghetti established a
bookstore/publishing house in
San Francisco called “City
Lights.” I further narrowed down
that topic to the early years of
“City Lights.”
That sometimes happens for a variety of
reasons:
Now that you have com-
• Lack of information concerning your pleted Phase One in the
specific topic. research paper process,
take a bit of a break be-
• Too much information, which means fore moving onto Phase
you didn’t adequately narrow down Two, which includes:
your topic.
• Boredom creeping in as you further • Gathering Sources
research your topic.
• Maintaining a Working
More about the possibility of changing
your preliminary thesis statement is lo- Bibliography
cated in Phase Two of this brochure.
• Taking Notes
For now, develop what you think will be
a worthwhile, informative, interesting
preliminary thesis statement.
RESEARCH PAPER MANUAL | PHASE TWO
Gathering Sources
The key to any successful research pro-
ject is locating sufficient authoritative
information. The following websites
(also included on this course’s website)
offer valuable information for selecting
appropriate material from books, peri-
odicals (newspapers, magazines, profes-
sional journals), and other sources.
Carefully go through the following sites:
http://tutorial.lib.umn.edu/default.asp
This University of Minnesota Li-
braries website contains detailed infor-
mation on successfully finding materials
for a research project. Please take a look.
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/hom
e.htm
Duke University Library offers an-
other extensive site for finding materials
for a research project.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handout
s/research/r_ressteps.html
A straightforward presentation on
the research process, including a print-
able check sheet.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/r
esearch/skill26.htm
“Critically Analyzing Information
Sources” offers advice on determining
the validity of information found in the
various types of sources you will use for
your paper.
Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007]
4
Maintaining a Working
Bibliography
A working bibliography is an accurate
record of all the sources you have gath-
ered in connection with your research
paper. The list expands each time you
find another source. Whether you even-
tually use the source or not doesn’t mat-
ter at this point in the research paper
process.
It is important to maintain this working
bibliography as you work on your paper
so that if you decide to use a particular
source later on down the road, you’ll
remember the name of the author and
title of the source. There is nothing
worse than trying to remember the name
of a particular article or book you looked
at a month earlier and have now decided
to use, but you no longer have the mate-
rial.
Spending the time early on in the process
to accurately record the publishing in-
formation for each source will save you
time at the end of this process, when you
are putting together the entire paper.
Several times now, I have mentioned the
venerable MLA documentation format,
and it is time to explain why we docu-
ment material within a paper and in-
clude a bibliography at the end of a pa-
per. Here is an online source, which
clearly explains the reasons we use the
MLA format:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/worksh
ops/pp/index.html
1. Please go to the Purdue University
PowerPoint presentation site.
2. Read the directions for downloading
a PowerPoint presentation.
3. Look for “Cross-Referencing: Using
MLA Format.”
4. Download the presentation onto
your computer’s desktop.
5. Read slides 1, 2, and 3 that explain
why we use the MLA format for
documentation.
Taking Notes
While there are some very useful strate-
gies for taking notes, each of us has his/
her own tried and true method - some
more haphazard than others!!
Regardless of one’s strategy for note tak-
ing, our notes appear in one of the fol-
lowing forms:
• Summary
• Paraphrase
• Quotation
The following website is a useful tool in
directing you to effective note taking:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/worksh
ops/hypertext/ResearchW/notes.html
Visit each of the following interac-
tive websites to learn more about writing
effective paraphrases:
http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/in
dex_tj.asp?objID=WCN4802
http://www.wisc-online.com/objects
/index_tj.asp?objID=WCN4902
A well thought-out and well
written research paper demon-
strates your ability to think criti-
cally about a subject. A re-
search paper is NOT a book
report. You are NOT reporting
on how authors decided to write
about your subject. You are,
instead, analyzing diverse
sources in light of your perspec-
tive on your subject (based on
your preliminary thesis state-
ment).
In other words, you are using a
variety of sources (books, peri-
odicals, Internet) to present your
understanding of the subject, in
light of your thesis statement.
 Pulling It All Together
RESEARCH PAPER MANUAL | PHASE THREE

Organization/Outlining
In Phase One of this brochure, I emphasized the Writing the Paper
importance of writing a preliminary thesis statement
for the purposes of finding sources and taking notes. Ask ten people how they begin writing a research
paper, and you will get ten different answers. Some
At this stage in the process, you may have discovered start with the first sentence and plow through from
the need to fine-tune that preliminary thesis state- the first section to the last. Others select a particular
ment. Usually, a student thinks he/she has a clear section, write that out, then move onto another sec-
idea about what to say about his/her topic, but tion, although not in any order. You should write
somewhere during the note-taking stage, the student your paper in a way most comfortable to you, keep-
discovers that his/her perspective shifts. ing in mind that the final product should be well
organized! Remember - What you are writing is an
If this happens to you, please let me know because 8 - 10 page essay using outside sources.
at this point, you should have a definite, clearly
stated thesis statement, which you need in order to
organize and write your paper. Having a clearly A basic essay An 8 - 10 page re-
worded thesis statement will help you develop an structure has: search paper has
outline for your research paper. expanded essay
components:
There are several valuable websites that can help
you at this stage:
an introduction (be- Introduction: 1/2 to
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general ginning) 1 page
/gl_outlin.html
Purdue University’s Writing Lab offers a concise, yet
a body (middle) Body: 7 to 8 pages
thorough explanation of outlining your paper.

• http://www.southwestern.edu/~denman/wherbe a conclusion (end) Conclusion: 1/2 to

r/ 1 page
Make sure to click on “Make an Outline,” “Skip an
Outline” (not a smart idea), “Produce a First Draft.”

One very important

point about struc-
ture:

Your research pa-

per should read as
a long essay, not a
collection of parts
with sub-headings.
Make sure you have
transitions, not only
within paragraphs
and between para-
graphs, but also
between the major
sections of the
body of your paper.
In some cases, you
might find that an
entire short para-
graph will be nec-
essary to bridge
one part of your
body to the next.

Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007] 5

RESEARCH PAPER MANUAL | PHASE FOUR
MLA Documentation
Parenthetical Citations
At this point in the research paper proc-
ess, you’re heading into the home
stretch, but you must carefully consider
how you give credit - in the body of your
paper - to all your sources.
It is expected that the material you pre-
sent in your research paper will be prop-
erly cited. That is, you have given credit
to the ideas of others, even if you have
summarized or paraphrased material
using your own vocabulary and writing
style.
To try to pass off others’ ideas as your
own is plagiarism and would lead to
severe consequences, including failing
this course.
To make sure you are accurately credit-
ing all your sources within your paper,
please carefully read the two groups of
PowerPoint slides prepared by Purdue
University’s Online Writing Lab, a site
you visited in Phase Two of this research
paper brochure.
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/worksh
ops/pp/index.html
MLA Documentation
Annotated Works Cited
Sample Annotated Works Cited
http://www.topsy.org/Misc/FinalProject.html
Linda M. Elfers-Mabli [2007]
6
1. Please go to the Purdue University
PowerPoint site.
2. Read the directions for downloading
a PowerPoint presentation.
3. Look for “Cross-Referencing: Using
MLA Format.”
4. Download the presentation.
5. Read the following two groups of
slides:
Through the phases of this project, you
should have maintained a working bibli-
ography, which includes all of the pub-
lishing information about each source, in
MLA format.
It should now be easy for you to prepare
a document entitled, Annotated Works
Cited, which appears at the end of your
paper. This document should include
the following for each source:
1. The publishing information in
MLA format.
2. A brief description of the
source.
3. Your evaluation of the source’s
usefulness in your paper.
The annotation (description & evalua-
tion) should be approximately 30 words
for each source.
Don’t forget: I’m available
either via email
(elfers@fdu.edu) or by
phone (201.692.2449) if you
need to ask a question
about your research paper
project. Please don’t hesi-
tate to contact me.
Professor Elfers-Mabli
[The photo of me was taken in
the summer of 2007 at the Coli-
seum in Rome.]
Slides 1, 2, and 3: an explanation of why
we use the MLA format of documenta-
tion.
Slides 13, 14, and 15: Using parentheti-
cal citations at the ends of:
A quotation,
A summary,
A paraphrase.
One Last Item
Prepare an Abstract
In addition to submitting your fi-
nal research paper, along with
your Annotated Works Cited, you
will also submit a document enti-
tled, Abstract.
Very simply, an abstract is a summary of
the major points in your paper.
The abstract should be no more than
10% of the total length of your paper.
For this paper, you are expected to write
8 - 10 pages (approx. 3,000 words;
double-spaced); therefore, your abstract
will be approximately 2/3 to one page
(approx. 300 words).