Plagiarism is the act of misrepresenting someone else’s work as your own.

Your research paper presents your thinking about a topic, supported and developed by other people’s ideas and information, so it is crucial to always distinguish between the two

When you do choose to quote directly from a source, follow these guidelines: Make sure you have transcribed the original statement accurately. Represent the author’s ideas honestly. Quote enough of the original text to reflect the author’s point accurately. Never use a stand-alone quotation. Always integrate the quoted material into your own sentence by creating a signal phrase. Use ellipses (…) if you need to omit a word or phrase. Use brackets [ ] if you need to replace a word or phrase. Make sure any omissions or changed words do not alter the meaning of the original text. Omit or replace words only when absolutely necessary to shorten the text or to make it grammatically correct within your sentence. Write away from the quote. Create an original sentence following the quote that introduces the connection you are making between your argument and the quoted material. Include correctly formatted citations that follow the assigned style guide.

Direct quotations from an interviewee or an eyewitness may help you personalize an issue for readers.

No process is right or wrong; find the one that best suits you.

The introduction should grab the readers’ attention, provide background information, and present the writer’s thesis.

although transferring your ideas and research into words is exciting, it can also be challenging.

Reintroduce the argument introduced in your thesis statement.

Define the topic. Provide short background information. Introduce who your intended audience is. State what your driving research question is. Create a thesis statement by identifying the scope of the informative essay (the main point you want your audience to understand about your topic).

The initial stage is an introduction, which should start with the sound hook sentence to engage the reader in what a writer plans to share.

Typically, these essays aim to answer the five Ws and H questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

In contrast, a thesis-driven synthesis not only combines information from multiple sources, but also uses that information to support a central claim or argument.

(1)  Accurately reports information from the sources using different phrases and sentences; (2)  Organized in such a way that readers can immediately see where the information from the sources overlap;. (3)  Makes sense of the sources and helps the reader understand them in greater depth.

At its most basic level, a synthesis involves combining two or more summaries,

Not all citation generators are accurate We suggest using the citation generator on the Purdue Owl website

Start the Works Cited page on a separate page. This should be the last page of your paper. Margins and pagination (last name and page number on the top right) remain the same as the rest of the paper. Title the page Works Cited. Center the title Do not italicize the title Only the title is centered; the rest of the page is left justified The entire Works Cited should be double-spaced. Do not add a space between citations (i.e., do not add an extra double space between citations). Citations should be in alphabetical order.

Here are examples:   If the source has page numbers: (Pauling 113).  If the source does not have page numbers: (Pauling).  If the source has page numbers: (“Bilingual Minds” 113).  If the source does not have page numbers: (“Bilingual Minds”).

If you do not enclose direct quotes in quotation marks or cite the source, you are committing plagiarism.

Your paper should include no more than 25% direct quotes

If someone else wrote it, said it, drew it, demonstrated it, or otherwise expressed it, you need to cite it.

If you follow MLA style and indicate your source both in your essay and in the Works Cited section, you will prevent the possibility of plagiarism.

Even when you are using a type of source that is generally reliable, you will still need to evaluate the author’s credibility and the publication itself on an individual basis.

Unfortunately, these sites have no control system for researching, writing, and reviewing articles. Instead, they rely on a community of users to police themselves.

Smart researchers continually ask themselves two questions: “Is this source relevant to my purpose?” and “Is this source reliable?”

CNM’s library website holds a large online database you can use to begin your research.

The challenge here is to conduct your search efficiently, so writers use strategies to help them find the sources that are most relevant and reliable while steering clear of sources that will not be useful.

A successful research process should go through these steps: Decide on the topic. Narrow the topic in order to narrow search parameters. Consider a question that your research will address. Generate sub-questions from your main question. Determine what kind of sources are best for your argument. Create a bibliography as you gather and reference sources.

you want to answer a question that you (and other people) have about the world.

The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard.

you must ask yourself, “What do I want to write about it?” Asking and then answering this question is vital to forming a thesis that is precise, forceful, and confident.

Answer: NO. Any experienced reader will instantly see through such a scheme and will likely become irritated by the resulting “fluffy” prose.

thesis statement is often a single sentence

Another helpful technique in the final revision process is to have someone read your paper aloud to you.

Pay attention to your word usage; try to leave little room for misinterpretation when the audience reads your piece.

Revising requires a significant alteration in a piece of writing, such as enriching the content, or giving the piece clarity; editing, however, is not as involved and includes fixing typos and grammatical errors.

You can offer to be another pair of eyes for peers in exchange for them doing the same for you.

Although you might think editing and proofreading aren’t necessary since you were fairly careful when you were writing, the truth is that even the brightest people and best writers make mistakes when they write.

When receiving peer feedback, remember that your classmates are being asked to perform a task and that they, just like you, are just trying to perform the task the teacher asked them to perform.

Without primary support, your argument may not be convincing.

The writing you complete in all your courses exposes how analytically and critically your mind works.

If you are writing a research paper, then you will need to follow more steps, which are covered in detail later in this book.

The more clearly you tell your story, the more emotionally engaged your audience is likely to be. A reader may not have experienced similar life circumstances as yours, but that doesn’t mean the reader won’t be able to identify emotionally with what you and your characters go through.

Free-writing is an exercise in which you write freely about any topic for a set amount of time (usually three to five minutes). During the time limit, you may jot down any thoughts that come to your mind. Try not to worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Instead, write as quickly as you can without stopping.

Prewriting is the stage of the writing process where you transfer your abstract thoughts into more concrete ideas in ink on paper (or in type on a computer screen).

When faced with a blank page, however, experienced writers remind themselves that writing, like other everyday activities, is a process.

Finding the main point gives you a framework to organize the details presented in the reading and relate the reading to concepts you learned in class or through other reading assignments.

Read when you’re awake, not when you’re about to take a nap or go to sleep for the night. Read with light snacks and water to drink nearby. No one can stay focused on an empty stomach!

research shows that cramming and procrastinating have to do with emotional dysregulation that can be helped with good time management skills.