Posted: April 22nd, 2016

follow the mechanics of research and the MLA documentation guidelines.???

As stated in the first lesson, by the end of the course you will have produced a portfolio that contains several research activities, including a bibliography related to your research paper, an introduction that reviews source material, a draft of your paper, and a revised research paper. The process will involve the following steps:

select a topic developed in one of the essays written for Lessons 2, 3 or 4
determine which research resources address your topic of study
gather those sources in a way that allows you to hear the various “threads of conversation” taking place within your topic
create a bibliography that includes ten sources, five of which are annotated
write a paragraph describing how you will use the sources in your paper
formulate an introduction that includes a review of source material
write the 2500-3500 word research paper that incorporates at least six sources from your bibliography
review comments offered in the Peer Review
compose a revised research paper

You should assume that your audience has familiarity with the work and that your primary audience includes your classmates and instructor. A potential secondary audience includes the scholars who may be interested in your contributions to the literary body of knowledge.

This unit focuses on developing the research project. For this section, you will complete a short, annotated bibliography and write a six- to eight-page research paper.

This unit assumes that you have a basic understanding of the technical aspects of research, such as evaluating and documenting sources. If you are still uncertain about those procedures, please review mechanics of research and the online sources.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center offers a good discussion of annotated bibliographieshttp://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.html.
Cornell University also provides help with annotated bibliographies.
Northwestern University http://www.writing.northwestern.edu/avoiding_plagiarism.html. offers a discussion of plagiarism and paraphrasing
Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/index.html offers a wealth of information on researching and documenting sources.

Although the research process is not mechanical, it is nevertheless necessary that you follow the mechanics of research and the MLA documentation guidelines.