Researching and Writing a Research Paper
Submitted by Margaret R. Hunt
on Thursday, 12/10/2009, at 10:44 AM
Overview
- Cast net relatively widely at first, but only so as to narrow the topic down. Writers (especially undergraduates) almost always start off with too large a topic and underestimate the time it will take to explain and argue it.
- Researching a topic (see below)
- “Funnel with a lip and long spout” structure.
- Draw in reader with your interesting first line and succinct statement of the topic/argument
- Be narrow and focused in the topic and evidence your produce
- Expand outward at the very end (last paragraph or last few sentences) to explain why your small topic has larger implications
Sources
- The internet and its discontents
- go for Google Scholar rather than Google
- read partisan sources with extreme caution
- learn to evaluate Wikipedia (some articles are excellent; some are crap. How do you tell?)
- DON'T stop with the internet
- The Five College Library
- Books and periodicals on the shelfOnline periodicals (subscriptions) (JStor etc.)
- Special search engines/databases (Medical (e.g., Medline; Sociological; Legal (Lexis-Nexis)
- Journal or Newspapers that often feature stories on drugs
- New York Times
- Guardian UK
- National Review
- Other journals/newspapers that have often featured in-depth reporting on drug issues:
- New Yorker
- New York Review of Books (not to be confused with the New York Times Book Review Section),
- LA Times
- Atlantic Review
- London Times
- Government Sources (read with care)