8th Grade Research Reports PDF

Home Backgrounds Welcome slides Planners Homework Tests Research Reports 8th Grade Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought. - Al...

Home Backgrounds Welcome slides Planners Homework Tests Research Reports 8th Grade Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought. - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Home Backgrounds Welcome slides Planners Homework Tests Research Reports A research report is an expository piece that provides information on a specific topic. The information is derived from the writer gathering information from a variety of sources and then interpreting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from the information to develop a thesis statement and supporting ideas. Home Backgrounds Welcome slides Planners Homework Tests A good research report includes: 1. a clear focus on one topic 2. factual information supported by research that was gathered as notes and placed in outline form 3. an introduction that includes a thesis statement 4. a body of logically ordered paragraphs that include important main ideas supported by relevant details 5. a summarizing conclusion 6. Parenthetical citations and a Works cited page 7. Formal language and a confident voice 8. Neutral tone 9. Variety of sentence styles and lengths 10. Varied ways of providing information, such as quotations, statistics, examples, and explanations  Topic ★ The topic must interest the writer (or you may not want to write about it and will be bored). ★ Be careful that you pick a topic that is not too broad or too narrow. You want to be able to find enough research and information to support your thesis but not TOO much that you’re overwhelmed. ★ Focused and appropriate for audience Thesis Statement ★ Clearly stated in the introduction of your report…the rest of the paper develops your thesis ★ Ask yourself questions to guide your research and maintain focus on the topic BEFORE finalizing your thesis statement. ○ By working this way, you’re able to better focus the report’s thesis statement on a specific idea that is convincing and informative Organization & Documentation ★ You must have multiple sources to support a research paper. ○ Figure out how you’re going to organize your research; sometimes people use notecards or simple record facts and sources in a notebook. ★ You will organize all or parts of your research paper with text structure: descriptive, cause & effect, chronological order, etc.  Organizing your Research ★ Taking Notes ○ You can use notecards or a notebook. Summarize important information from your sources in your own words EXCEPT in the case where you cannot because of data or dates, etc. Then you should use a quotation. ○ When you find important information, write it down; this information could… State a fact or idea in your own words Be a direct quotation WRITE DOWN where you found the information; author’s name, name of website, date  Organizing your Research When you have gathered your notes and research; organize them into a preliminary outline. 1. Separate or highlight your notes into like groups or groups with similar information so that you can form main ideas for your body paragraphs. 2. Review the groups; do these support your thesis statement? EDIT your statement if necessary! 3. Transfer your notes into a preliminary outline; see examples in the following pages. 4. Your outline should follow a specific format, main ideas are divided into subtopics and then supported with details.  Citing Sources Sample MLA in-text citation: (Smith 7)—includes author’s last name and pg # (no comma and no “pg.” ) ○ *Note: If you have already mentioned the author’s name in the sentence, you only need to include the page number. Ex. Smith claims, “Cake is the most delicious dessert” (7). If the author of the source is unknown, use a shortened version of the title in the in-text citation. ○ Ex. (“The Great Cake Debate” 4).  Citing Sources Sample MLA in-text citation: When determining whether a title should be italicized or put in quotation marks (MLA no longer underlines titles), remember whole sources like books, journals and newspapers get italicized, but parts of a whole source like chapters or articles are not italicized but put in quotation marks. ○ Ex. The book Food for Thought and the chapter “The Great Cake Debate” Punctuation: (periods, commas, question marks, etc. goes after the in-text citation. ○ Ex. Smith suggests, “Chocolate is the best flavor for cakes” (8). However, his claim that “vanilla is the worst flavor ever” (Smith 8), while might be true for him, is certainly not agreed upon by everyone.  Works Cited The Works Cited page lists every source used in the research report alphabetically according to the author’s last name, when available. Use a “hanging indent” format when listing all sources so that the author’s name stands away from the text of the notation. This lets the reader find the source easily. SEE EXAMPLES!