A Guide to Writing Research Papers at Bellevue College - Essay Example

A Guide to Writing Research Papers at Bellevue College INTRODUCTION Writing a good research paper is the dream of every student at Bellevue College as is the case for all the students around the globe. In a learning institution, there exist a number of tests that are used to gauge a student’s understanding and performance in relation to the set curriculum. Assignments constitute a greater percentage of these tests where they are issued on a timely basis to the students. However, the compliance of many students to the rules set in place is questionable as they end up submitting half baked research papers, a fact that raises eyebrows over the effectiveness of the curriculum in place and teaching skills of tutors. Different scholars have expressed their opinions on the modern student with reference to diversified approach towards assignments and the effect of technology. With as many scholars aligning themselves to the idea that technology has groomed complacency within the students, there is need to initiate new and strict measures that will curb the growth of academic dishonesty in the scholarly world. This paper will therefore discuss the possible ways that can be diffused into the system and give rise to sanity and sobriety within a short period of time. Also, it will highlight the guidelines that students can adopt in order to come up with a good research essay. These guidelines will be on how to choose a topic, how to come up with a concise thesis statement, how to prepare an outline that will act as a guide through the research paper and things to avoid in a research essay. 1. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY A close stance at a fairly large number of assignments that are submitted by students will indicate an element of academic dishonesty. This is attributed to laziness of the modern student as compared to the 1960’s student who did not rely on Google or Wikipedia as research materials. Perharps one after reading this statement would perceive it as originating from a polemist and is brushing off shoulders the wrong way. But isn’t this the plain truth? Academic dishonesty is repeatedly exercised in almost every level of education ranging from the elementary level to the graduate school (Lang, Cheating Lessons). These assignments contain extreme examples of fabrication, plagiarism, deception among other gross examples of academic dishonesty that portray not the real identity of the student. Because the modern student is subscribed to the school of thought that there is no need to research intensively about a certain topic of study while there are search engines with spiders and crawlers that can tap into any work, then the results are evident (Bricault, Academic Dishonesty). Different institutions have developed different approaches towards cases of academic dishonesty. In those strict institutions, a student may be expelled out of school for participating in activities that add up to academic dishonesty. This vice has led to the degradation of educational ethics where in most severe cases; the academic works cannot be referred to due to the lack of reliability and authenticity. This explains the decline in quality of most submitted assignments. There are no clear and concise causes of academic dishonesty that have been reported. In most cases, the subject complains of the complex nature of the assignments among other frail causes that cannot be regarded as legitimate offer the students an enabling environment for them to participate in activities that lead to academic dishonesty. 2. WRITING A GOOD RESEARCH ESSAY A good research essay is determined by the information that the researcher gathers during the data collection stage and his ability to maintain transition all through the essay. This is triggered by the researcher’s mastery of information skills and basic citation concepts that are incorporated in the paper to support referencing of sources and attribution. It is therefore imperative for the researcher to apply his research and analytical skills in their work as this will generate a good research paper (Ballenger, 3). The following guidelines are of great benevolence to researchers as they offer advice on what should be done in the event of writing a research essay. 2.1 A good choice of topic The choice of topic must be interesting and that appeases you to conduct a deep research. In simple terms, it should be able to trigger your curiosity levels. Ballenger points out in his book; The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers that curiosity is the best reason for unearthing ideas and information. In confirmation of Ballenger’s words, a research topic should be that motivates you to work hard towards the realization of the research project. It is your attitude towards the research topic that will determine the outcome of your research paper. For it to be successful, your attitude must be positive and focused on the prize. 2.2 Conducting an in-depth research Information refers to the content that you will use to write up the research essay. In this regard, you must completely unearth all information that is related to your research topic. This will require a lot of devotion and time to books and information hubs that will assist you generate content that is informative and interesting for your reader to go through it. The information must be reliable, authentic and properly attributed. The main reason for doing this is to eliminate all chances that might you land you into trouble for academic dishonesty. 2.3 A Clear and Concise Thesis statement It is believed that a thesis statement carries all the necessary weight and is critical in a research paper (Moore et al). In addition, it highlights your arguments and important pointers that will convince the reader about your beliefs. In this regard, the thesis statement should be informative and convincing to the reader. The length of the thesis statement is determined by the length of your research essay. Therefore, whatever is contained in the research paper should be discussed on a light note by the thesis statement. 2.4 A Tentative Outline that streamlines the order in your paper An outline is a fundamental concept that should be perceived by a researcher as critical to the success of his paper. This is explained by its ability to improve the thinking process of the researcher where he is able to organize it in a logical order before they start writing. One should confirm their outline to ensure that all points expressed in the thesis statement are represented in a logical order from one idea to the other. 2.5 Good organization of your information Information has to be organized in a way that is benevolence to the reader. The reader must be able to follow all through your paper and understand the content at the same time. In order to achieve this, you should organize the collected data and address it according to your outline. Also, it should be noted that information that is not relevant to your study should be ignored and the paper should contain information that can be understood by the reader with ease. 2.6 Acknowledgement of sources Earlier before, academic dishonesty is discussed in depth. There are consequences that will accrue when you fail to acknowledge your sources (Ellenburg, A Guide to The Uses and Acknowledgement of Sources). This might include termination and dissolution of your research essay despite your dedication and contribution in terms of time and finances. To avoid this, one should document all ideas and thoughts that are not his as failure to do so will amount to plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the process of taking another person’s work, ideas or words and using them as if they were your own. Therefore, plagiarism should not feature in a research paper as it will earn discredit for both the paper and the researcher. It is unethical for someone to fabricate and include information that is not attributed in a research paper. Apart from yielding discredit, an act of plagiarism is punishable as it sends a message that a student is untrustworthy and deceptive when it comes to academics. 2.7 Sentence Structure Sentences should be short and brief to the point. All paragraphs should contain a sentence structure that conveys the key message as discussed in the paragraph to the reader. Topic sentences are believed to be the best ways possible to introduce an idea in a paragraph as it cuts down to the chess. In addition, they are used to capture the attention of the reader as they introduce a new argumentative point that tallies with the thesis and as a result, the reader is able to follow and maintain his attention from one paragraph to the other. Therefore, the sentence structure in a research paper should be informative, short and catchy to the reader’s eye. 3.0 MLA CITATION STYLE Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style is a scholarly style guide that is used to provide guidelines for research attribution purposes by students in the humanities. It is mostly used by students who pursue English Studies as a course and other related disciplines that involve the study of modern languages such as media studies, cultural studies, and literary criticism among others (Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for writers of research papers). In research papers and essays, MLA comes in handy as it provides researchers with a safe environment to refer to works of other scholars and document them in their own academic works. By doing this, one frees himself from the shackles of plagiarism through proper citation of the source to a given artistic piece and gains reverence in the academic world by proving to their tutors that they are indeed honest in their work. In this regard, it is important to highlight ways in which MLA citation style helps in curbing plagiarism (Gassie et al). In a research essay, MLA contributes a greater percentage towards the total elimination of plagiarism. It successfully achieves this by settling on a threefold strategy that ensures quality and reliability is maintained all through the work. MLA relies on proper paraphrasing of work and parenthetical citation that ensure authenticity and acknowledgement of sources. This threefold strategy has been identified as effective and efficient when the issue of acknowledgement of sources is addressed. A student can opt to cite all quotations and ideas or opinions that they have decoded from other information sources paying attention to the guidelines of MLA citation style. This will include the author name or the author name and page from where the idea or opinion is derived. Most importantly, the cited text must appear in the works cited page of the research essay. Subsequently, a student can avoid plagiarism using MLA citation style by quoting the referred idea or opinion and then citing almost immediately after the end of quotes. This will send a clear indication to the reader that the quoted statement does not comprise your own words but the cited source. With this in place, a research paper or essay will always be free from plagiarism. Lastly, students can use MLA citation style to submit original pieces of work through paraphrasing or summarizing the source’s idea or opinion in their own words and then citing the source from where they derived the idea or opinion. This will ensure that all essays and research papers are free from plagiarism and as a result, the quality of submitted assignments will high and reliable. 4.0 CONCLUSION From the above discussion, it is evident that a good research paper or essay is necessary and equally important as any other type of test in the academic world. As a result, students are tasked with the mandate of ensuring that they abide by the ethical rules of academics where they are expected to document any idea or opinion that they borrow from scholarly pieces of work. It is imperative to note that a good research essay must possess all of the discussed attributes ranging from good sentence structure to a clear and concise thesis statement. These are the attributes that define a research essay and they should be honoured and adhered to by all researchers in order to promote quality research pieces of work. Also, proper MLA citation should be observed as this is what defines a good research essay; one that is referenced well using a proper citation guide. Most importantly is the idea of abstinence from academic dishonesty, a fact that is repeatedly addressed to scholars. Students are always implored by their tutors to desist from any activities that might land them in trouble. Lastly, a good research paper reaches out to the people and is capable of initiating change wherever it is presented. This is explained by its effectiveness and efficiency in communication and its ability to convince a fairly large number of people of the subject in discussion. Reference Ballenger, Bruce P. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004. Print. Gassie, Ellen, Ron Greene, and Kevin Wetherington. Plagiarism. Huntsville, TX: Distributed by Educational Video Network, Inc, 2005. Gibaldi, Joseph. Mla Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Print. Lang, James M. Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty. , 2013. Print. Bricault, Dennis. Academic Dishonesty: Developing and Implementing Institutional Policy. Washington, DC: American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 2007. Print. Moore, Kathleen M, and Susie L. Cassel. Techniques for College Writing: The Thesis Statement and Beyond. Boston: Wadsworth Pub Co, 2011. Print. Ellenburg, Stephen. A Guide to the Uses and Acknowledgement of Sources. South Hadley, Mass: Mount Holyoke College, 1994. Print. Read More