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The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers

by: BALLENGER B

ISBN: 9780205297023 | 0205297021

Edition: 2nd
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pub. Date: 9/1/1998

Newer Edition Available

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Summary Table of Contents

The Curious Researcher 3/e offers a fresh approach to research by reminding readers that curiosity is still the best reason for uncovering information and ideas. This author provides ample proof that the research process, like the writing process, can be full of rewarding discoveries. Using a variety of examples from both professional writers and students, this book shows that good research and lively writing do not have to be mutually exclusive. Readers are encouraged to not only develop sound research and analytical skills, but to examine ways to bring their writing to life, even though they're writing with "facts." Though The Curious Researcher stands apart from similar texts because of its motivational qualities, it also features full explanations of the technical aspects of the research paper. MLA citation conventions are given extensive treatment, and APA standards are also explained in the Appendix. For writers of research papers.

Contents by Subject

xiii

Preface

xix

Introduction: Rethinking the Research Paper

1

(1)

Collecting Golf Balls on Driving Ranges and Other Reflections

1

(... MORE

Good Research and Good Writing

4

(1)

Using This Book

4

(2)

The Exercises

4

(1)

The Five-Week Plan

5

(1)

Alternatives to the Five-Week Plan

5

(1)

The Research Paper and the Research Report

6

(1)

Discovering Your Purpose

6

(1)

How Formal Should It Be?

7

(1)

``Essaying'' or Arguing?

8

(2)

Becoming an Authority by Using Authorities

10

(2)

``It's Just My Opinion''

11

(1)

Facts Don't Kill

12

(11)

Bringing ``Flies'' to Life

12

(1)

``Why God Created Flies,''

13

(10)

Richard Conniff

The First Week

23

(52)

The Importance of Getting Curious

23

(9)

Learning to Wonder Again

24

(1)

Getting the Pot Boiling

24

(1)

What Do You Want to Know?

25

(3)

Other Ways to Find a Topic

28

(2)

What Is a Good Topic?

30

(1)

Checking Out Your Tentative Topic

30

(1)

Making the Most of an Assigned Topic

31

(1)

The Myth of the Boring Topic

31

(1)

Befriending the Library

32

(27)

Loving or Loathing the Library

33

(2)

The Basic Plan of the College Library

35

(1)

The Computer Revolution

35

(1)

CD-ROM

36

(1)

Navigating the Reference Section

37

(1)

Knowing What to Look For

37

(2)

General Encyclopedias: Getting the Lay of the Land

39

(1)

Surveying the Reference Landscape

39

(3)

Finding Books

42

(3)

Interlibrary Loan

45

(1)

Checking Bibliographies

46

(1)

Finding Magazine and Journal Articles

46

(2)

Indexes to Specialized Periodicals

48

(5)

Newspaper Articles

53

(1)

Government Documents

54

(2)

The Story of a Search

56

(3)

Befriending the Internet

59

(16)

Three Drawbacks of Internet Research

59

(1)

Three Reasons to Use the Internet for Research

60

(1)

A Cluttered and Colorful Canvas

61

(1)

The Tangled Web

62

(1)

Using a Browser

63

(2)

A Quick Tour of the Internet

65

(1)

Launching a Subject Search

65

(2)

Other Subject Search Sites

67

(1)

Launching a Keyword Search

67

(1)

Query, Query, Quite Contrary

67

(6)

Considering Nonlibrary Sources: Interviews and Surveys

73

(2)

The Second Week

75

(30)

Narrowing the Subject

75

(8)

Circling the Lighthouse

75

(1)

From Landscape Shots to Close-Ups

76

(1)

Finding the Questions

77

(1)

Finding the Focusing Question

78

(1)

Choosing a Trailhead

79

(2)

What's Your Purpose?

81

(1)

Do You Have a Thesis?

81

(1)

Charting Your Course

82

(1)

Developing a Research Strategy

83

(21)

Library Research Strategy

83

(1)

Moving from General to Specific

83

(2)

Evaluating Library Sources

85

(1)

Why Journal Articles Are Better Than Magazine Articles

85

(1)

Look for Often-Cited Authors

86

(1)

Primary over Secondary Sources

86

(1)

Not All Books Are Alike

86

(1)

Internet Research Strategy

87

(1)

Evaluating Online Sources

88

(1)

Arranging Interviews

89

(1)

Finding Experts

90

(1)

Finding Nonexperts Affected by Your Topic

91

(1)

Making Contact

92

(1)

The E-Mail Interview

93

(1)

Finding People on the Internet

93

(1)

Making Contact by E-Mail

94

(1)

Finding People on Listservs and Newsgroups

94

(2)

Deciding What to Ask

96

(1)

Finding a Group on Your Topic

96

(1)

Planning Informal Surveys

97

(1)

Defining Goals and Audience

97

(3)

Types of Questions

100

(1)

Survey Design

101

(1)

Avoid Loaded Questions

101

(1)

Avoid Vague Questions

101

(2)

Drawbacks of Open-Ended Questions

103

(1)

Designing Multiple-Choice Questions

103

(1)

Continuum Questions

103

(1)

Planning for Distribution

104

(1)

Looking Back before Moving On

104

(1)

The Third Week

105

(50)

Writing in the Middle

105

(16)

Becoming an Activist Notetaker

106

(2)

Creative Translations

108

(1)

Recognizing Plagiarism

108

(1)

Tactics for Avoiding Plagiarism

109

(1)

Checking for Plagiarism

110

(1)

How to Be a Purposeful Notetaker

111

(1)

Paraphrasing

111

(1)

Melding Paraphrase and Purpose

111

(2)

Summarizing

113

(3)

Quoting

116

(1)

When to Quote

116

(2)

Quoting Fairly

118

(1)

Good Notes on Bad Writing

118

(1)

``The Importance of Writing Badly,''

119

(2)

Bruce Ballenger

Three Notetaking Tips That Will Save You a Headache Later On

121

(1)

Notetaking Techniques

121

(11)

The Double-Entry Journal

122

(6)

The Research Log

128

(4)

Digging Deeper for Information

132

(21)

First-Level Searching

133

(1)

Second-Level Searching

134

(1)

Specialized Indexes to Journals

135

(3)

Specialized Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

138

(1)

Bibliographies

138

(1)

Specialized Computer Databases

139

(1)

Internet Searches

139

(2)

Third-Level Searching

141

(1)

Search by Author

141

(1)

Using Citation Indexes

141

(2)

Bibliographies in Books and Articles

143

(1)

Unpublished Scholarly Papers

143

(1)

Essays and Articles Buried in Books

144

(1)

Expanding the Site of the Search

145

(1)

Library Sources

145

(1)

Special Collections

146

(1)

Audiovisual Departments

146

(1)

Pamphlets

146

(1)

Other Libraries

146

(1)

Nonlibrary Sources

147

(1)

Bookstores

147

(1)

Writing Letters

147

(2)

Lectures

149

(1)

TV and Radio

149

(1)

Conducting Interviews

150

(1)

Whom to Interview?

150

(1)

What Questions to Ask?

150

(1)

During the Interview

151

(1)

Notetaking

152

(1)

Conducting Surveys

152

(1)

Distribution

153

(1)

Looking Back before Moving On

153

(2)

The Fourth Week

155

(40)

Getting to the Draft

155

(35)

When the Experts Disagree

156

(1)

Evaluating Conflicting Claims

157

(1)

Pointed or Pointless: How Do You Decide What's True?

157

(1)

Reclaiming Your Topic

158

(6)

Deciding Whether to Say I

164

(1)

Getting Personal without Being Personal

164

(1)

Presence in the Research Essay

165

(1)

Beginning at the Beginning

166

(1)

Flashlights or Floodlights?

166

(2)

Writing Multiple Leads

168

(2)

Three Ways In

170

(1)

Deciding on a Voice

170

(1)

Considering Purpose, audience, subject, and Who You Are

171

(1)

The Differing Voices of Research

172

(1)

Writing for Reader Interest

173

(1)

Working the Common Ground

174

(1)

Topics in Which Common Ground Is Hard to Find

175

(1)

Putting People on the Page

176

(1)

Using Case Studies

176

(1)

Using Interviews

177

(1)

Writing a Strong Ending

177

(1)

Endings to Avoid

178

(2)

Using Surprise

180

(1)

Considering Methods of Development

180

(1)

Narrative

181

(1)

Problem-to-Solution

181

(1)

Cause-to-Effect or Effect-to-Cause

182

(1)

Question-to-Answer

182

(1)

Known-to-Unknown or Unknown-to-Known

183

(1)

Simple-to-Complex

183

(1)

General-to-Specific or Specific-to-General

183

(1)

Comparison-and-Contrast

183

(1)

Combining Approaches

184

(1)

Writing with Sources

184

(1)

Blending Kinds of Writing and Sources

185

(1)

Handling Quotes

186

(2)

Handling Interview Material

188

(1)

Trusting Your Memory

189

(1)

Citing Sources

190

(5)

An Alternative to Colliding Footnotes

190

(1)

I Hate These Theses to Pieces

191

(1)

Driving through the First Draft

192

(1)

A Draft Is Something the Wind Blows Through

193

(2)

The Fifth Week

195

(30)

Revising for Purpose

195

(8)

The Thesis as a Tool for Revison

196

(1)

Dissecting the Fish

197

(2)

Using a Reader

199

(1)

What You Need from a Reader

199

(1)

Directing the Reader's Response

199

(1)

Attacking the Draft

200

(1)

Cut-and-Paste Revision

201

(1)

Examining the Wreckage

202

(1)

Revising for Information

203

(4)

Finding Quick Facts

204

(3)

Revising for Language

207

(9)

Listening to the Voice

207

(1)

Avoid Sounding Glib

208

(1)

Scrutinizing Paragraphs

209

(1)

How Well Do You Integrate Sources?

209

(1)

Is Each Paragraph Unified?

210

(1)

Scrutinizing Sentences

211

(1)

Using Active Voice

211

(1)

Using Strong Verbs

212

(2)

Varying Sentence Length

214

(1)

Editing for Simplicity

215

(1)

Cutting Clutter

215

(1)

Preparing the Final Manuscript

216

(8)

Considering ``Reader-Friendly'' Design

217

(1)

Following MLA Conventions

218

(1)

Proofreading Your Paper

218

(1)

Proofreading on a Computer

218

(1)

Looking Closely

219

(1)

Picking Off the Lint

219

(1)

Ten Common Mistakes

220

(2)

Using the ``Search'' Function

222

(1)

Avoiding Sexist Language

223

(1)

Looking Back and Moving On

224

(1)

Appendix A Guide to MLA Style

225

(50)

Part One: Citing Sources in Your Essay

225

(9)

When to Cite

225

(1)

The Common Knowledge Exception

226

(1)

The MLA Author/Page System

226

(1)

The Basics of Using Parenthetical Citation

226

(2)

Placement of Citations

228

(1)

Part Two: How to Cite When There Is No Author

229

(1)

How to Cite Different Works by the Same Author

230

(1)

How to Cite Indirect Sources

231

(1)

How to Cite Personal Interviews

231

(1)

Sample Parenthetical References for Other Sources

232

(2)

How the Essay Should Look

234

(2)

Printing or Typing

234

(1)

Margins and Spacing

234

(1)

Title Page

234

(1)

Pagination

235

(1)

Placement of Tables, Charts, and Illustrations

235

(1)

Handling Titles

235

(1)

A Word about Italic Type

236

(1)

Part Three: Preparing the ``Works Cited'' Page

236

(22)

Format

237

(1)

Alphabetizing the List

237

(1)

Indenting and Spacing

237

(1)

Citing Books

238

(1)

Title

238

(1)

Edition

239

(1)

Publication Place, Publisher, and Date

239

(1)

Page Numbers

239

(1)

Sample Book Citations

239

(4)

Citing Periodicals

243

(1)

Author's Name

244

(1)

Article Title

244

(1)

Periodical Title

244

(1)

Volume Number

244

(1)

Date

244

(1)

Page Numbers

244

(1)

Sample Periodical Citations

245

(2)

Citing Nonprint and Other Sources

247

(3)

Citing CD-ROMs, Diskettes, and Magnetic Tapes

250

(1)

Citing Online Databases

251

(1)

Other Recent Changes by the MLA

252

(1)

Is It Also in Print?

253

(1)

Address Mistakes Are Fatal

254

(1)

Sample Online Citations

254

(4)

Part Four: A Sample Paper in MLA Style

258

(17)

Appendix B Guide to APA Style

275

(32)

Part One: How the Essay Should Look

276

(2)

Page Format

276

(1)

Title Page

276

(1)

Abstract

276

(1)

Body of the Paper

276

(1)

Reference Page

277

(1)

Appendix

277

(1)

Notes

277

(1)

Tables and Figures

277

(1)

Part Two:Citing Sources in the Text

278

(3)

Part Three: Preparing the ``References'' List

281

(9)

Author

281

(1)

Date

281

(1)

Article or Book Title

281

(1)

Periodical Title and Publication Information

281

(1)

Sample References

282

(8)

Part Four: A Sample Paper in APA Style

290

(17)

Appendix C Tips for Researching and Writing Papers on Literary Topics

307

(26)

Mine the Primary source

307

(1)

Search Strategies

308

(3)

Researching the Author

309

(1)

Biographies

309

(1)

Primary Bibliographies

309

(1)

Researching the Critics

310

(1)

Researching the Genre or Tradition

310

(1)

Sample Essay: Personal Response

311

(12)

``I Can Relate to It'' Is Only a Start

312

(11)

Sample Research Essay on a Literary Topic

323

(10)

Index

333

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