Possibly the most architecturally advanced building I ever constructed was made from Tinker Toys at my grandma's house. And that one collapsed. I suppose you'll tell me that you never played with Tinker Toys? Or don't know what they are? Basically, they were the first toys invented after cave-mothers got tired of their babies gnawing on dinosaur bones. So the husbands sat around the fires at night and carved Tinker Toys.
I see you can still buy them online, which is comforting. I might not be as old as I thought I was. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't come to me for advice on building anything taller than a cave baby.
Unless, of course, it is constructed from words, which is what we work with here. Thank goodness.
Now that you have your thesis written, sketch a simple outline of your report if you haven't already. Because you probably need to research information before you write a full outline, right now you only need to outline the main points of your report. This will give you just enough structure to guide your research. For example:
Cavemen
1. What they ate
2. Where they lived
3. When they lived
4. Occupation and Hobbies
Simple outlines like this give direction to your report and will help you as you research.
It is also time to begin your research, take about a zillion notes, and keep it all straight. Several things for you to remember about notetaking:
1. Use notecards or small papers.
2. Write one fact or idea per card. This way you can shuffle your cards around and easily organize your paper.
3. Do not copy information word for word onto any note card unless you are going to use it as a direct quote. If you are going to use it as a quote, you MUST copy it word for word, comma for comma and be sure to include the name of the author with your quote. Otherwise, use fragmented sentences or bullet points on your note cards. Doing this forces you to write your report in your own words and is a great way to avoid plagiarism. Copying someone else's work and using it as your own is plagiarism, an internationally recognized crime.
4. Write the source on each card. Give credit where credit is due. Write down the book, page number, author, publisher, website, dates. You will need that information for your bibliography. If you take good notes now, you'll thank yourself (and me) later when you go to write your report and find that it basically writes itself.
5. Take lots of notes. It is better to end up with more notes than you ever need than to be stuck in the end with not enough information to fill your pages.
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Caveman Note Cards
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As a reminder, here are signs of a good source:
1. Not outdated. Tamara, don't give us hundred-year-old statistics on abortion. Obviously, some information never changes (even the newest history books say the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776), but other information changes constantly--the population of the earth, for example. Outdated information makes your research paper worthless.
2. Written by an authority. You might like to read about dinosaur bones and cave art, but unless you have letters behind your name, books written, and have excavated your own sites, do not use yourself as a source when writing down recipes of early cave-ites. The best sources are written by authorities on the topic or those who carefully cite references to those authorities.
3. Unbiased. If you find your article using generalizations like, "Every cave baby choked on a dinosaur bone," you can assume other information in the article has been slanted to meet the author's viewpoint. Watch out for words like "all" and "never." Those can indicate that the author is writing a biased article. Also, if the source only presents one side of the argument, it is unbalanced.
Important Note: For this course, you may not use Wikipedia as a source. Wikipedia is an excellent springboard for information because at the bottom of each page, they have a list of sources telling you where they got their information. Use Wikipedia to direct you to those sources. Go to those articles and get the information you need directly from those sites. Do not list Wikipedia in your bibliography.
Good sources:
- Original documents
- News articles
- Interview with eyewitnesses
- Websites that end in .edu, .gov, and .org instead of .com
- Current books or textbooks
- Encyclopedias
- Scientific journals (Check out the abstract which summarizes long, hard-to-read journals)
Reminder: For this course, you must have a book listed in your bibliography. Also, you need to have as many sources as you have typed pages of information. Is your research paper six pages long (not counting the title page, outline, or bibliography)? Then you need to have six sources.
Excellent notes become the building material for the outline of your report.
Your New Four-part Assignment, due on or before October 19:
1. Roughly outline the main points you want to include in your report. I do not need to see your simple outline, but if you send it to me either via email or in the comments, you will get your name added to a drawing for an Amazon gift card.
2. Begin your research! Read a lot. Take a quadrillion notes on note cards. But do not start writing your report. Your job for the next two weeks is to gather information. If you want to flesh out your outline as you go, that's fine by me, but I want you to wait writing your report until you have a lot of information gathered and standing by, ready for the moment the writer within you is unleashed.
3. Tell me in the comments how many pages your research paper will have and get your name added another time to the drawing. Your parents have the final say on how long your report needs to be, but if you want to know the Ink Slingers' requirements, click
this link, Choosing a Topic.
4. Optional activity: Decipher the Caveman's Notecards (photo above) and suggest a topic he might be writing about. Leave a comment with your Caveman Topic Suggestion and your name will get added an extra time to the drawing for an Amazon gift card.*
Happy Reading and Happy Note-Taking!
*Only students who signed up for this course through SHARE Homeschool Co-op will be eligible for prizes of any kind on the Ink Slingers' blog.
