Welcome to Research and Argument: Tools for Teachers and Students. As our title suggests, this site includes information, examples, and links that we hope you'll find helpful, whether you're a writing instructor designing or updating a course or a student writing your first big term paper.
Research and Writing Process: Here you'll find information on the process of writing a research paper, starting with choosing a topic and continuing through documentation. It also includes information about evaluating sources, including print sources and web pages. Along with information about how to develop a paper, you'll find a sample student paper, including the student's prewriting notes, notes on the research process, source evaluations, a draft, and the final paper.
Elements of Argument: Since most research papers involve argument of some kind, we've provided a brief overview of the elements of argument, including the thesis, support, and issues of bias and logic.
OhioLINK and Library Handbook: The more you know about how to use the library and the tools available there, the more smoothly your research will go. This section will give you detailed information about how to use OhioLINK and the library.
Writing Handbook: Here's a brief review of some of the most common writing and editing challenges, including writing introductions and conclusions, documentation formats, writing summaries, and editing for sentence-level concerns such as commas, apostrophes, and more.
Teaching Tools: If you're looking for ideas and inspiration for teaching research and argument courses using internet research tools, this section is for you. We've gathered several syllabi, sample assignments, and in-class activities and handouts.
WWW Search Engines: You have many choices for conducting an on-line search for information. This section of the site will give you a brief overview of some of our favorite search engines, complete with links so you can get started.
OhioLINK: Another good place to start your research is OhioLINK's catalogues, including the central catalogue that lists books, journals, and other materials from libraries across the state and Research Databases that you can search for journal and newspaper articles.
This site is a work in progress, and we hope you'll send us suggestions and comments to help us make it better. If you have ideas, teaching materials, and useful links, please send them to the YSU Grant Team (cardcat@bgnet.bgsu.edu).
Research and Argument: Tools for Teachers and Students is a collaborative project of Youngstown State University's Maag Library and the College of Arts and Sciences, funded by a grant from OhioLINK. The site was developed by Catherine Cardwell (Assistant Reference Librarian and part-time English Instructor), and Sherry Linkon (Associate Professor of English), with assistance from Nikita Whalen, Jackie Barton, and Tom Kiger. We'd also like to acknowledge our many contributors, including Kelly Belanger, William Greenway, Mary Lou Henneman, Megan Isaac, Bob Hogue, Clyde Moneyhun, and Sherri Zander. We'd also like to thank all those who reviewed our site: Linda Adler-Kassner, Julia Gergits, Alec McLane, Clyde Moneyhun, and Mary Jo Reiff.
E-mail your comments and suggestions to the YSU Grant Team (cardcat@bgnet.bgsu.edu).
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