Success Prep Research Paper

Focus: Diseases and Career Exploration

Please choose one of the following areas to narrow down your research topic:

a type of cancer/illness/disease

career exploration (choose one specific career)

After you have made your decision, your next step is to turn that topic into a thesis statement. We will be following the forecast thesis statement which uses the following formula: State your topic followed by your three supporting details. The three supporting details will become your topic sentence for your body paragraphs.

5 Paragraph Essay Format for Career Exploration:

I. Intro (include a hook/attention getter, topic, and thesis)

II. Opinion with research (supporting detail)

III. Opinion with research (supporting detail)

IV. Opinion with research (supporting detail)

V. Conclusion with lasting impact and restate thesis

5 Paragraph Essay Format for a Type of Cancer/Illness/Disease:

Intro (include a hook/attention getter, topic, and thesis)

Describe/explain the cancer/illness/disease – Who gets affected? How does one get affected? What is the life expectancy for someone with this illness? What are the treatments for it? Is it contagious?

State why it is important to fundraise for this cause and how you would do it.

State your results: Did you actually fundraise? Why or why not? If you had fundraised, what do you think the results would be? What other ways can you make others knowledgeable about this cause?

Conclusion with lasting impact and restate thesis

The essay should be organized in the following format (for both topic choices):

Proper heading

Size 12 font

Times New Roman

Double spaced

MLA format

Works Cited Page (always the last page, separate from your essay)

Your essay should include three sources (including one example of parenthetical notation in EACH body paragraph) in one of the following combinations:

Book, book, digital source

Book, digital source, digital source

Book, interview, digital source

Book, book, book

Book, interview, interview

Digital source, digital source, digital source (Must be a variety! See below.)

NOTE: eBooks count as books.

What is a digital source?

Online newspaper article

Online journal

Credible web site

Where will you find sources?

The library

NSD research wiki (only accessible at school)

CREDIBLE web sites – NO Wikipedia!

Credible web sites have authors and they usually include a list of references from where they found their research. If your source has neither of these, move on to a new site! (See this site for more info: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm)

Examples of credible web sites:

http://www.nytimes.com/ - New York Times

http://www.time.com – Time Magazine

http://www.cnn.com/ - CNN