A&B 17.5, 17.6, 22.2, and pg. 588

You may know how to start and end your paper well, but it's important to still use good writing skills in between.  The body paragraph should still follow the old information to new rule.  Each paragraph should start and end on the same topic.  It sounds silly, but it is important, because it not only helps keep your thoughts organized, it also helps with the flow of your paper.  Another way to help your paper flow is transition words.  Transition words help you get from one idea to the next, or they can be helpful when starting a new paragraph. Another important part of your body paragraphs is your evidence, often in the form of quotes.  Having multiple sources is important and knowing how to properly source them is equally important. That being said you can't have just quotes for your paper.  You also should include your own explanation of the quote, and how it supports your argument.  Quotes is what I most want to  improve on for my research paper, so that way I know how to properly site and use them to support my claim.  This will be important for making my research paper strong.

A&B 17.3

Before you start your paper a helpful trick is an outline.  The out line helps you organised your paper and divide up you key point so when you write your paper, your ideas flow. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing gives a list as a good stater outline.  Later braking up your thought in to several main points. The Allyn Bacon Guide to writing says, "As you begin drafting, you will find your ideas gradually becoming clearer, and more focused."  This can be very helpful when formulating a thesis. The Ally Bacon Guide uses what they call the  "nutshell exercise".  This is to help you figure out what it is that you want your audience to think  so you can focus your thesis on them.  Once you have your thesis than you can use another outline to map out each point, and where you want them to go. I will use an outline for mine, because not only will it help me know what to write, it will also be helpful when trying to make my paper flow, because it can help to pair up related points.  I also like the out line because it can help you to know where to start.  Getting started is the most daunting part of writing, so I will be using an out line to make the paper feel more managable.

A&B: 23.1, 23.2, 23.3 Penguin Handbook: 68-113

Citing your sources is a very important part of and written work.  The words that you say, or anything that is common knowledge doesn't have to be sourced, but anything pulled from someone else's work or is "controversy" as they say in the Allyn Bacon Guide, should be cited.  The main way of citing is known as an in-text citation. "An in-text citation identifies a source in the body of the paper." (Allyn & Bacon 526) The in-text citation is small is pared with another more complete citation in the works cited.  In the works cited page the sources should be in alphabetical order giving the publisher, date of publication, full title, and any other important information, while the in text citation simply gives the authors last name, and the page number from where the source was found.  Knowing how to cite your sources is important, because it will save you from plagiarism.  I personally need to improve of this skill, because it is easy to get lazy, when it comes to sourcing.  It will be very helpful in my research project to know how to cite a source properly.

A&B 21.2, 7.4, pg 439-441, pg 384-387, pg 393

An Important part of writing  research project is your source. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing says you should look at "reliability, credibility, and of division and degree of advocacy."  Having a proper source will make for a better research project.  Another important part is citing your sources properly.  One way to keep track of what you used from each source is an annotated bibliography.  There are two types of annotated biblographies

A&B 1.1, A&B 20.1

The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing says, "Experienced writers immerse themselves in subject matter questions in pursuit of answers or solutions."  A good writer is trying to discover something in their writing, and some of the best questions that can be asked don't pick a side on the subject matter. They are questions that explores both sides, also known as open ended questions. These question will help when writing a research paper.  A good research paper should avoid "data dumps" or papers with a bunch of random facts.  The Allyn & Bacon, Guide to Writing, says a research paper should have a "interesting problem, a contestable thesis, and ethically use sources."  The hardest part for people is coming up with a question.  The best way to come up with a question is to think about things  in your life and the world around you.  Then Allyn and Bacon Guide the suggests you think about your interest in, the significance, and  the ability of the question to get you to your desired length.  Think about all those will help you come up with your question and then you can "establish your role as a researcher"(Allyn,Bacon).  In other words you will go on to find your stance, and eventually write your paper.  With a good question it becomes so  much easier to write a paper so I plan on  using the Allyn and Bacon suggestions, to help me better formulate mine, so that way I can have real direction in my writing.