English 101--Dr.

Riley

ORGANIZING YOUR RESEARCH PAPER

What follows is information that I usually present in a lecture and discussion format in
face-to-face classes, often over the span of a few days. It is a lot to digest, but it will be
useful to you. Please read it carefully, perhaps more than once. I also strongly recommend
doing some highlighting and annotating of key points and jotting down any questions you
have. You will probably need to return to this document a few times as you plan, draft, and
revise your paper. (The first two paragraphs are adapted from the AACC model online English
101 course.)
While you may have become habituated to the traditional five-paragraph essay (introduction,
three body paragraphs, and conclusion), for a piece of writing as extensive as this research paper,
that model doesn't quite work. Given the scope of this assignment, it would likely result in
two-page-long body paragraphs, which would not be ideal for ease of reading and logical
organization.
You can still think of structuring your research paper in terms of three or four supporting
ideas--it's just that each of those ideas might span multiple paragraphs. Or it might make
sense to plan for five or six distinct points to develop your argument. It all depends on what you
are trying to do in your essay. The main concept here is not to get locked into a rigid formula
that does not best serve the piece of writing at hand. This applies to the research paper, but also
to any writing assignment you are given. Think about what suits the task and plan your essay's
structure accordingly.
There is no one right or wrong way to organize your research paper, but it must be organized in
some way. You will still have an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement at or near the
end. You will still have topic sentences for your body paragraphs and transitional words and
phrases to show connections between ideas. You will still have a conclusion. But how you
structure those body paragraphs can vary.
For Essay Two you were given a specific structure to follow for each body paragraph. That
same structure might work for some of your paragraphs this time, but it probably will not
work for all of them. Here are some possibilities to consider:
There may be times when you want to start a paragraph by introducing a claim an author
makes and then responding to it, as you did in Essay Two.
There may be times when you want to start with a claim of your own and then use one or more
authors to help you develop and support it.
There may be times when you want to start by introducing a controversy or point of
disagreement, and then use multiple authors to represent different points of view or sides of the
argument.
There may be times when you want to begin by introducing a point of consensus, something
there is agreement on, and then use multiple authors to demonstrate that point.
Again, you don’t want to get locked into one rigid structure for every paragraph; the
structure of a paragraph will depend on what you have to say. But notice that with all of
these examples, certain things remain more or less constant; you still want to start each body
paragraph by indicating what its main focus will be (your topic sentence) and then use evidence--
from both the primary text (Douglass) and the secondary texts--to develop and support each
point. There may even be some paragraphs where you choose not to discuss secondary texts
because the focus is on an idea that is all yours, which you support with evidence from the
primary text. But you don’t want to do that too often in an assignment like this; remember that it
is a research paper, so the results of your research should be evident frequently throughout.
Speaking of supporting evidence, be sure you do not limit yourself to just one example or
quotation from each source; you will need more examples and quotations than just the ones
you used in the bibliography assignment. And you will still need to include relevant, well-
chosen examples and quotations from the primary text (Douglass). There is no officially
“correct” number of examples or quotations, of course, but as always, you should include enough
to support your claims adequately and conduct a thorough discussion. (You don’t want to create
the impression that you did the “bare minimum” just to get the assignment done.)
Again, it is helpful to think of your research paper as a discussion or a conversation among
professionals. When we began this assignment, the research paper was compared to a
courtroom trial, where you are the lawyer presenting an argument and your sources are the
expert witnesses you call on to help you make that argument. Another analogy that might be
helpful is the television talk show or panel discussion. You are the host or moderator; it’s your
“show,” and you control the discussion with your introduction and thesis, your topic sentences
and transitions, your conclusion, etc. Your sources are the guest experts on your “show,” and you
let them speak when necessary to help you make your points.
Finally, a few words about your subtopics: as with any essay, it is up to you to decide how
you want to divide your argument into steps or subtopics. Here are a few possibilities to
consider:
Many of you will probably choose to divide your argument up according to topics or issues,
or perhaps by characters, themes, literary devices or techniques, etc., as you are already
accustomed to doing. The difference this time is that you will need to include material from your
sources in the right places, whenever they can shed light on something and help you make your
case.
Some of you might find that this time around you are comparing different interpretations
or opinions on something and that you want to structure your paper accordingly. In such
cases you could devote a section to “people who see it this way,” another section to “people who
see it that way,” another section to “people who see it still another way or emphasize something
else,” etc., and then group your sources together in those sections accordingly.
A few of you might find that each of your sources represents one point of view, one
interpretation, or one school of thought on an issue. In such cases you might be able to
organize your paper according to your sources, discussing them one at a time, with a section
devoted to each. If you do it that way, however, be careful: you still need to make it clear in each
section what your main point is, how this or that source represents a step in your argument; and
you still have to include your own insights and examples as you go. In other words, this is still
your essay, not just a “report” on what these authors have said. (That is why, when I ask students
to provide an outline of their subtopics, I insist that it is not enough just to list their sources; you
need to make it clear how you will use each source, how each contributes to the overall structure
of your paper.)
If you have questions or concerns about how to organize your paper at any stage of the
process, please do not hesitate to ask me. And don’t forget the excellent help you can get
from the Writing Center!