The first rule is: Put away your sources! Return books to the library, put away your documents and copies of articles and Web sites. To avoid being tempted to copy from your sources, keep only your notes near you when you write. Your paper must contain information from your sources, but in your own words.

A. Quoting:

You should quote ONLY the words of a participant or eye-witness OR an opinion (particularly one you disagree with) OR a line of poetry or other beautiful phrase. Never quote just to convey information!

In those rare cases when you must use whole sentences taken from a source, make it clear that you are quoting. A short excerpt should be in "quotation marks." One that is longer than four lines should be indented in a separate paragraph.

B. Writing:

As you write, refer to your outline. Your paper should have an introduction or thesis statement; a section for your evidence; a section for your analysis of the evidence; and a conclusion. In addition, you might have an appendix, where you attach copies of documents, statistical tables, and other material that does not fit into the body of your paper.

Usually, your paper will follow the order of your outline, and within each section, the order of the data on your 3x5s. But sometimes, as you write, you may realize that there is a better order, one that makes more sense. If so, go back to your notes, reorganize them, write another outline, and rewrite (or cut and paste) what you have written. Make sure all your information is documented (see "Documenting Your Sources"). Remember: writing is not a linear process, but an interactive one between your data, your thesis, and your analysis. Go back and forth between them until you are satisfied.

C. Tips on Better Writing

Don’t mix the singular and the plural: "he," "she," and "it" are singular; "they" is plural. For instance, do not say "When a person walks in, they sit down." Instead, say: "When a person walks in, he or she sits down" or (better) "When people walk in, they sit down."

Don’t confuse it’s and its: It’s means it is (example: "It’s on the shelf"). Its means of it (example: "I put it in its place.").

Don’t mix tenses: your narrative should be either in the past or in the present, not both.

Possessives of words that end in s: Singular words get apostrophe-s (example: "Mr. Jones’s house"). Plural words get s-apostrophe (example: "The cups’ handles").

Avoid sentence fragments (e.g., "When he said that.") and run-on sentences (e.g., They drove away he coughed."

D. Presenting Statistics:

There are three ways to present statistics: as part of your narrative, in a table, or in a graph. If you have more than two or three numbers, and if they relate to the same phenomenon (e.g., population, income, or prices), then you should present a table. Better yet, use both: draw a graph based on the numbers in your table. 

E. Proof-reading:

Be sure to proof-read your paper before you hand it in. Check for errors in logic, in data, in grammar, and in spelling.

Return to The Research Paper or continue to Documenting Your Sources