Topic outline

  • Course Introduction

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    • Time: 101 hours
    • CEUs: 10.1
    • Free Certificate
    The ability to research topics and incorporate information from your sources into your work is an important skill both in college and on the job. This course will reinforce the concepts you practiced in ENGL101 by introducing you to basic research concepts and techniques. It will also give you a chance to put these new concepts and techniques to work as you develop a final research paper. We will begin by looking at how to build research into an effective writing process. First, you will learn to think of researching not as a requirement for getting a good grade on a paper but as a valuable tool that can make your writing more powerful and convincing. You will learn how to build research into your writing process so that you can add persuasive power to your finished work. Through the rigorous practice of the fundamental techniques, you will come to see that, like writing itself, research is an act of discovery rather than a search for prefabricated ideas. The intent of this course is to teach you how to prepare research for any discipline or subject. We will carefully explore and practice general research techniques and processes that you should apply to many academic disciplines and in your job.

    In Unit 1, you will select a topic that intrigues you, conduct preliminary research to focus your topic, and develop a thesis statement and a set of questions to help guide the remainder of your research. In Unit 2, you will learn strategies for conducting your research and taking careful notes. We will look carefully at researching on the Internet, but we will also make a point of honing the skills necessary to research topics in a physical library. We will explore some of the techniques that scholars use to record and organize the information that they plan to include in their work, so you can make the most of your resources when you start to write. By the end of the unit, you will have completed detailed notes for your own research project. In Unit 3, you will learn how to evaluate and understand the sources you located in the previous units. You will learn why it is important to put significant effort into reading and evaluating Internet sources, and how to identify and what you need to consider when you use primary and secondary sources. You will also get plenty of practice in determining how and when to use sources to help make your point. By the end of this unit, you will start to understand how to determine whether any source is authoritative, accurate, and current. You will also have an annotated bibliography that will guide you through the writing process. In Unit 4, you will develop your argument and create a detailed outline for your research paper. We will take some time to reinforce and expand upon the rhetorical concepts we introduced in Composition I. Like the prerequisite course, this unit focuses on putting your research to work to strengthen your academic writing. We will study how to use the results of your research and analysis to bolster written arguments and support rhetorical strategies. Unit 5 focuses on how to use style standards and citation methodology correctly. This unit will help you clearly understand why it is important to document and cite your sources and do so consistently and correctly. We will closely examine the issue of plagiarism, noting the situations that can cause writers to misuse source materials, either consciously or accidentally. After completing this unit, you will write a complete draft of your research paper. Unit 6 prepares you for revising and polishing your paper. We will provide you with detailed editorial exercises focusing on specific elements of sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, and mechanics, which will help you achieve your goal of writing clear, grammatically sound expository and persuasive prose. We will use the Modern Language Association (MLA) standards for citation and formatting. Refer to this cheat sheet on MLA Style Resources for links to the most useful MLA sites on the internet.

  • Unit 1: Research and the Writing Process

    Researching and reporting the results of research are fundamental to academic work in almost every discipline and many professional contexts. While research in itself may seem like an enormous task when you are just starting a project, it is important to understand that effective research is a straightforward, step-by-step process. By practicing effective research techniques and becoming adept with the tools that are available to researchers, you will begin to see research as an invaluable part of an organized system of study that includes discovery, invention, critical thinking, and clear communication.

    While writing is sometimes viewed as a solitary undertaking, research requires active involvement in a larger community of scholars. You will have a chance to define yourself as a member of many communities, and you will begin to see your research as an important part of the conversations that take place among members of your communities. As you begin to see yourself as an active contributor in a community, you will start to understand how others' work can both enrich your own perceptions and improve your understanding of the topic about which you are writing.

    To help you get started as a contributing member of a community of scholars, we will first explore how your research can support the writing process you began developing in ENGL101. You will recall that the PWR Method is a process based on pre-writing, writing, editing, and proofreading, so it is probably no surprise to learn that effective research follows a similar process and is based on similar methods of preparation and analysis.

    By mastering the essentials of effective research, you can train yourself to think more carefully about your work at every stage of the writing process. For example, you probably know how much a good quote can emphasize an important point. Still, you may not be conscious of how helpful general background research can be in the very earliest phases of your writing, when you are just beginning to refine your topic and clarify your thesis and argument.

    As we continue to build your experience as a member of a research community, we will explore how effective research can help you appeal to specific audiences and more clearly define the purpose of your writing.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 16 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • define the basic components of an academic research paper;
      • identify and describe the various types of research papers;
      • relate research techniques to academic work in various disciplines;
      • practice identifying and focusing a research topic and develop research questions;
      • develop a research proposal; and
      • write a draft outline.

    • 1.1: What Is a Research Paper?

      • 1.1.1: Academic Research Writing

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          What is Academic Research Writing? Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this article, which provides a quick overview of the form, components, and purpose of a research paper.

      • 1.1.2: Why Write a Research Paper?

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          The Purpose of Research Writing URL
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this section and complete the exercises, which will help you identify the reasons for writing a research paper and will outline the steps you must take in order to complete a research project.

      • 1.1.3: How to Manage a Research Project

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          Managing Your Research Project URL
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this section and complete the exercises, which will help you identify the reasons for writing a research paper and will outline the steps you must take in order to complete a research project.

    • 1.2: Preparing for Your Research

      • 1.2.1: The Research Process: An Overview

        Before you choose your topic, it is important to get a sense of the overall process you will follow to complete your research paper.
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          The Seven Steps of the Research Process URL
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this article, which introduces you to the research process and includes how to identify and develop your topic, find and evaluate background information (including sources, periodical articles, and Internet resources), and appropriately cite your sources.

          Several of the resources linked to through these pages are available only to students and staff at Cornell University. However, you should be able to use the general catalog information at any library. If you do not have online access to a college or university library, explore your local library's website for information about online access. A librarian at your local library may also be able to help you gain online access or answer questions about how to use their resources.

      • 1.2.2: What Is Your Research Community?

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          Analyze Your Discourse Communities Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Complete this activity. After you complete this activity, you will begin to see knowledge-making as a social process. You should also begin to notice the differences that exist in ways that different groups of people use language, reading, and writing.

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          Research Writing in the Academic Disciplines Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this chapter, which provides an overview of research writing and will help you understand why strong, evidence-based writing is essential for success in academic writing. Zemliansky explains how different communities work together to develop and revise ideas through research. By identifying your research community, you can help identify important research in your field and write more convincingly to members of that community. Take notes carefully.

      • 1.2.3: Identifying and Understanding Your Audience

        Once you have identified your discourse community, you must analyze the specific audience that will read your research paper. Although members of your audience may be part of a larger discourse community, they may or may not be familiar with previous research in the field you are exploring.

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          Audience Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this articlefor a review of identifying, analyzing, and appealing to your writing audience.

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          Audience Awareness Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this essay on audience awareness for a good refresher on the importance of identifying, reaching out to, and addressing your audience in your writing.

      • 1.2.4: Understanding Your Audience and Purpose

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          Research Writing and Argument Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          This chapter discusses rhetorical writing, which is writing that makes an argument as persuasively as possible by understanding and analyzing the readers or audience and then writing in a way that the audience finds convincing.

      • 1.2.5: Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content

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          Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content URL
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this section and complete the exercises, which will get you thinking about how audience and purpose affects your writing. This section describes how purpose and audience should influence the tone and content of your writing.

    • 1.3: Develop a Research Proposal

      • 1.3.1: Discovering and Choosing a Topic

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          Activity: Identify Your Research Topic Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Now, identify a preliminary topic for your research paper by stating your topic idea as a question and then identifying the main concepts or key words. You will have time to revise and refine your topic later.

          Although you may work through this course completely independently, you may find it helpful to connect with other Saylor students about this activity through the discussion forums. You may access the discussion forums here.

      • 1.3.2: Develop a Working Thesis and a Research Proposal

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          Steps in Developing a Research Proposal URL
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Read this section and complete the exercises. This section will provide you with a slightly different approach to developing a research topic and will describe how to develop research questions and a proposal that will help you guide your research.

          After reading this text, go back to your research topic, refine your topic as necessary, develop your research questions, and develop a short research proposal.

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          Activity: Develop a Working Thesis Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Use your refined research topic and synthesize the research questions you developed in this subunit in order to write a working thesis. Remember that your thesis is the argument you will work to prove with your research in your paper. Keep in mind that you will have time to revise and revisit your thesis later in the course.

      • 1.3.3: Mapping Your Topic

        Concept mapping, also known as webbing, is a method for generating ideas related to your topic that you want to explore in your research and writing process.

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          Webbing Page
          Students must
          Mark as done

          Watch this video and then map out concepts for the research topic you identified in subunit 1.3.1. Use this Mapping a Concept worksheet for some ideas on getting started.

    • 1.4: Outlining

      Now that you have developed your topic, research question, and thesis, it is time to develop a framework for your entire paper. At this point, you have not started your research in earnest, but your outline will help guide your research and ensure that you find the resources that will help you prove your thesis.

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        Outlining URL
        Students must
        Mark as done

        Read this section and complete the exercises, using your own research topic. By completing these exercises, you will refine your thesis, and you should wind up with a complete outline. You will have plenty of opportunities later to revise and fill in your outline, so don't worry too much about polishing your outline.

    • Unit 1 Assessment

      • quiz icon
        Unit 1 Assessment Quiz
        Students must
        Receive a grade

        Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

        • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
        • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
        • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.