Bookmarks: A Guide To Research and Writing (Ruskiewicz, Walker and Pemberton) Chapter 2, 4, 13

Chapter 2

This chapter is designed to help a student locate a topic. Often this process begins with the student's own initial queries and forays into the subject matter. A topic is generated and then relevant subject matter is generated based on the familiarity of the author with the subject. This is called the "Top-down" approach.It relies on the prospect that the student already has a pretty good familiarity with the subject matter he/she is researching.One of the ideal ways of entering into a subject is to examine issues about which there is doubt or uncertainty or dispute. This is called problematizing the issue. Understanding the areas within a topic that are surrounded by controversy may allow a student to quickly frame an issue. For this reason, practice with problematizing texts will be a focus for this course [see problematization assignment].

However, sometimes a viable topic for a paper can present itself from one or two well-written articles. In this way, one can work "back" to a thesis. It is also referred to as the "Bottom-up" approach. No preconceived notion about a topic is needed. The student may just begin reading an article that has authority and may let the article initially structure his/her ideas around a topic. For an example of how this may work, one might look at the "Thesis-as-grab-bag" section of the following page [http://members.accessbee.com/tnklbnny/researchpaper.html].This is similar to the process of "browsing" described in this chapter.

Sometimes informal settings are useful in order to familiarize oneself with a topic.Specialized newsgroups can be a profitable source for jogging some ideas about a topic. Here is a list of many types of these groups [http://groups.google.com]

Other sites of interest:

Colorado State's Guide to Writing Processes http://writing.colostate.edu/references/processes/audmod/

Purdue University's Guide to Writing a Research Paper http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/topic.html

Chapter 4

This chapter is designed to help you focus and narrow your project. A narrow paper is always preferred more than a paper that covers a broader area with regard to a topic. However, one must always balance a thoroughly narrowed topic with the amount of time one has to complete a writing project. One should not choose a topic that is so general that one cannot sift through the information uncovered in order to determine what is important.

The purpose of researching a paper is to establish a claim (or thesis). The thesis is the controlling statement in a paper. All information included in a paper must serve the thesis in some way. The thesis is a statement which is provable. This means it can be demonstrated via relevant evidence that supports the claim. There are several basic types of thesis. The student must decide what kind of thesis he/she is going to pursue as early as possible.

• Fact-based thesis—This kind of thesis is concerned with what is actually "the case," what is "true."
• Definition-based thesis—This kind of thesis is concerned with defining an ambiguous term, some abstract entity that is not easily defined.
• Value-based thesis—This kind of thesis is concerned with assessing the value of some item based on some criteria that the writer establishes.
• Cause-effect thesis—This kind of thesis is concerned with establishing a cause and effect relationship between two items
• Policy-based thesis—this kind of thesis is concerned with arguing for a particular course of action. One might refer to this kind of paper as a "proposal."

Other places a student might go in order to develop more narrow topics are directories on the web.Yahoo [www.yahoo.com] and Google [http://www.google.com/dirhp] provide indexes of broad categories. Follow these broad categories to some of the subcategories listed under the main heading. Sometimes this can lead one to territory that is fresher and more disputed territory.

Also, it is a good idea to talk to other people about your topic. There can be a great amount of information that can be culled from someone who has a particular appreciation for a subject.

Other sites of interest:

online newspapers: [http://www.onlinenewspapers.com]

Internet Public Library [http://www.ipl.org/]

CEO Express (A Business Portal for executives): [http://www.ceoexpress.com/default.asp]

Links to Public Opinion Surveys at the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research [http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/info/polls.shtml]

Proposal Writing Guidelines at University of Pittsburgh: [http://www.pitt.edu/~offres/proposal/propwriting/websites.html]

Preparing a Prospectus for a Project (on Brigham Young University's site): [http://www.byu.edu/ipt/program/ms_prospectus_guide.html]

Chapter 13

Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Quoting Sources:

• A summary encapsulates the main idea(s) of a text. A summary highlights key concepts. It is used to provide context for key facts or ideas that will be used in a student's paper.
• A paraphrase records key ideas just like a summary does, but it does so in more detail. While it is not a verbatim quotation of source material, it often mirrors the structure of the text it is paraphrasing; however, an effort should be made to use novel language that does not hearken back to the original text. Ideally, one should be able to use a paraphrase in a paper without any further documentation.
• An exact "verbatim" quotation should always be set off in the student's text with quotation marks (or with blocked-in text), and the appropriate citation should be used.

Further discussions of this can be found at this site:

Other sites of interest

Research Haven's "Creating a Successful Summary or Paraphrase" [http://www.researchhaven.com/Writing/QuoSuccessfulSummary.htm]

Purdue University's "Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing" [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_quotprsum.html]

Ohio University's ESL site for "Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary" [http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/help/quotation.html]