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English 11

Unit 8

The Research Paper

6 topics · 24 practice questions · Free responseNot yet reviewed

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Notes

Planning

  • Start with a narrow, open-ended, arguable research question. Your answer becomes your thesis.
  • Use primary and secondary sources; evaluate with the CRAAP test and lateral reading.

Using sources responsibly

  • Quote, paraphrase or summarize, and cite each. Changing a few words of a source is still plagiarism. Common knowledge needs no citation.
  • Synthesis combines sources around your own argument; organize by ideas, not by source.

MLA style

  • In-text: (Author page), with no comma and no "p."; use "et al." for three or more authors.
  • Works Cited: alphabetical, hanging indent, double-spaced; article titles in quotation marks, book and website titles in italics.

Topics in this unit

Each topic has its own short notes and practice.

Practice

Which is the best revision of the topic "the Internet"?
A diary written by a pioneer in 1849 is a:
Which is the best example of correct paraphrasing?
Which in-text citation is correct for a quote on page 5 by authors Lee and Park?
Which Works Cited entry is correctly formatted for a journal article?
A paper summarizes Source A for a paragraph, then Source B for a paragraph, with no connection. What should the writer do to improve it?

Free response

Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.

Free-response question

A student is writing a paper about the effect of later school start times on teen sleep. She finds three sources: a 2021 peer-reviewed journal article by Dr. Anna Lopez, a news article from 2019, and an anonymous blog post that sells sleep supplements.

(a) Write a strong, open-ended research question for the paper.

Show the answer and scoring guide

Example: How do later school start times affect sleep and academic performance in high school students?

Check off the points you earned:

(b) Rank the three sources by reliability and justify the ranking using CRAAP criteria.

Show the answer and scoring guide

The peer-reviewed article is most reliable (qualified author, accuracy, scholarly purpose). The news article is next (currency may be less recent, but a news outlet checks facts). The blog is least reliable because it has no author and its purpose is to sell products.

Check off the points you earned:

(c) Write one correctly formatted MLA in-text citation and a Works Cited entry for the journal article. Use volume 14, issue 2, pages 33-48, journal title Teen Health Review, and quote from page 36.

Show the answer and scoring guide

In-text: (Lopez 36). Works Cited: Lopez, Anna. "Sleep and School Start Times." Teen Health Review, vol. 14, no. 2, 2021, pp. 33-48.

Check off the points you earned:

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