Writing a Research Paper

Is Like
Being a Lawyer Defending a Case
 Writing a Research Paper Is Like
Being a Lawyer in a Court Case
1. Frame the case. 1. Define your topic.
2. Search out evidence. 2. Perform research.
3. Present the evidence. 3. Write the paper.
4. Make a closing 4. Draw a conclusion.
argument.
 p 1
Ste Frame Your Court Case
(Define Your Topic)
• Too general:
– Distance Learning
– Assistive Technology
– PowerPoint
• Can be defended:
– Is Distance Learning Effective in Teaching/Learning?
– Is it Beneficial to Use AT in the Classroom?
– Can Teachers Improve Learning with PowerPoint?

Frame your topic as a question

to be defended in a court case.
 p 2
Ste Search Out Evidence
(Research Sources)
• Search for articles that will
“prove” your case.
– Perform searches on your topic:
• Google scholar
• School library
• Online journals
• If you find articles to the contrary,
be responsible and report on those
too.
< 5 years old is best!
Suggestion:
Research More than 5 Sources
• Selecting more than 5 resources is a good
idea. Then you have more to write about.
• Don’t go too far, though. 20 sources is way
too much!
I wish I had
researched more
sources. I don’t have
much to write about.
 CAUTION: Use Only
Professionally Respected Material
• Make sure that the material
you plan to use is valid,
respected, and scholarly.
• Use Ebsco Host!
• If you use Websites, be
sure to verify that they will
be professionally respected
(evaluate the authors and
publishers).
 Evaluating Your Sources
• Authority
• Accurate
• Objective
• Relevant
• Current
Remember to “Prove” Your Case
• As I write, I must remember that…
– I am trying to prove that DL benefits students
in the classroom.
– I must build a case/argument that will prove
my point and win the court case.

In my paper about DL, the

“advantages to education”
section is the most important
part of proving my case.
 p 3
Ste
Present the Evidence
• You present evidence by talking about and
citing resources in the text of the paper.
– Brooks and Banya (2012) argue that…
– Research (McCann, 2015) suggests that…
– Taylor (2018) states that…

Use articles as a lawyer would use

evidence to prove a case in court.
 Cite Evidence
• You must back up any points or claims that
you make by citing research evidence
(Broskoske, 2011).
• Do not indicate your own opinions or feelings
if you cannot find evidence in an article to
back up those statements!
 p 4
Ste
Draw a Closing Argument
• Begin by briefly reviewing the entire case.
• Based on all of the evidence you presented, draw
a conclusion.
– Did you prove your
court case?
– What are the
implications for the
future?
 Now in the
What Is APA? 7th edition

• APA refers to the American Psychological

Association.
• What does an association of psychologists
have to do with me or nursing?
 Main Points of APA Manual
1. How to prepare a printed manuscript.
• Designing title page, using fonts, listing name and
affiliation, numbering pages, setting margins and
spacing, and much more.
2. How to cite the work of others.
• How to cite the work or ideas of others, and thus
avoid plagiarism.
• Plagiarism refers to using someone else's original
work or ideas within your own printed (or online)
work and claiming (or giving the impression) that
those ideas are your own original work.
 Where Can I Learn About APA?
• Publication Manual of the APA
– Purchase book in college bookstore.
• APA Style Home Page
– www.apastyle.org
• APA Quick Reference Guide provided as
resource to you
 Student Paper Elements
• Title page
• Text
• References
 Paper Format
• Header – Page # (running head)
• Font – list of APA approved fonts (11-point
arial or 12-point Times New Roman)
• Line Spacing – Double Space
• Margins – 1” on every side
• Paragraph Alignment & Indentation – Left
alignment and indent 0.5” new paragraph
 Paper Organization
• Headings
Level Format
1 Centered, Bold, Title Case Heading
Text begins as new paragraph
2 Flush Left, Bold, Title Case Heading
Text begins as new paragraph
3 Flush Left, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading
Text begins as new paragraph
4 Indented, Bold, Title Case Heading, Ending with a period. Text begins
on the same line
5 Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case Heading, Ending with a period. Text
begins on same line
 • Arrange pages in this order
– Title Page
– Abstract
Paper – Text
– References
Organization – Footnotes
– Tables
Cont. – Figures
– Appendices
 Academic Writing Style
• Logical, orderly, smooth flow of ideas
• Be concise
• Spell check
• Use correct grammar
– Be consistent with your tenses
– Active verse passive voice
– Pronoun use
 Reference Page
• New page
References
• Alphabetical order by author name
• Hanging indent of 0.5”
Sample Reference Page
 Citing Works
• When you refer to someone else's ideas or
words, you must cite them in 2 places:
1. Text of paper.
2. Reference section (bibliography) at the end of
the paper.
Restates
an idea
in your Avoiding Plagiarism
own
words

• Paraphrase sources in your own words

rather than quoting them “quotation” produces
someone else’s words
• Use direct quotes sparingly exactly

• Only when it is important to reproduce what

was said and how it was said.
 Avoiding Plagiarism
• Word plagiarism – using another author’s
exact words or phases without quotation
Example marks.
passage Plagiarized
from – Patchwriting – simply adding or removing Patchwritten
Ward example
et al. some words or replacing some words with
(2006)
synonyms.
According to Ward et al. (2006),
Findings indicate that media media content is not all negative,
content is not uniformly negative. and information is sometimes
Information about sexual health, present concerning sexual health,
risks, and thoughtful decision- risks, and thoughtful decision-
making is sometimes present. making.
 Quotations
• Short (<40 words) – double “quotation
marks” & include author, year, & page # in
narrative or parenthetical format
• Long (>40 words) – block quotation
– Indent the entire quotation 0.5 in. from the left
margin.
– Do not use quotation marks
Creating Citations in Text
 Method 1:
Authors’ last names
Text Citations are listed, using &
before the final name.
• List author name(s) and year of Then list year.

publication.
One way that educational technology can enhance
learning (Brooks & McCann, 2013) is…
Method 2:
Place authors’ last
names in a sentence.
Then list year in OR
parentheses.

According to Brooks and McCann (2013), one

way that educational technology can enhance
learning is…
 i a l
c
e e
p
S as Text Citations
C
• Text citation for 3 or more authors.
Another aspect of the Smart Board is the way in
which a teacher can convert written words to
typed text (Brooks et al., 2014).
 i a l
c
e e
p
S as Text Citations
C
• Multiple citations for same idea.

One way that educational technology can enhance

learning (Brooks & McCann, 2007; Rogan, et. al.,
2006) is…

2 separate citations,
separated by a ; (semicolon)
 i a l
c
e e
p
S as Text Citations
C
• One article refers to another article/study.

Rogan’s study about Assistive Technology

(as cited in Brooks & McCann, 2013)
indicates that…
 I T
RY
T
Which of the following are correct?

a. APA is reported to be fun and helpful

(Brooks & Banya, 2011).
b. APA is reported to be fun and helpful
(Brooks and Banya).
c. According to Brooks and Banya (2011),
APA is reported to be fun and helpful.
 I T
RY
T
Which of the following are correct?
a. Ed. tech. can increase student learning
(Brooks, McCann, Vitale, & Rogan).
b. Ed. tech. can increase student learning
(Brooks, McCann, Vitale, and Rogan,
2009).
c. Ed. tech. can increase student learning
(Brooks, et. al., 2009)
Try It!
Paraphrasing & Citing
• Published Sentence
Leaders who lack emotional and social competence undoubtedly can become a
liability to organizations, directly leading to employee disengagement,
absenteeism, stress-disability claims, hostile-workplace lawsuits, and increased
health care expenses.

• Source Information
• Document type: Journal article (Section 10.1) • Authors: Kenneth Nowack
and Paul Zak • Publication year: 2020 • Article title: Empathy enhancing
antidotes for interpersonally toxic leaders • Journal information: Consulting
Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Volume 72, Issue 2, pages 119–133
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000164
 Technology-enabled
APA Reference Formatting
• The “cite” tool in databases or online
citation generators will help you format the
references in APA format.
• Let’s look at particulars of APA formatting
so you can correct little problems when they
go wrong when using these tools.
 Journals in Print
• Author (year of publication). Title of the
article. Journal name, volume,(issue),
page numbers.

Cumming, J. & Maxwell, G. (1999). Contextualizing

authentic assessment. Assessment in Education:
Principles, Policy & Practice, 6(2), 177-193.

Let’s get a close-up look…

 Author’s last name, first initial. Year of article in
Multiple authors separated by &. parentheses,
followed by a period.

Article
title is
Cumming, J. & Maxwell, G. (1999).
written Contextualizing authentic assessment.
like a
sentence. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy
& Practice, 6(2), 177-193.

Journal title is written Page numbers

Volume and of the article.
with capital letters,
issue number.
and is Italicized.
 Ebsco Host (Online Journals)
• Author (year of publication). Title of
article Journal Name, volume,(issue).
doi:

Holley, D. & Oliver, M. (2010). Student engagement and

blended learning: Portraits of risk. Computers & Education,
54(3), 693-700. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.08.035

Add DOI identifier.

 What is DOI?
• Digital Object Identifier:
– Unique identifier for each publication (book or
article from a periodical).
– New system that attempts to provide a standard
system for positively identifying a document.
• Type doi:[doi number]
 What If No DOI Is Listed?
• Author (year of publication). Title of
article Journal Name, volume, (issue).
Retrieved from [database name].

Holley, D. & Oliver, M. (2010). Student engagement and

blended learning: Portraits of risk. Computers & Education,
54 (3), 693-700. Retrieved from Academic Source Premier.

Type database where found if no

DOI number is available.
 What If No Author Is Listed?
• Title of article. (year of publication).
Journal Name, volume, (issue).
doi:

Contextualizing authentic assessment. (1999). Assessment

in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 6(2).
doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.08.035

Move title to author

position.
Technology-enabled APA
Reference Formatting
 Technology-enabled APA
Reference Formatting Cont.
 Web Page
• Author (year of publication). Title of page.
Website. Retrieved (date) from (URL).
Brooks, S. L. (n.d.). Searching the Internet. Ted121.
Retrieved from
http://users.misericordia.edu//ted121/2search.html

“n.d.”
Be careful if using a Web page. Make sure
means no
it is professionally respected material!
date listed.
 Book
• Author (Copyright Year). Title of book (7 th
ed.). Publisher. DOI or URL
Taylor, C., Lynn, P., & Bartlett, J. (2019). Fundamentals of
nursing: The art and science of person-centered care (9th
ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Include DOI if available
and URL for ebooks. Do
not put a period after DOI
or URL
Now, let’s try formulating a reference section!
TRY IT
Cite the Following Sources of Data
• Switch by Heath & Heath (Book)
• https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-poli
cy/nursing-excellence/ethics/code-of-ethics-
for-nurses/
(Web page)
• Continuing Nursing Education (Article
from Arizona Nurse)
• Teaching in Nursing (Book)
 References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Student title page guide. APA Style. 
https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-title-page-guide.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2020). Paraphrasing and citation activities. APA Style. 

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/paraphrasing-citation-activities.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2020). Annotated student sample paper. APA Style. 

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/student-annotated.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2020). Paraphrasing and citation activities. APA Style. 

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/paraphrasing-citation-activities.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2020). Sample papers. https://apastyle.apa.org. 

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/sample-papers

Broskoske, S. (n.d.). Dr. Steve's teaching writing and APA formatting for teachers. 403 - Forbidden: Access is
denied. Retrieved October 6, 2020, from https://users.misericordia.edu/ted121/APAteachers.html

Gonda, S. (2017). Continuing nursing education: Evolution, benefits, and responsibility. Arizona Nurse, 70(3),
10. 
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=0ec78ec1-1a1f-4fbf-866
e-54a5eec4684b%40sdc-v-sessmgr01