RMF - Module Overview

Research and MLA Foundations Module Overview

Overview

Did you know that the writing process can help you in all subject areas and even in your future career? Learning to research and develop written responses with support is a skill you will use for lengthy mathematical replies, scientific reports, history responses, and English essays. Similarly, when you leave school, you will need writing skills in order to communicate in your future career - writing an email, a publication, a presentation, and even a short memo. In the MLA and Research Foundations module, we will revisit the research process, including how to find and document reliable sources, choose and cite evidence from the reliable sources to support our ideas, and write developed paragraphs and essays with the documented evidence.

Essential Questions

1. How can I organize evidence to support my ideas in writing for a particular purpose or audience?
2. How can I incorporate and format reliable evidence, cited properly, to support my writing?
3. How can development, organization, and style contribute to purpose in writing?

Key Terms

The following key terms are important. Read and revisit the key terms as you complete this module.

Thesis Statement:  One sentence that appears at the end of the introduction and reveals the main idea of the essay.

Topic Sentence:  A sentence that reveals what the body paragraph will be about.

Introduction Paragraph:  The first paragraph of an essay that introduces the main idea of the essay and ends with the thesis statement.

Body Paragraph:  The main part of your essay or paper. Each body paragraph contains a topic sentence that tells readers what the paragraph is going to be about, supporting sentences that discuss the idea or ideas in the topic sentence using examples and/or evidence to support that discussion and a concluding sentence that emphasizes the importance of the supporting examples or evaluates the connections between them.

Conclusion Paragraph:  The final paragraph in the essay that provides a call to action and not a summary. The conclusion paragraph should give your readers something to think or discuss about the points in the essay.

Development Sentence:  Occurs after the topic sentence in the body paragraph and provides a perspective on the topic that will allow for an understanding of the importance of the evidence that will follow--your opinion, thought, or idea regarding the topic.

Evidence:  All words, ideas, facts, or data from another source (other than the brain) that backs up the statements and opinions expressed--must be cited.

Analysis Sentence:  Explains why the evidence is important and how it connects to the thesis--do not restate or summarize the evidence.  

Conclusion Sentence:  Last sentence in the paragraph that draws the body paragraph to a close.

In-Text Citation:  The short version of the Source Citation that appears directly after the evidence used and refers the reader to the longer Source Citation.

Source Citation:  Publication information in a specific formula for a source used for evidence in a piece of writing

Works Cited: A list of all source citations of the sources used in a piece of writing.

Key Terms Practice

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