10th Grade

 

Purpose:  In order to use the Internet as a viable and useful tool for accessing information, you need to understand and know how to filter out information that is biased or inaccurate.  The basis of this two week project is to help you understand how to properly gather information that is relevant, accurate and has other sources of information to back up the claims that your report will include.

Mission:  You will write an 1000 word report on one a subject of your choice.  You may use the website below to find topics that are interesting to you.  You will need to cite your resources and cross reference the material so that you can confirm whether or not the information is correct. 

An interesting list of topics can be found at this website:

BUZZLE 

Step 1: Selecting a Topic

  One of the easiest ways to determine what to write about is to make a list of what interests you.  If you can sit down and brain storm for a solid five minutes, you will be amazed at how many things you can write about or how many things you may be interested in.  Once you have your list, you can begin to label the items in alphabetical order.  The things that interest you the most will be the things on you’re a list.  Once you have sorted these items of interest out, you can then make a determination as to what subject you would like to write about.

Notice: Fill out sheet and turn it in for a Quiz grade.
Due Date 2/27/2013

  

Step: 2 Picking a Topic 

After  you select your topic, it is now time to begin searching the Internet for information concerning the topic you have selected.  One of the best ways to search for information on the Internet is to look for websites that have a list of links to relevant subject matter. ( For example: performing a Google search on information on “crop circles” may bear better results by typing in “list of crop circle sites” or “crop circle references”.  Actually, I started getting websites that seemed to be more valid after typing in “crop circle reference list”. 

Step 3: Creating an Outline

An outline will enable you to see the skeleton of your research paper and it is a must if you are to organize your thoughts, ideas and research into a report.  Basically, an outline is a prioritized list of topics which surround your main theme.  To see a good example of an outline click on this link:

OUTLINE

Notice: Type up Outline for Quiz Grade
Due Date March 6th

·         Step 4: Investigate After you have chosen a series of websites that contain information about your subject, you can then begin to cross reference and investigate different aspects of the website.  For example; what is the name of the person that wrote the material on the website?  What makes this person an authority?  What type of research has he or she conducted?  Have they published any books on the subject?  What other websites are linking to the websites that you are using to write your paper?

     Highlight: Alexa  (www.alexa.com)

    

     Alexa is the premier website on the Internet that displays not only the amount of traffic a website receives, but also which other websites are linking to the website you have chosen to use.  Using graphic displays and  an easy search engine  interface, Alexa can give you all sorts of data that will take the guesswork out of finding out which websites are being considered valid or not. 

 ·         Step 5: Start Writing should be noted that you should use other credible resources to check your facts like an encyclopedia or reference book from the library.  If you are writing your report and you find that data from the Websites you are referencing have errors, or the information does not coincide with the reference books that you are using, you will need to find other sources of credible information for your report.

Structure:   Your research report should contain the following:

Main Body of Report

Notice: Turn in report for test grade.
Due Date: March 13th

Margins

Leave margins of your essay 1" (2.5 cm) at the top, bottom, left and right sides of each and every page. Exception is made for page numbers which are placed 1/2" (1.25 cm) from the top upper-right hand corner flushed to the right margin.

Font

You will be using the Times Roman font 12 point. 

Title Page

The title page should contain the following information:  Title of paper or report, your name, course title and date.  You can have a subtitle under your report title if you so desire. 

Bibliography

This part of your research paper should be a page referencing your resource material.  The format for reference material should be presented in the following format:

When referencing books:

Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Book title. Additional information. City of publication: Publishing company.  (Ex. Allen, T. (1974). Vanishing wildlife of North America. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.)

When referencing  the Encyclopedia or Dictionary:

Author's last name, first initial. (Date). Title of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, pages). City of publication: Publishing company. (Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.)

When referencing Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. Periodical title, volume number(issue number if available), inclusive pages.

Note: Do not enclose the title in quotation marks. Put a period after the title. If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it and then give the page range (in regular type) without "pp." If the periodical does not use volume numbers, as in newspapers, use p. or pp. for page numbers.

Note: Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.

(Ex., Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.)

When referencing a website or webpage

Online periodical:  Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number, Retrieved month day, year, from full URL

Online document:  Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from full URL

Structure: Last, First. Middle. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Website Title. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL.

Example:

Satalkar, B. (2010, July 15). Water aerobics. Buzzle.com. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from http://www.buzzle.com.

Cain, K. (2012, June 29). The Negative Effects of Facebook on Communication. Social Media Today RSS. Retrieved January 3, 2013, from http://socialmediatoday.com.

Note: When citing Internet sources, refer to the specific website document. If a document is undated, use "n.d." (for no date) immediately after the document title. Break a lengthy URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period. Continually check your references to online documents. There is no period following a URL.

Note: If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.