This document outlines an agenda for a class on conducting research. It includes discussing selecting a research question, finding search terms, and locating an initial source. The class will cover summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting sources as well as building an outline and developing paragraphs. Students are assigned to find a second source and practice summarization, paraphrasing, and quoting through exercises. The document provides guidelines for each technique.

1. Agenda
• Prompt
• Research Question/Search Term Clinic
• What’s happening this week
• Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting
• Closing
• HW: Find your Second Source.

2. Prompt
• Describe your experience settling on an appropriate research question,
breaking that question down into search terms, plugging those terms into
the database, and finding a source. What went smoothly? What was a
challenge?

3. Research Question Clinic
• How can we support each other?

4. This Week…
• Monday – Research Question, Search Terms, Database
• Tuesday – Survey
• Wednesday – Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting (“prepping” the information from our sources to include
in essay)
• Thursday – Building the Outline, Planning our Paragraphs and Preparing to Integrate our Source Material
• Friday – Paragraph Development and Citation
• Monday – Rubric and Peer Review/ Support
• Tuesday – Editing and Proofreading, Final Q&A with Alisa
• Thursday – Final Essay due

5. Summary, Paraphrase,
Quote
How to properly summarize, paraphrase and quote in an
academic paper.

6. Summarizing
• Is telling the main idea that someone wrote, but not including the details.
• Summarize when you want to give the general outline, or an overview of the
entire source.
• What is the “Introduction Summary for your First Source? (ie: James Collier,
in his essay titled “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name,” explains the value
in facing and overcoming the butterflies).

7. Quoting
• Is using the actual words that someone else said or wrote. “Use quotation
marks.”
• We quote the really sexy stuff – when the wording is so beautiful or powerful
that to change any part of it would be a shame.
• We quote when we need to be very precise, such as when we are quoting an
expert who is giving a definition of something.

8. Rules of quoting
• Don’t use quotes very often – 1 or 2 per page (250 words).
• Use short quotes, not long ones.
• Use quotation marks correctly – within your own sentence. NO: “Education
is important” (Miller 23). YES: According to John Miller, “Education is
important” (23).

9. Paraphrasing
• Is putting what someone wrote into your own words. We often paraphrase
sentences or paragraphs (not the entire source).
• Most often, you will paraphrase, not summarize or quote your sources.
• You paraphrase when you want to indicate the details of a point but there’s
nothing special about the way the author said it.

10. Yay, Paraphrasing!
• Paraphrasing helps you build your credibility. When you can paraphrase
something, when you can explain it in your own words, you truly understand
what it means.

11. Rules of paraphrasing
• You must be careful in paraphrasing. If you are too close to the original
wording, you could run into plagiarism. You must keep the original meaning
but use different vocabulary and, if possible, a different sentence structure.

12. How to paraphrase
• Read the paragraph carefully several times until you feel you understand
what it is saying.
• Without looking at the paragraph, write your own version of it, using your
own vocabulary and way of putting things.
• Look back at the original wording – are you too close? Remember, the
paraphrase should sound like your own writing, not the source you are
paraphrasing.

13. Let’s Practice Quoting
• Pick out the 3 best sentences in your source. They should be beautiful, sexy
and/or precise definitions of something.
• Quote them properly in your notebook, using the correct format: NO:
“Education is important” (Miller 23). YES: According to John Miller,
“Education is important” (23).

14. Let’s Practice Paraphrasing!
• Paraphrase the first paragraph of your source.
• Read the paragraph carefully several times until you feel you understand
what it is saying.
• Without looking at the paragraph, write your own version of it, using your
own vocabulary and way of putting things.
• Look back at the original wording – are you too close? Remember, the
paraphrase should sound like your own writing, not the source you are
paraphrasing.