How to Write a Reference Paper for School

Writing a winning reference paper will not only help the student to excel in their class but will help in their educational future. Research writing skills are important to develop and succeed in for the future.
It takes time to build up the skills of writing papers however by college, the student should be an expert in the elements of writing a reference paper. The primarily goal for the student is to avoid any type of plagiarism and to properly reference any quotes that are not in the words of the student.

The steps to complete a reference paper are:

Difficulty:: Moderately Easy

Instructions

- Choose a topic of interest if one has not already been assigned and brainstorm further ideas of what to write about in the paper.
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  Consider consulting with instructor to find out more information on the requirements for the paper, keep in mind the required length of the paper while brainstorming ideas.
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  Narrow down into the specifics of the topic which is very important to do. Do not go too broad and cover too many similar topics. A topic that is too small will be difficult to write about and a topic that is too broad will cover too much information.
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  Find a library that has good reference books and other materials for the research paper as this will help to provide additional guidelines of how to write a research paper.
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  Gather all sources which can vary from books, journal articles, online websites, newspapers, videos, interviews and other mediums. Having a variety of resources will help the research paper to have various credible sources to use in the reference paper.
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  Check further with the instructor to find out if there are limits on how many resources are allowed to be used in the reference paper.
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  Decide on a thesis statement that will summarize the topic and this will appear within the opening paragraph of the paper. The thesis statement will be used as a guide and support for the entire paper.
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  Take notes on the gathered research material and keep records of the sources as this will be used later in the reference paper. Ensure to write down all pertinent information such as the title, authors, pages numbers, date, publisher, city of publisher, country, and copyright dates.
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  Write an outline as this will help to break down the paper into parts such as headings, beginning, middle, and ending sections. Remember the beginning of the paper will have to thesis statement, the middle will be explaining more about the thesis statement, and the ending will be the conclusion of everything that was previously discussed. Roman numerals may be used for the headings with numbers and lowercase letters for any required subheadings.
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  Begin the rough draft of the paper using the thesis statement and outline plan to assist in writing the paper. Keep in mind the paper will go through several drafts before it is finally completed.
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  Write down the sources of the quoted resources that will need to be cited in the body of the paper and within the works cited page. Write down the author, article title, and date of the source.
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  To complete the Works Cited or bibliography in the paper, there are several different ways to reference sources in a paper which consists of the APA format titled as the American Psychological Association, MLA which stands for Modern Language Association and Harvard citation methods. The reference must be cited within the paper through using parenthetical format or footnotes. References used in a paper must be cited in the paper in order to give proper acknowledgment to the sources used in the paper.
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  Continue to revise the paper and edit for grammar and spelling mistakes. Read through the paper aloud to check for any additional mistakes that may be in the reference paper.
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  Complete the Works Cited page and correct any errors per the required reference materials on citing references from the instructor or library.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011