Editing Guide

To give yourself the Best Chance Ever of getting a good grade, make sure you spend time editing your paper. Go through this checklist to make sure your paper meets all the requirements.

• I have a Title Page, outline, and bibliography.
• My entire paper is double-spaced.
• I started my paper with an interesting "hook."
• My thesis statement is clearly stated at the end of my first paragraph. 
• My thesis statement states a fact. It does not start with "My paper will be about..." or other similar leads. 
• I organized my ideas so my paper flows well and is easy to read.
• I checked for spelling errors. 
• I used punctuation and capitalization. 
• I gave credit where credit was due and have carefully noted all of my sources in the bibliography.
• My words are my own. I did not copy from other people unless it is a direct quote that I gave credit to. 
• I have a concluding paragraph where I restated my thesis and gave some concluding remarks. 
• The last page of my report is my bibliography which I have checked for accuracy. 
• I used an average of one source per page of my report. 

Sourced from Pixabay

Other tips to ensure accuracy:

• Have someone else read over your report to catch any obvious errors in grammar or punctuation. Also have them point out sentences that are confusing to them. A person who does this for you is called a beta reader. Professional writers use beta readers to help them catch mistakes before publication. I have four of them that I use regularly, though not for the same article. They'll tell me things like this: "I didn't understand what you meant by..." Or they'll point out my typos. I strongly encourage you to have someone do this for your report. Any areas that need to be corrected should be done by you. Beta readers don't rewrite things. They just tell you when you need to make improvements. 
• Read your report out loud to yourself if you don't have someone who will read over it for you.
• Print off your report. Correct mistakes with a colored pen, then fix those mistakes on the computer. 
• If you can, let your report sit for a day or two without working on it, then go over it again to check for errors or for any wording you would like to change. 

Important: 

Submit a clean paper, one that is largely error-free. I'll look forward to seeing it on or before December 7. 

Bibliography Guide

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Ah, the reference page. I see your tears and understand your pain. It looks daunting, but really, it isn't. Follow these instructions and you'll be fine. 

For citing from books: 

Last name of author, then the initials only of the author's first name. (Year of publication in parentheses). Title of book comes next and is italicized. Capitalize first word of the book only no matter how strange that feels to you. Where was it printed? Who printed it? 

That's it. 

Here is a sample from a book titled A Man Called Norman, written by Mike Adkins:

Adkins, M. (1989). A man called norman. Pomona, CA: Focus on the Family Publishing

For citing from websites: 

Author of article (Date of publication). Title of webpage. Retrieved from [give web address].

Sample:

Jennings, K. (2016). How Louisiana's Lake Peigneur Became 200 Feet Deep in an Instant. Retrieved from https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-07-11/how-louisianas-lake-peigneur-became-200-feet-deep-in-an-instant

(Oddly, the title of a webpage article follows the expected capitalization rules.)

Citing from magazines: 

Author's name. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, plus volume number, page numbers.

Sample: 

Nolt, S. (2020). The Fellowship of the Beloved. Daughters of Promise, Issue 30, 10-13.

Please note: I do want accuracy. But if I can tell that you are doing your best to give me all of the required information and it is listed in the correct order, I will not dock points if you miss a period or forget to italicize something. But you will get points docked if your bibliography is slopped together or if you are missing pertinent information.  

Report Formatting and Submission Guidelines

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Here is everything you need to know about your research paper's format. 

• Use size 12 font for the entire body of your paper
• Double space everything
• Use standard one-inch margins on each page
• Do not use hard-to-read, fancy fonts. Nothing with tails and curly-cues. Your best font options are Calibri and Times New Roman. 
• If you have headings in your paper, center them and use bold font.
• Number your pages. The title page is number one. While you need to number your title page and bibliography, they do not count as part of your report's length. If you need to have 4 pages, you will have more than that if you count your title page. 

Punishments for disobeying these formatting guidelines include really terrible things like doing my housework after delivering September Farm cheeses to my door. 

Sourced from Pixabay

Title Page Requirements: 

Slightly above the center of the page, you should have three lines on your title page: 

Name of the Research Report

Author's name

SHARE Homeschool Co-op

That's it. Your page will look clean and neat.

Submission Guidelines: 

Send your research report to me as an email attachment. I will print it out, grade it, and return it to you when we meet for speeches. If emailing an attachment doesn't work for you, print it out and mail it to me. Only print on one side of each paper.

Deadline!! Deadline!! 

Your report is due in my inbox on December 7. Late reports get lowered scores. 

Deadline!

 Your completed report (at least an entire first draft) should be in your hands! With the holidays upon us, you can have a break until December 1. At that point, you will receive a blog post detailing the requirements for a title page and bibliography as well as a checklist to help you self-edit your work. 

Your finished reports including a title page, up-to-date outline, and bibliography will be due in my inbox on December 8. Late submissions receive a lowered grade. 

To wrap up this class, we want to meet for Speech Night, Lord willing. I will private message you to set that up, hopefully in three weeks. 

One more thing: Not one bite of pie until your report is done!

Checking in and Report Timeline

Answer the questions and grade yourself using the points beside each answer option. 

1) Reading books and taking notes. 

    A) Duh, I've been done with that for a long time. (10 points)
    B) Almost done! I was waiting on a book from the library... (5 points)
    C) Frantically reading... (2 points)
    D) Haven't started... (-5 points)

2) Writing the report

    A) Feeling good about my first draft! (10 points)
    B) Got a little bit written but still have a long way to go (5 points)
    C) I have it thought out well and feel in control. Should come together fast. (2 points)
    D) What? I'm supposed to be writing something? AAUUGGHH! (-5 points) 

After giving yourself an honest assessment, write your score in the comments below. 

You have one more week to finish writing your report. I expect you to have the report drafted and awaiting final edits on or before November 24. 

Happy writing!

Real Men Write

 (Mostly for the males among us but curious females may listen in.)

Several years ago, I stood on the coast in Africa and watched fishermen battle the waves. Early in the morning, they rowed heavy, hand-carved, wooden canoes into the deep and threw out a long net in a gigantic, half-mile semicircle. When the weighted edge of the net sank to the ocean floor, the men returned to shore where the real work began. 

They lined up, muscle to brawn, a dozen men on each end of the net. They leaned back in unison, adding weight to strength and began wrestling the net from the sea. Hand over hand, hour by hour, they pulled on the ropes. Muscles bulged. Sweat poured. They were winning. The mound of rope behind them grew and was curled into a coil by a friend. Net itself was added to the pile until a pocket of fish came to shore. Food for another day was secured.

Eking out a living from the ocean is no joke. Fighting waves and man-eating sea monsters is a body building occupation. Even teens have muscles like this: 

Sometimes I get the feeling that young men aren't as psyched about writing as they are about bulging muscles or machinery or other he-man-ho stuff. I think it is because they forget that Peter, James, and John were fishermen. They hauled in nets, wrestling wind and waves to bring in their catch. They pulled heavy wooden boats onto a sandy shore. They built muscles modern guys need to pay gym memberships to attain.

The disciples weren't pasty-white,
scrawny, quill-holders,
working by dim oil lamps 
while writing the New Testament.

They were bronzed,
muscled men
with biceps like telephone poles
who wrote letters 
that changed the world.

Let them be your inspiration. 

The next time you are together with your friends and they want to talk about bench pressing and basketball and muscle-y stuff,
gang up on them and give them your latest word count. 

(I think I'm onto something.)

Real men write!  

The Time to Write

At long last, Ink Slingers! The time has come to write your report. By now you should have a pile of notes, an organized outline, unbounding enthusiasm, and unparalleled excitement. 

(Caught ya celebrating! Yay! We get to WRITE!)

1. The Introduction

Begin your research paper with a hook. Grab readers with a startling fact. An applicable quote. A tiny story. Something to catch readers' attention and make them want to keep reading past those first sentences. Your introduction must begin with a hook. 

Sample: "Louisiana's Lake Peigneur used to be a freshwater lake that was ten feet deep. Today, it is 200 feet deep and its brackish waters host saltwater marine life. The change occurred by accident."

Once you have your readers' attention, end that first paragraph with your thesis statement. Please, my noble Ink Slingers, do not forget to include your thesis statement at the end of your introduction. It needs to be clearly stated and then supported by the rest of your research paper. 

Sample: "Louisiana's Lake Peigneur used to be a freshwater lake that averaged ten feet deep. Today, it is 200 feet deep, and its brackish waters host saltwater marine life. The change occurred by accident. On November 21, 1980, oil drillers misinterpreted their coordinates, plunged a drill bit into a salt mine, and created a series of phenomena that would forever change the landscape of Lake Peigneur."

2. The Body

From your outlines, I can see you have a good idea on how to organize your paper. Great job! I want to remind you that you will be graded on good grammar and punctuation. Later, I'll post some editing tips to help you clean up your paper before submitting it. But keep this in mind as you write: Punctuation and capitalization are as essential as good organization. 

And, bless us, my preciouses, divide your report into paragraphs. While varying lengths of paragraphs is a good idea, an average paragraph is three to five sentences long. Longer ones are acceptable in your report, of course. 

And so are one-liners.

3. Conclusion

Conclude your report with a summary. Restate your thesis in your conclusion and offer a few closing remarks. 

Example: "Today, fishermen pull marine life from brackish waters in Lake Peigneur and read triple digits on their depth finders. A tug boat and an oil drilling derrick lie unrecovered in the depths of a salt mine. The disastrous mistake on November 21, 1980, has forever changed the structure of the lake. It also encouraged improvements in mapping systems, a happy idea for salt mine workers who mine beneath a lake."

(Hey, cheer up! If it isn't going well, try again!
That's the neat thing about words. 
I'd rewrite my hurried conclusion example if I 
were submitting this for publication. But it is 
my bedtime...so I'll clutch my head and leave it as is.)

4. Bibliography (References)

I suggest you keep a running list of sources as you go. Later, I'll post guidelines on how to enter your references. For now, just keep track of the ones you use.

Assignment: 

Go ahead. Grab a beverage and a snack. Settle into your favorite chair. Begin writing this paper you've been itching to work on! Success awaits! 

Announcing Another Winner!

No cheating happened on the Ink Slingers! Kade sent an email with his outline and another one saying he had trouble getting his comment to post on the blog. So by email, he submitted Uncle Leroy's Fudge as my favorite treat. I included his name in the Wheel of Names and it is lucky for him that I did. 

Your guesses were good ones but not the right ones. One of my favorite treats is French fries. I know. I'm boring like that. But the salty goodness makes me hungry just thinking about them. Kade, watch your mailbox for a McDonald's gift card!