I-Search Paper Guidelines
for all 10/A English Students at Bear River High School
Note: Completion of a research paper is a mandatory requirement in order
to pass 10th grade English (first half or Section A). "No Grade" or an
"F" grade will be given to any student who fails to complete this assignment.
This page gives information which will help the student to complete
this assignment.
The exact number of pages required, inclusion of an abstract or outline,
and number of sources, varies somewhat by teacher. The student is expected
to listen in class to understand exactly what his or her teacher expects.
Requirements which are generally the same for all teachers in our department
are listed.
How to go about getting your I-Search paper done. Step-by-step instructions
are listed.
A list of criteria
to consider when using the Internet for research purposes. Not all information
on the Internet is reliable. These guidelines can help you validate your
sources.
The standard for the Works Cited page follows MLA guidelines for the
most part. However, methods of documenting research are subject to teacher
preference, and the styles change quite often. These guidelines reflect
a basic concensus of the Language Arts Teachers at BRHS and their preferences.
Footnotes and endnotes are not used; however, parenthetical documentation
is.
This site is excellent for those doing research or I-search papers.
It has:
Idea
Directory -- 4,000 research topic ideas with instant searches for information
on them.
Discussion
Area -- post your questions, share your tips with others working on
similar projects.
Writing
Center -- how to write effectively, writing tips and techniques, help
with grammar, etc...
Basic Requirements
The I-Search paper is a personalized research paper. The "I" could mean
individual or independent, but it mainly means "I," the first person pronoun.
This is to be your paper. It will be your topic; it will
be your research. You will spend time in the library with your class
researching your topic in reference books, periodicals, newspapers, CD-ROM
programs, Internet, etc... You will also personally interview an authority
on your topic. This is your opportunity to learn as much as you can about
something you have always wanted to know more about. This is your chance
to write about something that truly interests YOU!
Several days will be allowed for research in the library or computer
lab during class time. After that you will be given several days in the
computer lab in which to type your paper.
-
Papers must be typed on the school computers! NO PAPERS TYPED AT HOME
will be accepted. Papers may NOT be typed at home then brought to school
on a diskette. The students are expected to use their class time productively.
-
Each section of the I-search paper should begin on a new page.
-
Section I is called "What I Know, Assume, or Imagine."
In this section you tell the reader what you have decided to do your research
on and why you are interested in it. Tell what you already know about your
subject, then tell what you want to find out about it. This section usually
takes 3/4 to 1 page, and quite often is written before the student ever
begins actual research.
-
Section II is called "The Search." In this section
you tell where you went to do research and what you found out about your
subject. This is the main part of the paper. Tell it in first person. For
example: "I went to the library the first day and found a book on The Titanic.
I learned that the Titanic....." This part of your paper should be 3-5
pages long.
-
Section III is called "What I Discovered." This
section is a conclusion to your paper. It can be 1/2 to 1 page or more.
Talk about your search. Was it successful? Was there information you couldn't
find and do you still have questions about your subject? Did you learn
things you hadn't expected or that changed your previous ideas about this
subject? Tell your feelings about the search and what you learned.
-
"Works Cited" lists the sources used in the I-Search
paper. They are listed in alphabetical order, with the author's last name
written first. If there is no author to a source, then the title of the
article or book is listed first. There is a precise format that the students
are expected to follow, and an example is given below.
-
An Abstract or Outline is
required by some teachers. The Abstract is a paragraph or two which summarizes
the main points of the paper. An Outline uses short phrases, in a numerical
list, which covers each main idea and its sub-points, in the order written.
The paper must be typed in double-space, with 1" margins
Don't put extra blank lines between paragraphs; just use a tab at
the beginning of each.
Don't use abbreviations in your paper. Spell out words like "I've"
and "couldn't" and names of months.
Always run spellcheck before printing and then proofread carefully.
It is okay to take a copy of your paper home and have a parent or friend
help edit it before printing a final copy.
Charts and graphs and pictures can be added to the paper, but the
space they take up does not count towards the minimum page length requirement,
and they will not affect the quality of the grade given by the teacher.
Note cards, source cards, and all rough drafts of the paper must
be turned in with the final copy. These items should all be in a pocket-folder
which the student must provide.
The Process
1. Choose a Topic.
Your topic should be something that genuinely interests you. It
should be broad enough to have information for a 3-5 page paper but not
so broad that you can't cover the information concerning it in that many
pages.
Write down everything you know about the topic and a list of questions
about it. Some of the teachers require a list of various topics and questions
to be turned in to them, and a topic approved before research on one can
begin.
2. Write your "What I Know, Assume, or Imagine" section
(Section I).
Write this section in first-person, which means you talk about yourself
as "I." Tell what subject you decided to do research on and why you are
interested in. Tell what you already know about this subject and write
the questions you still have about it. What do you hope to find out?
3. Research.
The class is given several days to do research in the library, but
some of the research will need to be done on the students' own time. Begin
looking for someone who has experience with this subject so you can do
an interview. The interview can take place by phone, mail, or in person.
Use a variety of sources in your paper. Internet sources can be used if
they can be validated (see Validating
Online Information).
During the research process you should write down your sources on
Source
Cards. You will need the name of the source, its author, publisher,
city of publication, date of publication, and pages used. Note Cards
list the information you got from the source which you want to include
in your paper. EACH note card needs the page number that that specific
information came from. Don't plagiarize (which means don't steal someone
else's words without giving them credit). If you use someone else's exact
words, put quotes around it. If you use their ideas but not their exact
words, make sure you still give them credit (but don't use quote marks).
4. Type your paper in the English Writing Lab.
Section II of your paper (or the body) is titled The Search. Tell
about the places you went to research, and what you found out. Highlight
the happenings and facts that helped you to understand your topic better.
Make sure you write it in first person. DOCUMENT everything. Any time you
use a fact or information which you did not previously know, you must tell
where you got that information from. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Plagiarization
can result in an "F" grade.
PARENTHETICAL
DOCUMENTATION is the form used now for giving credit to a source. At
the end of a sentence in which you have given a direct quote, you must
put the author's last name and the page number in parentheses. If there
is no author, then a shortened form of the name of the article is listed
in quotes followed by a space and the page number. If it is a book with
no author, underline (or italicize) the name of the book and list the page
that information was taken from. Examples would be: (Jones 45) or ("Music"
375) or (Field and Stream 64). Someone reading your paper would
then go to the Works
Cited page and look down the alphabetical list to find the first word
you had in your parentheses; there they would find all the other information
needed for that specific source.
Interviews
do not have page numbers. Just put the person's last name in parentheses.
Internet and CD-ROM sources
do not have page numbers either.
If everything in one paragraph came from the same source, the parenthetical
documentation is just put at the end of the last sentence. If there is
more than one source used for information in the same paragraph, parenthetical
documentation must be used at the end of each sentence where the source
is about to change. If several paragraphs come from the same source, complete
information is given in parentheses at the end of the first paragraph,
and then only page numbers need to be given at the end of succeeding paragraphs
--UNTIL the source changes. See the SAMPLE
PARAGRAPH for an example. Note that the period for the end of a sentence
is placed AFTER the last parentheses.
An exact quote from one of your sources, which is LONGER than four
typed lines, must be indented 10 spaces. Then quotation marks are not used.
Unlike normal parenthetical documentation for other sources, the parenthetical
documentation for a long quote is placed AFTER the last punctuation mark.
The Search must be 3-5 pages long.
5. Write your Section III (What I Discovered) in the Writing Lab.
The conclusion of your paper re-evaluates your search and summarizes
what you found. You can tell about the difficulties and the successes of
your search. Did you find out everything you wanted to know? Did some of
your ideas about this subject change? Why is this subject important? This
section is usually 1/2 to 1 page long.
6. Type your Works Cited page.
Your Works Cited page lists all the sources you used in preparing
your text. You can also look at the sample Works Cited page which
we have included here. Our department follows MLA guidelines for the most
part. Citing electronic information (such as the Internet, e-mail, CD-ROM
programs etc.) is a fairly new part of research. Guidelines for correctly
documenting these sources are constantly being changed. The most recent
concensus of opinion is shown here. Ask your teacher if you have any questions
concerning a specific source.
Each entry in a Works Cited is placed flush with the left margin.
If the information for one source wraps around to include two or more lines,
the other lines are indented one tab. You'll notice that this is the opposite
of the way we type a text paragraph. CAREFULLY follow the punctuation styles
shown in your grammar book or on the sample Works
Cited page. Every wrong period, comma etc. will be deducted from your
total points.
7. Print a Rough Draft.
Print out a rough draft of your paper and take it home to read over.
Have someone else read it and help you edit it. Sometimes others can see
mistakes we cannot see in our own writing. Try reading it out loud to yourself.
A lot of mistakes in syntax can be picked up in this way. Mark any changes
you want to make.
8. Type the Final Draft.
Make sure you get your paper turned in by the due date! There is
a 50% grade cut automatically given to any paper that comes in past then.
Validating Online
Information
As you navigate the Internet and retrieve information for your class
assignments and research papers, it's important to question the truthfulness
of the information. Is it trustworthy? Where did it come from? Who wrote
it? Why did they write it? This checklist will help you in your quest to
be sure that all of the information you obtain from the online world is
"good" and useful in your studies.
What is the source of the information? Many
times, a site's address will provide some clues. A legitimate information
provider will have a straightforward online address, such as http://www.microsoft.com.
On the other hand, an individual user will have an online address reading
something like http://www.xyz.com/-smith/ position.btml. The -smith pa;rt
of the address gives it away. In this case, an individual named Smith has
put Web pages in his or her personal directory and made the contents available
to the world.
Why is this information online? Authors put
information online for a reason. Ask yourself if the purpose is to inform
and educate Internet users about a particular topic, or if there is some
kind of hidden agenda.
Who wrote the information, and what is the point
of view of the writer? These are the two most telling questions. If you've
never heard of the author or if the information wasn't well-written, chances
are you should do more research into his or her background before accepting
the information as factual. Go to an Internet search engine (such as http://
altavista.digital.com) and type in the author's name. What comes up? What
else have they published? Check the library to see if this person has published
anything in the real world.
Does the online information contain links to other
sites, and do they reveal any biases of the author? Following the
links authors place inside their online information is one of the best
ways to discover more about the author. These links may also reveal any
biases of an author.
How recent is the information? While new information
is not necessarily any more accurate than old information, this is still
an important question to answer. For example, if you're doing a report
on the current state of the former Soviet Union, you would want to steer
clear of any information that was put on the Internet before 1991.
Other questions you should ask yourself:
-
Who is the main audience for this information?
-
How often is the site/information updated?
-
How does this site compare with others that deal with the same subject
matter?
-
Does the text follow basic rules of grammar, spelling, and literary
composition?
-
How knowledgeable is the individual or group on the subject matter of
the site?
-
Is contact information for the author or producer included in the document
so you can e-mail the person with questions or comments?
-
What is the value of the Web site in comparison to the range of Library
Media Center resources available on the topic you're researching?
-
Does the author of the online information cite his or her sources in
the document so you can check them for authenticity?
This information taken from Classroom Connect September 1996
* Volume 3, Number 1, pg. 4-5
Samples of Parenthetical
Documentation and Works Cited page
The sample paragraph given here has many more parenthetical documentations
than would normally be found in a student paper. Every time an idea
comes from a different source than the idea before it did, a new parenthetical
documentation needs to be included. This paragraph uses a different source
for each sentence so that more examples of how to do it can be shown. Normally
there would be only one, or sometimes two, parenthetical documentations
per paragraph. Color has been added to help you see the correlation between
the parenthetical documentation and the information listed on the Works
Cited page. Note: the information and sources used in this sample are
purely fictional.
SAMPLE PARAGRAPH (normally
it should be double-spaced)
On the CD-ROM program
in our library, I found an article about chemistry that said "molecules
lose their negativity as they move through the solution" ("Chemistry"
52). Another scientist, Allen
R. Mueller, said these solutions become positively charged in the process
(Mueller 42). According to Mueller,
this is a "chemical reaction" (42).
I found that this process is very useful to industry in the manufacturing
of metals (Designs 73). From
an encyclopedia article I learned that the by-products of this process
are beneficial to both society and business ("Metals"
394). Metals such as beryllium and copper are refined in this
process (395). Positively-charged solutions
are also used in the production of zirconium (Zeikel
).
According to my science teacher, "there will yet be many advances made
in this field" (Shaw).
"Chemistry." Science World
February 1993: 52. Magazine
Summaries.
CD-ROM.
2001.
Designs in Manufacturing.
Philadelphia: Bantom House, 1981.
"Metals." World Book Encyclopedia.
1988.
"Mueller, Allen
R., Phd. "Positive Solutions in a Changing World." U.S.
News
& World Report 5 March 2002: 41-49.
"Processes."
World Book Information Finder. CD-ROM. New York:
World
Book Inc., 1994.
Shaw, Peter (science
teacher). Telephone interview. 3 February 2002.
Zeikel, Norman.
"Zirconium Uses in the 20th Century." Online. 11 February 1996.
20 September 2002.
< http://www.circ.com/~bennion/bmem.html>.
It the last source had been taken from the
SearchBank service on the Internet, it would be listed like this:
Zeikel, Norman.
"Zirconium Uses in the 20th Century." Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Service. SearchBank. Online. 30 Sept. 1998.
<http://sbweb2.med.iacnet.com/infotrac/session/297/632/5527132/43/ismap4/bmem.html>.
You'll notice that there is no page number listed for a book on the
Works Cited page, but there is for magazines.
There are two spaces after each period; one space after a comma;
two spaces after a colon.
Periods go inside quotation marks.
Each piece of information and each source line ends with a period.
There is a period between the name of a book and its publisher or
date, but on a magazine the date follows the name of the magazine with
no period or comma between.
If there is a date given for when information was posted on the
Internet, it is listed after the title of the page. The date you printed
out or down-loaded the information is given just before the address.
This page last updated 17 September 2002
Questions? Comments? E-mail
me at: larchiba@boxelder.k12.ut.us
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