Book description
You're sitting at your desk in a classroom or in an airless cubicle,
wondering how many minutes are left in a seemingly endless day, when
suddenly your teacher or supervisor lowers the boom: She wants a
research paper, complete with footnotes and a list of sources. She wants
accuracy, originality, and good grammar. And - gasp! - she wants ten
pages! You may be 16 years old or 60 years old, but your reaction is the
same: Help!
Take heart. A research paper may seem daunting, but it's a
far-from-impossible project to accomplish. Turning research into
writing is actually quite easy, as long as you follow a few proven
techniques. And that's where Research Papers For Dummies steps
in to help. In this easy-to-understand guide, you find out how to
search for information using both traditional printed sources and the
electronic treasure troves of the Internet. You also discover how to
take all those bits of information, discarding the irrelevant ones,
and put them into a form that illustrates your point with clarity and originality.
Here's just a sampling of the topics you'll find in Research
Papers For Dummies:
- Types of research papers, from business reports to dissertations
- The basic ingredients of a paper: Introduction, body,
conclusion, footnotes, and bibliography
- Note-taking methods while doing research
- Avoiding plagiarism and other research paper pitfalls
- Defining your thesis statement and choosing a structure for your paper
- Supporting your argument and drawing an insightful conclusion
- Revising and polishing your prose
- Top Ten lists on the best ways to begin your research online and
in print
Research Papers For Dummies also includes an appendix that's
full of research paper ideas if you're stuck.
If you're tasked with writing a research paper, chances are you
already have a lot of demands on your time. You don't need another
huge pile of papers to read. This book can actually save you time in
the long run, because it gives you the easiest, fastest, and most
successful methods for completing your paper.
Geraldine Woods is the author of more than 40 books,
including the popular English Grammar For Dummies. She has taught high
school and middle school English for over 25 years.
