Mrs. Staffen’s Guide to Research Hold on… This is going to be INTENSE!

Mrs. Staffen’s Guide to Research

Hold on…This is going to be INTENSE!

Topic For your topic you need to do a little background

information. Make sure that you know some background on your

topic, this will help you find sources quicker. Write a few key words down. Check out these

examples: Samuel Clemens

Pen name is Mark Twain Is an author

Missouri Botanical Gardens Founder: Henry Shaw Also known as Shaw’s Garden St. Louis MO

Library Time You need to make sure that you use your library

time wisely. I will grade you on using your time efficiently.

You need to make sure that you have all your materials. You will need:

a writing utensil note cards bib. Cards information or packet from teacher

Now the tricky stuff

You will need to keep note cards and bib. cards for all of your sources.

These will be worth BIG points so make sure you pay attention!

YES NOW! WATCH. ARE YOU READY?

Bibliography (Bib.) Cards When you find a good source, you need to

fill out a bib. card on it. The bib card is recorded on the larger index

cards. One card per source The next slides will show you examples of

bib. cards and your bib cards should look exactly like these examples!

You have an MLA style sheet which will help you.

The Just of it:

Card #

MLA Style Documentation

Location of Source Call #

A Book

1

Smith, Lamar. Term Paper Writing Made Easy. New York: Writers Press, 1998.

Evanston Public Library 808.4 Ro

The top number represents the number of the source. Each source gets a different number

You put the location where you found the source here: HINT: RW Thomas Library

This is the call number. You will find it on the side of the book

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of publication, State: Publishing Company, Copyright date.

Magazine Article

2

Jones, Margaret, and Sandra Reynolds. “Writing that Term Paper.” Contemporary Writer, 15 April 2000: 18-25.

Personal Collection

Author’s last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine. Day Month Year: page numbers.

There are no call numbers

Encyclopedia

3

“teacher.“ World Book Encyclopedia. 4th ed. 2005.

RW Thomas Library Ref 034

Author’s last name, first name. “Title of topic.” Name of Encyclopedia. Edition. Day Month Year.

MOST ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES WILL NOT HAVE AN AUTHOR. IF THEY DO, THAT GOES FIRST, JUST AS IT HAS WITH OTHER SOURCES!

Internet (webpage) 3

Rowland, Amy. "Career Research." Mrs. Rowland's Top Eleven Websites for Career and College Information. Ed. Amy Rowland. 5 Mar. 2007. Ste. Genevieve High School. 26 Mar 2008.<http://www.stegen.k12.mo.us/tchrpges/sghs/apridemore/Mrs.RowlandsTopTenWebsitesforCareerandCollegeInformation.htm>.

Computer

Author’s last name, first name. “Title of article or website.” Name of Magazine/Website/Journal/etc. Ed.(Editor). Date of article. Group or sponsor. Access Date (the date you logged on). <complete URL>.

WEBSITES CAN BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. IF THERE IS SOME PIECE OF INFORMATION THAT YOU CANNOT FIND, ASK FOR HELP. IF IT IS SIMPLY NOT LISTED ANYWHERE, YOU WILL SKIP IT AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ITEM.

What’s Next? After you have your bib. card for

any given source, you need to create note cards

These should go on the smaller index cards.

You will only have one note per card. VERY IMPORTANT!

You need to have a minimum of 4 note cards per bib. card.

Here is a better look:Topic: a title for your card Source #

Notes: you can use “direct quotes”, paraphrase or a combination. I will show you different examples

Page Number

Topic: Young child, College, occupation, parents, etc

This needs to match with the bib. Card. Whatever number you gave that bib card is what you write here

This needs to be in reference to your topic and must only be one section of notes- keep this short. If it is a direct quote you need to have quotes surrounding it.

DUH

Direct Quotation

Paraphrase Note Card

Combination: only part is a quote

Ready, Set, GO! Well, now you are off to the

library. Use the resources that I gave you!

Make sure to ask if you have ANY questions. It is better to ask now, then have to

go back to library and re-research. You got this! Go forth and try not

to PLAGIARISE.