UNIVERSITÉ ALASSANE OUATTARA

DÉPARTEMENT D’ANGLAIS

PRACTICAL METHODOLOGY/ MASTER 2 / 2022-2023

Lecturer: Dr Pierre KRAMOKO, Associate Professor

Course description: The present seminar grounded on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
teaches students the MLA style of editing their research works. The course helps students to solve problems at all
steps of their project.

Objective: At the end of the course, students should develop the following abilities:
- formulate a suitable and pertinent topic;
- document sources;
- compile a working bibliography
- take notes
- outline a research work
- distinguish different forms of plagiarism;
- know how to avoid plagiarism

I. REVIEW: RESEARCH AND WRITING

1. The Research Paper as a Form of Investigation

 Selecting a Topic: Freedom of Choice

Different courses and different instructors offer widely varying degrees of freedom to students selecting
topics for research works. The instructor of a course in a specific discipline (e.g., art, history, literature, science)
may supply a list of topics from which to choose or may, more generally, require that the research work relate to
an important aspect of the course. If you are given the latter option, review course readings and class notes to find
topics that particularly interest you. Discuss possibilities with your instructor. If your choice is about a set list of
topics, you will probably still need to decide which aspect of a topic to explore or which approach to use. The
instructor may assign a general problem that can generate many kinds of responses – for example, you might be
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asked to choose a modern invention and show what benefits and problems it has brought about. If you have
complete freedom to choose a topic, consider using a personal interest that lends itself to research (e.g., education,
the environment, movies, new technologies, nutrition, politics, the business of sports) or an issue that has recently
generated public interest or controversy (e.g., immigration policy, global warming, stern cell research, terrorism).

Teachers understand the importance of choosing an appropriate topic for a research paper. When freedom
of choice is permitted, students are commonly required to submit topics to the instructor for approval early in the
research project.

2. The Research Paper as a Form of Exploration

 Finding an Appropriate Focus

As you choose a topic, remember the time allotted to you and the expected length of the research work.
"International politics in the modern age" would obviously be too broad a subject for a ten-page term paper. You
may prefer to begin with a fairly general topic and then to refine it, by thought and research, into a more specific
one that can be fully explored. Try to narrow your topic by focusing on an aspect of the subject or an approach
to it.
A student initially interested in the general subject of "violence in the media" might decide, after careful
thought and reading, to write on "the effects of cartoon violence on preschool children." Likewise, an interest in
architecture could lead to a focus on the design and construction of domes, which could in turn be narrowed to a
comparison between the ancient Roman dome and the modern geodesic dome. Preliminary reading is essential as
you evaluate and refine topics.
Consult, in print and electronic form, general reference works, such as anthologies, encyclopedias, as well
as articles and books in the areas you are considering. You can also refine your topic by doing subject searches
in reference databases and in online catalogs and through Internet search tools. Such preliminary reading and
searches will also let you know if enough work has been done on the subject to permit adequate research
and whether the pertinent source materials are readily accessible. In addition, note that research is seeking
out and using materials beyond our personal resources.
Selecting an appropriate topic is seldom a simple matter. Even after you discover a subject that attracts
your interest, you may well find yourself revising your choice, modifying your approach, or changing topics
altogether after you have begun research.

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  Thesis Statement: an Answer to a Question or Problem
As you get closer to writing, you can begin to shape the information you have at hand into a unified, coherent
whole by framing a thesis statement for your paper: a single sentence that formulates both your topic and your
point of view. In a sense, the thesis statement is your answer to the central question or problem you have raised.
Writing this statement will enable you to see where you are heading and to remain on a productive path as you
plan and write. Try out different possibilities until you find a statement that matches your purpose. Moreover,
since the experience of writing may well alter your original plans, do not hesitate to revise the thesis statement as
you write the paper.
3. The Research Paper as a Contribution

 Make an argument in relation to what others have written.

 Probe an issue that is both known and unknown. In other words, your contribution must
be a road not taken yet.
 Solve a problem in an original way.

4. The Research Paper as a Form of Communication

Like other kinds of nonfiction writing – reports, essays, and articles – it should present information and ideas
clearly and effectively.
- You must fully document the facts and opinions you draw from your research.
- The documentation should only support your statements and provide concise information about the
sources cited.
- The documentation should not overshadow your own ideas or distract the reader from them.

II. DESIGNING THE ARTICULATIONS OF THE RESEARCH WORK: OUTLINING

1. Working Outline
 A Useful Intermediate Activity
For research works, outlining can be a particularly useful intermediate activity between research and
writing. In fact, some instructors require each student to hand in an outline with the final draft. Others require a
draft outline earlier, asking the student to submit not only a topic for the paper but also a tentative list of subtopics
for research. They then suggest that this working outline be continually revised-items dropped, added, modified-
as the research progresses.

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  An Overall View of the Research Work
You may find a series of outlines helpful, whether or not your instructor requires them, especially if you
are a beginning writer of research works. An outline will help you to get an overall view of your work and, perhaps
more important, to figure out how each section of the work relates to the others. Thus, developing an outline
can help you to see the logical progression of your argument. A working outline will also make it easier to keep
track of all important aspects of your subject and to focus your research on relevant topics. Continual revision of
the working outline, moreover, will encourage you to change your thinking and your approach as new information
modifies your understanding of the subject.
For an efficient outlining, resort to your research question transparent in the thesis statement and the
research question.

II. COMPILING A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Keeping Track of Sources

- As you discover information and opinions on your topic, you should keep track of sources that you may
use for your work. A record of such sources is called a working bibliography.
- Your preliminary reading will probably provide the first titles for this list.
- Other titles will emerge when you consult reference works and the library's central catalog and when you
explore the Internet.
- If you read carefully through the bibliography and notes of each work you consult, more often than
not you will discover additional important sources.
- Your working bibliography will frequently change during your research as you add titles and eliminate
those that do not prove useful and as you probe and emphasize some aspects of your subject in preference
to others.
- The working bibliography will eventually evolve into the list of works cited that appears at the end of the
research work.

2. Documenting Sources
Nearly all research builds on previous research. Researchers commonly begin a project by studying past
work on their topics and deriving relevant information and ideas from their predecessors. This process is largely
responsible for the continual expansion of human knowledge. In presenting their work, researchers generously
acknowledge their debts to predecessors by carefully documenting each source, so that earlier contributions
receive appropriate credit and readers can evaluate the basis for claims and conclusions.

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 As you prepare your research work, you should similarly seek to build on the work of previous writers
and researchers. And whenever you draw on another's work, you must also document your source by indicating
what you borrowed – whether facts, opinions, or quotations – and where you borrowed it from.
Through documentation, you will provide your readers with a description of key features of each source
(such as its authorship and its medium of publication). Documentation also assists readers in locating the sources
you used. Cite only the sources you have consulted directly.

 The MLA Style

In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your sources by keying brief parenthetical citations in
your text to an alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of the paper.
Example: The aesthetic and ideological orientation of jazz underwent considerable scrutiny in the late
19505 and early 1960s (Anderson 2007: 7).
The citation "(Anderson 7)" tells readers that the information in the sentence was derived from page 7 of a work
by an author named Anderson. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the works-
cited list, where, under the name Anderson, they would find the following information:

ANDERSON, Lain (2007). This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.

3. Evaluating Sources

All researchers, students as well as professional scholars, need to assess the quality of any work
scrupulously before using and citing it. Students writing their first research works often find it difficult to evaluate
sources. Not all sources are equally reliable or of equal quality. In reading and evaluating potential sources, you
should not assume that something is truthful or trustworthy just because it appears in print or is on the Internet.
Some materials may be based on incorrect or outdated information or on poor logic, and the author's knowledge
or view of the subject may be biased or too limited.
Weigh what you read against your own knowledge and intelligence as well as against other treatments of
the subject. Focus particularly on the authority, accuracy, and currency of the sources you use. Following are
some criteria to keep in mind when you evaluate sources.
 Authority
 Peer Review
Most scholarly journals and academic book publishers are committed to a policy of consultant review-
commonly referred to by scholars as "peer review." In peer review, publishers seek the advice of expert readers,
or referees, before considering a manuscript for publication. Each consultant reads the work and sends the
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publisher a report evaluating the manuscript and, in general, either recommending or not recommending it for
publication. Readers comment on such matters as the importance of the subject, the originality and soundness of
the argument, the accuracy of the facts, and the currency of the research. At most scholarly journals and presses,
moreover, there is also an editorial board that similarly reviews the manuscript, along with the readers' reports,
before deciding whether to publish the work. Thus, a manuscript submitted to a refereed publication must undergo
rigorous scrutiny before it is published.
 Internet Sources
Assessing Internet resources is a particular challenge. Whereas the print publications that researchers
depend on are generally issued by reputable publishers, like university presses, that accept accountability for the
quality and reliability of the works they distribute, relatively few electronic publications currently have
comparable authority. Some Internet publications are peer-reviewed, but many are not. Online materials are often
self-published, without any outside review. Therefore, avoid materials drawn from Wikipedia, or any material
with no academic and scientific authority.

 Accuracy and Verifiability

If you are evaluating scholarly material, check to see that the work's sources are indicated, so that its
information can be verified. The sources probably appear in a list of works cited. The titles in the list might also
tell you something about the breadth of the author's knowledge of the subject and about any possible bias. A Web
publication might supply hypertextual links to the sources.

 Currency
The publication date of a print source suggests how current the author's scholarship is. Although online
documents and sites have the potential for continual updating, many remain in their original states and, depending
on the subject, may be out-of-date. When considering any resource, be sure at least one date is assigned to it.
Several dates are sometimes listed for an electronic publication. For example, if a document on the Web
had a previous print existence, there could be the date of print publication as well as the date of electronic
publication. In addition, there might be the date when the material was last revised or updated. Ideally, a document
should record all dates of publication and revision. Finally, scrutinizing the publication dates of works cited in
the text also reveals the currency of its scholarship.

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 III. NOTE-TAKING

1. Methods
Although everyone agrees that note-taking is essential to research, probably not all researchers use exactly
the same methods. Some prefer to take notes by hand on index cards or sheets of paper.
Using a computer might save you time and should improve the accuracy with which you transcribe
material, including quotations, from your notes into the text of your paper.
No matter how you take notes, set down first the author's full name and the complete title of the source-
enough information to enable you to locate the source easily in your working bibliography. If the source is not
yet in the working bibliography, record all the publication information you will need for research and for your
works-cited list, and add the source to the working bibliography.

2. Types of Note-Taking
There are, generally speaking, three types of note-taking:
 Summary
Summarize if you want to record only the general idea of large amounts of material.
 Paraphrase
If you require detailed notes on specific sentences and passages but do not need the exact wording, you may wish
to paraphrase, that is, to restate the material in your own words.
 Quotation
When you believe that some sentence or passage in its original wording might make an effective
addition to your work, transcribe that material exactly as it appears, word for word, comma for comma. Whenever
you quote verbatim from a work, be sure to use quotation marks scrupulously in your notes to distinguish the
quotation from summary and paraphrase.
Using electronic materials calls for special vigilance. If you download a text and integrate quotations from
it into your paper, check to see that you have placed quotation marks around words taken from the source.

 Recording Page or Reference Numbers

In summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting, keep an accurate record of the pages that you use. When a
quotation continues to another page or section, carefully note where the page or section break occurs, since only
a small portion of what you transcribe may ultimately find its way into your work.

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 IV. PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

1. Definition of Plagiarism

To plagiarize means "to commit literary theft" and to "present as new and original an idea or product
derived from an existing source" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 2003).
Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs. Using another person's ideas, information, or expressions
without acknowledging that person's work constitutes intellectual theft. Passing off another person's ideas,
information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud.

2. Consequences of Plagiarism

A complex society that depends on well-informed citizens strives to maintain high standards of quality
and reliability for documents that are publicly circulated and used in government, business, industry, the
professions, higher education, and the media. Because research has the power to affect opinions and actions,
responsible writers compose their work with great care. They specify when they refer to another author's ideas,
facts, and words, whether they want to agree with, object to, or analyze the source. This kind of documentation
not only recognizes the work writers do; it also tends to discourage the circulation of error, by inviting readers to
determine for themselves whether a reference to another text presents a reasonable account of what that text says.
Plagiarists undermine these important public values.
Once detected, plagiarism in a work provokes skepticism and even outrage among readers, whose trust in
the author has been broken. The charge of plagiarism is a serious one for all writers. Plagiarists are often seen as
incompetent-incapable of developing and expressing their own thoughts – or, worse, dishonest, willing to deceive
others for personal gain.
Students exposed as plagiarists may suffer severe penalties, ranging from failure in the assignment or in
the course to expulsion from school. This is because student plagiarism does considerable harm. For one thing, it
damages teachers' relationships with students, turning teachers into detectives instead of mentors and fostering
suspicion instead of trust.
By undermining institutional standards for assigning grades and awarding degrees, student plagiarism also
becomes a matter “of significance to the public. When graduates' skills and knowledge fail to match their grades,
an institution's reputation is damaged. For example, no one would choose to be treated by a physician who
obtained a medical degree by fraud. Finally, students who plagiarize harm themselves. They lose an important
opportunity to learn how to write a research paper. Knowing how to collect and analyze information and reshape
it in essay form is essential to academic success. This knowledge is also required in a wide range of careers in

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law, journalism, engineering, public policy, teaching, business, government, and not-for-profit organizations.
Plagiarism betrays the personal element in writing as well.
Discussing the history of copyright, Mark Rose notes the tie between our writing and our sense of self-a
tie that, he believes, influenced the idea that a piece of writing could belong to the person who wrote it. Rose says
that our sense of ownership of the words we write “is deeply rooted in our conception of ourselves as individuals
with at least a modest grade of singularity, some degree of personality” (Authors and Owners: The Invention of
Copyright [Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993: 142]).
Gaining skill as a writer opens the door to learning more about yourself and to developing a personal voice
and approach in your writing. It is essential for all student writers to understand how to avoid committing
plagiarism.

3. Information Sharing Today

Innumerable documents on a host of subjects are posted on the Web apparently for the purpose of being
shared. The availability of research materials and the ease of transmitting, modifying, and using them have
influenced the culture of the Internet, where the free exchange of information is an ideal. In this sea of materials,
some students may question the need to acknowledge the authorship of individual documents.
Professional writers, however, have no doubt about the matter. They recognize the importance of
documentation whether they base their research on print or electronic publications. And so they continue to cite
their sources and to mark the passages they quote. In the culture of the academy, too, the free exchange of
information is a long-standing ideal. Under certain circumstances, this ideal is described as academic freedom.
But nothing about academic freedom or the free exchange of information implies ignoring authorship.
Academic standards require all writers to acknowledge the authors whose work they use when preparing
papers and other kinds of studies and reports. New technologies have made information easier to locate and obtain,
but research projects only begin with identifying and collecting source material. The essential intellectual tasks
of a research project have not changed. These tasks call for a student to understand the published facts, ideas, and
insights about a subject and to integrate them with the student's own views on the topic.
To achieve this goal, student writers must rigorously distinguish between what they borrow and what
they create. As information sharing has become easier, so has plagiarism. For instance, on the Internet it is
possible to buy and download completed research papers.

4. Forms of Plagiarism
The most blatant form of plagiarism is to obtain and submit as your own a paper or passage written by
someone else. Other, less conspicuous forms of plagiarism include the failure to give appropriate

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acknowledgment when repeating or paraphrasing another's wording, when taking a particularly apt phrase, and
when paraphrasing another's argument or presenting another's line of thinking.

 Repeating or Paraphrasing Wording

Suppose, for example, that you want to use the material in the following passage, which appears on page
625 of an essay by Wendy Martin in the book Columbia Literary History of the United States.

ORIGINAL SOURCE
Some of Dickinson's most powerful poems express her firmly held conviction that life cannot be fully
comprehended without an understanding of death.

If you write the following sentence without documentation, you have plagiarized because you borrowed another's
wording without acknowledgment, even though you changed its form:

PLAGIARISM
Emily Dickinson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless we also understand death.

But you may present the material if you cite your source:
As Wendy Martin has suggested, Emily Dickinson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless
we also understand death (1988: 625).

Note the entry in the working bibliography:

MARTIN, Wendy (1988). “Emily Dickinson.” Columbia Literary History of the United States. Emory Elliott,
gen. Ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 609-26.

 Taking a Particularly Apt Phrase

ORIGINAL SOURCE
Everyone uses the word language and everybody these days talks about culture. . . . “Languaculture” is a reminder,
I hope, of the necessary connection between its two parts.... (Michael Agar, Language Shock: Understanding the
Culture of Conversation [New York: Morrow, 1994: 60])
If you write the following sentence without documentation, you have committed plagiarism because you
borrowed without acknowledgment a term (“languaculture”) invented by another writer:

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 PLAGIARISM
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that we might call “Languaculture.”

But you may present the material if you cite your source:
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that Michael Agar has called “Languaculture” (Agar
1994: 60).
Note the bibliographical entry: AGAR, Michael (1994). Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of
Conversation. New York: Morrow.

 Paraphrasing an Argument or Presenting a Line of Thinking

ORIGINAL SOURCE
Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces the deepest social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time.
Without clearly recognizing it, we are engaged in building a remarkable civilization from the ground up. This is
the meaning of the Third Wave. Until now the human race has undergone two great waves of change, each one
largely obliterating earlier cultures or civilizations and replacing them with the ways of life inconceivable to those
who came before. The First Wave of change – the agricultural revolution took thousands of years to play itself
out. The Second Wave – the rise of industrial civilization – took a mere hundred years. Today history is even
more accelerative, and it is likely that the Third Wave will sweep across history and complete itself in a few
decades. (Alvin Toffler (1980; rept, 1981). The Third Wave, New York: Bantam, 10)

If you write the following sentence without documentation, you have committed plagiarism because you
borrowed another writer's line of thinking without acknowledgment:

PLAGIARISM
There have been two revolutionary periods of change in history: the agricultural revolution and the industrial
revolution. The agricultural revolution determined the course of history for thousands of years; the industrial
civilization lasted about a century. We are now on the threshold of a new period of revolutionary change, but this
one may last for only a few decades.

But you may present the material if you cite your source:
According to Alvin Toffler, there have been two revolutionary periods of change in history: the agricultural
revolution and the industrial revolution. The agricultural revolution determined the course of history for thousands

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of years; the industrial civilization lasted about a century. We are now on the threshold of a new period of
revolutionary change, but this one may last for only a few decades (The Third Wave 1981: 10).

In this revision, the author's name refers the reader to the full description of the work in the works-cited list at the
end of the paper, and the parenthetical documentation identifies the location of the borrowed material in the work.

TOFFLER, Alvin (1980; 1981). The Third Wave, New York: Bantam.

Conclusion: Now that you have been given the practical elements for the conducting a research project, start the
writing of the work under the supervision of your instructor.

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