A surprising fact A thought-provoking question An attention-getting quote A brief anecdote that illustrates a larger concept A connection between your topic and your readers experiences

Research papers generally follow the same basic structure: an introduction that presents the writer’s thesis, a body section that develops the thesis with supporting points and evidence, and a conclusion that revisits the thesis and provides additional insights or suggestions for further research.

When you finalize your conclusion, make sure your text is not too repetitive. While your goal is to reintroduce your argument,

Define the topic. Provide short background information. Introduce who your intended audience is. State what your driving research question is. Create a thesis statement by identifying the scope of the informative essay (the main point you want your audience to understand about your topic).

The initial stage is an introduction, which should start with the sound hook sentence to engage the reader in what a writer plans to share. One example is: “A community is generally defined by people in a group who live together in a particular area, or a group of people who are considered a unit because of their shared interests or background.”

The purpose of an informative essay, sometimes called an expository essay, is to educate others on a certain topic. Typically, these essays aim to answer the five Ws and H questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Informative Research Report is a report that relays the results of a central research question in an organized manner through more formal sources. These resources could include Google Scholar, library catalogs and academic article databases, websites of relevant agencies, and Google searches using (site: *.gov or site: *.org). A report is written from the perspective of someone who is seeking to find specific and in-depth information about a certain aspect of a topic.

Reports Information, Organized Information, or Interpreted Information. Select the category based on whether the information summarizes source material, groups information by theme, or explains connections and insights.

The introduction of a synthesis essay:

(1)  Accurately reports information from the sources using different phrases and sentences; (2)  Organized in such a way that readers can immediately see where the information from the sources overlap;. (3)  Makes sense of the sources and helps the reader understand them in greater depth.

Synthesis is related to but not the same as classification, division, or comparison and contrast.  Instead of attending to categories or finding similarities and differences, synthesizing sources is a matter of pulling them together into some kind of harmony.

At its most basic level, a synthesis involves combining two or more summaries, but synthesis writing is more difficult than it might at first appear because this combining must be done in a meaningful way, and the final essay must generally be thesis-driven

1. Allow your prewriting to be exploratory. Reflective writing encourages you to explore an experience and explain or ponder the individual choices you have made. Stand back and view the experience from an objective point of view. 2. While reflective writing asks you to write about your own experience, you should be as thorough as you would for any other writing task. Remember to keep your reader in mind. Try to remove your emotions from the experience. Rather than blame yourself for a specific choice, consider the reasoning for that decision and explore what you’ve learned. 3. Avoid focusing on writing about every moment of the event or process. Reflective writing should focus on specific snapshots of your experience, so avoid spending too much time narrating. Instead, reflect on how a specific choice impacted the experience. Ultimately, your essay’s goal is not to create a narrative but to speculate about the significance of your experience.

Evaluating your writing process is important because you can work to enhance your writing techniques for future assignments and strengthen your final submissions.

The goal with reflective writing is to help students become more self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Self-awareness helps students tune in to what lessons/concepts they need to study the most. But reflective writing is not only limited to reflecting on your writing process.

A research paper presents an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources.

In other words, you want to answer a question that you (and other people) have about the world.

A thesis is not your paper’s topic, but rather your interpretation of the question or subject.

Consider placing the thesis toward the bottom of your introduction. This allows you a few sentences to introduce the concept and prepare the reader for your purpose.

A thesis statement is an argumentative central claim in a paper; the entire paper is focused on demonstrating that claim as a valid perspective.

Each Works Cited entry has 9 components. You may not use each component in the reference; however, they all form a function to help the reader find the source you have cited.  Note the punctuation after each element: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Other Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.

However, hyperlinks are not very useful for academic papers. Here are some reasons: Links change: The internet changes every day. Websites add and remove articles, on-line magazines and newspapers change their links. If there is only a link to a source and if that link changes, then the reader cannot find the source. Inaccessible Databases: Some of the information you will use will be from CNM databases. The readers of your article may not have access to the same database; therefore, a link is not sufficient. The reader needs to know pertinent information, such as the author’s name, title, etc., to be able to find the source.

Start the Works Cited page on a separate page. This should be the last page of your paper. Margins and pagination (last name and page number on the top right) remain the same as the rest of the paper. Title the page Works Cited. Center the title Do not italicize the title Only the title is centered; the rest of the page is left justified The entire Works Cited should be double-spaced. Do not add a space between citations (i.e., do not add an extra double space between citations). Citations should be in alphabetical order.

Giving credit where credit is due enhances your own credibility.

Here are examples:   If the source has page numbers: (Pauling 113).  If the source does not have page numbers: (Pauling).  If the source has page numbers: (“Bilingual Minds” 113).  If the source does not have page numbers: (“Bilingual Minds”).

You do not need to cite common, widespread knowledge

This material must always be cited:  A direct quote  A statistic  An idea that is not your own  Someone else’s opinion  Concrete facts, not considered “common knowledge”  Knowledge not considered “common”

In-text citations are used throughout your paper to credit your sources of information. In MLA style, the in-text citation in the body of the essay links to the Works Cited page at the end. This way, the reader will know which item in the Works Cited is the source of the information.

Consult your instructor because they will often specify what resources you are required to use.

Your sources will include both primary sources and secondary sources. As you conduct research, you will want to take detailed, careful notes about your discoveries. These notes will help trigger your memory about each article’s key ideas and your initial response to the information when you return to your sources during the writing process. As you read each source, take a minute to evaluate the reliability of each source you find.

The following are examples of secondary sources: Magazine articles Biographical books Literary and scientific reviews Television documentaries

Some reading assignments provide valuable tips or summaries worth bookmarking for future reference.

Also, pay attention to the types of questions your teacher poses either in assignments or in class.