The Art of Research

Cadet Tahvon Davis

Cadet Shamus Bartmess

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Research Topic Creation

A well crafted research paper answers a specific question

• Acts as a thesis, it is the main driving question in the essay

According to Oxford Academic, the key aspects of a research paper are:

• Specificity - Originality or novelty - general relevance to community

A research question starts small, then increases into a broader topic

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Examples

Potential research topics:

• How did the efforts of women in the Red Cross aid efforts in Women’s Suffrage?
• How does Kenneth Burke’s terministic screens and Richard Weaver’s God/Devil terms address deeper concepts in rhetoric?
• A life of choices; How our actions play a part in our final destination. (Heaven or Hell)

Discussion

Brainstorm and topic creation

• Have you ever had to create a research topic on your own?
• Can you effectively receive a topic and create a research question from it?
• What is difficult about creating a research paper thesis?

Let’s come up with topics together

Practical Exercises

Create your own!

• Round one: Topics are given
• Round two: Creation is from scratch

Quotes

How do we insert quotes into the text?

First, we have to lead up to the quote.

Second, we have to use quotation marks.

Third, we end with the authors name and page number.

Quotes EX:

Here is an example of how to insert a quote:

“Qoholet is selfish however; whereas John is more loving and caring. In the book of Ecclesiastes the author states that “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.” (Ecl. 2: 18-19). We see here that in the old testament people were envious. He states that there is no point of being wise because one day, he will be a fool.” (Bartmess, 3).

Quotes EX:

Here is one more example:

This is my will, and the will of my late uncle. As he always said,

“In the end, it is impossible not to become what others believe you are.” (Caesar).

Good day senators and remember,

HAIL CAESAR!

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Citations

Citations are one the most important aspect of a research paper

Using information or text without citation is called Plagiarism

Plagiarism can result in a variety of punishments which includes a failing grade

• A good reference for citations that is well known (and that we used ourselves) is the OWL Purdue website

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Forms of Citations

There are many forms of citations:

• MLA
• APA
• AMA

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For the purpose of this presentation, we will focus on MLA

MLA Citation

Elements that should be listed in MLA Citations:

1. Author
2. Title of Source
3. Title of container
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date
9. Location

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MLA Citation Examples

Citation for a book (OWL Purdue example)

• Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. MacMurray, 1999.

Citation for a webpage (OWL Purdue example)

• Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow,

www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

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Practical Examples

The following links are websites that we will practice with:

• https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/27/politics/kayla-mueller-parents-reaction-to-baghdadi-death/index.html
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200333010-00006

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References:

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https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Chandelis Duster, "The Baghdadi Raid Was Named After ISIS Victim Kayla Mueller. Her Parents Say They're 'grateful'." CNN, 28 Oct. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/10/27/politics/kayla-mueller-parents-reaction-to-baghdadi-death/index.html.

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Adirim, Terry A., and Tina L. Cheng. "Overview of injuries in the young athlete." Sports medicine 33.1 (2003): 75-81.

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Bartmess, Shamus C. “Do our Actions Gain us Salvation?” 2019

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