Research life and career of ALICE WALKER
Your paper must include information from:
a. your research sources (see specific requirements below)
b. ideas/reflections about the author and the work
• Research: minimum 4 research sources. At least 3 of your sources must be from the
Bloom Literature library database, Go-Gale.com (biography) databases.
• MLA formatting
• 5-page minimum
• Documentation of sources: in-text citations AND a Works Cited page (note that any article in database includes the Works Cited information at the bottom of the article.)
Research Paper Outline
I. Introduction: Write your complete introduction.
• Hook: A hook is a powerful opening sentence to your essay. It grabs the reader’s attention so well that they want to read on.
• Narrow towards your thesis. But don’t give so much detail that you reveal all of the paper in the introduction. Limit your introduction to five (5) sentences maximum.
• Thesis: This is the most important part of the introduction. It reveals what the paper’s topic is (in this case: the author you are writing about) and tells the reader what you find most important about the topic (in this case: what the most significant aspects of the author’s life and career are). The thesis sets out a roadmap for your entire essay.
II. Body Paragraphs
• Begin with a strong topic sentence. This sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is about. It must make a point. The topic sentence must also clearly refer back to something in your thesis statement.
• Provide evidence. Evidence comes in the form of: quoted material from your researched sources. material from a literary text itself (if applicable)
your own ideas and reflections about
the topic (this always must be included
so that you are not just copying from
research sources)
for all paraphrased and quoted material: remember to include in-text citations to identify the source you are borrowing the information from.
(Paraphrase means that you are summarizing information from a source in your own words – you need to cite this as you would a direct quote!)
Here are some questions you can ask yourself about a particular bit of evidence in order to add your own ideas and reflections:
• O.k., I’ve just stated this point, but so what? Why is it interesting? Why should anyone care?
• What does this information imply?
• What are the consequences of thinking this way or looking at a problem
this way?
• I’ve just described what something is like or how I see it, but why is it like that?
• Why is this information important? Why does it matter?
• How is this idea related to my thesis? What connections exist between
them? Does it support my thesis? If so, how does it do that?
• Can I give an example to illustrate this point?
You cannot use personal examples, or make personal
references in a literary research paper. Do not use any
form of first person: “I, me, us, we, my, myself, our, ours”
in any part of the paper.
III. Conclusion:
i. Restate the thesis in different words. ii. Recap the main ideas of this
essay. iii. Leave the reading audience with something to consider more
deeply.
iv. Limit this section to five (5) sentences maximum
IV. Works Cited
Must be MLA style
Written on a separate page
Double-spaced entry
Make sure that you have included an entry for all your sources
NOTE
DO NOT INTRODUCE NEW INFORMATION INTO THE CONCLUSION.
