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Editing is easy, all you have to do is cross out the wrong words. ~Mark Twain
Ideas to Help with the Difficult and Scary Process of Writing
How do I format
a paper?
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Characteristic |
Popular Magazines |
Scholarly Journals |
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Writer |
Staff writers and journalists |
Scholars/researchers |
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Audience |
General public |
Scholars, including college students |
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Reviewed by |
Editor |
Editorial board made up of other scholars and researchers ... scholarly journal articles are ALWAYS peer-reviewed and tell you that |
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Article style/purpose |
Shorter articles written to entertain, inform or elicit an emotional response |
Longer articles written in a formal, scholarly style to share facts and research with the academic community |
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Documentation |
None or a website for more information |
Footnotes/endnotes and bibliography/reference
list |
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Frequency |
Usually published frequently (weekly or monthly) |
Usually published less frequently (quarterly, semi-annually) |
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Advertisements |
Numerous ads for a variety of products |
If there are any ads, they are usually for scholarly products such as books or academic software |
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Illustrations |
Usually numerous and with every article |
Fewer, often include charts and graphs to support research findings |
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Appearance |
Usually glossy and larger in size |
Usually smaller in size, thicker and have a plain cover |
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Found in College Libraries and Databases |
Yes, and more often than scholarly sources |
Yes, but not every academic source is in every library |
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Online Presence |
Always a .org or .com site and often has free limited access |
Usually a .edu site (rarely .org,
never .com) with no free access beyond article titles |
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Examples |
Time, Psychology Today, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, National Geographic, National Review, Atlantic Monthly (magazines you might subscribe to or buy at a newsstand) |
Journal of Southern History, Annual Review of Psychology, American Literature, New England Journal of Medicine |
The following are not scholarly publications.
textbooks
readers
study guides
research papers
information from publisher sites
information from educational sites
information from online or F2F lecture notes / materials
reference books: dictionaries, encyclopedias and etc.
online reference sites
government publications
governmental agency publications
think tank publications
interest group publications
union publications
information from news bureaus: AP, UPI and etc
working papers, reports, briefings or etc from an organization
When colleges purchase access to a scholarly source, it usually means they purchased access to a database, which contains thousands of titles that can be searched for specific information.
Not every title in a database is a scholarly publication. When searching for articles, most databases give you the option of limiting your search to refereed, scholarly or peer-reviewed publications, all of which are scholarly publications.
1.
Choose a database.Databases are collections of thousands of publications organized by subject. Libraries have many different databases covering every academic discipline. Some databases are multidisciplinary, containing publications that cover a broad range of subjects and include both popular and scholarly sources. Other databases are subject-specific and include mainly scholarly and specialized articles. The following multidisciplinary databases are good places to start research.
Academic Search Complete, 1990-present: scholarly, popular and newspaper articles from across disciplines, includes full text
Academic One File, 1980-present: scholarly, popular and newspaper articles from across disciplines, includes full text
Info Trac Custom Newspapers: full-text articles from over 100 newspapers
LexisNexis Academic and JSTOR are also good multidisciplinary databases.
To find a subject-specific database or other multi-disciplinary databases, ask
your librarian. You can access most databases online from home with a user name
and password provided by your library. I’ve listed just a few of the databases in
my fields in the table below.
To search a database, choose keywords which represent the main concepts of your topic. In order to find the best articles for your research, choose a number of keywords for each concept, including synonyms and related terms. Then combine them using AND and OR.
AND narrows your search by looking for articles that contain all of the keywords.
OR broadens your search by looking for articles that contain any of the keywords.
Example: Search for information about female college students with eating disorders.
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Concept 1 AND Concept 2 |
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female college students |
eating disorders OR
bulimia |
When you find an article you like, it's very important that you actually look at the hard-copy or electronic version of the complete article and not just the summary given in the database. The database gives you the information you need for your reference list. It does not give you the information you need for your paper.
All databases list citations which you can use to find the entire article. Some also provide abstracts (brief summaries) of articles, while others contain the full text of the article. If the article is not full-text in the database, make sure you write down all of the information necessary to find it -– title, author, journal name, date of issue, etc.
When you click on the database link a number of things may happen. You may go (a) directly to the article, (b) to information about the journal volume/issue the article is published in and the have to use the information to find the article or (c) to the database search screen and search the database using the title of the article. Be sure to check the date ranges of the database against the article’s information to make sure the full text of your article is contained in that database.
If your library doesn’t own the journal or magazine you need, you can request the article for free through Inter-Library Loan by filling out a request form. Your library will get the article from another college.
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ECONOMICS |
GEOGRAPHY |
POLITICAL SCIENCE |
SOCIOLOGY |
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Business Abstracts with Full Text Business Monitor Business Source Complete Econ Lit Foundations and Trends in Business and Economics Global Development Finance (GDF) ICPSR IMF e-Library Market Line Advantage National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Statistical Abstract of the United States World Agricultural Economics Abstracts |
ABI/INFORM Global Access Science Arctic and Antarctic Regions AGRICOLA Columbia Gazetteer of the World Dictionary of Geography EBSCO Environment Abstracts General Science Abstracts GEOBASE GEO Ref Index Islamic JSTOR Land Scan Water Resources Abstracts |
Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals Artemis Primary Sources Bibliography of Asian Studies Chinese Academic Journals (in Chinese) CIAO Eastview Universal Database (in Russian) FBIS Reports: Latin America HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index HLAS: Handbook of Humanities and Social Sciences International Political Science Abstracts Worldwide Political Science Abstracts |
Annual Review of Sociology Annual Reviews Online Anthropology Online Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online Country Studies Family Studies Abstracts ICPSR PAIS Roper Center for Public Opinion Research RAMBI: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies Rural Sociology Abstracts Social Services Abstracts Sociological Abstracts |
What is a research paper?
1. A research paper is not "about" a subject.
A research paper should have a thesis, a clear point of view. It is not simply a generalized discussion of an issue. The focus of the paper is not the views of others but your opinions and interpretations.
2. A research paper is not a summary of everything you can find.
Your goal is not to collect everything you can find out about a subject and summarize it. Although you should review as much material as possible, you should select sources that directly support your thesis. A research paper has a clear focus. The more narrow you make your subject, the easier your paper will be to write.
3. A research paper is not a list of quotes.
The focus of your paper is your point of view, your commentary. Direct quotations, facts and statistics may be woven throughout your paper, but they should support your position. Your commentary should do more than simply introduce or link quotations.
4. A research paper does not support a pre-conceived point of view.
Looking up facts that support what you already believe is not genuine research. You should examine evidence then form an opinion. A research paper comments on the quantity and quality of sources. It distinguishes between reliable and biased sources, between authoritative and questionable statistics, between fact and opinion.
5. A research paper does not present the ideas of others without documentation.
Research papers must use documentation methods to prevent writers from plagiarizing sources. Do not borrow ideas, statistics or facts without noting their original source.
Is there an easy way to complete footnotes/endnotes and references?
1. Create a new file in your computer called references.doc
2. Whenever you start to read a book, article or government document, open references.doc and type in the full citation.
3. Take the time now to format the citation correctly. You have to do it sometime, why not now? After a while, you'll get used to the formatting style and do it automatically.
4. Whenever you take notes, make sure that you keep track of the exact page number from which you are taking notes, even if you are not taking exact quotes.
5. Generally, it is better to carefully write down the full and exact quotes rather than to paraphrase. If you keep the full quote, you can paraphrase later without re-looking at the source.
6. Once you start writing your paper, make sure you include appropriate citations as you go along, including page numbers. It really will be a hassle later (trust me) if you don't do this as you write.
7. In-text citations with a reference list at the end is by far the easiest way of doing your citations.
8. If you keep a correctly formatted reference list of all your potential sources from the beginning, then your reference list will be done when your note-taking is done. If you include good citations as you write, then your footnoting/endnoting will be done when you finish your writing. Much easier than saving them to the end.
What makes a paper good?
1. A paper of just about any kind has to be based around a clear, simple thesis which (a) makes one simple point and (b) sums up your reasons for reaching that conclusion. The body of the paper is designed to use the evidence at your disposal to convince the reader you're right.
2. In many cases (especially if you aren't terribly self-confident about writing), your final paragraph will really be your thesis. If it is noticeably more profound, interesting, detailed, etc. than your first paragraph, cut and paste it at the top of your paper and edit your paper with that as your thesis.
3. Work on the assumption that you need to leave yourself time to write at least two drafts. Many people write six or seven before they have things the way they want them.
4. Each concrete point you raise in the body of your paper should be used to show the reader explicitly (a) how it helps support your thesis and (b) how it is connected to the other points you raise.
5. There should be one idea per paragraph and one paragraph per idea.
6. Write with an audience in mind: someone who is (a) smart, (b) likes you and (c) doesn't know much about the material.
7. Only use phrases, words and expressions which you'd include in normal conversation (profanity aside, of course). In short, if you write the way you speak, you'll communicate the most effectively.
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If people cannot write well, they cannot think
well, 
