Contents
What Is a Research Report?
To Begin the Project
Referential TOPICS LIST
Basic Guidelines for the Research Report
Sample Research Report

ASSIGNMENT 5 REQUIREMENTS
Guidelines for Submitting Your Assignment Files

Required Parts

Recommended Links--Find What You Are Looking For

What Is a Research Report?

A research report is like a jigsaw puzzle. In a jigsaw puzzle, you have all these pieces of information that go together to form the whole picture. In a jigsaw puzzle, you get these pieces from a box. In a research report, you get this information from various sources--books, magazines, the Internet, TV programs, personal interviews with experts. In a research report, though, as you build the whole picture you must tell where you got each piece--you identify the source and location in that source with a citation: (Morris 120) or ("Chickens" par. 17). A citation is a kind of shorthand. In almost all cases, the first word in a citation should be the same as the first word in a corresponding Works Cited entry for that source.

In this course, a referential-informative research report is not your personal experience or personal knowledge that you supplement with a few additional sources. A research report is your use of various nonfiction sources to build an accurate and factual referential-informative paper on an approved topic. In this report, you will simply present facts, such as facts about a person's life or a historical event.

Your only original input will be the general parts of the report: introduction and conclusion of report, topic sentences and concluding sentences of body paragraphs (unless you have used borrowed information to build these parts, in which case you must cite in these parts, too). Everything else in the body paragraphs should be cited. If you do not properly credit the sources of your borrowed information, you are plagiarizing and you will need to revise.

• As a general rule, if you did not know a detail before you began the project, cite it.
• If you did know a detail before you began, cite it anyway.

• Again, do not include personal knowledge, personal experiences, or personal commentary in your Assignment 5 report.

• And again, if you read something in a source and include it in your report, it must be cited. It does not matter if the information is a direct quote, a paraphrase, a summary, or a general assimilation of ideas. ALL borrowed material must be cited.

To Begin the Project

Referential Topics List

Choose a topic below or propose a topic to me before you write your report. You may use variants of the following topics. However, if you do not choose a topic or a variant of a topic on this list, I must pre-approve your topic before you submit your preliminary outline (Assignment 4).

Again, your report is to be referential-informative in purpose. Do not include personal opinions or personal knowledge. For the most part, you should not use fictional sources. Use only factual sources. Any fictional source (such as a novel, poetry, drama, etc.) does not count toward your minimum four sources.

1. Write an informative biographical report on one of these people. Include important events in the person's life. If your person is a writer, don't give plot summaries of his or her works; don't discuss how the author's life is reflected in his or her works. Cite and document all factual information about your topic. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic.

Mary Shelley; Federico Lorca; Juan Ramon Jimenez; William Faulkner; Dorothy Parker; Ralph Ellison; Fred Gipson; Sandra Cisneros; Sylvia Plath; Walt Whitman; Townes van Zandt; Woody Guthrie; Ken Kesey; Jean Shepherd (the humorist, not the country-western singer); Frank Lloyd Wright; I.M. Pei; James "Cool Papa" Bell; Cy Young; Eddie Gaedel; Pete Maravich; Ernest Shackleton; Thomas Nast; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker; Geronimo; Typhoid Mary; Tokyo Rose; Mata Hari; Grace Murray Hopper; Garrett Morgan; Vivien Thomas; Jo Stafford (popular singer during WW2); Patsy Cline; Roky Erickson; Barbara Jordan.

2. Discuss a historical event, such as the New Madrid Earthquake in 1811; or the Battle of the Alamo in 1836; or the Runaway Scrape (Texas Revolution) or the charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War in 1854; or the electric wars of the late 1800s: Edison vs. Tesla; or the Scopes Trial in 1925; or Black Sunday 1935 (Dust Bowl) or the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee (Japanese internment camp) during World War II. Cite and document all factual information about your topic. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic.

3. Discuss the history of underwear, either women's or men's (or makeup or some aspect of fashion, such as neckties). Cite and document all factual information about your topic. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Do not use personal knowledge in your report.

4. Discuss the so-called Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 and its impact on the world. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

5. Give a brief history of the WASPs (the Women Airforce Service Pilots) or the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

6. Discuss one of these famous naval events: sinking of the Titanic; sinking of the Lusitania; sinking of the Andrea Doria; sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis; battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac; sinking of the Bismarck; sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

7. Discuss one of these famous disasters: the Black Death of the Middle Ages; the Great Fire of London in 1666; the Chicago Fire of 1871; the Johnstown Flood of 1889; the Galveston Storm of 1900; the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906; or the Texas City Disaster (Explosion) of 1947. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

8. Write an informative report on polar exploration. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic. You can write about the search for the Northwest Passage or one of these polar expeditions:
Arctic: Franklin Expedition (1845); Robert Peary Polar Expedition (1909); Frederick Cook Polar Expedition (1909)
Antarctic: United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842); Nimrod Expedition (Ernest Shackleton) (1907–1909); Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition (1910–1912); Terra Nova Expedition (Robert Scott) (1910–1913); Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Endurance Expedition (Shackleton) (1914–17).


Topics of Local Interest:
9. Discuss the case of the Servant Girl Annihilator in 1880s Austin. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

10. Discuss Guytown (currently the Warehouse District) in Austin in the later 1800s. Try to find information on the series of tunnels to Guytown from different areas of the city. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

11. Discuss the history of the moonlight towers in Austin. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

12. Write a biographical report on one of these historical people with local connections: Angelina Eberly; Ben Thompson; Elisabet Ney; O. Henry (William Sidney Porter); Nathan Rhambo; Abner Cook. Use only nonfiction sources to write about this topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic.

Basic Guidelines for Research Reports

NOTE: Read and follow these guidelines carefully, or the success of your research project might be in danger.

1. You must use at least four nonfiction sources, at least one of which must be a hard-copy print source (not from the Internet or obtained via a computer). Of these minimum four sources, only one may be an encyclopedia or a general reference book. Use only nonfiction sources to write about your topic. Cite and document all factual information about your topic. All sources included in your Works Cited section must be cited in your report. All citations must have a corresponding Works Cited entry.

Important Note about Hard-copy Print Sources:

4. When using any of these types, you must properly cite the information and document its location. In other words, you must acknowledge that the information came from a published source; then, you must provide publication information that allows the reader to locate that source easily. Citations and Works Cited entries both use specific guidelines and formats that you are expected to use. This report must be written using MLA (Modern Language Association) guidelines.

5. When you are examining a source for possible inclusion in your research report, gather all necessary publication data at that time. Do not expect that you can go back and locate the source later. For the publication data needed for a proper entry, refer to the Works Cited section of the Research Report Guide.

6. You are using borrowed material to support your basic ideas. You must give credit for ALL information you get from a source. You give credit by using citation and documentation. The general rule is that if you did not know a detail about the topic before you began the research project, that detail should be cited. Even if you did already know a detail but you are not professionally regarded as an expert on the topic, that detail should be cited. Citations appear in the text of the report; they direct the reader to the complete publication documentation in the Works Cited section of the report. Basically, every body paragraph of your report should have at least one citation. You must have at least four citations, at least one for each source. The first word in the citation must be the same as the first word in the corresponding Works Cited entry.

7. Do not have more than three citations in a row for a single source. That is, mix up the use of your sources in your report. Do not rely too heavily on any one source.

8. MLA documentation style cites sources within your research report by providing identifying information in parentheses following the borrowed material (a citation). The information in the parenthetical reference must point to corresponding information in the list of Works Cited at the end of your report. The first word in a citation must be the same as the first word in the corresponding Works Cited entry. In writing your research report, you must cite and document everything that you borrow--not only direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries but also assimilated information and ideas. In MLA style, you provide complete bibliographical (publication) information only once--in the list of Works Cited at the end of the report.

9. You are expected to use proper formats for citations and documentation. Careless or creative citations and documentation will not be accepted. You must have at least four citations, at least one for each source. Each time a source location changes, the new citation must be incorporated into your report, either as a singular citation (Jones par. 3)--used for a paraphrase or direct quote or summary from one source--or in combination with other citations (Rorer 714; "Bad Stuff" par. 8)--used for summarized information from more than one source. These summary citations should be used sparingly.

10. A citation is part of the sentence but not part of the direct quotation. Therefore, the parenthetical citations in your report should be placed outside the quotation marks but inside periods or commas.

11. When using a direct quotation, quote the material exactly and enclose it in quotation marks. Limit your use of direct quotes to no more than 10% of the total word count of your report. If your chosen quote is already enclosed in quotation marks in the article, be sure to use the special triple quotation marks format discussed in the Quotation Marks section in the Online Grammar Handbook.

12. When needed, periods and commas go inside quotation marks.

When you consider your research project complete, go back and review all requirements.

• Check that you have all the required parts of the project.
• Check that you have underlined your thesis statement.
• Check that your report meets the minimum length requirements.
• Check that your direct quotes do not exceed 10% of the total word count of the report.
• Check that you have correctly cited and documented the source of all borrowed information.
• Check that the information you claim appears in a source actually appears in that source. In other words, check that your citations are accurate.
• Check that your citations and Works Cited section use the proper MLA formats.
• Check that your outline is properly aligned. Use Courier font if necessary.
• Check that you have not used first-person or second-person pronouns to write your report.

Sample Research Report

NOTE:

        At the time of the proposal, the man generally gives his bride-to-be a diamond engagement ring. He kneels at her feet and places the ring on her left hand if she accepts. The custom of giving a diamond engagement ring was originated in the 1500s in Venice by Mary of Modina (Howard 329). However, according to Charles Panati, Pope Nicholas I declared "that an engagement ring became a required statement of nuptial intent" in 860. The addition of the diamond to the engagement ring provided proof to the bride's family that the groom was financially stable (Panati 23). The tradition of the wedding ring, however, started long before the engagement ring.

        The custom of the engagement ring began in the ninth century, whereas the custom of the wedding ring began in 2800 B.C. in Egypt and later traveled to Rome. The current exchange of the wedding bands contains a strong symbol. A ring is the shape of a circle, and the Egyptians believed that since a circle has no beginning and no end that the marriage would last forever (Panati 47). The long-lasting tradition of a gold wedding band also arose at this time. Many of the young men buying golden wedding bands went broke for their future wives. "'Most women know nothing about gold except for the single marriage ring placed on one finger,'" noted a Christian priest in the second century. During the times she would be observed "in public, the average Roman housewife proudly wore her gold band," but then back at home she would wear an iron ring ("Marriage Customs" par. 7). The wedding ring still carries a strong symbol of everlasting love.

        During the first century in Rome, only the wedding cake ingredient of wheat was thrown, and the bride and unmarried women would "scramble for the grains" as a sign of fertility. Then, in 100 B.C., a baker made the wheat into small cakes to be eaten. The attending guests missed their opportunity to throw the grains at the bride, so they began throwing the cakes. To keep the bride safe and the guests happy, a new tradition arose. The guests crumbled the small cakes and showered the couple with them. This eventually became the modern-day tradition of showering the bride with rice (Panati 25-26).

        A similar tradition is the smashing of the first piece of wedding cake into the groom's face. The cake is cut and the couple begins to feed one another, then the bride lovingly crams her piece into her spouse's face. "The cake-cutting ... is a four-step comical ritual," states Tad Tuleja. First, the groom guides the bride's hand while cutting the cake to prove his control over her. She then offers him the first piece, accepting his control. This offering symbolizes the bride's sacrifice of her body to her new husband. But before the groom can eat the cake, the bride childishly shoves it into his face. This action proves that the bride is a child that needs to be watched over. In the final step, the bride wipes the icing from his face as an apology for her childish behavior (Tuleja 63-64).

        Choosing just the right wedding dress is often centered on fashion these days. When the tradition began, the choice was for a different reason. The color of the dress made a significant difference, as suggested in the poem that follows:

                Married in White, you have chosen right,
                Married in Blue, your love will always be true,
                Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
                Married in Brown, you will live in town,
                Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
                Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
                Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
                Married in Pink, your spirit will sink,
                Married in Grey, you will go far away,
                Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.
                                            ("Wedding Customs" par. 9)

Other than color, there are several superstitions linked to wedding dresses. It is believed that it is unlucky for the bride to make her own wedding dress or for her to wear her whole ensemble before getting married. These superstitions are less popular than some of the others associated with weddings ("Wedding Customs" par. 3).

        Before the tradition of the wedding dress began, the custom of wearing a veil started. It originated because brides were often captured from nearby villages due to lack of supply. To keep her parents and other men from seeing her until her marriage, she was made to wear a sack over her head. This sack also kept her hidden from evil spirits. The bride was "thought to be particularly vulnerable to evil spirits," and use of the veil "would disguise the bride and therefore outwit malevolent spirits" ("Wedding Customs" par. 5).

        Many of these customs and traditions are still active today, and the people who participate in them are probably unsure of why they do or why the customs originated. Some examples are the significance of the rings, the cake, and the wedding outfit. Many people say "I do" and exchange rings but get divorced after the first year. Those rings don't symbolize forever. Couples often cut the cakes because that's what everyone else does. The bride most likely has no idea of what she is offering to her husband. Brides choose wedding dresses to make fashion statements and are unaware of the color significance. Most brides these days aren't hiding from anyone; they just like the look of the veil. It seems strange that couples willingly accept these traditions solely because they are traditions.

Works Cited

Howard, Geoffrey. The Rites and Rituals of the World's Religions. New York:
        Penguin Books, 1996. Print.

"Marriage Customs." Encyclopedia Americana. 1984 ed. Print.

Panati, Charles. Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. New York:
        Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987. Print.

Tuleja, Tad. Curious Customs. New York: Harmony Books, 1987. Print.

"Wedding Customs and Superstitions." Weddings UK. 10 October 1999.         <http://www.weddings.co.uk/info/tradsupe.htm>.

Wedding Customs

Thesis: A few of these wedding customs are the exchange of the rings, the role of the cakes, and the wearing of the wedding dress and veil.

    
  I. The Rings
     A. Diamond engagement ring
     B. Exchange of bands and significance of gold and circle
 II. The Cakes
     A. Traditionally thrown
     B. Cutting of cake and bride feeding groom
III. The Dress and Veil
     A. Superstitions and colors
     B. Veil purpose

ASSIGNMENT 5 REQUIREMENTS

Using the topic you outlined in Assignment 4, write a referential-informative report of at least 1000 words and no more than 1500 words. The report must contain proper MLA citations for all borrowed materials, as well as proper MLA Works Cited entries for all cited sources. You must include the required parts noted below.

This assignment must be delivered in two parts.

Part 1: You must deliver the Assignment 5 printed package in person, have it placed in my mailbox in RGC-204, or send it to me at Rio Grande Campus via intercampus mail or U.S. mail. Make sure my name is on the package. If you send it by U.S. mail, use first class, not express. Be sure to send the package so that it reaches my Rio Grande mailbox by the due date. For addresses, see Contact Information under the Faculty Information button in Blackboard or at this link. Also, you do not need to put your report in a plastic binder or folder. Just securely staple or clip it all together or put it all in a big envelope.

This package must contain:

Your printed report, Works Cited list, and final outline must be double-spaced.


Part 2: At the same time you submit your printed Assignment 5 package as directed above, please send me your files for Assignment 5 (Send your report with citations and Works Cited list only.) using the Submissions button in Blackboard so that I can use them to mark up as I grade your research project. All parts of your file must be double-spaced. Send all parts as one properly-named rtf file. The files you submit in Blackboard must be the same files you use to print out the report included in your package.

If you are not sure how to submit your assignment file by now, review the guidelines at this link to Assignment 2.

1. Research Report Checklist
2. Referential-informative research report of at least 1000 words and no more than 1500 words, with a minimum of four nonfiction sources, at least one citation for each source, and a Works Cited section (See points 2, 3, and 4 in the Checklist.)
3. Final Outline (turned in with Assignment 5)
4. Copies or printouts of all source material, with borrowed portions highlighted and paragraphs of Internet sources consecutively numbered (See point 6 in the Checklist.)
5. Word-processor files (in rtf) for this research project (report with citations, Works Cited list only). Send these files to me using the Submissions button in Blackboard when you submit your printed research package.

2. Referential-informative Research Report
Your goal in this report (1000 words minimum, 1500 words maximum) is to present a clear referential-informative thesis and then support it using well-defined support points.

• Present your thesis in an underlined thesis statement in your introduction.
• You must have at least three support points, which must be developed using borrowed materials from at least four nonfiction sources.
• Limit your use of direct quotes to no more than 10% of the total word count. Quote accurately.
• Do not use first-person or second-person pronouns to write your report. You may use these pronouns if they appear in a direct quote, but do not use these pronouns in your own writing.
  
  
• The report must incorporate at least four nonfiction sources, at least one of which must be an actual hard-copy print source (printed book, magazine, newspaper, etc.). In addition, if you have only one hard-copy print source, it may not be a dictionary. If you have two or more hard-copy print sources, one of them may be a dictionary.
• Only one encyclopedia source is allowed among the minimum four sources.
• The report must also include a Works Cited section and proper MLA citations of sources used. You must use proper MLA formats for your citations and Works Cited entries.
• If you don't know what any of this stuff is, you need to review the Assignment 2 Lecture document and the Research Report Guide.

4. Copies of Sources
You must provide printouts of any Internet web pages from which you take information. (You do not need to print out the whole site.) The paragraphs on the printout must be numbered, and you must use these same paragraph numbers in your citations for these Internet sources. DO NOT use printout page numbers in your citations for Internet sources.

You must also provide xerox copies for pages in print sources from which you take information. These copies should include the author's name and page numbers. You do not need to provide the title page.

Highlight, underline, or otherwise note the sections of each source that you have included in your research report.

5. Your RTF Files
Soon after you submit your printed research package, also send me your word-processing file--in RTF format--using the Submissions button in Blackboard. Include your report and your Works Cited list--both double spaced--in one properly-named rtf file. I will mark up this file as I grade your report. The file you send must be the same as the report and Works Cited list in your printed package. I do not want to see different versions of your report in the print copy and the file copy.

The following links take you to documents that will help you to complete this project. Make use of this recommended information, and study MLA formats carefully.

NOTE: The links marked with an asterisk (*) are the primary documents you should investigate.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

*If you don't find what you're looking for in the Research Paper Guide or on the site above, here's a web site you may find very useful for your Assignment 5 report. It gives samples of corresponding citations and Works Cited entries for a wide range of sources. A very handy reference, though it is not based on the updated MLA guidelines.

MLA Sample Citations

*Using ACC Library Databases

Google search engine

Developing Research Topics
Sources and Searching (in the Research Report Guide)
ACC Library Resources A to Z
Finding Information on the Web
Finding and Evaluating Information on the Internet
Finding Periodical Articles
Magazines vs. Journals
Finding Biographical Information

*ACC Library English 1301 Research Report Guide (requires Adobe Acrobat pdf reader).