WRITING A GREAT RESEARCH PAPER

Download the Willow Creek Academy Style Guide as a PDF

Download Common Editors' Proofreading Marks as a PDF

Here's an on-line guide to writing a research paper, by I. Lee

Citation Style for Research Papers, by Robert Delaney at Long Island U.

At the above site, you will be introduced to the different citation formats used in different academic disciplines and in the "real world," (i.e., Chicago.) For your Willow Creek 8th Grade Project, you may choose any appropriate style as long as you stay consistent. If you do not know which style to choose, use Chicago/Turabian. If you are already familiar with the components of a good citation, use this excellent link to the University of Wisconson's Writing Center: Chicago/Turabian. This site also has a good example of how to cite an interview, which you may need to include in your bibliography or notes.

Please notice the differences between a Bibliography and a Works Cited/References page, and pay close attention here to the differences between the formats of notes compared to a bibliography. Notes, for example, always mention the exact page or pages where the information came from.

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM? HOW CAN I PREVENT IT?

Read about the definition of plagiarism here at Turnitin.com.

Read about types of plagiarism.

Finally, here are some answers to questions on plagiarism, and the possible consequences.

There are two basic guidelines to prevent plagiarism. First, write about your own ideas, using your own words. Second, when you use other people's ideas, give their ideas a citation (with a footnote or endnote). If and when you use other people's words, always place them in quotations or as an excerpt, with a proper citation.