5 Sources

1. Ravitch, Diane. "Los Angeles Times: A Wise Editorial about NCLB and Race to Top." Web log post. Diane Ravitch's Blog. N.p., 21 July 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://dianeravitch.net/2013/07/21/los-angeles-times-a-wise-editorial-about-nclb-and-race-to-top/>.
2. "Evolution ResourcesFrom the National Academies." Evolution Resources from the National Academies. National Academy of Sciences, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nas.edu/evolution/InSchools.html>.
3. Schehl, Pam. "Ohio Court Spars on Science Teacher's Creationist Lessons." News Article. CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-court-spars-on-science-teachers-creationist-lessons/>.
4. "The Effective Teacher versus the Ineffective Teacher?" Examiner.com. Examiner, 19 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.examiner.com/article/the-effective-teacher-versus-the-ineffective-teacher>.
5. Lecker, Wendy, Jonathan Pelto, and Valerie Strauss. "How Grossly Underfunded Are Public Schools?" Washington Post. N.p., 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/25/how-grossly-underfunded-are-public-schools/>.

Works Cited

1. Ravitch, Diane. "Los Angeles Times: A Wise Editorial about NCLB and Race to Top." Web log post. Diane Ravitch's Blog. N.p., 21 July 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://dianeravitch.net/2013/07/21/los-angeles-times-a-wise-editorial-about-nclb-and-race-to-top/>.
2. "Evolution ResourcesFrom the National Academies." Evolution Resources from the National Academies. National Academy of Sciences, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nas.edu/evolution/InSchools.html>.
3. Schehl, Pam. "Ohio Court Spars on Science Teacher's Creationist Lessons." News Article. CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-court-spars-on-science-teachers-creationist-lessons/>.
4. "The Effective Teacher versus the Ineffective Teacher?" Examiner.com. Examiner, 19 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.examiner.com/article/the-effective-teacher-versus-the-ineffective-teacher>.
5. Lecker, Wendy, Jonathan Pelto, and Valerie Strauss. "How Grossly Underfunded Are Public Schools?" Washington Post. N.p., 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/25/how-grossly-underfunded-are-public-schools/>.
6. "Protecting Bad Teachers." Keeping Bad Teachers in Front of Students. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://teachersunionexposed.com/protecting.php>.
7. Bowie, Liz. "Class Size Grows in High Schools after Cuts to Teaching Positions." Baltimore Sun. N.p., 11 May 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-05-11/news/bal-class-size-grows-in-high-schools-after-cuts-to-teaching-positions-20120511_1_class-sizes-large-classes-196teaching>.
8. Mosle, Sara. "Does Class Size Count?" Opinionator Does Class Size Count Comments. The New York Times, 4 May 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/does-class-size-count/?_r=0>.
9. "Science Teacher, Who Teaches Evolution, Forced to Quit Because of School's Preference of Creationism." God Discussion. N.p., 11 Mar. 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.goddiscussion.com/93673/science-teacher-who-teaches-evolution-forced-to-quit-because-of-schools-preference-of-creationism/>.
10. Sikhan, Khara. "World Socialist Web Site." Low-income Students Six times More Likely to Drop out of High School -. N.p., 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/10/hsdo-a10.html>.

Chapter 5: Evaluating Sources

This chapter explains the factors you should use in order to evaluate a source. The author was able to explain how to thoroughly evaluate relevance, evidence, the author, the publisher, usage of time, how to comprehend, as well as how to evaluate the genre of the essay. This was a very useful chapter because I haven’t thoroughly researched each of these categories for my topic, but now I know there are numerous options I can explore and use for my research essay. Evaluating digital sources is a little different than evaluating field sources, such as interviews, observations, and surveys. This chapter does a good job of explaining how to go about each source which is very helpful because I will be using many different sources throughout my paper and I need to know how to go about each one and how to successfully place it in my paper. I will definitely keep this chapter in mind because when looking at sources online, it’s sometimes sketchy and hard to figure out if they’re credible enough to include in your paper, but now I can use these tips on how to find good sources for my future essays.

Chapter 4: Reading Critically

The main focus of this chapter is reading critically and how it can affect your essay. Reading critically is crucial in the world of writing. Reading critically includes underlining and highlighting text, noting your reactions, and taking thorough notes. It may be a burden while you’re reading, but in the end it is very useful and can add on so much information or thoughts into your essay. To use your research question to read critically, a good step is to develop a position statement. Typically it may take a few tries before you are able to come up with a statement that works with your essay while giving enough information to make sense. Developing a position statement has always been a little challenging for me, but the steps in this chapter are very useful. This chapter also describes reading actively and how it can make an impact on your future papers. Reading actively includes identifying key information and ideas, writing questions in the margins, recording quotations, take notes about how you will use the information, connecting sources, etc. Identifying sources/genres as you read will help you with adding sources in your own essay, and it’s important to determine what the author’s main point of the paper is as well. By doing these things it will create a very successful paper because you’ll know what your audience is looking for. 

Chapter 3: Developing Your Research Question and Proposal

The main points in this chapter are how to develop your research question and how to create a research proposal. This chapter was very helpful to me because it usually takes me awhile to come up with a research question, and how I should take action and maintain the same proposal throughout the whole essay. To develop an effective research question, the first step you need to take is reflecting on your writing situation. Ask yourself if anything has changed, what have you learned about your audience, what kind of document will you write, what sources will be most effective to your essay, etc. By reflecting on your writing situation, it will allow you to figure out what is top priority in your paper and how to organize it to make sense to the reader. Another important thing to do is to generate potential research questions. By going in depth with these research questions, you can easily narrow them down, making it easier to generate your focus point. This chapter also lists the steps to create a research proposal. I’ve never focused on this in an essay but it’s nice to learn the steps so I can use it in future essays. 

Chapter 2: Exploring and Focusing

The main focus points in this chapter are how to explore your topic and how to focus on an issue. This chapter was super helpful to me because one of the most difficult parts I have when writing an essay is how to go about picking a topic and how to explore it, which includes the main points I will address in my essay. This chapter includes a helpful “Plan to Explore Your Topic,” which includes talking to people who may have knowledge about the topic you’re considering, conducting a list of questions that you could potentially ask them, a list of resources that will be available to you for your paper, as well as a way to track all of the information you collect. Finding and reviewing sources is a huge part of this chapter which includes descriptions of the sources that could be available to you and how you can use them. To focus on an issue, it’s important to find a topic that has a lot of discussion about it. Finally, it describes processes you can use to actually pick a topic. This is very useful to me because I always am very indecisive about what I want to write about.

Chapter 1: Getting Started

The main point the author is trying to convey in this chapter is how to go about your research paper and “write with confidence” which means writing your paper and feeling like it has a strong point, which readers can relate to. This chapter gives many good pointers on what a good paper is made up of, including good sources, developing a strong position which is crucial to a research paper, understanding genres and how important your audience is, and many others. Another really important thing to do is to construct a project timeline because it is very common to put it off and/or lose track of time, especially when the essay is over 2,000 words and has to contain numerous credible resources throughout the paper. This chapter is very helpful with including the tips to choose an appropriate topic. These include analyzing your assignment; who is your audience and what would urge them to read the paper, what type of document you’re writing. Generating ideas about appropriate topics; Brainstorming, looping, and clustering are good ways to do so. Consider your writing situation; decide on the best topic that will give you the most information while being intriguing and keep the audience’s attention throughout the paper. Overall this was a very helpful chapter and I will be using these tips to help me with my paper.

Tutorial

1. What is the domain?
The domain is .edu

2. What does the title bar say?
No title bar

3. What is some information on the author?
Not much information on the author other than how to contact the writer at morri029@umn.edu

4. When was the article written?
This article was published Tuesday, January 14, 2014.

5. Is the body tect relevant or accurate?
Yes this is relevant because it was published two days ago. The information in the article seems believable because it was performed by a psychology major.

6.What was information in the footers?
It shows the information about the website.

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Last modified on February 1, 2013

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Paper Topic Brainstorm

• Gun control rights
• Gay rights
• Social Media
• Slavery
• Hunger
• Women's rights
• Sex offenders
• Education policy

Sample Research Paper Notes

Word requirement 3000: The writer had 4220 so it met it and exceeded.

Grammar and Citations: There were no grammar problems that were visible, and the citations were in the right format.

Signal Phrases, Citations, and Work cited page:  Many different signal phrases example “Currently, however, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the official estimate of the American veteran population is approximately 24,816,000 (“Veteran”). “  Citations are clear and numerous. A good work cited page that goes over all quotes and citations.

Persuasion: With all of the work cited and evidence to support their claim the writer was persuading and fair on their topic because they cited counter evidence to their own topic.

Built: The writing was organized and well done, I did not get lost at any point in the essay.

Sources: The writer had 19 sources.  

Conclusion: the conclusion was well thought out and reinstated  the argument  they made in their thesis.