This is a 4-week workshop for scholarly students to learn and practice research skills. Students will practice finding credible sources online, learn how to cite their sources, summarize sources and paraphrase authors, and correctly use quotes to avoid plagiarism. Learners will also make a short bibliography of their sources. 

The focus of this class is to get students researching and using academic writing skills. Students will write an introductory sentence and thesis statement, a few (2-3) informative paragraphs, and a concluding statement. Students are NOT required to write a standard 5-paragraph essay as part of this class, and will not be expected to complete class with a polished final draft. Students are welcome to submit their in-progress papers as many times as they would like for my feedback over the course of this class.

Class Structure
Week 1: Picking a topic. How to find credible sources, and how to cite them.
In our first meeting, students will brainstorm possible topics they would like to research. Students will be expected to stick with the topic they pick for the remainder of class, so they should pick a topic that is interesting to them, not necessarily an "academic" topic. Topics in previous sections have included: Skateboarding, ADHD, Ice Age Mammals, Pros and Cons of Video Gaming, Roblox, Sports Trading Cards. Students will learn how to use Google Books and Google Scholar to find credible sources, as well as how to find background or general information related to their source using Wikipedia. We'll look at Works Cited and Bibliographies from real academic papers, then practice making our own for homework.
Homework: Find a Wikipedia article, book, and credible article (a website or academic journal) related to your topic. Cite each source using a provided template, and use these to create a Bibliography/Works Cited page.

Week 2: Finding important information in your sources.
Students will read or skim their sources from last week for useful information. We will talk about the difference between background and general information, and topic-specific information. We will practice annotating a source and pulling out useful information and enlightening quotes. We will look at outlines together, discuss how they are structured, and their usefulness for writing research papers. 
Homework: Take notes (using bullet points) from your sources. Then, organize that information into a working outline.

Week 3: Summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting your sources while avoiding plagiarism.
Students will practice rewriting existing research and quoting information that is best left in its original wording. Students will also learn about footnotes, how to cite a source in a paper, and study how this looks in real academic journals. Students will use any remaining class time to start converting their outline into a prose draft.
Homework: Students will find a quote in their sources that they want to use in their paper, add it into their draft, and create a footnote citation. Students will convert their outline into a prose draft.

Week 4: Writing a introduction, thesis statement, and conclusion.
During our final meeting, students will learn about thesis statements. They will practice identifying thesis statements and find them in real academic essays. Students will write their own thesis statements for their essays, as well as introductory sentences and concluding sentences.
Homework: Students will finish converting their outline into a prose draft, complete with a properly cited quote. Students will add an introductory sentence, a thesis statement, and a concluding sentence.

Students will have time in class to get started on each week's assignment and ask questions. Most homework will be completed outside of class and will require some time commitment. Each class dynamic is different, and we may sometimes not be able to cover every topic for each day. In that case, I will modify the homework depending on what we do cover in each class. I will always post in each section's Classroom what exactly their homework assignment is for each week.

Attendance Policy
There are no makeup sessions for this class. If your learner misses a meeting for any reason, they will be able to watch a recording which is automatically available through the Outschool Classroom.

If you don't see a section time that works with your learner's schedule, reach out! I am always happy to add more sections of this class!