MODULE #8 NOTES:

Research Step #6—Outlining the Research Paper.  This Module will discuss the importance of organizing the three sections of your research paper before writing it.  At this point in the writing process you should have—or be developing—the following:

• Sets of research note cards from at least eight secondary sources which you have read and annotated.  These can be actual cards or digital notes saved in a file or both.  You need to have many individual notes from each source—each individual annotation is a note.
• A main research question.  This question will be answered using the secondary sources you used to develop your note cards.
• Three section questions which will help to answer the main research question.  Each section question will be answered in one section of the paper—about two typed pages for each section.

 

Goal of this module:

• Outlining the Research Paper
• Evaluating websites and web sources
• Reviewing APA in-text citations & References page

 

Now, you will develop a two level—simple—outline which will help you organize your notes.

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Outlining the Research Paper:

What is the purpose of an outline work?

• Reveals the structure of an entire paper by identifying the three main themes—section questions—the paper will investigate.
• Indicates similarities between ideas. Helps you to see how the themes for each section  relate to each other and to determine the best order for those BP themes.
• Organizes complex ideas and large amounts of detail into an order that allows you to write coherently
• Clarifies relationships between general ideas and progressively more detailed ideas.
  • Allows the writer to see how main ideas and details relate quickly and easily
• Creates a visual framework of the paper’s ideas
• Allows the writer to make changes easily before writing.
• To be aware of you have two sources for each theme so that you can synthesize ideas.

 

Outlining presents a picture of structure – According to the John Jay College, Lloyd Sealy Library web site:

 

An outline presents a picture of the main ideas and the subsidiary ideas of any subject. Some typical uses of outlining are: a class reading assignment, an essay, a term paper, a book review or a speech.  For any of these, an outline will show a basic overview and important details.

It is only possible to make an outline if you are familiar with the subject. Not only in the initial outline, but during the course of the research, the writer may find it necessary to add, subtract or change the position of various ideas. This is acceptable as long as the logical relationship among ideas is preserved.

 

This “outline” picture allows you to see the entire paper all at once and makes it easier to make corrections before you begin writing the paper.  Organizing the paper’s BPs after you start writing will cause all sorts of problems and take up a lot of time.

Source:

Basic outlining. (n.d.). Retrieved from John Jay College, Lloyd Sealy Library Web site: http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research/outlining.html

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PROBLEM: If you have been reading many sources for your research paper and annotating important ideas from those sources then you must have a lot of annotations.  And, if you have been gathering those annotated ideas onto individual research note cards then you must have a large collection of cards.

How do you organize all of these ideas?

 

ANSWER: Create a three-tiered outline:

• 1^st Tier à Section question goes here.  This question will help answer the main research question – the first tier identifies a section of the paper.
• 2^nd Tier à Topic sentence of each body paragraph in a paper section.
• 3^rd Tier à Details that go into each body paragraph à  using the note cards

 

Develop an outline for your research paper outline.  The entire outline helps to answer the Main Research Question à

 

This is the first section question for your paper – 2 page section of your paper Theme of the 1st BP answering the 1st section question –  topic sentences [TS] of this paragraph Supporting material for the first body paragraph Additional supporting material for the first body paragraph Additional supporting material for the first body paragraph   Theme of the 2nd  BP of this section of the paper – TS follows à Supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph   Theme of the 3rd BP  – TS follows à  Supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph     This is the second section question – 2 page section of your paper    Theme of the 1st BP answering the 2ND  section question–TS follows à Supporting material for the first body paragraph Additional supporting material for the first body paragraph Additional supporting material for the first body paragraph Theme of the 2nd  BP of this section of the paper – TS follows à Supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 2nd body paragraph Theme of the 3rd BP  – TS follows à  Supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph Additional supporting material for the 3rd body paragraph   AND SO FORTH >>>  

 

PROCESS for creating a research paper outline – The following example will be using a student paper which can be found at à http://www.york.cuny.edu/scholar/volume-1/by%20Joanna%20Hull.pdf

 

1. Begin with a Main Research Question à

• What are the psychological effects of tobacco advertisement on children?

 

2. Divide this main research question into three or four section questions à

 

                      I.        How do tobacco advertisers apply behavioral learning principles in ads?

                    II.        What psychological tactics do tobacco advertisers use to get children to buy their products?

                   III.        Are the psychological tactics used in tobacco ads effective in getting children to purchase their products?

 

3. Decide the order of body paragraphs in each section of the paper.

 

This outline would look like this. STUDY IT CAREFULLY – this knowledge will save you a lot of time:

 

MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the psychological effects of tobacco advertisement on children?   I.      1st section of the paper à How do advertisers apply behavioral learning principles in ads? 1st Body Paragraph theme à Definition of behavioral learning principles 2nd BP theme à Using Pavlov’s conditioning in a modern advertisement campaign 3rd BP theme à Using operant conditioning in modern adv. Campaign 4th BP theme à Introduce relationship of these behavioral learning principles to paper main question   II.   2nd section of the paper à What psychological tactics do tobacco advertisers use to get children to buy their products? Introductory paragraph – linking ideas from section one to this section. B.           1st Body Paragraph of theme à Establishing cigarette smoking as “cool” to children 2nd BP theme à Sponsorship identity tactic explained D.           3rd Body Paragraph theme à Connecting cigarette smoking to independence and resisting authority E.            4th BP theme à Repeated exposure is tactic used – established by social learning theory F.            5th BP theme à Gender stereotypes is used as a tactic target children Summary paragraph for this section of the paper.   3rd section of the paper à Are the psychological tactics used in tobacco ads effective in getting children to purchase tobacco products? Introductory paragraph – introducing the reader to this section. B.           1st Body Paragraph theme à Preparatory stage of addiction is most important with children C.           2nd BP theme à Young smokers make large profits for cigarette industry  3rd BP theme à Must get smokers when young E.            4th BP theme à Habits established at young age, carried into adulthood  Variance in male and female smoking statistics validates effectiveness of gender 5th BP theme à Referring to stereotyping tactic discussed in second section 6th BP theme à Direct relationship to amount of exposure to cigarette ads and smoking behavior 7th BP theme à Campaigns to ban tobacco ads to children work  

 

 

Compare this outline with the paper; you will see a direct correlation between the sections and the body paragraphs.  I strongly urge you to make this comparison.

See à http://www.york.cuny.edu/scholar/volume-1/by%20Joanna%20Hull.pdf

 

REMEMBER: The outline above is a final draft.  Outlining is a process of TRIAL AND ERROR AND FIX.  You will never get it right the first or second time.  An outline must be drafted and redrafted until you get something that will work.

 

For Module #7 Assignment you will create a two tiered outline for your research paper project.

 

 

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How should you judge a web source? Is it credible or is it “junk”?

READ before continuing – Hacker and Sommers (2010) section 47e

 

Investigating the credibility and relevancy of a web site.  As we have started to discover not all web sources will be useful for our research paper.  Since anyone can create and post a website, much of what is found on the web is not credible or useful for a college research paper.

Nevertheless, there is a lot on the web that is quite useful for a college level research paper.

 

How do we determine whether a web site is useful and credible?

 

Go to this web tutorial AND be sure you can answer the following questions à

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

 

Using this website tutorial answer be sure you can answer the following questions:

• What can the URL tell you?
• What can you learn by scanning the perimeter of the page?
• What indicators should you look for to judge the quality of the information on the web page?
• How can you check on what others say about the web page you are considering?

 

Go to Slide Show 8B for more on evaluating a website à

 

 

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Review of APA in-text citations & references page:

Review the following website which covers in brief what you need to know about APA in-text citations and bibliographical form à

 

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch09_o.html

View slideshow presentations for Module #8 à

• Slideshow 8A à Outlining the research paper
• Slideshow 8B à Evaluating a website