Firstly, you need to finish answering your 5 or 6 foundation questions. REMEMBER: You have ONE overall research question (this is an EVALUATE question). This is what you are going to be answering by the end of your project. You have 5 or 6 foundation questions (these should be factual, prediction, or analyze questions). These are the smaller questions you have to answer in order to answer your overall research question. Example: If your research question was "Why should we care about the survival of the polar bears?", one of your foundation questions might be: "Where do polar bears live?" (factual question), or "Why are some polar bear populations threatened?" (analyze question).
WHEN RESEARCHING ANSWERS TO YOUR FOUNDATION QUESTIONS: 1. Remember to record your source (where you go the information from) on your record sheet 2. You can either: SUMMARIZE information from a website (put into your own words) or put the sentence into quotation marks if you copy it from the website. However, you CANNOT copy anything longer than two sentences in quotation marks. Anything longer needs to be summarized. 3. You must have enough information to answer the question. Think about who, what, when, where, why, and how for each question.
AFTER YOU ANSWER YOUR FOUNDATION QUESTIONS: 1. At this point, you should be able to answer your overall research question. If you cannot, go back and see what other questions you may need to answer. 2. Take your research and write a paragraph to answer EACH foundation question (if you have 5 foundation questions, you will have 5 paragraphs, one for each). 3. Each paragraph should be 6-8 sentences long. Make sure you state what the question is, and you completely answer it. 4. Remember, you CANNOT just copy and paste a paragraph from a website.
AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR PARAGRAPHS: 1. Write your introduction. Make sure you answer the following questions:
What is your main research question? (1 sentence)
How did you come up with your question? (1 sentence)
Why do you want to learn about this topic? (1-2 sentences)
What are you six foundation questions, and how will each one help you answer your main research question? (2 sentences per foundation question)
Did you change any of your foundation questions during your research process? Why? (1-2 sentences)
2. Write your conclusion. Make sure you answer the following questions:
Restate your main research question. Answer the question in 6-8 sentences.
How did your research help you to answer your question? (2-3 sentences)
What 2 other questions do you now have after completing your project? (2 questions)
ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION: 1. Put it all together. You will have a 7 or 8 paragraph essay (depending on how many foundation questions you had). 2. Type up your bibliography (all your sources). On your website record sheet, below each is an example of how to structure your bibliography. Pay close attention to the commas, periods, quotation marks, italics, etc. This goes at the end of your essay, with the title Bibliography. 3. EDIT. Reread it OUT LOUD. This will help you to correct any awkward phrasing or mistakes. 4. Have a parent/older sibling/family member read your essay. Ask then the following questions: