10th Grade Research Guide

For this paper, you are required to cite three different articles. Once you start researching, use your research questions to guide your search. IMPORTANT: You may only use approved online sources from the Cobb Virtual Library Databases.You may not use Google or Wikipedia to find information for this project.

To find a source:

  1. Go to cvl.cobbk12.org
  2. Click on “high school”
  3. Scroll down to the “Social Issues” databases
  4. You may use Gale Opposing Viewpoints or SIRS Researcher to find an article
  5. You must find two articles that support your opinion about the topic

Once you find a source that you would like to use, follow the steps below:

  1. Copy and paste the entire article into a word document.
  2. Cite the article using MLA format at the top of the document (see MLA cheat sheet for formatting guidelines).
  3. Read the article and identify answers to 5W and H. Highlight specific lines using the following color coding system:
  4. Yellow = Who?
  5. Green = What?
  6. Blue = When?
  7. Pink = Where?
  8. Red = Why?
  9. Grey = How?
  10. Create a folder titled “10th Grade Research” on your student number.
  11. Save your article into the 10th Grade Research folder. Name the article document your last name and the title of the article, so, for example, if I read an article entitled “Gun Control Now,” I would also name my article file, “Davis_Gun Control Now.”
  12. Open a blank word document.
  13. Set up your paper in MLA format (heading, header, font, margins, spacing).
  14. Title your paper the title of the article. So for my first paper, my title would be: Gun Control Now. Remember to center your title in the same font. Do NOT bold or underline or use quotes or all caps!
  15. Write a one paragraph, seven sentence summary of the article. Remember your GIST strategy…only include the essential details (5W & H) in your summary! You have already highlighted the essential details, so now use what you highlighted to write your paragraph. You should include at least one quote in each summary. Anything that is not quoted should be in YOUR OWN WORDS! Your summary should be no more than ten sentences.
  16. Check that your quote is formatted properly. Did you use a lead in? Did you include proper parenthetical documentation?
  17. Cite the entire paragraph using parenthetical documentation. This should come at the end of the last sentence.
  18. Write a one paragraph, seven sentence analysis of the article. An analysis means that you are analyzing whether or not the article would be useful for your research. Your analysis should read like a paragraph with smooth transitions, but you can consider the following questions to guide your analysis:
  19. Is the article informative?
  20. Is the article biased?
  21. Who is the author and what is the author’s purpose?
  22. Is the author trustworthy?
  23. Is the article easy to understand?
  24. How old is the article?
  25. Would you recommend the article to a friend? Why or why not?
  26. Save you article summary and analysis into your 10th Grade Research Folder using the following format: Last Name_Title of Article_Review. So for the article “Gun Control Now,” I would write, “Davis_Gun Control Now_Review.”
  27. Repeat steps 1 – 13for your second source.
  28. Once you have finished your two article reviews, you should create a Works Cited Page.
  29. When you are finished, give a teacher your student number so that we can check your articles for highlighting.
  30. Print out your two article reviews and Works Cited Page, staple them together, and turn them in.

The works cited list should appear at the end of your essay and on a separate page. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and be able to read any sources you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the essay must appear in your works-cited list; likewise, each entry in the works-cited list must be cited in your text. Here are some guidelines for preparing your works cited list.

To Create a Works Cited Page:

1.Open a blank Word document

2.Set your margins to one inch

3.Set your after paragraph spacing to “0”

4.Your Works Cited List should be titled Works Cited (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), which should be centered at the top of the page.

5.Make the first line of each entry in your list flush left with the margin. Subsequent lines in each entry should be indented one-half inch. This is known as a hanging indent.

6.Double space all entries, with no skipped spaces between entries.

7.Alphabetize the list of works cited by the first word in each entry (usually the author's last name)

8.Use the MLA Cheat sheet to ensure your sources are cited properly

MLA Cheat Sheet for Commonly Used Sources

Adopted from the MLA Formatting and Style Guide at the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Books

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of publication.

With one author:

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Print.

With more than one author:

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.

No author:

Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993. Print.

Reference Books

For entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works, cite the piece as you would any other work in a collection but do not include the publisher information. Also, if the reference book is organized alphabetically, as most are, don't list the volume or the page number of the article or item.

"Ideology." The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed. 1997. Print.

Articles

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.

In a print magazine:

Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print.

Electronic Sources

If publishing information is unavailable for entries that require publication information such as publisher (or sponsor) names and publishing dates, MLA requires the use of special abbreviations to indicate that this information is not available. Use n.p. to indicate that neither a publisher nor a sponsor name has been provided. Use n.d. when the Web page does not provide a publication date.

When an entry requires that you provide a page but no pages are provided in the source (as in the case of an online-only scholarly journal or a work that appears in an online-only anthology), use the abbreviation n. pag.

An article from an electronic subscription service (library databases):

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal 50.1 (2007): 173-96. ProQuest. Web. 27 May 2009.

An entire website:

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Medium of publication. Date of access.

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 April 2008.

Helpful Hints:

  • To indent every line but the first line of an entry, put your cursor at the beginning of the line you wish to indent. Hit “backspace” then “tab.”
  • MLA documents should be double spaced with one inch margins. Use 12 point, Times New Roman font.
  • Go to for a complete look at the MLA Formatting and Style Guide.