Argumentative Research Paper (McKnight)

Assignment Resources and Overview

One stop shop for your assignment links and documents:

• Mr. McKnight's Advanced Placement Class Blog

  • Argumentative Research Paper Assignment [New!]

• Annotated Works Cited Assignment

• Status Quo and Research Question Assignment

As always, check with your teacher to make sure these are the most up-to-date version.

Recommended Resources for Getting Started

Passwords: The Gale databases use your geographic location for authorization, so do not (should not) require a password when used in Massachusetts. Other databases require a password. Get a bookmark from your friendly school librarian, or download the passwords here.

• • Academic OneFile (Gale)

  • Your source for peer-reviewed, full-text academic articles from leading journals in a wide variety of subjects, from science and technology to the arts and theology.

  • Opposing Viewpoints in Context (Gale)

  • Great for "hot button" topics in the news today, and particularly useful for exploring both sides of an issue or controversy.

  • Issues and Controversies (Facts on File)

  • Similar to Opposing Viewpoints but with longer, original articles on individual topics.

  • Arlington High School Media Center Catalog

  • We are adding to the print collection all the time, so give us a chance!

  • CQ Researcher Online (via Robbins Library so card and PIN required)

  • Full-text single issues reports on topics including "health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy." Strong source for recommended further reading.

Smart Research Tip: Check the complete listing of databases for subject specific resources. For example, Science in Context is a great place to go for topics in science, medicine, technology, and psychology.

Recommended Resources for Further Research

Once you have basic familiarity with your topic, you'll be ready to tackle more challenging, scholarly articles, books, and alternative sources (primary research, anyone?). Here are a few ideas, check back for additions.

• • PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information)

  • For scientific and medical topics, PubMed contains "more than 21 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books." Filter for articles where full-text is available.

  • Boston Public Library Electronic Resources [New!]

  • Did you know you are eligible for an e-card from the Boston Public Library just by residing in the state of Massachusetts? Sign up online in minutes to access their home databases collection. Those of you doing humanities research, be sure to check out JSTOR in particular.

  • Inter-library Loan

  • Find an article that you can't get online through our databases? Email Ms. Kitsis with as much detail as possible and we can often get you the full text through inter-library loan agreements with another library in the state. Requests can take a week or two to process, so don't wait until the last minute.

Citation & Note Taking Tools

The school has purchased a paid subscription to EasyBib.com for all students, and we encourage you to use this tool to create and manage your citations, notes, and outline.

Go to EasyBib.com, click Register, and then Sign in Using Your Account with Google. Use your school Spyponders account for a unified password and streamlined communication with your teachers.

Smart Research Tip: Remember that databases provide citations at the bottom of each article that can be copied and pasted into EasyBib with some minor modifications.

Additional resources for academic integrity and citation:

• Arlington High School Guide to Student Research Projects

  • Includes our school-specific criteria for academic integrity, a review of paraphrasing, and more.

• Research and Documentation Online

  • Detailed explanation of in-text citations and works cited entries in perfect MLA format for a wide variety of sources.

Search Tips and Strategies

Combine keywords to get articles that match each of your important concepts. For example, if you are researching the effects of stress on academic achievement, you would need to search for:

stress AND academic achievement

Try different synonyms for key terms. Different authors and databases use different terminology, and part of the researcher's job is to sleuth out those variations. For example, zombies may also be known as reanimated, walking dead, the undead, etc.

Use quotation marks to find complete phrases, especially proper names and titles. For example:

"social networking" or "health care"

Truncation uses a symbol, typically an asterisk, to tell the search engine to look for the root of the word with all possible suffixes. It's a great way to find all forms of a word, increasing your results. For example, searching for photo* will find photograph, photographer, photography, etc.

Check your spelling. If you aren't finding anything for your topic, sloppy spelling may be to blame!

Sample Boolean Search

Combine search terms using AND and OR to create a more powerful search:

Then you may choose to filter by documents with full text, sort by relevance, set a publication date range, or refine your subject headings to further narrow the field.