This week we covered information about citing sources and incorporating sources into the text of the research paper. We've covered this material in a number of ways during the past two weeks, but until a person has a chance to do this in their own papers, some of the instruction doesn't stick. Hopefully all of the students are at that place in their writing that they have "hooks" on which to hang this information.
As we talked about citations and Works Cited pages, I showed the students some online sources; those links and others will be at the bottom of this e-mail. With the handouts that I've given the students, the MLA Handbook, and the multitude of online sources, the students should be able to find answers to any citation question that they have. Of course, they can always feel free to send me an e-mail with specific questions that they can't find the answers to.
As they are finishing their second rough drafts, they need to do the following:
Check all their information -- if they got ideas, statistics, etc. from any source, they need to cite it.
Check for generalities -- be as specific as possible to keep the paper from being vague.
Consider how you incorporated your researched information -- check to see if signal phrases are appropriate to the information.
The class signed up for presentation times. In our discussion this week, I briefly mentioned the parameters for these, and we will go over them more thoroughly next week. In a nutshell, students will present to the class the material they feel would be interesting and important to know. This might be just one aspect from their research or quick summaries of the whole of their information. They should NOT read aloud the entirety of their paper. They also need to have a visual component. PowerPoint works well for this, but in the past students have also put together tri-fold presentation boards or brought in items to show the class. (I've had chickens, drones, and Danish cookies as part of presentations.)
These are the presentation dates:
November 30 -- Jade
December 7 -- Therese, Jean-Marc
December 14 -- Grace, Maggie
It's about this time of the process that students get sick of their topics and feel that they have an unending project hanging over their heads. It they've procrastinated, they are feeling the effects. Ideally, the students are given a significant amount of time so that they can carefully craft a well-written research paper while learning the principles of plagiarism, correct citations, and appropriate incorporation of their researched material. What often happens is students put off their work or are over scheduled and can't get to their work, resulting in the stress of throwing together something to meet a deadline. I've mentioned to the class many times that this project is as much an opportunity to learn about themselves as students as it is about the paper itself. Please take some time this week to check in with your students and to encourage them.
Assignments for Next Week
-- Rough Draft #2
-- Works Cited page
-- Start planning your presentation
Links for This Week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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