Research Papers For Dummies
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Copyright 2002 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2002106035
ISBN: 978-0-7645-5426-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Author
Geraldine Woods directs the independent study program at a high school for gifted students. Each year she guides 20 seniors as they select and define a topic, research the material, and write a major paper. She also teaches English and has written 40 books, give or take a few, including English Grammar For Dummies. She loves bookstores and libraries, minor-league baseball, Chinese food, and the novels of Jane Austen. The mother of a grown son (Tom, a lawyer), she lives in New York City with Harry (her husband of 30 years) and parakeets Alice and Archie.
Dedication
For my great city, which I love now more than ever; and for the students in the independent study seminar, past and present, whose passion for learning inspires me daily.
Authors Acknowledgments
I offer thanks to the faculty of Horace Mann School, whose love of teaching and passion for learning serve as a model of academic excellence. In particular, I am indebted to Caroline Bartels, Samuel Gellens, Christopher Jones, Janet Kraus, Rudy Reiblein, Deborah Stanford, Joseph Timko, Jeff Weitz, and Don Yates for their valuable suggestions. I also appreciate the careful scrutiny and encyclopedic knowledge of Tom LaFarge and Ginny Nordstrom, the technical editors. I am grateful to my project editor, Linda Brandon, who challenged me with good humor and tact and made this a better book, and to Roxane Cerda, who guided me through the outline and early stages of the project. I also thank my agents, Carolyn Krupp and Lisa Queen, for their support and encouragement.
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Introduction
Y oure sitting at your desk in a classroom or in an airless cubicle, wondering how many minutes are left in the century its taking the day to be over. Suddenly Ms. Sharkface, your teacher or supervisor, lowers the boom: She wants a research paper. She wants footnotes and a list of sources. She wants originality, accuracy, and good grammar. And gasp she wants ten pages! You may be 12 years old or 60 years old, but your reaction is the same Help! Ms. Sharkface may as well have said, I want you to run a marathon blindfolded and in sandals!
Take heart. A research paper may seem daunting, but the project is not impossible. Turning research into writing is actually quite easy as long as you follow a few proven techniques. In this book I show you how to search for information using both traditional printed sources and the electronic treasure troves of the World Wide Web. I explain how to collect the valuable bits and dump the rest, how to make sense of the information you retrieve, and how to write an outline. I give you a step-by-step guide to creating a