This document outlines the requirements and timeline for a 5th grade biography research writing project. Students will research and write a biography on an assigned historical figure. The project includes finding sources, creating an outline and note cards, writing rough and typed drafts, and a final draft. Key parts of the biography are identified such as the title page, outline, paper consisting of an introduction, body, and conclusion, and a works cited page. Rubrics are provided to evaluate grammar, organization, content, and a bonus cartouche. Important due dates are scheduled throughout the project from initial planning through the final draft submission.

1. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
Table of Contents
Parts of the Biography
2
Rubric
3
Works Cited Page and Source Cards
4
Creating an Outline
5
Note-taking Basics and Formatting Note Cards
6
Writing a Rough Draft
7
Citing Your Sources
7
Typed Draft Guidelines
8
Final Draft Guidelines
9
Statement on Plagiarism
10
Due Dates
11
Parts of the Biography
These are the parts of your paper. They need to be in this order when submitted!
1.
A Title Page—includes your name, topic, and date in proper form. No other cover is needed.
2.
An Outline—tells how your paper is organized.
3.
The Report—Introduction, Body, Conclusion
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2. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
4.
Works Cited Page—formal listing of all the sources (books, websites, encyclopedia, magazines, etc.) you used. You
must use at two sources: Reliable website, book
5.
Extra Credit Information—is optional. You may use pictures, diagrams, or charts IF they serve to enhance the quality
of your biography. These will come at the end and will NOT take the place of the body of your paper.
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5 Grade Biography Rubric
GRAMMAR CONVENTIONS:
The writer uses standard writing conventions very well to
make the paper easy to read. There are very few errors, and
the reader hardly notices them.
________/25
ORGANIZATION & SENTENCE FLUENCY:
The order of the paper makes sense and is easy to follow.
The paper has an easy flow and rhythm. It is easy to read
aloud. The writing sounds natural—the sentences have
different beginnings, lengths, and structures.
________/20
CONTENT:
Includes—
Title Page, Outline, Paper, Works Cited Page, Map
________/10
Paper—
(Introduction) Writer started with a hook to get the reader
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3. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
interested, included a bridge and ended with a clear main
idea sentence.
(Body) Body paragraphs follow the writer’s outline and
include important details regarding Alexander the Great.
(Conclusion) Writer re-states main points to effectively close
the essay.
The paper is clear, focused, and interesting. It holds the
reader's attention. Ideas are fresh and original. Related
details support the main idea.
________/35
CARTOUCHE
Cartouche includes student’s name in Egyptian alphabet in
cartouche template.
TOTAL:
________/10
_______/100
Works Cited Page & Source Cards
You will be using your sources (one book and one reliable website) to research information about Ramesses II. At the end of your
paper, you will need to tell the reader where you learned facts and information that you included in your paper. You will create a
Works Cited page to document these sources.
Creating a Works Cited Page
Step 1: Visit bibme.org. This website will do all of the formatting for your Works Cited page for you.
Step 2: Put in the bibliographical information for your book and website. (Note: Your book and/or website may be in the system. In
this case, check for capitalizations and correct information. If the site is not able to load all of the information from your book or
website, you will need to enter it manually.)
Step 3: Copy and paste entries into Google docs.
Important Things to note:
1. Sources are listed in alphabetical order according to the last name of the author (or title if no author is listed.)
2. Pay special attention to the punctuation, underlines, and order of information. Generally the order is as follows: Last name, first
name, middle initial, title of article, title of book, city of publisher, publisher’s name, date, and page numbers. In some sources, you
will not find all the information. Use what you can find.
3. Notice the indenting. The first line is NOT indented, but the remainder of the lines are indented.
4. Look at my example! 
Works Cited
Deem , James. Kristallnacht: The Nazi Terror That Began the Holocaust. Berkeley Heights : Enslow Publishers, 2012. Print.
"Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9-10, 1938." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 11 May 2011. Web. 4
Oct. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005201>.
Example Source Card
1
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4. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
Deem , James. Kristallnacht: The Nazi Terror That Began the Holocaust. Berkeley Heights : Enslow Publishers, 2012. Print.
Creating an Outline
You will be using your sources (one book and one reliable website) to research information about your topic. Look through your
sources—what is most important about Alexander and his life?
Step 1: Scan through your information. Look through the table of contents. What is most important
What would a reader want to know about him?
about Alexander’s life?
Step 2: Arrange the important aspects of Alexander’s life in an order that makes sense and flows well.
Important Things to note:
1. Your first Roman numeral will be your Introduction. Your last Roman numeral will be your Conclusion.
2. An outline is a guideline of what you will be talking about in your paper. You do not need to write in complete sentences. Instead,
think of words and phrases.
3. If you have a subtopic A, you must have a subtopic B.
4. See my example!
Kristallnacht
I. Introduction
A. Translation
B. What is Kristallnacht?
II. When and Where
A. Date
B. Location
III. People Involved in Kristallnacht
A. Nazi Party Officials
B. Hitler Youth
C. German Citizens
IV. What Happened?
A. Why did Kristallnacht Occur?
B. General Facts
C. Statistics
D. Immediate Aftermath
V. Conclusion
A. Why was Kristallnacht important?
B. How did Kristallnacht affect World War II?
Creating Note Cards & Taking Notes
All of your notes that you take on Ramesses II will be on “note cards” in a packet. Using your outline as a guide, start researching on
the headings included in your outline. For organizational purposes, it is helpful to research in order of your outline! Remember, if
the information is in the outline, you must research it and put it in your paper. We will begin researching in class and I will be
checking on your progress.
Creating a Note Card—Guide to Creating All Note Cards
II. Topic, A. Subtopic
Source #
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5. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
When taking notes, all notes should be in bulleted form, NOT in complete sentences.
Read the section you are taking notes from, then close your book and put the information in YOUR OWN WORDS. Do not
copy directly from your book!
Putting information in our own words, not copying directly from the book and using bullet points (not complete sentences)
helps us not to plagiarize.
Page #
Sample Note Card—Our Class Example
Writing a Rough Draft
Introduction—
Hook: An opening statement to capture your reader. (Consider shocking but true information, a meaningful quote, etc.)
Bridge: Connect your hook to your main idea(s). What are some important pieces of information that the reader should
know before getting to the body of your paper? (Consider briefly introducing Alexander or his importance in history.)
Main Idea: What is the big idea of your paper? What is the main thing you’ll be talking about?
Rough Draft Reminders—
Your note cards are already arranged in order of your outline. Make sure you include each part of your outline. Remember,
whatever is in your outline must be in your paper.
This is formal writing. It should NOT include you and me. (Don’t include statements such as, “I will tell you about…” or “I
found out lots of interesting things about…”) Also, it should NOT refer to your paper. (Don’t include statements such as,
“This paper will talk about…” or “In these paragraphs it will tell you about…”)
Skip lines on your rough draft.
When you’re writing, don’t worry about details such as exact wording, spelling, etc. Just keep writing!
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6. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
For your conclusion paragraph, you may want to summarize (in different words) some of your main points. This is also the
time to explain the importance of Alexander’s life and conquests.
Citing your Sources—
In the body of your report, there will be times when you need to tell where you got your information. This is known as
citing your sources. Anytime you give statistics, opinions, or material that is contrary to popular belief or is only found in one
source, you MUST tell where that information came from.
Here’s how: After the information, put parentheses. In the parentheses put the author’s last name and the page number:
(Jones 14). This tells the reader you used the book by someone named Jones and this information was on page 14 of that
book. For an internet source do it the same way. If there is no author listed, put the title of the article/website and page
number, if given.
You do not have to tell where all your information came from. For example, almost every source would say that George
Washington was the first president. That is considered common knowledge and it
would not be necessary to tell
where you got that material.
Biography—Typed Draft
Requirements:
Size 12 Font, Times New Roman, Double Spaced
Typed and shared with Mrs. Weber on Google docs (eweber@stjls.org)
{To print, we will download to Microsoft Word and do final formatting. Once your document is on Microsoft Word, you will
need to save a copy to your flash drive.}
Reminders:
No informal abbreviations
History needs to be written in chronological order
Where can you add transitions?
Watch sentence fragments
People are referred to by their last name, not their first
1 idea=1 Paragraph
Subject-Verb Agreement
History happened in the PAST. Use PAST tense.
Don't abbreviate until you've spelled it out first
their/they're/there
"got", "a lot", "things" (Word Choice)
Specific wording—fully explain events!
No first person pronouns
Unclear pronoun references
# < 100 need to be written out (Dates are always numerical)
CITATIONS!
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7. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
Final Draft Requirements:
Typing & Formatting Guidelines
Size 12 Font
Times New Roman
Double Spaced (excluding Outline and Works Cited Page)
What is included in my final draft: (Submit in this order!)
Title Page
Outline
Paper
Works Cited
Extra Credit Pictures (Optional)
Plagiarism
The following information comes from a book entitled MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi, Fifth
Edition, published by the Modern Language Association of America, 1999.
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8. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is using another person’s words or ideas in your writing without giving credit to the source.
One type of plagiarism is using another’s ideas without giving proper credit.
A second type of plagiarism is using another’s actual words without giving proper credit.
Statement on Plagiarism
The following is what Marquette High School Language Arts Department sends home with their students explaining Rockwood’s
policy on plagiarism.
“Recent media reports about plagiarism in our nation’s high schools and universities reveal how tempting it is, with the abundant
Internet sources available, for students to “borrow” from such sources and others without properly crediting the authors. Most
students will never make the mistake of plagiarizing, and indeed this behavior may be truly unintentional, with students simply
unclear on how to correctly paraphrase and document. At other times, however, students may understand they are plagiarizing
and yet see it as the easy way out without realizing the seriousness of their actions. Rockwood School District now has a districtwide policy on academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism. Even so, the consequences detailed in this new policy are minor
ones compared to what students could suffer at the college level. For example, a top Princeton senior was rejected by at least six
law schools after she plagiarized an assignment only months before graduation.
With all this in mind, the Language Arts Department at Marquette wants to be certain that everyone understands what plagiarism
is and how to use sources properly. In any kind of research, the correct use of source material can benefit a student, while the
misuse of sources could damage a student’s academic standing. During the course of the school year, every Marquette English
teacher gives a definition of plagiarism and explains what must be done when writing a paper or preparing a speech in order to
ensure ethical treatment of all sources.”
------------------------------------------------------------------Students at St. John need to understand how to use information they get from a variety of sources. As a class, we will go through
how to use information from sources without plagiarizing, and hopefully students will not plagiarize, either intentionally or
unintentionally. According to our school handbook, cheating or the appearance of cheating will result in a grade of zero for the
assignment, plus we will contact the parent.
Important Dates for the Biography
February 20
Project Explaining in Class—Parent Forms, Overview & Process, Due Dates
February 20
Parent Packet Sent Home—Signed form due on Monday, February 24
February 24
Finding Sources (Source 1: History Book, Source 2: Reliable Website)
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February 27
March 3
Creating a Works Cited Page & Source Cards (due on Friday, February 28 )
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Reading/Noting Sources (finish reading, noting and highlighting due Tuesday, March 4 )
March 4
-Compare Notes from Sources
th
-Creating an Outline (due on Wednesday, March 5 )
March 5
-Note-taking Basics
-Setting up/Formatting Note Cards
March 6
Research/Note Taking
March 7
Research/Note Taking
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9. 5th Grade Research Writing Project—Biography
March
9
Research/Note Taking (Research/Note Cards FINISHED by Tuesday, March 11)
March 11
Rough Draft Writing
March 12
Rough Draft Writing
March 13-14
Rough Draft Writing (Rough Draft due on Friday, March 14 )
March 17-21
Spring Break 
March 25-29
-Rough Drafts Returned / Mini-Conferences
-Typed Draft Guidelines & Reminders
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-Typed Draft due on Thursday, March 27
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-Adult Edit of Typed Draft due on Tuesday, April 1
April 3
-Typed Draft Returned / Mini-Conferences
-Final Draft Guidelines & Reminders
April 7-11
-Final Draft Preparations (Final Draft due on Monday, April 14 )
April 14
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FINAL DRAFT DUE!
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