TAKING SIDES: Writing the
persuasive research
paper
a WebQuest for English 10
by
Amy McGowan
Based on the webquest
by Sandra
Orr
Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion
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School Uniforms |
Choosing A Side |
No School
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We all have opinions about many issues. Some of us believe in the
death penalty, some of us do not. Some of us believe in school uniforms
and some of us don't. But, do we all have educated opinions? We
base our opinions on many things: experience, other people's opinions,
experts' opinions, and yes, research. Research is one of the hardest
topics to learn in school. How does one do quality research? Is
research always boring? I believe that research doesn't have to be boring
if students choose topics that interest them. In this WebQuest,
you'll get the opportunity to research an issue that is important and interersting to you.
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The end result of the student's tasks will be for a :
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The culminating task in this project will be to defend your position on an issue that is important to you. You will learn how to create a topic and how to conduct research on the Internet and in the library. You will also learn how to create a research paper using the Modern Language Association's (MLA) guide to research papers.
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See the process below for all
links to resources.
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1. In order to see how much you know about the research
paper, answer this short anticipation guide
before we begin.
2. Please read the following website on argumentative research
papers. After you are done reading the site, please complete a five-minute pause. This
should help clarify the purpose of a persuasive
paper.
3. The first thing
you must do is to decide on a topic. To take you through those steps,
please follow the directions on this document.
For help in finding pertinent research topics go to this website
or this website.
4. Now you are ready to begin the research on your
topic. But, choosing good, reliable resources can be hard. Take a
look at this website on determining reliable
information. Now take a look at the following three
websites: death
penalty 1, death
penalty 2, death
penalty 3
5. Which would you find to be most reliable and
why? Fill out the legitimite
worksheet while researching the sites. You can find Microsoft Word
versions of the worksheet on the class website. Please complete the
legitimate worksheet for 4 sources that you find on the Internet. If you
can't answer the questions, you should not use that website.
6. Now that you’ve read through some websites on
your topic, please design a preliminary thesis statement. Use this website
to understand the importance of the thesis statement.
7. Now that you know how to choose a reliable source, you
must learn how to effectively read online when conducting research. There
are three main parts to using sources in your research papers: paraphrasing,
summarizing and quoting. For more information on this topic, go to the OWL
website. In groups, complete the paraphrasing exercise that is linked
on that site.
8. Once you've chosen 4 sites, please fill out the
following: Guided
Reading Notes. You will be required to have at least 3 Internet
sources for this research paper.
9. Now, you'll need to transfer the information from the
guided reading notes onto notecards. You will
be required to have 5 notecards for each
source. Notecards allow you to organize
information in a variety two ways: by source or by topic. This
makes giving credit to the source in your paper easier (see rule #8 ). Please create your Works Cited cards first,
before writing your notecards. Sample notecards
10.
You must also
have two outside sources (other than Internet sources). The class will go
to the library to show what types of sources are available. It is up to
you to find two outside sources and complete your notecards.
The teacher will assign due dates for these cards.
11.
Once you have
completed your research, you should be able to formulate an even better thesis
statement for your research paper. Use the following site to help create
your thesis
statement.
12.
Before you begin
writing your rough draft, you must know how to document within your paper any
information that you've borrowed from outside sources. This
documentation, according to MLA, is called a parenthetical reference.
Check out this site to see how to document sources
in a research paper.
13.
Write your rough
draft.
14.
Peer-editing.
Check out the peer-editing sheet on the class website.
Students will be given grades for all of the steps along the way. This is important because the process of the research paper is equally as important as the final product. Students will be evaluated on the following scoring guide.
Sample Products
Research
Paper
Works
Cited Page
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- Remember, this is only one method of creating a research paper. You may find that there is a better method for you.
This page written by Amy McGowan,
page last updated Feb. 22, 2005