Tutorama: Week Thirteen: A Checklist for the Research Paper

Below are sets of elements that your essay should contain in its final form. Before handing in your finished paper, go through your essay and make sure that everything is in place.

The Elements of Analytical Argument

• Your position must be taken in dialogue with the positions found in the source texts. Avoid undirected summary and editorial ranting. (Test: do pages of your paper go by with no idea of your own? Do pages go by with nothing but your own opinion?)

• When you claim that another writer holds a certain position, evidence from the text must be provided to demonstrate this claim.

• This evidence must also be interpreted; that is, you must explain how the claim and the evidence are related. Do not take any of your own assumptions for granted.

• There must be a thesis paragraph at the beginning of the paper which summarizes the argument of the paper without presenting evidence for it—that's the job of the argument paragraphs.

The Elements of Correct Documentation

• References to other texts should cite author name and page number like this: (Denning 12). If the citation goes across pages, it should look like this: (Nussbaum 44-45).

• Quotes of three or fewer typed lines in your text should be kept within the bounds of the regular double-spaced lines of the essay.

• Quotes longer than three typed lines in your text should appear in block quote form: single-spaced, without quotation marks, and indented one tab space to the right relative to the left margin of the page.

• Include a bibliography or works cited list at the end of your paper.

The Formal Elements

• A heading with your name, the instructor's name, the date, the class

• A title, which explains the topic of the essay in brief

• Double-spaced type

• 1-inch margins on all sides

• A font which produces approximately 250 words or more per page

• Pages numbered in the upper right-hand corner

• A staple (not a paper clip or folded page corners or loose pages)