Life skill for Learners: Write a research paper

If you are going to college, you will need to write research papers. This year, our morning class took this on as one of three major projects for second semester.

We picked a topic. We found resources. We learned how to use an index card system for citations and notes.

We used the library to find resources. We used the South Dakota State Library System database to find resources. We also learned how to use Google Scholar.

We got two kinds of index cards. The ones with the color on them are to write down all the information for our resources. We had to write the author, title, publisher, place it was published, and the date it was published. If it is from the internet, we had to write down other information. We had to get at least five resources. Itancan got almost twenty for his paper!

We also made a color card for each of the subtopics in our paper. We had to have at least four subtopics.

Then we used regular index cards to take our notes.

We had to put the information in our own words or else use quotation marks.
We numbered our resource cards 1,2, 3, etc. Then we just wrote the resource number on our notecard. We could see where we got the information very easily.

After we got our information, we organized it. We put the note cards by the subtopics. Then we made a mind-map ("spider map") so we could see how it all fits together.

We took pictures of our spider maps and printed them out so we could write our paragraphs from them.


We wrote our first draft. We could cut and paste to get the paragraphs in the right order. Then we had to edit the paper so it was better.

We had to write an opening paragraph and a concluding (ending) paragraph.

Then we had to put in all the citations. We had to be very careful because we had to use "MLA" style. It is tricky.

When our papers are all done, we will get a grade. This is how we are going to get a grade. CLICK HERE.