| You have been assigned a research paper on 20th Century American Literature. Your research paper must be 5 pages in length. Page 1 is the title page. Page 2-5 is the body of the research paper. The final page (page 6) is the bibliography or works cited page. The bibliography or works cited page must have at least 6 sources. Please use your planners, page 44 and 45, "MLA Documentation" to guide your research. What to do: Choose an author from the list below. You must describe who the author is, what kind of things did he write, summarize his works, describe his life, describe some interesting things about him or her. Please tell in detail what you learned from his or her writing. what are the author's good points? What are his or her bad points? What types of things does her or she emphasize in their writing? Be creative and use your imagination. The research paper is due on ________. Please select from these American authors from the 20th century.
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Use the Big 6 Research Paper Organizer © (1999) or the Assignment Organizer © (1999) to help you complete your assignment. They use the Big 6 format and keep your research organized and focused for you. Follow the directions given in the organizer and by Mr. Woods. You can type directly on the organizers and then download the information to a disc or print it out. There is a section for each of the six steps of research. There are also links to important information to help you complete your research. A Writing Process Organizer can be printed out and used to develop a successful writing project! Step #1: Task Definition A good way to get started. What does your teacher want you to do? Make sure you understand the requirements of the assignment. In order to define your task you must form your task around an essential question. Once you have formed your essential question you must decide what information you think you will need to support that question. You do this with supporting questions. To learn more about supporting questions look at "What kinds of questions did you ask today?" Remember there are several types or levels of supporting questions: Memory questions (Level 1), Convergent Thinking questions (Level 2), Divergent Thinking questions (Level 3), and Evaluative questions (Level 4). There is a worksheet you can print out to help you form your questions. Make sure your supporting questions use more that one type or level of question! 
Step #2: Information Seeking Strategies This means that you need to make a list of all the possible sources of information that will help you answer the questions you wrote in Task Definition above. AND: Step #3: Location & Access Figure out where you will get these sources. Beside each source, write its location. If it is a web site, list its web address. Try to use those that your teacher or librarian have linked or bookmarked. This will save you time. If your source is a person, figure out how you will contact him or her and make a note of this.
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For Step #2 and Step #3 you should use the COWS information literacy model. COWS is an acronym to help you remember the ORDER you should look for information.
- Current Reference/Print Material
- Online Resources
- Webliography (Pre-selected web sites)
And if all else fails:
- Search Engines
When doing research, always start with current reference books, textbooks and non-fiction library books. Learn some basic information about your subject and start a list of "keywords" you can use to gain more information on your topic. Use the library's OPAC to check your resources. To find a list of titles in our library that apply to this project type in "Woods/20th C. American Lit. " in OPAC and select the "Categories" icon.
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Before you use OPAC you should make a list of all the keywords you could use in researching your subject. |
Remember: When doing research you need to look at the second page of cataloging and review the "notes" section of the page to find out information about the book. Also use the "subject" section of the page and look at the subject headings listed for the book. Using these subject headings is an excellent way to narrow or broaden your subject search. They can also provide you with additional keywords to use in searching for your topic. Use your bookbag while doing research using OPAC. It helps keep your research on track, provides you bibliographic information for your project, and will save you time
in locating information in the library.
If you have forgotten how to use the library's OPAC check out the How to Use OPAC from the Library Information page of this site. Be sure to check out the Reference Section of the library first for specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases and almanacs to start your project.
Hints!
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On sets of encyclopedias look in the index for your keywords
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With any reference or non-fiction title always use the index to locate the information you need.
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On sets of reference books that are divided by year look only at the books that cover the years your paper needs.
Some of the Reference Books you could use are:
| R 801.95 CON | Contemporary Literary Criticism |
| R 801.95 TWE | Twentieth-century Literary Criticism |
| R 808.3 SEY | Novels and Novelists : A Guide to the World of Fiction |
| R 808.8 MAG | Masterplots : fifteen hundred and ten plot-stories and essay-reviews from the world's finest literature |
| R 808.81 POE | Poetry for Students : presenting analysis, context and criticism on commonly studied poetry (Excellent Resource) |
| R 809 CHA | Characters in 20th-century literature |
| R 809 LIT | Literature and its Times: profiles of 300 notable literary works and the historical events that influenced them |
| R 809 MAG | 1,300 Critical Evaluations of Selected Novels and Plays : offprints of all the new material from the 12-volume revised edition of Masterplots |
| R 809 SCH | The Schomburg Center Guide to Black Literature : from the eighteenth century to the present |
| R 809.3 NOV | Novels for Students : presenting analysis, context and criticism on commonly studied novels (Excellent Resource) |
| R 810 AME | American Women Writers |
| R 810 CON | Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography |
| R 810 ETH | Contemporary Authors |
| R 810.3 HAR | The Oxford Companion to American Literature |
| R 810.808 OXF | The Oxford Companion to African American Literature |
| R 810.9 ASI | Asian American Women Writers |
| R 810.9 CUR | Modern American Literature |
| R 810.992 OXF | The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States |
| R 811.08 ELL | The New Oxford Book of American Verse |
| R 813.009 AME | American Women Fiction Writers, 1900-1960 |
| R 813.52 OLI | Ernest Hemingway A to Z : the essential reference to the life and work |
Use these resources every day! If you need them the usernames and passwords are provided. Our online resources are:
- The Gale Group, (Username:west60137 Password:west60137)
- Web Feet, ( Borrower's I.D.: west01196)
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online, (Use this resource first) (Username: hbuhsd Password: surfcity)
and
- World Geography Online. (Username: lions1 Password: golions)
These are password protected databases that you can access 24/7 from school or home. Get the URLs, usernames, and passwords from your librarian. They work like a search engine but contain information that is not available for free on the World Wide Web. College students use similar databases for their research projects.
The Gale Group resources has five different databases:
- Student Resource Center-Gold (Use this Gale database),
- Student Resource Center-Health Module,
- Student Edition,
- Opposing Viewpoints,
and
- Virtual Reference Library.(This database may also contain information you need.)
W = 
(Pre-selected web sites)
A webliography is similar to a bibliography only it's on the web. This is the webliography selected by your teacher or Mrs. Bowen to assist you with your project.
Américo Paredes (1915-1999): http://www.lib.utexas.edu/benson/paredes/
American Masters: PBS: Ernest Hemingway: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/hemingway_e.html
American Masters: PBS: Willa Cather: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/cather_w.html
American Writers II: http://www.americanwriters.org/about/
Cherrie L. Moraga: http://www.cherriemoraga.com/
Edwin Arlington Robinson: http://robinson.bokardo.com/
Bobbie Ann Mason’s Home Page: http://www.eiu.edu/~eng1002/authors/mason2/
Hispanic Heritage: Américo Paredes: http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/chh/bio/paredes_a.htm
First Person BookPage: Bobbie Ann Mason: http://www.bookpage.com/9905bp/bobbie_ann_mason.html
An Interview with Cherríe Moraga: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/interviews/vg_interviews/
moraga_cherrie.html
The Legacy of Américo Paredes: http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2006/lopezmorin.htm
The Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Educational Institute: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/King/
Modern American Poetry: Adrienne Rich: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/rich.htm
Modern American Poetry: Carl Sandburg(1878-1967): http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sandburg/sandburg.htm
Modern American Poetry: Countee Cullen: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cullen/cullen.htm
Modern American Poetry: Edwin Arlington Robinson: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/robinson/robinson.htm
Modern American Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/bishop.htm
Modern American Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/brooks.htm
Modern American Poetry: James Wright: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/j_wright/j_wright.htm
Modern American Poetry: Langston Hughes: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/hughes.htm
Modern American Poetry: Louise Erdrich: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/erdrich.htm
Modern American Poetry: Richard Wright: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/r_wright/r_wright.htm
Modern American Poetry: Robert Frost (1874-19630: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm
Modern American Poetry: Sandra Cisneros: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cisneros/cisneros.htm
Modern American Poetry: Sylvia Plath: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/plath.htm
Modern American Poetry: T.S. Eliot: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/eliot.htm
Online Archive of California: Guide to the Cherrie Moraga Papers, 1970-1996: http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf496nb05k/?&query=Moraga&query-join=and&brand=oac
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project:
The poetics of Robert Frost-- examples: Figurative Language: http://www.frostfriends.org/figurative.html
Poets.org:Carl Sandburg:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/28
Robert Frost on the Web: http://www.astro.umass.edu/local/amherst/walking_tour/frost.html
The Seattle Times: Martin Luther King, Jr. & The Civil Rights Movement:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/mlk/
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945): http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/dreiser.htm
The Willa Cather Archive:http://cather.unl.edu/
S = 
Once you have learned about your subject by visiting all of the books, online programs, and web sites recommended by Mrs. Bowen and Mr. Woods, and you still need more information it is time to search the web. BEWARE! Search engines are not all created equal and you need to learn what types of information each will provide and how that information is presented. Take a few minutes and check out the links listed below. You will also need to know about the "invisible web" and how to access its information.
How to Find a Specialized Search Engine for Your Topic
If you use a search engine to find material you must always evaluate the site you wish to use. To help you in evaluating your site use the Web Site evaluation Guide.
And now back to the Big 6!
Step #4: Use of Information Engage the source (read it, listen to it, view it, touch it!) and take out the relevant information. If you can't understand any of it, be sure to ask Mr. Woods to help you. It's OK not to understand, it's not OK not to ask for help. Make sure that you check out "Ideas About Note Taking and Citing Sources" from the Use of Information page.
Step #5: Synthesis You will need to:
- Organize information from multiple sources
- Present the information
To help you in writing your paper you may want to use the "Writing Process Organizer for Grades 7-12." Unfortunately, this page will not allow you type on it, but you can print it out and use it as a guide for your paper.
Step #6: Evaluation To evaluate your product you will need to:
- Judge your product (how effective were you)
- Judge your information problem-solving process (how efficient were you?)
Here are some additional pages and sites to help you put your paper together and evaluate your product.
Style Guides
To find out how to cite a source go to the MLA Guide and/or the Help with Citing Sources (Internet) guide. The Landmark Citation Machine is also an excellent resource for all types of citations. You can also use the Toolbox of the Gale online database and find a citing online reference works section.
Copyright Information
Always check your information against copyright laws to make sure you are not violating any rules and are not accused of plagiarism. Copyright Information
The Big 6 Rubric
This is a rubric (guideline) to help you understand the effort you need to put into the process of doing research. If you do not understand a task ask your teacher or Mrs. Bowen, the librarian. Both will be able to help you. Click Here for the Big 6 Rubric.
Editing Checklist
This is a guideline to use to edit your paper for errors. Print it out to use as you proofread your paper. Click Here for checklist.
Research Project Final Evaluation Form
This is a form that either students or teachers can use to evaluate research projects. Click Here for the Evaluation Form. Print it out and use it as you evaluate your project.
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