8Th Grade Research Essay Overview

8Th Grade Research Essay Overview

8th Grade Research Essay Overview

Choose a career or occupation that you think that you might like to do for a living. Research various aspects of that career using at least three different sources, one of which should be a fairly current print source (book or encyclopedia).

Parts of your career to research:

  • Education needed
  • Personal and/or other skills needed
  • Related careers
  • Salary information
  • Typical daily activities
  • Employment outlook
  • Time spent on the job and related pressures
  • Other applicable information

Parts of the project:

Note Cards and Bibliography Cards (minimum 25 fact cards and minimum 3 sources)

  • Four sources must be print sources.
  • You should use both internet and print (book or encyclopedia, for example) sources.
  • Document your research on note cards to aid you in structuring your argument.
  • Document your sources and tie them to the proper note cards.

Outline

  • Create an outline that shows your organization of ideas and lists support (via research) for those ideas to begin visualizing your rough draft of the essay.

Rough Essay Draft

  • Draft your essay, using your outline as a guide for organization. Be absolutely sure to include your in-text parenthetical citations.

Works Cited Page

  • Create a Works Cited page for your essay that properly documents all the sources that you refer to in your final essay draft via your in-text parenthetical citations.

Final Essay Draft with Works Cited Page

  • Reread your essay for organization, clarity, and development of support. Make any necessary additions, deletions, or changes. Then go through the draft for spelling, mechanics, etc.
  • Ensure you have fulfilled the minimum requirements regarding sources.

Following is a sample of a Works Cited page. Use this more to see how the page looks in terms of its format rather than for the information in each entry. Note that it is alphabetized by the first piece of information in each entry, uses a hanging indent, and is double spaced throughout.

Works Cited

Allende, Isabel. "Toad's Mouth." Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. A Hammock beneath

the Mangoes: Stories from Latin America. Ed. Thomas Colchie. New York:

Plume, 1992. 83-88. Print.

American Medical Association. The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of

Medicine. Ed. Charles B. Clayman. New York: Random, 1989. Print.

"Gorilla attacks Martian." National Enquirer 16 Mar. 1999: A-14. Print.

Gorman, Elizabeth. Prairie Women.New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1986. Print.

Lockhard, David J. and Charles Heimler, eds. The Oregon Trail.New York: Bonanza

Books, 1992. Print.

Notecarding

Below are examples of notecards for various types of citations. The first two are for multiple authors and the last one is for a web site with no given author. Notice the first is a paraphrase and the others are quoted.

The following is for a work by two authors and is from a print source:

The following is for a work that has four or more authors and is from a print source:

The following is for a work that has no stated author, just the title of the website. It also comes from an online source;therefore, no page number is in the citation for this example:

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