Documented Essay

This is like a research paper light. A formal research paper presents a position, and tends to be much longer. These essays (which are different depending on which assignment sheet you're doing), are shorter and a little more focused on your opinions. A few rules to keep in mind.

1. DON'T PLAGIARIZE. I know you won't just copy someone else's essay, but these things also count as plagiarizing: a) taking an idea from somewhere, putting it into your own words, and not using a citation to tell me where the idea is from; b) taking a sentence, changing the major words, and telling me that you took it from a source; c) taking information for an entire paragraph from a book and giving the name of the book only at the end of the paragraph. Let's look at each of these.

a) Original by David M. Garner describing extemely low-calorie diets ... some of the men even began collecting coffeepots, hot plates, and other kitchen utensils. According to the original report, hoarding even extended to non-food-related items such as "old books, unnecessary second-hand clothes, knick knacks, and other 'junk.’
Plagiarized: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, men who went on these diets actually ended up hoarding objects. The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors.	Correct: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, men who went on these diets actually ended up hoarding objects (Garner). The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors.
Even when you put things in your own words, you need to tell me where they came from. The source in parenthases (called the in-text citation) MUST match one of the entries on the works cited page.

b) Original by David M. Garner describing extemely low-calorie diets ... some of the men even began collecting coffeepots, hot plates, and other kitchen utensils. According to the original report, hoarding even extended to non-food-related items such as "old books, unnecessary second-hand clothes, knick knacks, and other 'junk.’
Plagiarized: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, lots of the guys started collecting things like kitchen utensils, coffeepots, old books, old clothes, and odds and ends (Garner). The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors.	Correct: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, test subjects collected all this bizzare crap ranging from "coffeepots, hot plates, and other kitchen utensils" to "old books, unnecessary second-hand clothes, knick knacks, and other 'junk'" (Garner). The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors.
Turning "some of the men" into "lots of the guys" is not paraphrasing. Paraphrasing means you keep the information and completely rearrange the sentence so that it sounds like YOU. This copies too much of the sentence structure from the original. If you want to keep sections of the sentences, then use quote fragments. If you're having trouble paraphrasing, read the information, put it away, walk away for a few minutes, and then come back and in your own words write the information. It's almost impossible to correctly paraphrase while you're looking at the original sentence.

c) Original article by David M. Garner describing extemely low-calorie diets
Plagiarized: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, men who went on these diets actually ended up hoarding objects. The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors. And even after they got off the diet, these men continued to have difficulties. Some of them changed careers so that they could be closer to food, including three men who became chefs even though they hadn't been interested in the field before going through the study. It's pretty clear that going on these strict diets, like many girls do, has long term effects. And saying that you'll only diet for a month doesn't mean that the effects end when the diet does (Garner).	Correct: Going on these strict low-calorie diets is dangerous for any number of reasons. In one study in Minnesota, men who went on these diets actually ended up hoarding objects (Garner). The starvation obviously affected their minds and behaviors. And even after they got off the diet, these men continued to have difficulties. Some of them changed careers so that they could be closer to food, including three men who became chefs even though they hadn't been interested in the field before going through the study (Garner). It's pretty clear that going on these strict diets, like many girls do, has long term effects. And saying that you'll only diet for a month doesn't mean that the effects end when the diet does.
This "mushes" together the research and the student's own opinions so that I can't tell where one stops and the other beings. After each chunk of research, tell me where that research comes from. I would be even happier if the paragraph pulled together information from different sources so that the first in-text citation was from Garner and the second was from another source, but I won't be picky. As long as you don't do the parenthetical plagiarizing thing, I'll be happy.

2) USE CITATIONS. You can find a complete explanation of citations and some great samples by exploring the links at Diane Hacker's website, including a sample paper. Here's the short version. You need to use as many sources as you have pages. That means that if you are writing a four page paper, you need to have information from four different places. Every time you use information from a source, you must put an IN-TEXT CITATION inside your paragraph telling me which information came from which source. At the end of your paper, you need to have a WORKS CITED PAGE. This is like a key that helps me understand the in-text citations. If I tell you the starvation diet information comes from (Garner), you have no idea who that is or whether this guy knows what he's talking about. So, at the end of the paper, I would have a citation that looked like this:

Garner, David M. "The Effects Of Starvation On Behavior: Implications for Eating Disorders."

........Starvation Symptoms. 2005. River Centre Clinic. 26 December 2007. <http://web.archive.org/

........web/20050828195845/http://river-centre.org/StarvSympt.html>.

Now you know that the information came from a clinic on eating disorders, and if you go to the website, you'll find that Garner is a doctor who lists dozens of studies in his own works cited list. So, clearly he's an expert. A few helpful hints: One-whatever the first word in on the works cited page, that is what you use for the in-text citation. Most of the time, that's a last name, Two-websites are sometimes missing information, like when the site was last updated (2005 in this case), so don't stress if you have to skip something, and Three go look at the works cited page and you will see samples for all the different types of citations.

3) DON'T RAMBLE. This is a very short paper (two to four pages depending on which project you're doing), so you need to organize your thoughts and get right to the point. Below you'll see a few examples of how you might organize, but realize that the only RULE is to have a beginning, middle, and end and to not ramble!

Creative Assignment: Write a documented essay of at least two typed pages where you discuss whether the ideas and themes in your book are still valid in today's world.

Introduction

Attention Getter
Bridge
Thesis: The themes of X and Y are still true (or not true or one of each or you may focus on three themes... make your own choice)

Body One: Focus on one theme. Use evidence/facts/research to prove that theme is or is not true in today's world

Body Two: Focus on another theme. Use evidence/facts/research to prove that theme is or is not true in today's world

Conclusion

Restate Thesis
Refer back to the Attention Getter

Evaluative Assignment: Write a documented essay of at least four typed pages where you include research about how other people interpret ONE of your novels and then show me where you agree and where you DISAGREE with those interpretations.

Introduction

Attention Getter
Bridge
Thesis:
.......You may go general:
................ (Others have interpretations which I find interesting even though I don't agree with them all)
......or specific:
................ (The classic interpretations of John's character and the internal conflict are clearly right, but I
............... disagree with how most people see the symbolism of the light through the last half of the book

Body One: Topic Sentence! Under that include evidence from how others interpret the topic and whether or not you agree. Use quotes and evidence from the book to show that you're right! (Yes, your novel is one of your four sources)

Body Two: Topic Sentence! Under that include evidence from how others interpret the topic and whether or not you agree. Use quotes and evidence from the book to show that you're right!

Body Three: Topic Sentence! Under that include evidence from how others interpret the topic and whether or not you agree. Use quotes and evidence from the book to show that you're right!

Conclusion

Restate Thesis
Refer back to the Attention Getter

Interpretive Assignment: Write a documented essay of at least four typed pages that shows me how the author's life and the historical period affected the ideas and themes in ONE of your novels

Introduction

Attention Getter
Bridge
Thesis:
.......You may go general:
................ (The industrial revolution definitely affected John Smith's attitudes in The Random Book.)
......or specific:
................ (The industrial revolution affected The Random Book in a number of ways including the
............... the characters' lack of a moral code, the fearful tone, and the

Body One: Identify a historical event (be very specific about the event and cite your source for that historical event). Explain how that event relates to events in the novel. Use quotes from the novel (and yes, your book counts as one of your four sources). Why do you think this is important?

Body Two: Identify a historical event. Explain how that event relates to events in the novel. Use quotes from the novel (and yes, your book counts as one of your four sources). Why do you think this is important?

Body Three: Identify a historical event. Explain how that event relates to events in the novel. Use quotes from the novel (and yes, your book counts as one of your four sources). Why do you think this is important?

Conclusion

Restate Thesis
Refer back to the Attention Getter

Last Updated on 12-26-2007