Argumenative essay on gay marriage

this is exactly what my teacher sent me, A major part of your grade in English Composition II is a research paper on a nonfiction topic. The research paper is 20% of your final grade. The research paper should be a minimum of four and no more than seven pages in length excluding your cover page and bibliography. The paper must be typed in black ink and in 12-point font. It must be double-spaced with one-inch margins on white paper. You need to document your sources in MLA style as indicated by Keys for Writers and/or A guide to MLA Documentation. Keys for Writers is available in the NPCC bookstore located in the Campus Center. A Guide to MLA Documentation is usually available at Books a Million. The research paper must contain a minimum of seven sources including two electronic sources, two print sources, two periodicals, and one reference source. More sources may be included but seven is the minimum. You are expected to keep copies of all sources referenced in your paper. You cannot list a source in your Works Cited page unless you use it in the text of your paper. The research paper is to be a persuasive argument where you take a position on a topic and argue the merits of your thesis. Your main purpose is to persuade readers to see things your way or move readers to action (Raimes 5). Your thesis is your statement of purpose about your topic in your paper. It should be narrow enough that you can adequately cover your topic in the space assigned (4 to 7 pages). However, if your topic is too narrow you may not be able to find enough sources to support your claim. Review Keys for Writers for further explanations on developing a strong thesis. Your internet sources must be academic. You may not use a .com or Wikipedia. Your internet sources must have URLs ending in .org, .edu, or .gov. A regular dictionary is not considered an adequate reference for this paper. Your paper must include citations in the body of the paper. A citation gives the source of your material and looks like this (Dugan 1). Notice there is no comma between the author's name and the page number. If your paper does not include citations then it is either NOT a research paper or it is plagiarized. In either case, you will not receive credit. On page 195 of Keys for Writers there is a sample research paper. Part 2 of Keys for Writers offers an excellent guideline to writing research papers. I strongly recommend that you read this entire section of your book. Please pay special attention to the Key Points on pages 126 – 129 on avoiding plagiarizing. These page numbers may be different if you have the new updated MLA version of Keys for Writers. Special Note: When downloading information from the internet always note the day you originally accessed the information as this date must be included in your bibliography. Following are terms used when writing a research paper. We will have a test on these terms. Research Terms Bibliography – an alphabetical list of sources used in a research paper. Call Number – tells you where a book is located in the library stacks. Online Databases – an online library or museum collection is a database providing information about that institution's collection. Some online databases such as ERIC provide only bibliographical information and an abstract. Others such as Lexis-Nexis provide the full text article. Indexes – a list of articles available in print and in electronic databases. Consult the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature for articles printed before 1980. Consult electronic indexes such as Applied Science and Technology Index for more recent articles. Journal – a periodical written by credentialed authors for a specialized reading audience. Periodical – works published periodically such as journals, magazines, and newspapers. Primary Sources-firsthand or original sources such as biographies, historical documents, government statistics, questionnaires, interviews, etc. Secondary sources-analytical works that comment on primary works Short Quotation – a quotation that runs less than five lines should be enclosed in quotation marks and run into the text rather be set off. Long quotation – a quote of twenty words or more should be set off from the body of the paragraph and indented ten spaces from the left margin. The quotation is double - spaced Reference works-provide basic factual information. Reference works include encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, and dictionaries. URL – uniform resource locator. A web address for a particular website. Library of Congress Classification System – system of arranging books by subject area and often the author's last name and date of publication Summary – a brief reinstatement of information or plot. A summary is briefer than the original Paraphrase – a reinstatement –a sort of translation of the original –especially if the original is somewhat obscure. A paraphrase is generally shorter than a summary and substitutes your words for those of the authors. Parenthetical Reference-documents the source of a reference within the body of the text. Quotation – a word for word restating of an author's writing enclosed in quotation marks and properly cited.