Research Terms and Personal Web Pages: A Comprehensive Guide

APA Style

The following terms are used throughout this guide to refer to specific writing and research concepts. Please refer to this sheet if there are any questions throughout the research process.

APA Style: APA is the style of documentation of sources used by the American Psychological Association. This form of writing research papers is used mainly in the social sciences, like psychology, anthropology, sociology, as well as education and other fields.

Bibliographic Information: the address for your source. Author, title, publisher, date, etc. This information needs to be organized according to MLA style in the student’s works cited page.

Bibliography Cards (also known as source cards): contain the bibliographic information for one source. Students will complete a bibliography card for each of the sources they use. These cards should be placed in alphabetical order and number.

Categorizing: the process for sorting through and organizing the research note cards. For example, research papers can be categorized by cause/effect relationships, comparisons, persuasive appeals, problem/solution, qualities of an object, etc.

Commentary: specific opinions expressed by the student about each concrete detail. Commentary must be directly related to the concrete detail, must be specific, and must be focused upon the overall topic of the paragraph in which it appears.

Conclusion: record of what has been discovered through the writing of the paper. A student’s conclusion should almost entirely consist of commentary and it should not repeat phrases and sentences found elsewhere in the paper.

Concrete Detail: a specific example used to support the topic sentence. It can be a quote, fact, statement, summary, paraphrase, or other illustration.

Controlling idea/questions: the specific idea that the project is shaped around. In the final draft of the paper, the controlling idea changes into a thesis statement.

Drafting: the process of taking the research that has been done and writing it out in expository form.

Editing: the process of checking spelling, grammatical usage, and punctuation.

Format: the physical parameters of the report. Spacing, punctuation, font size, and style are issues of format. The format for this paper must follow MLA guidelines. Format requirements are outlined later on in this packet.

Paraphrase: recording the ideas found from a source in one’s own words. Paraphrases still must be documented in the works cited page and parenthetical citation. To do otherwise is to commit plagiarism

Plagiarism: use of another person’s ideas, words, or opinions as if they were your own. Any undocumented information from a source is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Students caught plagiarizing will fail the assignment and be subject to the progression of consequences outlined in the student handbook.

Quotation: recording ideas found in a source and writing them with the original text. Quotations must be surrounded by quotation marks.

Revising: the process of changing the structure and ideas in a paper.

Thesis: the articulated point of your essay. The thesis expresses your opinion about the topic and states what your essay is seeking to prove.

Topic Sentence: a sentence that clearly defines the point of a specific paragraph. Each body paragraph needs to begin with a topic sentence. The topic sentence relates directly to and supports the thesis statement.

Transitional expressions: words that are used to provide organizational structure to an essay.

They connect ideas and topics in as smooth a manner as possible.

Works cited page: a typed document that contains the bibliographical information for every source used by the student. The entries in a works cited page need to be formatted according to MLA style.

A personal page is a Web site created by an individual. The Web site may contain useful information and links to important resources and helpful facts, but often these pages offer highly biased opinions and are not recommended.

The presence of a name in the URL such as bsmith and a tilde ~ or % or the word users or people or members frequently means you are on a personal web site. Even if the site has the extension, .edu, you still need to look out for personal pages. Ask yourself “who is the author and what are their credentials?”

1. Which of he above sites are more likely to have the most reliable information?
2. Which ones may present information with a bias?
3. Which sites may be trying to sell you a product?
4. How can you use this information to evaluate the information on the web site?
5. What are clues in the URL that help identify the site as a personal web page?

1. States what you are proving.
2. Is one sentence
3. Is the last sentence of the introduction
4. Does not use the words “I,” “me,” or “you.”
5. Will contains a transition word or phrase such as “due to” or “because.”
6. Will contain elements that will be used to support what you are proving.

Practice: for each pair of choices, select the one choice you favor more. Write a complete thesis statement for the topic, providing reasons that support your choice. Thesis statement should be logos (logic as opposed to emotion or ethics).

1. Which is the better season in your town – summer or winter?
2. Which sport is more physically demanding – soccer or basketball?
3. Where should more money be spent for research – AIDS or cancer?
4. Is it better to have health or wealth?
5. Which sex has it easier – male or female?
6. Which is more humane – capital punishment or life imprisonment?