Prewriting for Research Papers
When something fascinates you, studying it is simple. You naturally train all your attention on it and try to figure it out. Learning is easy because all the doors and windows of your mind are flung wide open. When something bores you, studying it is a chore. You can't stay focused. No one could pay you enough to care.
Since you need to closely study whatever topic you choose for your research paper, you should strive up front to find a topic that fascinates you. The next activity will help you find a strong topic, and the activities afterward will help you launch your research.
Prewriting to Select a Topic
The following "Basics of Life" list includes broad subject areas that are critical to life. You can click on any entry to find more resources about it. You can also apply these general subjects to a specific class in order to find a unique topic. For example, applying "Personality" to the Spanish-American War unit in AP U.S. History would suggest studying the irrepressible Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.
Basics of Life
Animals
Art
Books
Career
Communication
Community
Culture
Education
Energy
Entertainment
Environment
Exercise
Family
Fantasy
Fashion
Food
Freedom
Friends
Fun
Future
Geography
Goals
Government
Health
History
Holidays
Home
Imagination
Language
Law
Life
Literature
Love
Medicine
Money
Music
Nature
Occupation
People
Personality
Plants
Play
Recreation
Rights
Rules
Science
Seasons
Self
Sports
Technology
Transportation
Travel
Vehicles
Work
Select a research topic.
Review the Basics of Life List and select a general subject area that interests you. Then apply this general subject area to a topic your class is currently studying. For example, you might combine "Travel" with your biology unit on bacteria and do a research paper about "Infection Risks Among Tourists." Continue applying subjects from the Basics of Life List with class topics until you find a research topic that interests you and fits the assignment.
Prewriting to Find Sources
An effective research paper draws from a variety of sources. As you search for information about your topic, consider three types of sources:
- Primary sources connect directly to the subject. Letters, journal entries, and interviews are excellent primary sources for historical topics. Formulas, theories, experiments, and surveys can be excellent primary sources for scientific topics.
Letters, essays, and journal entries from those involved; interviews, historical documents, artifacts, and photos from the original events; surveys, experiments, observations, and participation in events
- Secondary sources provide second-hand information about their subject. They are articles that draw from original documents, so they refer to first-hand information and provide a perspective and context for it. You'll want to consult a number of secondary sources to find out what knowledgeable people think about the topic, and you'll need to cite these sources in text and on your works-cited page.
- Tertiary sources are three-times removed from their subject. They are articles drawn from other sources about original documents, so they can provide a broad survey of information but don't get at the topic very directly. Tertiary sources provide good starting points for research, and they often include bibliographies of more in-depth material, but you won't want to cite them in your paper because they are too far removed from their topic.
History and science books, documentaries, articles in magazines and scholarly journals, well-researched and documented Web publications
Wikipedia articles, textbook chapters, dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, reference works
As you begin your research, you can record sources of information in a chart, making sure you have plenty of primary and secondary sources. Also list tertiary sources that you consult, but do not include them in your in-text citations or on your works-cited page.
Primary Sources
Roosevelt, Theodore. "Diary of Theodore Roosevelt from April 16 to August 20, 1898." The Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o283221.
“Roosevelt and the Rough Riders atop San Juan Hill.” The Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o284930.
Secondary Sources
Gardner, Mark Lee. Rough Riders. William Morrow, 2016.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. The Bully Pulpit. Simon & Schuster, 2013.
"Spanish American War History 1898." History of American Wars http://www.history-of-american-wars.com/spanish-american-war-history.html.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Tertiary Sources
"Rough Riders." The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/roughriders.html.
"T. R. the Rough Rider: Hero of the Spanish American War." National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/thrb/learn/historyculture/tr-rr-spanamwar.htm.
Gather sources of information.
In your classroom and library and online, search for sources of information about your topic. Make sure to include trustworthy primary and secondary sources. Write down the key information for each source, and get access to them by checking them out, downloading and printing, or reviewing online.
Teaching Tip
If students are having difficulty separating trustworthy sources (biographies, journal articles) from untrustworthy ones (blog posts, biased sites), have them evaluate trustworthiness using a checklist.
Prewriting to Research Your Topic
Now that you've discovered a number of trustworthy sources of information about your topic, you need to engage those sources. Immerse yourself in them. Give yourself time to learn, to discover, to make connections. As you go, you'll want to keep track of what you find using whatever strategy works best for you:
- Engaging the material means reading, viewing, listening, or otherwise interacting with it, paying close attention and fully experiencing the ideas in it.
- Note taking lets you write down the key points from sources, including the page numbers or URLs where the information appears.
- Annotating means marking up a source (if it belongs to you) by underlining key passages, writing notes in the margins, highlighting, and jotting down questions.
- Summarizing the material helps you capture the main point and key details in your own words and in a shortened form, remembering it more clearly.
- Questioning means answering the basic questions of who, what, where, and when, but also delving deeper with why, how, would, should, and could. Let open-ended questions drive your rigorous research.
- Clustering refers to exploring connections in a source or between sources by writing a topic and circling it and then connecting to it a web of related ideas.
- Freewriting is writing nonstop about an idea, pouring out everything you know about it in order to reflect on it or even create a (very) rough first draft.
Conduct research.
Engage your research materials, using whatever strategies above are most helpful. Give yourself time to go from not knowing what you are doing to having a pretty clear sense of your focus, main points, and details.
Prewriting to Create a Thesis Statement
After you have fully engaged your sources, you'll have all sorts of details and ideas floating around in your head. You need to find a specific focus among them, a central thesis that will organize your paper. Ask yourself "What is the most fascinating thing I discovered about my topic? What central idea do I want to convey to readers?" Then you should write a sentence or two that capture this central idea in a working thesis statement.
Write a thesis statement.
Write down the topic that you are researching, and then write down a central concept (thought, realization, or feeling) about the topic. Finally, combine the topic and the central concept into one or two sentences that express the thesis of your research paper.
Topic |
+ |
Central Concept |
= |
Thesis Statement |
|
the Rough Riders |
created in the very image of Teddy Roosevelt |
Teddy Roosevelt created the Rough Riders much as he had created himself—by applying indomitable will to elevate uncertain material. |
Prewriting to Develop an Outline
Your instructor may require an outline, or you may find one helpful to organize your thinking. Your working thesis statement gives you a starting point. Write it out in full. Underneath it, list main points that support your thesis. Under each main point, you can also list supporting details. Your outline can be a simple list or can go into great depth, whichever is most helpful to you.
If you use different levels of detail, you should use different levels of numbering.
- Main points begin with Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, etc.)
- Supporting details begin with capital letters (A, B, C, D, etc.)
- Specific details begin with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.)
- Granular information begins with lowercase letters (a, b, c, d, etc.)
Teddy Roosevelt created the Rough Riders much as he had created himself—by applying indomitable will to elevate uncertain material.
I. Sickly Teddy pushed his body to overcome all obstacles.
A. "You must make your body." "Do things. Be sane . . . . get action."
1. Overcame asthma and other childhood illnesses.
2. "Rugged, exuberant, aggressive . . . riding, swimming, shooting, competing."
B. After wife's death, made himself sheep rancher to deal with grief.
1. Arrived as dude with engraved daggers from Tiffanies.
2. Flattened drunk who called him "Old Four Eyes."
3. Broke mount meant to break him.
II. Needed the Rough Riders and willed them into existence.
A. U.S.S. Maine sunk in Havana Harbor.
B. Congress funded three thousand "volunteers" to enlarge army--cowboys.
C. Colonel Wood and Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt raised First Volunteer Cavalry.
1. Frontiersmen—skilled horsemen and marksmen
2. Harvard footballers, rowing captains, wrestlers; New York dandies
D. Wood and Roosevelt trained raw recruits and unbroken horses.
III. Rough Riders struggled to reach Cuba.
A. Train delayed from San Antonio to Tampa Bay.
B. Roosevelt commandeered the Yucatan and got stuck at sea.
C. Debarked at Daiquiri; lost of two Buffalo Soliders and Roosevelt's horse.
IV. Rough Riders fought Battle of Las Guasimas.
Teaching Tip
Sharp students will note that this outline only roughly matches the sample paper in the next lesson plan. That's okay. An initial outline is only a guide for drafting and should not dictate the draft in lock step. If you want students to turn in an outline that exactly matches their final papers, have them revisit and revise their outlines before turning them in.
Develop an outline.
Write your working thesis statement. List main supporting points after Roman numerals, supporting details indented after capital letters, and so on. Use your outline as a guide, but realize that your paper can veer from it as needed.