Research Paper Panic

         I found many parts of this reading helpful for writing a research paper. Research papers are my least favorite papers to write because I struggle with doing them properly. My biggest problem with them is making sure I cover all the points needed, and properly citing the sources. The book pointed out how important it is to know your assignment. Know what is expected of you! Usually teachers as for specific things, but if that isn't the case, you can always ask for more detail of what is expected of you.

          Finding a manageable topic is always rough for me. I like a lot of guidance and direction for my papers, so I have been struggling with all of the free range this semester. I like how the book pointed out that you could always start big and then narrow it down, because that usually is what it ends up coming dow to. Once you begin your research you may find that there are many layers to your topic that are really interesting and worthy of a page or two of explaining. It really helps out to give yourself plenty of time to plan and draft your paper, this is when you will most likely come across these deeper topics and ideas. 

          The point of finding people with knowledge of your paper really stuck out to me. I wrote about nurses once when I was younger and asked my mom many questions that helped out with my paper. In our most recent paper I wrote about how spirituality can affect mental health. A good friend of mine has been through some really hard times lately and has been able to keep such an amazing attitude and outlook on things, when most of us would fail. I was able to ask her some questions and have a beautiful conversation with her. Digging into her thoughts and having that conversation helped open many thoughts and interesting ideas that helped me in my paper. 

          For actually writing my paper though, I found the "Integrating sources into your work" section helpful. I always struggle with not only knowing  where to include what my sources said, but also how to properly cite them. This section broke down proper MLA citation format for in-text citation and also gave great examples! 

           Paraphrasing, summarizing, and evaluating sources can be tricky. MAny people try to do these things all together, which can accidentally lead to plagiarism. The book gave some good tips of each topic to make sure you keep your sources thoughts, your summaries, paraphrases, and your personal thoughts all separate.