World Literature Name___________________
Research Unit
Directions: Use lecture notes, www.dianahacker.com/resdoc, and any other sources at your
disposal to answer the following questions. Write complete sentences.
1. What is plagiarism?
2. What are the consequences of plagiarism?
3. What is a source journal? Why is it important to use a system like notecards or a source
journal when doing research?
4. What is the difference between a traditional research report and a researched argument paper?
5. What is MLA style? What is APA style? Why are there two (actually there are more) systems?
6. Why is it important to give credit to your sources?
7. If you give credit to your sources but you do it incorrectly, what are the consequences?
8. What is the difference between a direct quote and a paraphrase?
9. What are some common pitfalls when using direct quotes?
10. What are some common pitfalls associated with paraphrasing?
11. Which is better, quoting or paraphrasing? Explain.
12. What is an appropriate balance between source material and your own words, ideas, and
interpretations? How does the idea of a quote sandwich apply to this “ideal balance”?
13. Why are in-text citations required? Why isn’t the Works Cited page enough?
14. What information is listed in an MLA in-text citation?
15. Name two situations in which the author might not be included in an MLA in-text citation.
16. How does one list the source on an MLA Works Cited page if there is no author? (This is
relatively common, especially for websites.)
17. What if I can’t find the author on the website?
18. Why is the date of access important in an MLA Works Cited entry for a website?
19. Describe the formatting of the MLA Works Cited page (spacing, indenting, font).
20. What if every sentence of a paragraph in your research paper is either paraphrased or quoted
from another source? What should you do?
21. When considering a website as a source, how do you evaluate whether it is credible?
22. What information is included in an APA in-text citation?
23. What classes would likely use APA style? What about MLA?
24. The Works Cited page obviously exists, in part, to give credit to your sources—to show
which ideas are not yours. What is another purpose of the Works Cited page?
25. What are footnotes and endnotes? When might one use them?
26. What should be your relationship to your sources?
A. You should defer to (never disagree with) the sources you have quoted and paraphrased because they
are experts and know more than you
B. In a research paper you are reporting the facts, so you should not make any assertions of your own. You
are just reporting on other people’s work.
C. After conducting research on a topic, you should have enough expertise to speak from a position of
authority on that topic; therefore you should make assertions (agree or disagree) and enter the professional
dialogue that your sources are having.
D. You should disparage your sources because you obviously know more than they do after working so
hard on your research paper.