***See Diana Hacker section on MLA, Harvard Writing Center, and/or Purdue Owl fo

***See Diana Hacker section on MLA, Harvard Writing Center, and/or Purdue Owl for your resource[s] on this.
The RESEARCH PAPER is a 7-10 page paper on the SUBJECT OF YOUR CHOICE. It must contain information [cited passages, data, statistics, whatever is relevant for that type of paper] placed within the paper [at least two sources per page–three is excellent] according to MLA rules. Do not use APA.
The SUBJECT should be something that is “researchable,” for lack of a better word. It should be relatively narrow in scope [World War II, for example, is not suggested as a topic] and far enough back in time that it allows you to do research online, in magazines, and perhaps in books [the current protests in China, for example, might be lacking in scholarship]. Consider a topic you’ve always wanted to learn about [it’s at least 7 pages, so you’ll be in it for a bit]. The subject is yours. Be careful not to select something too unwieldy or too narrow.
A wide variety of “sources” are of course available and encouraged, including film, television, theater, radio, newspaper, etc. There are sources both in PRINT and ONLINE [electronic]. Consider using both, though you may go completely electronic [few go with full paper text].
There are two things you’re doing in a research paper. First, you’re writing IN-TEXT CITATIONS. These are the passages that you’re using to support your ideas, your claim. Again, it may include written passages, statistics, data, graphs–whatever works and is relevant to the subject. I’ve included handouts on this in the module. The Diana Hacker section on MLA is excellent. Please use it all the way through this process. See DIANA HACKER, Chapter 56A for “in-text citations.”
The Second thing you’re preparing is the WORKS CITED PAGE. This appears on a separate page from the rest of the essay. It is its own thing. IT should contain, in ALPHABETICAL ORDER, a list of the WORKS you used for the passages, data, stats you included in the paper. In other words, where can this stuff be found? It’s all listed here in your WORKS CITED page. This will include books, magazine articles, perhaps a film, maybe an online database, a periodical. There are many sources out there. See DIANA HACKER Chapter 56B for “List of Works Cited.”
DIANA HACKER, CHAPTER 57 shows a “Sample Research Paper.”